io8 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



Crows go in pairs all the year round. 



Cornish choughs abound, and breed on Beechy Head, and on 

 all the cliffs of the Sussex coast. 



The common wild pigeon, or stock-dove, 2 is a bird of passage in 

 the south of England, seldom appearing till towards the end of 

 November ; is usually the latest winter-bird of passage. Before 

 our beechen woods were so much destroyed we had myriads of 

 them, reaching in strings for a mile together as they went out in 



a 



THE SHRIKE. 



a morning to feed. They leave us early in spring : where do they 

 breed ? 



The people of Hampshire and Sussex call the missel-bird the 

 storm-cock, because it sings early in the spring in blowing showery 

 weather; its song often commences with the year: with us it 

 builds much in orchards. 



A gentleman assures me he has taken the nests of ring-ousels 

 on Dartmoor : they build in banks on the sides of streams. 



Titlarks not only sing sweetly as they sit on trees, but also as 

 they play and toy about on the wing ; and particularly while they' 

 are descending, and sometimes they stand on the ground. 



