94 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



of November ] is usually the latest winter-bird of passage. 

 Before our beechen woods were so much destroyed we had 

 myriads of them, reaching in strings for a mile together as 

 they went out in a morning to feed. They leave us early 

 in spring ; where do they breed ? 



The people of Hampshire and Sussex call the missel-bird 

 the storm -cock, because it sings early in the spring in blow* 

 ing showery weather ; its song often commences with the 

 year : with us it builds much in orchards. 



A gentleman assures me he has taken the nests of 

 ring-ousels on Dartmoor ; they build in banks on the sides 

 of streams. 



Titlarks not only sing sweetly as they sit on trees, but 

 also as they play and toy about on the wing j and par- 

 ticularly while they are descending, and sometimes they 

 stand on the ground. 



Adanson's testimony seems to me to be a very poor 

 evidence that European swallows migrate during our winter 

 to Senegal : he does not talk at all like an ornithologist ; 

 and probably saw only the swallows of that country, which 

 I know build within Governor O'Hara's hall against the 

 roof. Had he known European swallows, would he not 

 have mentioned the species % 



The house-swallow washes by dropping into the water as 

 it flies : this species appears commonly about a week before 

 the house-martin, and about ten or twelve days before the 

 swift. 



In 1772 there were young house-martins in their nest till 

 October 23rd. 



The swift appears about ten or twelve days later than the 

 house-swallow — viz., about the 24th or 26th April. 



Whin-chats and stone chatters stay with us the whole 

 year. 



