64 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



A LIST OF THE SUMMER BIRDS OF PASSAGE DISCOVERED IN THIS 



NEIGHBOURHOOD, RANGED SOMEWHAT IN THE ORDER IN 

 WHICH THEY APPEAR : l 



LINN/EI NOMINA. 



Smallest willow-wren, Motacilla trochilus. 



Wryneck, Jynx 2 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 opus. 



Stone-curlew ? Charadrius cedicnemus ? 



Turtle-dove ? Turtur aldrovandi? 



Grasshopper-lark, Alauda trivialis. 



Landrail, Rallus crex. 



Largest willow-wren, Motacilla trochilus. 



Redstart, Motacilla phanicurus. 



Goat-sucker, or fern-owl, Caprimulgus europceus. 



Fly-catcher, Muscicapa grisola. 



The fly-catcher (stoparold) has not yet appeared ; it 

 usually breeds in my vine. The redstart begins to sing : 



1 The smallest 'Willow Wren' of this list is the Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus 

 minor}, 'the Middle Willow Wren' is the Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus 

 trochilus), the ' Grasshopper Lark ' is the Grasshopper Warbler (Locustella 

 mzvia), and Linnaeus' name of Alauda trivialis applies not to this species, but to 

 the Tree - Pipit (Anthus trivialis), a bird which must certainly occur near 

 Selborne, for it is by no means uncommon in summer at Avington, only a few 

 miles off. The ' Largest Willow Wren ' is the Wood Warbler (Phylloscopus sibila- 

 tor). Here Gilbert White distinctly affirms the presence of a third species of 

 Willow Warbler in England. (See/arfca, Letter XIX.) [R. B. S.] 



2 The spelling of the name lynx is of curious interest. For years the generic 

 name of the Wryneck was published as Yunx, and pronounced as such, but in 

 1883 the British Ornithologists' Union issued a ' List of British Birds,' of which 

 the Editor was my late friend Henry T. Wharton, who took extraordinary pains 

 with the determination of the classical signification of the names employed. He 

 defined the derivation of the genus lynx to be from tvfa (I shout), but it would 

 seem that Gilbert White, good classic as he was, also knew the source whence 

 Linnaeus derived his name, and wrote it correctly. [R. B. S.] 



