NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 89 



places inland. In line weather during full moon, and on bright 

 nights, birds, as a rule, come over to their time. The nightingales 

 were very late this year (1875) in arriving, on account of the 

 cold spring. Swallows, as a rule, come to their time, although 

 they do not go direct to their breeding-places ; they keep under 

 the South downs, and in protected localities such as the Devil's 

 Dvke, near Brighton, the weather is always very mild under the 

 Devil's Dyke Hill. 



PAIRING OF BIRDS, p. 103. Among all migratory birds if the 

 male or female is destroyed before the flight or arriving time is 

 past, he or she finds a fresh mate almost immediately. This no 

 doubt is done by the call, but when the arrival flight is over 

 they all get settled down to their resting-places. At pairing 

 time, if there chance to be a roving cock or roving hen about, 

 they rove until they find their mate. When a cock bullfinch 

 or cock nightingale has been caught the female will find a mate 

 in two days. 



THE WOODPECKER. FLIGHT AND WALK OF BIRDS, p. 106. 1 

 As I am exceedingly fond of dissecting when not engaged 

 in other work, I will now proceed to describe the struc- 

 ture of the woodpecker, as I wish to demonstrate what 

 admirable beauty and design may be found in the com- 

 monest objects, if only the student of natural science knows 

 how, when, and where to look. The woodpecker I bought is 

 the great green woodpecker (Picus viridis). According to 

 Wood it is also called the "rain-bird," the "woodspite," "hew- 

 hole," and " woodwall." In Oxfordshire they are called " heccles," 

 or " green aisles." The structure of this bird will, I think, form an 

 answer to the Darwinian theory. In every respect it is most 

 admirably suited to the duty which it has to perform in 

 nature. In the first place, the colouring of the bird is a lovely 

 green. What could be a better dress for a bird who lives in 

 a wood than green ? The Foresters paradi ng at their fetes, I 

 observe, wear green coats. The woodpecker has to run up 

 the sides of trees, and whereas the tail feathers of a peacock 

 are made to expand, so as to exhibit all the glorious colours 

 of the rainbow, showing that nature intended that this kind 

 of tail should be purely ornamental, so we find, on the contrary, 

 that the tail of the woodpecker is made entirely for utility. The 

 bird has ten feathers on its tail, Fig. A. The two centre feathers 

 are four and a half inches long. They are as stiff as wire, and 



1 This paragraph is quoted from my "Logbook of a Fisherman and 

 Zoologist." Chapman and Hall, Piccadilly. 



VOL. II. N 



