140 The Natural History of Selborne 



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 j~ 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 ^[ 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 

 vetrilDquous, or proceeds from the motion of their wings, I cannot 

 say ; but this I know, that when this noise happens the bird is 

 always descending, and his wings are violently agitated. 



Soon after the lapwings f t have done breeding they congregate, 

 and, leaving the moors and marshes, betake themselves to downs 

 and sheep-walks. 



Two years ago J J 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 Forest 

 in the beginning of July last, along with flappers, or young wild- 

 ducks. 



* "British Zoology," vol. ii. p. 244. t Vol. ii. p. 245. J Vol. ii. pp. 270, 

 271. Vol. ii. p. 269. 1| Vol.ii.p. 300. 11 Vol. ii. p. 306. ** Vol. ii. p. 358. 

 tt Vol. ii. p. 360. \\ Vol. ii. p. 409. Vol.ii.p. 475. 



