112 MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 



usually the latest winter bird of passage. Before 

 our beechen woods were so much destroyed, we 

 had myriads of them, reaching 1 in strings for a mile 

 together, as they went out in 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 ringouselsf on Dartmoor ; they build in banks on 

 the sides of streams. 



Titlarks J 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 as they stand on the ground . 



Adanson's|| testimony seems to me to be a very 

 poor evidence that European swallows migrate during 

 our winter to Senegal ; he does not talk at all like 

 an ornithologist, and probably saw only the swallows 

 of that country, which I know build within Governor 

 O'Hara's hall against the roof. Had he known Eu- 

 ropean swallows, would he not have mentioned the 

 species ? 



The house-swallow washes by dropping into the 

 water as it flies ; this species appears commonly 

 about a week before the house-martin, and about 

 ten or twelve days before the swift. 



* British Zoology, vol. i. p. 224. f P. 229. 



I Vol. ii. p. 237. 



Mr. \Vhite must have mistaken this for anthus arbor eus, 

 or tree-lark. The titlark (anthus pratensis,) seldom sits on 

 trees. W. J. 



|| British Zoology, vol. ii. p. 242. 



