44 NATURAL HISTORY 



Motacilla Trochilus : Mr. Derham supposes, in Ray's 

 Philosophical Letters, that he has discovered three. 

 In these there is again an instance of some very com- 

 mon birds that have as yet no English name. 



Mr. Stillingfleet makes a question whether the black- 

 cap (Motacilla Atricapilla 7 } be a bird of passage or 

 not ; I think there is no doubt of it : for, in April, in 

 the first fine weather, they come trooping, all at once, 

 into these parts, but are never seen in the winter 8 . 

 They are delicate songsters 9 . 



Numbers of snipes breed every summer in some 

 moory ground on the verge of this parish. It is very 

 amusing to see the cock bird on wing at that time, and 

 to hear his piping and humming notes. 



I have had no opportunity yet of procuring any of 

 those mice which I mentioned to you in town. The 

 person that brought me the last says they are plenty in 

 harvest, at which time I will take care to get more ; 



7 [Cttrrucrt Atricapilla, BECHST.] 



8 A tine cock blackcap, which I purchased in the bird market at Paris, 

 in September, exhibited the migrative agitation about the end of that 

 month, again before Christmas, again in February, and finally on the 

 first of April, beginning at sunset to leap and flutter about the cage for 

 several hours every night, and remaining quiet and frequently sleeping 

 during the day. The agitation continued some weeks each time. I 

 would infer from this that the species migrates more than once after 

 leaving our shores. Dr. Heineken informs us that it is stationary at 

 Madeira : consequently Sir W. Jardine is wrong in thinking our birds 

 retire thither ; but we have no statements respecting the countries they 

 do visit in winter. They certainly go farther south than Gibraltar, 

 where they are only summer visitants. Mr. Lewin, as we are informed 

 by Dr. Latham, once shot a blackcap in January near Dartford, in Kent, 

 which will qualify Mr. White's statement that they are never seen in the 

 winter. RENME. 



An exception, such as the one quoted in the preceding note, can 

 scarcely be regarded as militating against a general rule : in the words 

 of the adage, the exception may rather be said to prove the rule. 

 E. T. B. 



9 The delightful song of the blackcap is beautifully described by our 

 author in Letter XL. The description there given was copied by Pen- 

 nant, in the third edition of his British Zoology, vol. i. p. 375. The 

 blackcap, as Mr. Mitford has remarked, is classed very highly by Dailies 

 Barrington in his scale of singing birds. E. T. B. 



