324 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Parus major and P. ceruleus.—Very common throughout the 
year. ‘The latter is particularly fond of the unripe seeds of the 
Papaver album, picking holes in the capsule for that purpose. 
P. ater, palustris, and caudatus.—More rare than formerly, 
but each species breed here. The latter congregate in autumn in 
flocks of between forty and fifty in a tree. 
P. biarmicus.—Frequent on the banks of the Kennet between 
Reading and Newbury, feeding on the small Testacee. They 
undoubtedly breed about Newbury, but I have never been able to 
discover the nest. 
Hirundo rustica and H,. wrbica.—Always appear earlier with 
us in very stormy springs. 
H. riparia.—Breeds in the sand-banks, Reading; much more 
rare about Newbury. 
H. apus.—In the spring of 1794 I observed them on the 
22nd of April, the most early I ever knew. These birds are 
invariably troubled with hippobosce. I caught them in my garden 
in the summer of 1807 in the act of fighting. Their claws were 
so firmly locked with each other that I was under the necessity 
of calling assistance to extricate them, which was done with the 
sreatest difficulty. 
Caprimulgus europeus.—Very frequent about Reading and 
Newbury. The eggs of this bird, which are only two in the nest, 
have been badly described by authors, excepting Mr. Montagu, 
Orn. Dict. The one painted by Lewin in the Portlandian 
Collection, a faithful copy of which is now before me, is a most 
base representation. Having frequent opportunities of seeing the ~ 
eggs, we found them invariably obovate, an inch and a half in 
length, a white ground irregularly but beautifully variegated with 
light and dark brown, interspersed with occasional streaks of light 
blue. In those I have dissected I have chiefly found in the 
stomach large night moths. 
To Thos. Marsham, Esq. 
My dear friend, 
I have copied the enclosed from my ornithological — 
rade mecum, which I request the favour of you to peruse and 
correct its errors, and then to lay it before one of the Meetings of 
the Lin. Soc.; and if, after the perusal, the committee should 
consider it proper for publication in our Transactions, I shall 
