lughby, and sold in the markets for the table ; and 

 are called by the country people, probably from 

 their desultory jerking manner of flight, Papilion de 

 Moittagna. 



Selborne, Feb. 26, 1774. 



LETTER LX. 

 To Thomas Pennant, Esq. 



Before your letter arrived, and of my own ac- 

 cord, 1 have been remarking and comparing the tails 

 of the male and female swallow, and this ere any 

 young birds appeared ; so that there is no danger 

 of confounding the dams with their pulli : and be- 

 sides, as they were then always in pairs, and busied 

 in the employ of nidification, there could be no room 

 for mistaking the sexes, nor the individuals of differ- 

 ent chimneys the one for the other. From all my 

 observations, it constantly appeared that each sex 

 has the long feathers in its tail that give it that 

 forked shape ; with this difference, that they are 

 longer in the tail of the male than in that of the 

 female. 



Nightingales, when their young first come 

 abroad, and are helpless, make a plaintive and a 

 jarring noise ; and also a snapping or cracking, 

 pursuing people along the hedges as they walk: 



