60 NATURAL HISTORY 



Whitethroat, Motacilla syhia : 



Middle willow wren, Motacilla trochilus: 



Swift, Hirundo apus : 



Stone Curlew ? Charadrius cedicnemus f 



Turtle-dove? Turtur Aldrovandi ? 



Grasshopper lark, Alauda trivialis: 



Landrail, Eallus crex : 



Largest willow wren, Motacilla trochilus : 



Redstart, Motacilla phcenicurus : 

 Goatsucker or Fern-owl, Caprimulgus europceus : 



Flycatcher, Muscicapa grisola. 



My countrymen talk much of a bird that makes a clatter 

 with his bill against a dead bough, or some old pales, calling 

 it a jar- bird. I procured one to be shot in the very fact; 

 it proved to be the Sitta europcea (the nuthatch) . Mr. Ray 

 says that the less spotted woodpecker does the same. This 

 noise may be heard a furlong or more. 



Now is the only time to ascertain the short-winged sum- 

 mer birds ; for, when the leaf is out, there is no making any 

 remarks on such a restless tribe ; and, when once the young 

 begin to appear, it is all confusion ; there is no distinction 

 of genus, species, or sex. 



In breeding time snipes play over the moors, piping and 

 humming ; they always hum as they are descending. Is not 

 their hum ventriloquous like that of the turkey ? Some 

 suspect it is made by their wings. 1 



This morning I saw the golden-crowned wren, whose 

 crown glitters like burnished gold. It often hangs, like a 

 titmouse, with its back downwards. 



1 The " humming " of the snipe has already been adverted to in Letter 

 X., and will be found again noticed in Letter XXXIX. See foot-note 

 antea, p. 35. In addition to the authorities there quoted, the reader 

 may be referred on this subject to Stevenson's " Birds of Norfolk," 

 vol. ii. p. 316, and Saxby's " Birds of Shetland," p. 204. The last- 

 named author remarks : " The many years' intimate acquaintance with 

 the bird and its habits which I have enjoyed, confirms me in the now 

 generally received opinion that the 'drumming' is produced by the 

 vibration of the wings alone." ED. 



