ii4 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



becomes hotter they get out for coolness, and nest in plum-trees 

 and apple-trees. These birds have been known sometimes to 

 build in rooks' nests, and sometimes in the forks of boughs under 

 rooks' nests. 



As my neighbour was housing a rick he observed that his dogs 

 devoured all the little red mice that they could catch, but rejected 

 the common mice ; and that his cats ate the common mice, re- 

 fusing the red. 



Red-breasts sing all through the spring, summer, and autumn. 

 The reason that they are called autumn songsters is, because in 

 the two first seasons their voices are drowned and lost in the 

 general chorus ; in the latter their song becomes distinguishable. 

 Many songsters of the autumn seem to be the young cock red- 

 breasts of that year : notwithstanding the prejudices in their favour, 

 they do much mischief in gardens to the summer-fruits.* 



The titmouse, which early in February begins to make two quaint 

 notes, like the whetting of a saw, is the marsh titmouse : the great 

 titmouse sings with three cheerful joyous notes, and beg ins about 

 the same time. 



Wrens sing all the winter through, frost excepted. 



House-martins came remarkably late this year both in Hamp- 

 shire and Devonshire : is this circumstance for or against either 

 hiding or migration ? 



Most birds drink sipping at intervals ; but pigeons take a long 

 continued draught, like quadrupeds. 



Notwithstanding what I have said in a former letter, no gray 

 crows were ever known to breed on Dartmoor ; it was my mistake. 



The appearance and flying of the Scarab czus solstitialis, or fern- 

 chafer, commence with the month of July, and cease about the 

 end of it. These scarabs are the constant food of Caprimulgi, or 

 fern owls, through that period. They abound on the chalky downs 

 and in some sandy districts, but not in the clays. 



In the garden of the Black Bear inn in the town of Reading, is 

 a stream or canal running under the stables and out into the fields 

 on the other side of the road : in this water are many carps, which 



* They eat also the berries of the ivy, the honey-suckle, and the E^lonym^^s 

 europtzus, or spindle-tree. 



