J68 NATURAL HISTORY 



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. 



I saw young teals 25 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 86 that page says "its drink the 

 dew ;" whereas it should be " it drinks on the wing ;" 

 for all the swallow 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. 



Of the sedge-bird 27 be pleased to say it sings most 

 part of the night ; its notes are hurrying, but not un- 

 pleasing, and imitative of several birds ; as the sparrow, 

 swallow, skylark. When it happens to be silent in the 

 night, by throwing a stone or clod into the bushes where 

 it sits, you immediately set it a singing; or, in other 

 words, though it slumbers sometimes, yet as soon as it 

 is awakened it reassumes its song. 



LETTER XL. 



TO THE SAME. 

 DEAR SIR, SKLBORNE, Sept. 2, 1774. 



BEFORE your letter arrived, and of my own accord, I 

 had been remarking and comparing the tails of the male 

 and female swallow, and this ere any young broods 

 appeared ; so that there was no danger of confounding 

 the dams with their pulli : and besides, as they were 

 then always in pairs, and busied in the employ of 

 nidification, there could be no room for mistaking the 

 sexes, nor the individuals of different chimneys the one 

 for the other. From all my observations, it constantly 

 appeared that each sex has the long feathers in its tail 



29 British Zoology, vol. ii. p. 475. * Vol. iv. p. 15. w p. 16. 



