28 WHITE 



The sound is only made when the snipe is in the air and descending a little, 

 rapidly, in an oblique direction against the wind. G. C. D. 



6 There is only one species of water-rat, and strictly speaking it is not 

 a rat. It differs anatomically and in its mode of life from the rat. Its proper 

 name is the water-vole. Its feet are not webbed. Its food is entirely vege- 

 table, while the common rat, which is found in numbers by the waterside, 

 will eat fish or animal matter. Of the rat proper there are two species, the 

 original black English rat, which is exceedingly rare, and the Norway rat, 

 which is the one now so common. It has completely ousted the black 

 rat. G. C. D. 



6 This hawk was apparently a variety of the Peregrine Falcon. G. C. D. 



LETTER XI 



SELBORNE, September gt/t, 1767. 



IT will not be without impatience that I shall wait for your 

 thoughts with regard to \ho.falco ; as to its weight, breadth, 

 etc., I wish I had set them down at the time ; but, to the best 

 of my remembrance, it weighed two pounds and eight ounces, 

 and measured, from wing to wing, thirty-eight inches. Its cere 

 and feet were yellow, and the circle of its eyelids a bright yellow. 

 As it had been killed some days, and the eyes were sunk, I 

 could make no good observation on the color of the pupils and 

 the irides. 



The most unusual birds I ever observed in these parts were 

 a pair of hoopoes (upupa)} which came several years ago in 

 the summer, and frequented an ornamented piece of ground, 

 which j oins to my garden, for some weeks. They used to march 

 about in a stately manner, feeding in the walks, many times in 

 the day ; and seemed disposed to breed in my outlet ; but were 

 frighted and persecuted by idle boys, who would never let them 

 be at rest. 



Three grossbeaks 2 (loxia coccothraustes) appeared some 

 years ago in my fields, in the winter ; one of which I shot. 

 Since that, now and then, one is occasionally seen in the same 

 dead season. 



A crossbill 3 (loxia curvirostra) was killed last year in this 

 neighborhood. 



Our streams, which are small, and rise only at the end of 



