38 THE TLT-CATCHEE. 



late hatchings more in favour of hiding than migration ? 

 Nay, some young martins remained in their nests last year 

 so late as September the 29th ; and yet they totally disap- 

 peared with us by the 5th of October. 



How strange it is, that the swift, which seems to live 

 exactly the same life with the. swallow and house-martin, 

 should leave us before the middle of August invariably ! 

 while the latter stay often till the middle of October ; and 

 once I saw numbers of house-martins on the 7th of Novem- 

 ber.* The martins and red-wing fieldfares were flying in 

 sight together; an uncommon assemblage of summer and 

 winter birds ! 



A little yellow birdf (it is either a species of the alauda 

 trivialis, or rather, perhaps, of the motacilla trocJdlus) still 

 continues to make a sibilous shivering noise in the tops of 

 tall woods. The stoparola of Ray (for which we have as yet 

 no name in these parts) is called, in your Zoology, the fly- 

 catcher. There is one circumstance characteristic of this 

 bird, which seems to have escaped observation ; and that is, 

 it takes its stand on the top of some stake, or post, from 

 whence it springs forth on its prey, catching a fly in the air, 

 and hardly ever touching the ground, but returning still to 

 the same stand for many times together 4 



I perceive there are more than one species of the motacilla 



in it. It was most effectually stopped. As the spring approached I diligently 

 watched the little prisoners or rather their prison. Early in April I heard a 

 slight twittering. This continued for some days, and I then inspected the 

 nest and found a small hole about the size of a pea. This day by day increased, 

 and at length three swallows emerged from their winter habitation. At first 

 they appeared weak, but in a few days they gained strength, and after a flight 

 always returned to the same place, and rested there during the night. The 

 nest is still preserved. A brood has been hatched again this year, and another 

 nest built on the next stay of the spout, nearer to my window." 



It is curious that Mr. White and Mr. Daines Barrington, who were so 

 strongly inclined in favour of the torpidity of swallows, should not have been 

 able to bring forward one decided fact to prove their favourite idea. ED. 



* This may be accounted for by the swifts having only one brood and when 

 they can fly, both old and young migrate. The purpose for which they came 

 to this country has been fulfilled. ED. 



f It is the grasshopper-lark. ED. 



Nothing can be more graceful or pretty than the action of this bird in 

 taking flies. I have seen the young seated in a row on a rail, and fed by their 

 parents in succession, darting at flies as mentioned by Mr. White. ED. 



