120 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE., 
BS oe a, a 
TO THE SAME. 
SELBORNE, JVov. 27d, 1760. 
DEAR SiIR,—Whken I did myself the honour to write to you 
about the end of last June on the subject of natural history, I sent 
you a list of the summer birds of passage which I have observed in 
this neighbourhood ; and also a list of the winter-birds of passage : 
I mentioned besides those soft-billed birds that stay with us the 
winter through in the south of England, and those that are remark- 
able for singing in the night.* — 
According to my proposal, I shall now proceed to such birds 
(singing birds strictly so called) as continue in full song till after 
Midsummer ; and shall range them somewhat in the order in 
which they first begin to open as the spring advances. 
* This letter is also devoted to the song of birds, and records various peculiarities— 
The song or call of birds, like the seasonable changes in the plumage, is undoubtedly 
one of the accessories to the season of incubation. Some utter notes and call each other 
at all seasons of the year, using them for the purpose of keeping together, or for an alarm 
upon the approach of danger; but many species have cries peculiar to the love season 
which are used to summon the mate, or uttered as a cry of distress when the breeding 
grounds are invaded, or the young ones in danger. These latter calls are lost after this 
season is finished. The cuckoo loses his well-known note, which gradually becomes more 
inarticulate as the season advances; the jarring saw-like note of the greater and cole tit- 
mice ceases after a few months, and the curlews in like manner give up their very peculiar 
breeding whistle ; the crakes and rails cease their call, or it becomes hoarse and indistinct. 
The song of birds will commence earlier or later, according as the locality varies. As 
White remarks the missel-thrush is a very early songster, and in Scotland in a mild winter 
we have heard it in January. Those birds which breed more than once in the season 
continue the song longer, but as July approaches there is a very marked difference in the 
** language of the groves,”’ and as compared with a fine morning in April or May they are 
silent. We think, nowever, that some of the birds included in the first list can scarcely be 
called “singing birds, strictly.” The yellow-hammer, and indeed all the buntings have 
a very monotoncus note, remarkable only for its sameness and frequency of repetition, and 
one or two others have only a short varied call, but whichis always repeated the same ; so 
that although White uses the expression of ‘‘ singing birds. strictly so called,’ he meant the 
general love-note or call. To the birds that sing as they fly might have been added the 
common bunting and green linnet, both of which have a peculiar breeding flight and 
song; the first however is a very locally distributed species. The bird called tit-lark in 
this list seems from the note of its habits to be the tree-lark or pipit, Anthus arboreus. 
The true tit-lark or meadow pipit, Axthus pratensis, has also a descending flight, singing 
at the same time, and would be a visitant at least to the downs. ‘The common winchat 
will rise from its perch on the top of some tall plant, and make a short musical excursion 
upwards. The biackbird’s call, from bush to bush, is rather an alarm note, than any part 
of its usual song. 
