frund in the County of Su bee Ly 
and alfo in their fize, but both of them, were larger than the com~ 
thon Pettychaps, Sy/via Hippolais. 
No. 74.—TheiSedge Warbler. . Sy/uwa falicaria, 
This bird 1s‘fecn here only in‘the fummer, and is then not very 
common ; it is a very lively active bird, which frequents the reeds 
near ponds, and fings very prettily. ; 
No. 78.—The Wheat-ear. Sy/via Ocnanthe. 
This little bird, which is found in great plenty on our South 
Downs, is juftly efteemed a great delicacy for the table, and vaft 
numbers of them are annually caught in traps by the fhepherds as 
they tend their flocks, Thefe Wheat-ear traps confift of horfe- 
hair noofes, placed under a fod of turf dug out of the ground for 
that purpofe. They are -firft fet up every year on St. -Fames’s ‘day, 
‘the 25th of July, foon after which time they are caught in num- 
bers truly aftonifhing, when we reflect that it isa folitary bird, 
more than'two or three being fcarcely ever deen ,together. . Ob- 
ferving that all the birds which were caught in the proper feafon 
~had the fame coloured plumage as the hen bird, I made fome en- 
quiries refpeting them of a fhepherd at Eaft Bourn, who. in- 
‘formed me, that the flights confifted chiefly of young birds, which 
arrived in the greateft numbers when a wefterly wind prevailed, and 
that they always came againft the wind. He, told me.that on the 
tsth and 16th of Auguft 1792 he caught twenty-feven dozen 
with only a few old birds amongft them-;_ but this is a {mall number 
when compared with the almoft incredible quantity fometimes 
taken. A Gentleman informed me, that his father’s fhepherd once 
caught eighty-four dozen in one day. Early in the fpring only a 
few old birds are to be feen, and none (that I could ever obferve) 
in the winter, .I-enquired of the fhepherd whether. thefe birds 
breed on the South Downs: the anfwer was, A few only. 
Vor. IV. . D . No. 80. 
