172 NATURAL HISTORY 



in Hampshire and Devonshire : is this circumstance 

 for or against either hiding or migration ? 



Most birds drink sipping at intervals; but pigeons 

 take a long continued draught, like quadrupeds. 



Notwithstanding what I have said in a former letter, 

 no gray crows were ever known to breed on Dartmoor ; 

 it was my mistake. 



The appearance and flying of the Scaralceus solstitialis, 

 or fern-chafer, commence with the month of July, and 

 cease about the end of it. These scarabs are the con- 

 stant food of Caprimulgi, or fern-owls, through that 

 period. They abound on the chalky downs and in 

 some sandy districts, but not in the clays. 



In the garden of the Black Bear Inn in the town of 

 Reading is a stream or canal running under the stables 

 and out into the fields on the other side of the road : in 

 this water are many carps, which lie rolling about in 

 sight, being fed by travellers, who amuse themselves 

 by tossing them bread : but as soon as the weather 

 grows at all severe these fishes are no longer seen, be- 

 cause they retire under the stables, where they remain 

 till the return of spring. Do they lie in a torpid state ? 

 if they do not, how are they supported ? 



The note of the whitethroat, which is continually re- 

 peated, and often attended with odd gesticulations on 

 the wing, is harsh and displeasing. These birds seem 

 of a pugnacious disposition ; for they sing with an 

 erected crest and attitudes of rivalry and defiance ; are 

 shy and wild in breeding time 6 , avoiding neighbour- 

 hoods, and haunting lonely lanes and commons ; nay, 

 even the very tops of the Sussex Downs, where there 

 are bushes and covert; but in July and August they 



6 So far from being wild and shy in the breeding season, the white- 

 throat frequents at that period the vicinity of London, and forms part 

 even of the Fauna of St. Marylebone, covered as that parish now is with 

 buildings. I have a nest taken by myself from a bramble-bush, by the 

 side of a foot-path, just beyond the houses in the Avenue Road, Regent's 

 Park G. D. 



