170 NATURAL HISTORY 



When redstarts shake their tails they move them 

 horizontally, as dogs do when they fawn : the tail of a 

 wagtail, when in motion, bobs up and down like that of 

 a jaded horse. 



Hedge-sparrows have a remarkable flirt with their 

 wings in breeding time : as soon as frosty mornings 

 come they make a very piping plaintive noise. 



Many birds which become silent about Midsummer 

 reassume their notes again in September ; as the thrush, 

 blackbird, woodlark, willow wren, &c. ; hence August 

 is by much the most mute month, the spring, summer, 

 and autumn through. Are birds induced to sing again 

 because the temperament of autumn resembles that of 

 spring 8 ? 



Linnaeus ranges plants geographically ; palms inhabit 

 the tropics, grasses the temperate zones, and mosses 

 and lichens the polar circles : no doubt animals may be 

 classed in the same manner with propriety. 



House sparrows build under eaves in the spring; as 

 the weather becomes hotter they get out for coolness, 

 and nest in plum-trees and apple-trees. These birds 

 have been known sometimes to build in rooks' nests, 

 and sometimes in the forks of boughs under rooks' 

 nests. 



As my neighbour was housing a rick he observed that 

 his dogs devoured all the little red mice that they could 

 catch, but rejected the common mice; and that his 

 cats ate the common mice, refusing the red. 



Redbreasts sing all through the spring, summer, and 

 autumn. The reason that they are called autumn 

 songsters is, because in the two first seasons their 

 voices are drowned and lost in the general chorus ; in 

 the latter their song becomes distinguishable. Many 

 songsters of the autumn seem to be the young cock 

 redbreasts of that year: notwithstanding the prejudices 



3 There can be little doubt that the autumnal song is that of the young 

 males of the year. G. D. 



