J)4 NATURAL HISTORY 



pecker does the same. This noise may be heard u 

 furlong or more. 



Now is the only time to ascertain the short-winged 

 summer birds ; for, when the leaf is out, there is no 

 making any remarks on such a restless tribe; and, 

 when once the young begin to appear, it is all confusion : 

 there is no distinction of genus, species, or sex. 



In breeding time snipes play over the moors, piping 

 and humming : they always hum as they are descending. 

 Is not their hum ventriloquous like that of the turkey? 

 Some suspect it is made by their wings 5 . 



This morning I saw the golden-crowned wren, whose 

 crown glitters like burnished gold. It often hangs, like 

 a titmouse, with its back downwards. 



Yours, &c. &c. 



snatch any thing they like out of the mouth of a larger bird, and run 

 under a pan with it to avoid being pursued. 



It is remarkable that many birds, which are quite kindly disposed to 

 other birds, will not tolerate the presence of another of their own species. 

 The redstart fights with his brother nestling in the same cage as soon as 

 he is full grown ; he will not tolerate the presence of a stone chat or 

 whin chat, whose habits are very similar to his own, but he does not 

 attack a nightingale, and behaves decently in a cage full of seed birds. 

 I have seen two yellow wrens, not two months old, fight like bulldogs, 

 holding tight, and pulling the skin, but they very rarely attack any but 

 of their own kind. A nightingale which had lived two years in a cage 

 full of birds in perfect amity with them, and even suffered the brown 

 wrens to jump and rub themselves on its back, instantly attacked, in the 

 most violent manner, another nightingale which was put into the cage. 

 Two robins will never frequent a hothouse or conservatory in peace, but 

 fight till the weakest is killed, or yields full possession to his antagonist, 

 and they often break the tender young plants in their conflicts*. W. H. 



3 The drumming of snipes in the breeding season is again adverted to 

 in Letter XXXIX. ; where a Note by Mr. Herbert is subjoined, expla- 

 natory of the mode in which the sound is produced. E. T. B. 



* In reference to the pugnacious character of the robin there is some- 

 where an old Latin proverb, indicating that one bush does not hold t\vo 

 robins : ttnum arbustum non alit duos erithncos. W. Y. 



