HI THE NATURAL HISTORY [LETT. 



Crows go iii pairs the whole year round. 



Cornish choughs abound, and breed on Beachy Head and on 

 all the cliffs of the Sussex coast. 



The common wild pigeon, or stock-dove, is a bird of passage 

 in the south of England, seldom appearing till towards the end 

 of November ; and is usually the latest winter-bird of passage. 

 IWore our beechen woods were so much destroyed, we had 

 myriads of them, reaching 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 ring-ousels 

 on Dartmoor ; they build in banks on the sides of streams. 



Titlarks 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 evi- 

 dence 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 European swallows, would he not have men- 

 tioned 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. 



In 1772 there were young house-martins in their nest till 

 the 23rd of October. 



The swift appears about ten or twelve days later than 

 the house-swallow : viz. about the 24th or the 2(5th of 

 April. 



Whin-chats and stone-chatters stay with us the whole year. 



Some wheat-ears continue with us the winter through. 



Wagtails of all sorts remain with us all the winter. 



