MISCELLAXY. 381 



eye-witness of its habits. The liberality of Mr. Hoy has also furnished me with 

 the nests and several beautiful varieties of the eggs, from which the figures are 

 drawn ; each the representative of a different nest. The Ortolan Bunting 

 begins to build early in May ; it places its nest almost invariably in the corn, 

 preferring llye to other kinds ; indeed it is partial to light sandy soils, where Rye 

 is much cultivated. The nest is placed in some little hollow in the ground, 

 in the manner of that of the Sky Lark ; it is formed of dry grass and roots, 

 thickly lined towards the interior with very fine roots ; in some the inside is 

 finished with a few hairs. The eggs are four or five, sometimes, though rarely, 

 six in number. As will lie seen 1 y the plate, they resemble a good deal those of 

 the Yellow and Blackheaded Buntings. Mr. Hoy adds, " I have never found 

 them breeding except amongst corn. The male is almost incessant in his mono- 

 tonous song during the pairing season ; it much resembles that of the Cirl as 

 well as the Reed Bunting." — Hewitson's British Oology, May, 1837. 



Swallows issuing out of Gbasjieue Lake. — In one of the country papers I 

 have lately seen an extract from the Kendal Mercury, detailing the circumstance 

 of a person having observed several Swallows emerge from Grasmere Luke this 

 spring. He describes them as making their appearance on the surface of the 

 water in the form of " bell-shaped bubbles" which, on bursting, each liberated a 

 Swallow. The Editor says : — " We give the fact well authenticated by the 

 parties from whom we received it, in the hope that it may prove an acceptable 

 addition to the data on which naturalists frame their hypotheses," &c. &c. How 

 gratified would the author of the Natural History of Selbome have been to have 

 seen such a statement ! Really I thought this notion had been exploded long 

 since. I had no idea of meeting with such a paragraph (except to point out the 

 erroneous views of our old naturalists), stated with all the semblance of truth, at 

 this enlightened period of general knowledge. In a calendar kept at Upsal in 1755, 

 Alexander Mal Beegeb says : — " Aug. 4, birds of passage, after having cele- 

 brated their nuptials, now prepare for departing;" and then, " Sept. 17, Swallows 

 go under water"!— J. 1). Salmon, Thelford, Norfolk, July 11, 1837. 



Distinctions between tiie Coal and Marsh Tits. — The note of the Coal 

 Tit {Varus ater) is che-che, che-che, &c, while, on the contrary, in the ditty of 

 the Marsh Tit (Varus palustris) the stress is laid on the last syllable, thus : — 

 che-chee, che-chee, che-chee, as far as it can lie expressed in writing. The Coal 

 Tit is much wilder than the other species, although it usually inhabits nearer 

 the dwellings of man. Both these interesting little creatures sing more un- 

 ceasingly immediately before and after the breeding season than during its con- 

 tinuance, and we have frequently heard them sing in the midst of winter when 

 the weather was mild. The Marsh Tit will sometimes almost sing and feed at 

 one and the same time, seeming to find both occupations so agreeable that it is 



No. 13, Vol. II. 3e 



