Birds. 6929 



the males of which have now the indications of the deep chesnut crown 

 which becomes fully developed in spring, and which seems evidently 

 the one you have identified as Sylvicola aestiva. T saw them very 

 rarely on the tertiary limestone, but in Vere, where there are many 

 barren dry tracts similar to this, they were common. I left it in Vere 

 in April, and found it here again in October. It is a very lowly 

 species in habit, hopping constantly on the shingle itself. 



" It is chiefly, however, when the gusty winds called ' norths,' on 

 the south-side cold and dry, but which here bring up heavy rains 

 often of several days' continuance, speedily convert these streams 

 into powerful torrents, turbid with washings from the shale and laden 

 with the pebbles of the conglomerate, that the birds which then 

 suddenly make their appearance become particularly interesting. 

 The river subsides, from the great breadth of soil it has covered as it 

 approaches the coast, almost as quickly as it rose. Little pools are 

 left in the shingles, and in these are impi-isoned one or two species of 

 Crustacea which crawl and hide amid the pebbles of black trap, 

 porphyry, dark blue limestone, green serpentine, red syenite and 

 granites of different grays, of which it is composed. Shoals of little 

 fish glance and glide or dash round their narrow bounds, rippling the 

 surface in their alarm. Though supplied by rains and dews these 

 speedily dry up, but the retreating river still leaves more, and thus 

 very considerable numbers of these little creatures are exposed to a 

 lingering death, unless means were provided for their more speedy 

 and less painful destruction. These pools, only six inches or less 

 in depth, do not seem suited to the kingfisher {Ceryle Alcyon) which 

 abounds on the Wag Water. I never saw them fishing but in much 

 deeper water, which the force of the plunge evidently requires, that 

 the bird should not injure itself. The Scolopacidae and Cliaradriadae 

 appear only to run through them and search for prey much more 

 minute. But to the beautiful group of Ardeadae, which then appear 

 in numbers, they seem exactly suited ; as soon as the ' norths ' set in 

 they come. As the rivers rise and then recede, they may be seen in 

 numbers scattered along the banks. If, as this year, the rains 

 speedily cease, not one will be found where a dozen might have been 

 counted before ; they disappear entirely. The largest of the group 

 is the great heron [Ardea Herodias), which, however, though it 

 increases in numbers during the rains, seems a permanent resident, at 

 any raie during the months I have been here. 



" I had before only seen it flying out at sea at some distance, 

 or over some impenetrable morass of great extent. But here they 



XVIII. T 



