42 WHITE 



LINN^I NOMINA 



Landrail, Rallus crex. 



Largest willow-wren, Motacilla trochilus. 



Redstart, Motacilla phcenicurus. 



Goat-sucker, or fern-owl, Caprimulgus europ<zus. 



Fly-catcher, Muscicapa grisola. 



My countrymen talk much of a bird that makes a clatter 

 with its bill against a dead bough, or some old pales, calling 

 it a jar-bird. I procured one to be shot in the very fact; it 

 proved to be the Sitta etiropcea (the nuthatch). 2 Mr. Ray says 

 that the less spotted woodpecker does the same. This noise 

 may be heard a furlong or more. 



Now is the only time to ascertain the short-winged summer 

 birds; for, when the leaf is out, there is no making any re- 

 marks on such a restless tribe; and when once the young 

 begin to appear it is all confusion : there is no distinction of 

 genus, species, or sex. 



In breeding time snipes play over the moors, piping and 

 humming ; they always hum as they are descending. Is not 

 their hum ventriloquous like that of the turkey ? Some sus- 

 pect it is made by their wings. 



This morning I saw the golden-crowned wren, whose crown 

 glitters like burnished gold. 3 It often hangs like a titmouse, 

 with its back downwards. 



Yours, etc., etc. 

 NOTES 



1 White probably means the willow-wren and chiff-chaff which are 

 common, and the wood-wren which is rare. G C. D. 



2 The nuthatch builds in holes in trees, and if the opening is too large, 

 it builds it up with mud, leaving only sufficient room for its own egress and 

 ingress. G. C. D. 



8 The golden-crested wren suspends its deep purse-like nest beneath 

 some thick fir branch, and lays a number of tiny yellow-brown eggs, like 

 green-peas in size. All the winter through this wren and the long-tailed 

 tit frequented the hedgerows and coppices in Shropshire, and were frequent 

 victims to a school-boy's love of chevying. G. C. D. 



