114 ORNITHOLOGY OF SELBORNE. 



Whin chats 1 and stone-chatters 2 stay with us 

 the whole year. 



Some wheatears 3 continue with us the winter 

 through 4 . 



Wagtails, all sorts, remain with us all the 

 winter 5 . 



Bullfinches 6 , when fed on hempseed, often be- 

 come wholly black. 



We have vast flocks of female chaffinches 7 all 

 the winter, with hardly any males among them. 



When you say that in breeding time the eock 

 snipes 8 make a bleating noise, and a drumming, 

 (perhaps I should have rather said a 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 ventrilo- 

 quous, or proceeds from the motion of their wings, 

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

 happens, the bird is always descending, and his 

 wings are violently agitated. 



1 Whin-chat, saxicola rubetra, Bechst, certainly does 

 migrate. Stone-chat, saxicola rubicola, Bechst., is a resi- 

 dent, but we receive an accession of numbers yearly. 

 W. J. 



2 British Zoology, vol. ii. pp. 270, 271. 3 P. 269. 



4 The great body of wheaters migrate regularly ; and it is 

 just possible that a few pairs may remain during the winter, 

 in the southern counties : but I strongly suspect Mr. White, 

 though quoting, must be wrong. W. J. 



5 Mr. White seems only to have known two species of 

 wagtail, the pied and grey. The yellow wagtail is a regular 

 rnigrater, but is very local in its distribution. Both the others 

 partially migrate in Scotland flocks of the first appear in 

 spring, and a few pairs only remain during the winter.^ 

 W. J. 



6 British Zoology, vol. ii. p. 300. 7 P. 30G. s P. 358. 



