50 SANDPIPER BUTCHER-BIRD. 



which the others have not. This last haunts only the tops of 

 trees in high beechen woods, and makes a sibilous grasshopper- 

 like noise now and then, at short intervals, shivering a little 

 with its wings when it sings ; and is, I make no doubt now, 

 the regulus non cristatus of Ray ; which he says, " cantat voce 

 striduld locustce" Yet this great ornithologist never suspected 

 that there were three species. * 



LETTER XX. 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 



SELBORNE, Octobers, 1768. 



IT is, I find, in zoology as it is in botany : all nature is so 

 full, that that district produces the greatest variety which is 

 the most examined. Several birds, which are said to belong 

 to the north only, are, it seems, often in the south. I have 

 discovered this summer three species of birds with us, which 

 writers mention as only to be seen in the northern counties. 

 The first that was brought me, on the 14th of May, was the 

 sandpiper, tringa hypoleucus : it was a cock bird, and haunted 

 the banks of some ponds near the village ; and, as it had a 

 companion, doubtless intended to have bred near that water. 

 Besides, the owner has told me since> that, on recollection, he 

 has seen some of the same birds round his ponds in former 

 summers, f 



The next bird that I procured, on the 21st of May, was a 

 male red backed butcher-bird, lanius collurio. My neighbour, 

 who shot it, says that it might easily have escaped his notice, 

 had not the outcries and chattering of the white-throats and 

 other small birds drawn his attention to the bush where it was : 

 its craw was filled with the legs and wings of beetles. J 



* See our note at page 24. 



f This bird is the totanus hypoleucus of Temminck. It visits Britain 

 in the spring, and chiefly frequents oar lakes and rivers ; on the borders 

 of which it makes a nest composed of moss and dried leaves. Great 

 numbers breed in Scotland. This bird is found in most parts of Europe, 

 even as far north as Siberia. It migrates in October to the shores of 

 Asia and Africa. ED. 



| This is rather a local species, although not uncommon in Gloucester- 

 shire and Somersetshire. It visits us in May, and departs in September. 

 The species is very voracious, preying on small birds, and transfixing 

 them to a thorn to feed on. Montagu mentions having found young 

 ones, " which lived in amity for about two months, when violent battles 

 ensued, and two out of the four were killed. The other two were chained 



