FLY-CATCHER. 



you tell them that it is the note of a bird. It is 

 a most artful creature, skulking in the thickest part 

 of a bush, and will sing at a yard distance, provided 

 it be concealed. I was obliged to get a person to go 

 on the other side of the hedge where it haunted ; and 

 then it would run, creeping like a mouse before us 

 for an hundred yards together, through the bottom 

 of the thorns ; yet it would not come into fair sight ; 

 but in a morning early, and when undisturbed, it 

 sings on the top of a twig, gaping, and shivering 

 with its wings. Mr. Ray himself had no knowledge 

 of this bird, but received his account from Mr. John- 

 son, who apparently confounds it with the reguli non 

 cristati, from which it is very distinct. See RAY'S 

 Philos. Letters, p. 108. 



The fly-catcher (stoparold) has not yet appeared : 

 it usually breeds in my vine. The redstart begins 

 to sing : its note is short and imperfect, but is con- 

 tinued till about the middle of June. The willow - 

 wrens (the smaller sort) are horrid pests in a garden, 

 destroying the pease, cherries, currants, &c., and 

 are so tame that a gun will not scare them. 



A List of the Summer Birds of Passage discovered in this 

 neighbourhood, ranged somewhat in the order in which they 

 appear. 



LINNJEI NOMINA. 



Smallest willow- wren, Motacilla trochilus. 



Wry-neck, Jynx torquilla. 



House-swallow, Hirundo rustica. 



Martin, Hirundo iirbica. 



Sand-martin, Hirundo riparia. 



Cuckoo, Cuculus canorus. 



Nightingale, Motacilla luscinia. 



Black-cap, Motacilla atricapilla. 



White-throat, Motacilla sylvia. 



Middle willow-wren, Motacilla trochilus. 



Swift, Hirundo apus. 



Stone curlew ? Charadrius oedicnemus ? 



