38 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



but are never seen in the winter. They are delicate 

 songsters. 1 



Numbers of snipes breed every summer in some moory 

 ground on the verge of this parish. It is very amusing 

 to see the cock bird on wing at that time, and to hear his 

 piping and humming notes. 2 



I have had no opportunity yet of procuring any of 

 those mice which I mentioned to you in town. The 

 person that brought me the last says they are plenty in 

 harvest, at which time I will take care to get more ; and 

 will endeavour to put the matter out of doubt, whether it 

 be a non-descript species or not. 



I suspect much there may be two species of water-rats. 

 Ray says, and Linnceus after him, that the water-rat is 

 web-footed behind. Now I have discovered a rat on the 

 banks of our little stream that is not web-footed, and yet 

 is an excellent swimmer and diver : it answers exactly to 

 the mus amphibius of Linnceus (see Syst. Nat.} which he 

 says " natat in fossis et urinatur." I should be glad to pro- 

 cure one " plantis palmatis." Linnceus seems to be in a 

 puzzle about his mus amphibius, and to doubt whether it 

 differs from his mus terrestris; which if it be, as he allows, 

 the " mus agrestis capite grandi brachyuros," of Ray, is widely 

 different from the water-rat, both in size, make, and 

 manner of life. 8 



1 That a stray Blackcap occasionally stays with us during the winter can, I 

 think, scarcely be doubted, but the species is otherwise migratory, visiting Sene- 

 gambia in winter, as well as North-East Africa and the Mediterranean countries. 

 The British Museum possesses a male Blackcap shot near Christiansund, in 

 Northern Norway, on the 1st of December 1897 ! Blackcaps are to be noticed in 

 some numbers in the neighbourhood of London. They nest in the old garden of 

 Little Sutton near my house at Chiswick, and many are to be seen feeding on 

 the elder-berries in autumn within a few yards of my study- window. [R. B. S.] 



2 See Letter XVI (postea, p. 65). [R. B. S.] 



3 Professor Bell, who was the greatest authority on British Mammals in his 

 day, gives the following interesting note on these species, which had also been 

 dealt with by Mr. Bennett in his edition: "This confusion, as Mr. Bennett 

 observes, was originated by Willughby, copied by Ray, and appears to have 

 given rise to the complication by Linnaeus, from which White's doubts and per- 

 plexities were derived. The fact is that the Water- Vole, as it ought to be called, 

 is, on the one hand, quite distinct from the family Murida, to which the rats 



