MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 103 



Some wheat-ears continue with us the winter through. 



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



Bulfinches, 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 a 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 proceeds from the motion of 

 their wings, I sannot 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 have done breeding they congregate, 

 and, leaving the moors and marshes, 

 betake themselves to downs and sheep- 

 walks. 



Two years ago 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 

 awhile, but died. Crested Lowin 



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. 



Speaking of the swift, that page says " its drink the dew ;" 

 whereas it should be, " it drinks on the wing ;" for all the swal- 

 low kind sip their water as they sweep over the face of pools or 

 rivers : like Virgil's bees, they drink flying ; "flumina summa 

 libant." In this method of drinking perhaps this genus may be 

 peculiar. 



sides, every out-door observer must have noticed their comparative paucity in early spring, when 

 a fine day calls forth all the birds to the tops of the bushes, and their sudden appearance in much 

 greater numbers about the middle of April, a little before the arrival of their congener, which is 

 acknowledged to be migratory. Neither of these birds have much natural soug, but in confine- 

 ment they evince considerable powers of imitation, as is the case also with the redstart, which is 

 somewhat allied to them. All are, however, excessively tender in captivity. ED. 



* From this it seems probable that the author had observed the field-wagtail during the winter 

 months, which is contrary to its usual habits, as noticed at page . Since that was written, J 

 have learned that the blue-headed field-wagtail (motacilla-budytes neglcctd) has been several times 

 observed in Scotland. ED. 



