ON BIRDS. 353 



which, by some accident, was prevented from accom- 

 panying its companions in their migration. 



MARKWICK. 



THE SMALLEST UNCRESTED WILLOW WREN. The 

 smallest uncrested willow-wren, or chiff-chaf, is the 

 next early summer bird which we have remarked ; 

 it utters two sharp piercing notes, so loud in hol- 

 low woods, as to occasion an echo, and is usually 

 first heard about the 20th of March. 



WHITE. 



This bird, which Mr. White calls the smallest 

 willow -wren, or chiff-chaf, makes its appearance 

 very early in the spring, and is very common with 

 us ; but I cannot make out the three different species 

 of willow- wrens, which he assures us he has disco- 

 vered. Ever since the publication of his History of 

 Selborne, I have used my utmost endeavours to dis- 

 cover his three birds, but hitherto without success. 

 I have frequently shot the bird which " haunts only 

 the tops of trees, and makes a sibilous noise," even 

 in the very act of uttering that sibilous note ; but it 

 always proved to be the common willow-wren, or his 

 chiff-chaf. In short, I never could discover more 

 than one species, unless my greater pettichaps (sylvia 

 hortensus of Latham,) is his greatest willow- wren. 



MARKWICK. 



FERN-OWL, OR GOAT-SUCKER. The country people 

 have a notion that the fern-owl, or churn-owl, or 

 eve-jarr, which they also call a puckeridge, is very 

 injurious to weanling calves, by inflicting, as it strikes 

 at them, the fatal distemper known to cow-leeches 

 by the name of puckeridge. Thus does this harm- 

 less, ill-fated bird, fall under a double imputation, 

 which it by no means deserves, in Italy, of sucking 

 A a 



