NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 4'J 



it is here to-day and off to-morrow ; but disappears in the begin- 

 ning of September. Mr. Bartlett informs me that the mouths of 

 the young of fruit-eating warblers are pink or flesh-coloured ; 

 the young of the insect-eating warblers, on the contrary, have 

 the inside of their mouths yellow. 



GOLDEN-CRESTED REGULUS, p. 53. Mr. G. Napier writes : 

 " The golden-crested regulus (Regulus cristatus) is a constant 

 resident in Britain. It forms a compact nest of moss, which 

 in texture resembles that of the finch's. It is often adorned 

 with lichens, as well as bound together with spiders' webs, and 

 the inside is lined with feathers. One nest I possess has a 

 turkey feather as a valve or trap-door cunningly placed by the 

 bird at the entrance of the nest. This bird usually suspends 

 its nest from a branch of an overhanging yew or fir-tree. It is 

 of a pork-pie shape ; I have one as open as a chaffinch's. The 

 eggs are most commonly of a nearly uniform pale yellow buff, 

 but some have a white ground, with spots of dark purple and 

 dark red ; others are very nearly white, like some varieties of 

 the eggs of the long-tailed tit. 



" The nest of the wood- wren (R. sibilatrix) is a doms structure, 

 the entrance to which is usually from the side. In shape it 

 resembles that of the dipper, for it has a flattened appearance ; 

 it is made of the steins of the bedstraw intermixed with grass, 

 moss, and dead leaves. The lining in both the nests I have is 

 of grass ; but sometimes horsehair is used. The ground colour 

 of the egg is white or yellowish white, with spots of ash-blue 

 and umber distinctly defined, and scattered all over. Some have 

 p. zone of spots towards the large end, but in others the spots are 

 equally distributed." 



TOADS, FROGS, AND NEWTS, p. 54. The ponds in the brick- 

 fields about London produce toads and frogs in great quantities. 

 The only sale for frogs and snakes is at the Zoological Gardens, 

 where they are used for feeding purposes. The market price of 

 frogs averages 6d. per dozen. 



The new snake-eating snake, Opliiopliagus elapx, a kind of 

 cobra from India, is raising the price of common snakes in the 

 market. He has devoured no less than eighty-two common 

 snakes between March and November. 



I do not believe in the " shower of frogs " story. 



When frogs get " legged," from being loggerheads or tadpoles, 

 they are wonderfully migratory things, like eels, always on the 

 move. A very remarkable plague of frogs occurred on the flat 

 lands near Windsor in June 1875. 



VOL. II. H 



