142 The Natural History of Se I borne 



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 

 October the twenty-third. 



The swift -f- 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 J stay with us the whole year. 



Some wheat-ears continue with us the winter through. 



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



Bullfinches,!) when fed on hempseed, often become wholly 

 black. 



We have vast flocks of female chaffinches 1F all the winter, 

 with hardly any males among them. 



When you say that in breeding-time the cock snipes * * 

 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 certainly make a loud piping with their mouths : but 

 whether that bleating or humming is ventriloquous, or pro- 

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

 I know, that when this noise happens the bird is always de- 

 scending, and his wings are violently agitated. 



Soon after the lapwings^ ( have done breeding they con- 

 gregate, and, leaving the moors and marshes, betake them- 

 selves to downs and sheep-walks. 



Two years ago JJ last spring the little auk was found 

 alive and unhurt, but fluttering and unable to rise, in a lane 

 a few miles from Alresford, where there is a great lake : it 

 was kept a while, but died. 



I saw young teals taken alive in the ponds of Wolmer 



* " British Zoology," vol. i. p. 244. f Vol. i. p. 245. J Vol. i. 



pp. 270, 271. Vol. i. p. 269. || Vol. i. p. 300. IT Vol. i. 



p. 306. * Vol. i. p. 358. f t Vol. i. p. 360. J Vol. i. p. 409. 

 Vol. i. p. 475- 



