344 WHITE 



They spend the day in high elevated fields and sheep-walks, 

 but seem to descend in the night to streams and meadows, 

 perhaps for water, which their upland haunts do not afford 

 them. WHITE. 



On the 3 1 st January, 1 792, 1 received a bird of this species 

 which had been recently killed by a neighboring farmer, who 

 said he had frequently seen it in his fields during the former 

 part of the winter : this perhaps was an occasional straggler, 

 which by some accident was prevented from accompanying its 

 companions in their migration. MARKWICK. 



THE SMALLEST UNCRESTED WILLOW- WREN. The small- 

 est uncrested willow-wren, or chiff-chaff, is the next early sum- 

 mer bird which we have remarked ; it utters two sharp piercing 

 notes, so loud in hollow woods as to occasion an echo, and is 

 usually first heard about the 2Oth March. WHITE. 



This bird, which Mr. White calls the smallest willow-wren or 

 chiff-chaff, makes its appearance very early in the spring, and 

 is very common with us ; but I cannot make out the three differ- 

 ent species of willow-wrens which he assures us he has discov- 

 ered. Ever since the publication of his " History of Selborne " 

 I have used my utmost endeavors to discover his three birds, 

 but hitherto without success. I have frequently shot the bird 

 which " haunts only the tops of trees, and makes a sibilous 

 noise," even in the very act of uttering that sibilous note, but 

 it always proved to be the common willow-wren or his chiff- 

 chaff. In short, I never could discover more than one species, 

 unless my greater petty-chaps, sylvia hortensis of Latham, is 

 his greatest willow- wren. MARKWICK. 



FERN-OWL, OR GOAT-SUCKER. The country-people have a 

 notion that the fern-owl, or churn-owl or eve-jarr, which they 

 also call a puckeridge, is very injurious to weanling calves, by 

 inflicting as it strikes at them the fatal distemper known to 

 cow-leeches by the name of puckeridge. 4 Thus does this harm- 

 less ill-fated bird fall under a double imputation which it by no 

 means deserves in Italy, of sucking the teats of goats, whence 

 it is C3\\Q&caprimulgus ; and with us, of communicating a deadly 

 disorder to cattle. But the truth of the matter is, the malady 



