NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



61 



And here, I think, will be the proper place to mention that those 

 birds were most punctual again in their migration this autumn, 

 appearing, as before, about the 30th of September ; but their flocks 

 were larger than common, and their stay protracted somewhat beyond 

 the usual time. If they came to spend the whole winter with us, as 

 some of their congeners do, and then left us, as they do, in spring, 

 I should not be so much struck with the occurrence, since it would be 

 similar to that of the other winter birds of passage ; but when I see 

 them for a fortnight at Michaelmas, and again for about a week in the 

 middle of April, I am seized with wonder, and long to be informed 

 whence these travellers come, and whither they go, since they seem to 

 use our hills merely as an inn or baiting place. 



Your account of the greater brambling, or snow-fleck, is very amusing; 

 and strange it is that such a short-winged bird should delight in such 

 perilous voyages over the northern ocean ! Some country people in the 

 winter time have 

 every now and then 

 told me that they 

 have seen two or 

 three white larks on 

 our downs; but, on 

 considering the mat- 

 ter, I begin to suspect 

 that these are some 

 stragglers of the 

 birds we are talking 

 of, which sometimes 

 perhaps may rove so 

 far to the southward. 



It pleases me to 

 find that white hares 

 are so frequent on 

 the Scottish moun- 

 tains, and especially as you inform me that it is a distinct species; 



stances of the fieldfare breeding have occurred, and that nests have been found in 

 the southern counties. We have never known an authentic instance in Scotland, and 

 we have received many letters upon the subject which invariably turned out that 

 the supposed fieldfare was the missel-thrush. They often remain very late, until 

 the middle of May, according to the season, and may sometimes be seen after 

 some of the summer visitants have arrived. We should not consider it at all 

 remarkable that the breeding of some solitary pairs should be authentically 

 recorded. In the northern countries where it breeds, it is naturally a late incubator. 

 The " snow-fleck" (plectrophanes nivalis) is not a short winged bird, and the first 

 quill is the longest, which is the formation generally seen in birds of powerful or 

 lengthened flight. This bird may occasionally remain and breed in Scotland. 

 Professor Macgillivray and Dr. Greville observed a male on Ben-na Mac-Dui on the 

 4th of August, and some days after a brood was observed on Lochnagar, but these 

 are only exceptions, and no rule for the general breeding of the species in the 

 north of Scotland. The white hare is the lepus variabilis, a northern species, but 

 very common in the higher parts of the highlands of Scotland ; in summer the fur 

 is of a bluish grey, and in some districts they are called "blue hares." It differs 

 in habits from the common hare by making its retreat among rocks or large loose 

 stones. The eagle owl is now admitted into most works on British ornithology, 

 but its right to stand as a British species depends only on a few instances of its 

 capture, and on ouo or two records of its appearance. 



SNOW-FLECK. 



