98 XATUKAL HISTORY 



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 a in their nest till 

 October the twenty-third. 



The swift b appears about ten or twelve days later than the 

 house-swallow: viz. about the twenty-fourth or twenty-sixth of 

 April. 



Whin-chats and stone-chatters* stay with us the whole 

 year *. 



Some wheat-ears d continue with us the winter through. 



Wagtails, all sorts, remain with us all the winter |. 



Bulfinches, 6 when fed on hempseed, often become wholly 

 black. 



We have vast flocks of female chaffinches f all the winter, 

 with hardly any males among them. 



When you say that in breeding time the cock-snipes g make 

 a bleating noise, and I a drumming (perhaps I should have 

 rather said an humming), I suspect we mean the same thing. 

 However, while they are playing about on the wing they cer- 

 tainly make a loud piping with their mouths : but whether 

 that bleating or humming is ventriloquous, or proceeds from 

 the motion of their wings, I cannot say ; but this I know, 

 that when this noise happens the bird is always descending, 

 and his wings are violently agitated |. 



a Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 244. b 245. c 270, 271. 



* [This statement is repeated in the 1st letter to Daines Barrington. 

 There is, however, no doubt that the whin-chat is a migratory bird. It 

 would appear that the stone-chat leaving us is the exception ; and the 

 whin-chat remaining during the winter is even more exceptional. Mr. 

 Herbert, in a note on this subject in Bennett's edition, states that both 

 species migrate almost wholly. We have, on the other hand, Montagu 

 and Yarrell supporting the view given above. T. B.] 



t [This is a mistake ; the yellow wagtail does not remain with us 

 during the winter. White doubtless confounded the yellow and the "rev 

 species. T. B.] 



J [This humming sound is certainly produced by a peculiar motion of 

 the quill feathers of the wings as the bird is descending. This was fully 

 described by Mr. Herbert in Bennett's edition, p. 167. and subsequently by 

 Selby, Harting, and others. T. B.] 



"269. "SOD. '306. 358. 



