MARTENS. 2 



then fledged in their nests. Both species will breed again 

 once; for I see by my fauna of last year, that young broods 

 came forth so late as September the 1 8th. Are not these late 

 hatchings more in favour of hiding than migration ? Nay, 

 some young martens remained in their nests last year so late 

 as September the 29th ; and yet they totally disappeared with 

 us by the 5th of October. 



How strange it is, that the swift, which seems to live exactly 

 the same life with the swallow and house-marten, should leave 

 us before the middle of August invariably ! while the latter 

 stay often till the middle of October ; and once I saw numbers 

 of house-martens on the 7th of November. * The martens and 

 red-wing fieldfares were flying in sight together, an uncom- 

 mon assemblage of summer and winter birds ! 



A little yellow bird (it is either a species of the alauda 

 trivialis, -j- or rather, perhaps, of the tnotacilla trochilus^) still 

 continues to make a sibilous shivering noise in the tops of tall 

 woods. The stoparola of Ray (for which we have as yet no 

 name in these parts) is called, in your Zoology, the fly- 

 catcher. There is one circumstance characteristic of this 

 bird, which seems to have escaped observation ; and that is, 

 it takes its stand on the top of some stake or post, from 

 whence it springs forth on its prey, catching a fly in the air, 

 and hardly ever touching the ground, but returning still to the 

 same stand for many times together. 



* The latest time which the swift has been known to remain in this 

 country was till September 15, in the year 181 7. Two or three were seen 

 sporting about with the large assemblies of swallows and martens, by the 

 sea side, near Penzance, to the eastward. These birds, there can be little 

 doubt, were on their passage from this country to a more southern 

 climate. The swallow (H. rustica) was seen, by the Rev. W. T. Bree, 

 in the year 1806, so late as November 20 j and Mr Sweet mentions 

 having seen one pass over his garden, near London, November 23, 1828. 

 The day was fine, and flies plentiful ; but, he asks, how did it subsist 

 during the severe frosty days that were past ? The earliest period noticed 

 by that keen observer of nature is on the 3d April, 1803 ; while he records 

 having seen the sand-marten (H. riparia) on the 31st March, in the years 

 1818 and 1822, the former at Penzance, and adds, " I have been informed 

 by an intelligent friend, that a house-swallow once took up its residence 

 late in the autumn within St Mary's Church at Warwick, and was 

 regularly observed there by the congregation until Christmas eve, after 

 which it disappeared, and was seen no more." These birds arrive in the 

 following order: The sand-marten, the house-swallow, house-marten, 

 swift. ED. 



fr The grasshopper lark. ED. 



\ The yellow willow-wren. En, 



