48 NATURAL HISTORV OF SELBORNE. 



the thickest part of a bush ; and will sing at a yard distance, pro- 

 vided it be concealed. I was obliged to get a person to go on the 

 other side of the hedge where it haunted, and then it would run, 

 creeping like a mouse, before us for an hundred yards together, 

 through the bottom of the thorns ; yet it would not come into fair 

 sight ; but in a morning early, and when undisturbed, it sings on 

 the top of a twig, gaping and shivering with its wings. Mr. Ray 

 himself had no knowledge of this bird, but received his. account 

 from Mr. Johnson,|who apparently confounds it with the reguli 11011 

 cristati, from which it is very distinct. See Ray's " Philos. 

 Letters," p. 108.* 



A LIST OF THE SUMMER BIRDS OF PASSAGE DISCOVERED IN THIS 

 NEIGHBOURHOOD, RANGED SOMEWHAT IN THE. ORDER IN 

 WHICH THEY APPEAR. 



LINN^I NOMINA. 



Smallest willow-wren Motacilla trochilus. 



Wryneck, Jynx torquilla. 



House-swallow, Hirundo rustica. 



Martin, Hirundo urbica. 



Sand-martin, Hirundo riparia. 



Cuckoo, Cuculus canorus. 



Nightingale, Motacilla luscinia. 



Blackcap, Motacilla atricapilla. 



Whitethroat, Motacilla sylvia. 



Middle willow- wren, Motacilla trochilus. 



Swift, Hirundo apus. 



Stone-curlew ? Charadrius cedicnemns ? 



Turtle-dove ? Turtur aldrovandi ? 



Grasshopper-lark, Alauda trivialis. 



Landrail, Rallus crex. 



Largest willow-wren, Alotacilla trochilns. 



Redstart, Motacilla phcenicnrns, 



Goat-sucker, or fern-owl, Caprimulgu<> europtuts. 



Fly-catcher, Mnsdcapa grisola. 



The fly-catcher (stoparola) has not yet appeared ; it usually breeds 

 in my vine. The redstart begins to sing, its note is short and im- 



* This passage in Ray's correspondence (Ray Society, p. 96), to which the above alludes, 

 appears to occur in one of Mr. Johnson's letters to Ray, March 1672, and refers to the 

 grasshopper-warbler, Snlicaria locnstella, and which is White's " grasshopper-lark ;'' it is 

 as follows : " I have sent you the little yellow-bird you called regulus non cnstatns, what 

 bird it is I know not ; but we have great store of them (Brignall, Greta Bridgel, each 

 morning about sunrise, and many times a-day ; besides she mounts to the highest branch 

 in the bush, and there, with bill erect, and wing hovering, she sends forth a sibilous noise, 

 like that of the grasshopper, but much shriller." (See also Letter XXIV.) 



