84 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



lark, 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 ? 



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. 



Red-breasts 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 red- 

 breasts of that year : notwithstanding the prejudices in their 

 favour, they do much mischief in gardens to the summer-fruits. 1 



The titmouse, which early in February begins to make two 

 quaint notes, like the whetting of a saw, is the marsh titmouse : 

 the great titmouse sings with three cheerful joyous notes, and 

 begins about the same time. 



Wrens sing all the winter through, frost excepted. 2 



House-martins came remarkably late this year both in Hamp- 

 shire 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 grey 

 crows were ever known to breed on Dartmoor; it was my mistake. 



The appearance and flying of the scarabceus solstitialis, or fern- 

 chafer, commence with the month of July, and cease about the 



1 They eat also the berries of the ivy, the honey-suckle, and the euonymvs 

 europ<zus, or spindle-tree. 



2 [Wrens will often sing in severe frost, which does not silence the winter singers, 

 unless prolonged and sunless.] 



