112 



NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



2 The stock-dove is not the common wild pigeon. The pigeons usually 

 found in England are the ring-dove, which makes its nests on trees, and is 

 called the cushat, or in Shropshire the quice, the stock-dove, which breeds in 

 holes in trees, and also in rabbit holes ; the rock-dove, and the pretty little 

 turtle-dove, which builds so slight a nest in a tree or big bush that the small 

 white eggs can be seen through it from below. 



3 Whin-chats migrate, but stone-chats do not as a rule. 



4 The yellow-wagtail migrates, but the pied and grey wagtails do not. 



LETTER XL. 



SELBORNE, Sept. 2nd, 1774. 



DEAR SIR, Before your letter arrived, and of my own accord, I 

 had been remarking and comparing the tails of the male and 



THE NIGHTINGALE (Philomela, luscinid). 



female swallow, and this ere any young broods appeared ; so that 

 there was no danger of confounding the dams with their putti: 

 and besides, as they were then always in pairs, and busied in the 

 employ of nidincation, there could be no room for mistaking the 



