OF SELBORNE. 165 



Some wheatears 17 continue with us the winter through. 

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

 Bullfinches 18 when fed on hempseed, often become 

 wholly black J 9. 



haunts being at that time too cold for them. They breed very early. In 

 the neighbourhood of London the young are out of the nest in the second 

 week of May, after which they continue for near three weeks skulking 

 under furze bushes, though able when disturbed to fly a hundred yards 

 at once, and they do not show themselves openly till they are able to do 

 without the old ones. Most of our books of ornithology state erroneously 

 that the whin chat is a more rare bird than the stone chat : the latter is 

 found only on heath and furze ; the whin chat is abundant in enclosures 

 as well as on wastes. Its young are produced much later than those of 

 the stone chat. The whin chat reared from the nest by hand will learn 

 the song of every bird it hears, and becomes a fine songster. It may be 

 fed on ground hempseed and egg scalded, with some hard yolk of egg, 

 and occasionally a very little meat. The stone chat is equally imitative 

 in confinement, but not so easily preserved in health. Le Vaillant men- 

 tions an African chat allied to the wheatear (Traquet imitateurj which 

 imitates the notes of every bird in its vicinity in its wild state, and this 

 faculty appears to belong to the whole genus Saxicola. I have heard a 

 whin chat, breeding in a meadow adjoining to my garden, sing very like 

 the blackcap. There seems to be an enormous predominancy of females 

 amongst the young whin chats. (See the note on page 137.) 



I have observed a fresh caught whin chat void with its dung a small 

 but entire snail shell of the long spiral kind. They will swallow gree- 

 dily a wasp maggot, but are very indifferent about eating a fly. The 

 support therefore of those which remain late with us is, amongst other 

 things, small shell snails and cockchafer grubs, and they are less af- 

 fected than many other warblers by the failure of winged insects. The 

 stone chat eats a few whortle berries in its wild state, and both species 

 will occasionally eat a currant in confinement. W. H. 



17 British Zoology, vol. ii. p. 269. 18 p. 300. 



19 In using this observation of our author Pennant gives to it the ex- 

 tension with which we have already seen it stated in Letter XX. He 

 adds, " Mr. Morton, in his History of Northamptonshire, gives another 

 instance of such a change, with this addition, that the year following, 

 after moulting, the bird recovered its native colours." E. T. B. 



This is not peculiar to the bullfinch. I have seen a woodlark nearly 

 black from living on dry bread and hemp. The oil of the hemp has pro- 

 bably this effect on the plumage. I have never found bread and hemp 

 scalded affect the colours of birds ; probably the oil so diluted loses its 

 power. 



I believe that no attention has been paid to the effects of different 

 kinds of food on the colours of birds. The beautiful nonpareil or painted 

 finch, of the Southern States of North America, in its glory, has the head 



