254 MEADE I GOSSIP ON NATURAL HISTORY. 



the seasons are earlier than in Yorkshire. These birds (Starlings) 

 certainly appear annually in the same places at about the same time. 

 Thev are commonly called Shepsters in Bradford, and I remember an 

 old clergyman, who had never heard this name, being in the vestry of 

 his church one Sunday morning in early spring just before service, 

 when his clerk or factotum came up to him and said, * Please, sir, 

 the Shepsters have come/ My friend was rather in haste, so he 

 answered sharply, ' Shew them into a pew ; shew them into a pew/ 



One of the first of the true migrants to appear in this neighbour- 

 hood is the Wheatear or Whiterump (Saxicola ananthe). It usually 

 arrives about the middle of March and builds in the loose stone 

 walls by which the fields are divided. For several years in succession 

 I noticed this bird about the same time in the same place, viz., in 

 the corner of a field at Shearbridge, close to Bradford, where 

 a manure-heap was placed. I suspect that it was feeding upon the 

 minute dung flies (Borborus equinus\ which are about the earliest 

 insects that appear in the spring. 



The singing of birds does not become general before the 



beginning or middle of May, though some commence much earlier. 

 One of the first to be heard is the Missel Thrush or Stormcock 

 (Tardus visavorus), which often begins to sing at the end of January 

 or beginning of February ; and may sometimes be heard while it is 

 blowing and raining, whence the derivation of one of its names; 

 the other name was given from its fondness for the berries of the 

 mistletoe. It was formerly believed that this plant was only pro- 

 pagated by those seeds which had passed through the digestive 

 organs of this bird, whence arose the old proverb, 'Turdus malum 

 sibi cacat/ The Song Thrush (Turdus musicas) and the Skylark 

 (Alauda arvensis) also begin to sing very early in the year. 



When the number of singing birds becomes great, it requires 

 a musical ear and a special training to know* their notes from each 

 other. It is very interesting to sit and listen to them in a sylvan 

 spot The late Sir Richard Owen told me that when he first went 

 to live in Richmond Park, at Sheen Cottage (which the Queen 

 gave him for his life), he sometimes in fine weather in early summer 

 got up as soon as it was light and sat for an hour or two in the 

 garden to listen to the birds, which would begin to sing one by one 

 until the full concert was reached. He was very musical, and took 

 great interest in their various notes. 



Some interesting observations have been made respecting the 

 time when different birds begin to sing on a summer's morning. 

 The following is a list of those whose notes reached the ear of 

 a listener in June; 



Naturalist, 



