NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. n: 



for several years the habits of birds, I think it is in a great measure 

 due to that dreadful pest of the martin, the little insect or fly 

 called Itenopterix hirundinis. My attention was first called to 

 the fact about twenty years ago when I was in Melrose Abbey, 

 where the ground was literally strewed with dead martins, 

 without apparently any injury, and all in good condition. 

 While I was examining one I noticed a martin fly by me, and all 

 round the place, as if he were mad, and in his career he came 

 against the wall and fell dead. I picked him up, and in an 

 instant my hands were covered with this horrible insect, whose 

 feet are so holding that it was difficult to dislodge them. I have 

 several times observed the same thing at my place in Wiltshire, 

 and found that before the body is cold these insects leave it. I 

 cannot help thinking that this is the cause of the mortality, 

 though perhaps not the sole cause. Last summer I did not see 

 a martin in this place, though there was an abundance of swifts 

 and swallows this year, even at this moment martins are flying 

 in hundreds !" [I can hardly myself think the whole of the mor- 

 tality among the martins has been caused by the parasite 

 mentioned, for I have often seen them on dead martins, and to 

 the best of my recollection some time after the birds have been 

 dead. No doubt they may then sometimes creep all the more 

 closely under the feathers, and so become invisible. I saw none 

 in any of those birds that I picked up dead here this year.]. F. 0. 

 MOKRIS. 



These parasites are mostly found in the birds in autumn, just 

 before they migrate. When they arrive in the spring they have 

 no parasites. The parasites are probably bred in the old nests 

 in which sometimes as many as three broods from fifteen to 

 eighteen young ones from one pair of old birds have been pro- 

 duced in the course of one season. 



THE CHOUGH, p. 144. Numbers of Cornish choughs are sent 

 yearly from Plymouth to London for Mr. Davy. They are in great 

 demand, buyers for them are at all times to be found ; he has paid 

 as much as one to two pounds per pair for young birds. These birds 

 are very much sought after. They are very cunning in building 

 their nests among cliffs and dangerous rocks ; the nests are made 

 of small branches or sticks with a lining of wool or soft subtance. 

 They are good imitating birds, and may be made to talk like a 

 jackdaw. The choughs are now very rare round Beachy Head, 

 and, like the ravens in the Isle of Wight, are nearly extinct. 



STONE-CHAT, p. 144. " The Stone-chat (Sylvia mlicola)," Mr. 

 Napier writes, " builds on the ground, at the bottom of furze. 



