of Selborne 87 



Whin-chats and stone-chatters^ stay with us the whole 

 year. 



Some wheat-ears^ continue with us the winter through. 



Wagtails, all sorts, remain with us all the winter. 



lUilifinches,^ when fed on hempsced, often become 

 wholly black. 



We have vast flocks of female chaffinches ^ all the 

 winter, with hardly any males among them. 



When you say that in breeding-time the cocksnipes ^ 

 make a bleating noise, and I a drumming (perhaps I 

 should have rather said an humming), I suspect we mean 

 the same thing. However, while they are playing about 

 on the wing they certainly make a loud piping with their 

 mouths : but whether that bleating or humming is ventri- 

 loquous, or proceeds from the motion of their wings, I 

 cannot say ; but this I know, that when this noise hap- 

 pens the bird is always descending, and his wings are 

 violently agitated. 



Soon after the lapwings ^ have done breeding they 

 congregate, and, leaving the moors and marshes, betake 

 themselves to downs and sheep-walks. 



Two years ago"^ last spring the little auk was found 

 alive and unhurt, but fluttering and unable to rise, in a 

 lane a few miles from Alresford, where there is a great 

 lake : it was kept a while, but died. 



I saw young teals ^ taken alive in the ponds of Wolmer- 

 forest in the beginning of July last, along with flappers, 

 or young wild-ducks. 



Speaking of the swift,^ that page says " its drink the 

 dew"; whereas it should be "it drinks on the wing"; for 

 all the swallow kind sip their water as they sweep over 

 the face of pools or rivers : like Virgil's bees, they drink 

 flying, ^^fliwiina summa liba7it.^^ In this method of drink- 

 ing perhaps this genus may be peculiar. 



Of the sedge-bird ^^ be pleased to say it sings most part 

 of the night ; its notes are hurrying, but not unpleasing, 

 and imitative of several birds ; as the sparrow, swallow, 



^ British Zoology^yo\. ii., pp. 270, 271. ' p. 269. ' p. 300. 

 4 p. 306. "> p. 358. 6 p. 360. ' p. 409. " p. 475. 



9 p. 15. 1" p. 16. 



