NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 49 
perfect, but is continued till about the middle of June. The willow- 
wrens (the smaller sort) are horrid pests in a garden, destroying the 
peas, cherries, currants, &c. ; and are so tame that a gun will not 
scare them. 
My countrymen talk much of a bird that makes a clatter with its 
bill against a dead bough, or some old pales, calling it a jarbird. I 
procured one to be shot in the very fact ; it proved to be the Sz¢ta 
europea (the nuthatch). Mr. Ray says that the less spotted wood- 
pecker does the same. This noise may be heard a furlong or 
more. 
THE NUTHATCH 
Now is the only time to ascertain the short-winged summer birds ; 
for, when the leaf is out, there is no making any remarks on such a 
restless tribe ; and, when once the young begin to appear, it is all 
confusion: there is no distinction of genus, species, or sex. 
In breeding-time snipes play over-the moors, piping and humming : 
they always hum as they are descending. Is not their hum 
ventriloquous like that of the turkey ? Some suspect it is made by 
their wings. 
This morning I saw the golden-crowned wren, whose crown 
glitters like burnished gold. It often hangs like a titmouse, with its 
back downwards. 
Yours, ‘ac., de: 
E 
