38 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



persecuted by idle boys, who would never let them be at 

 rest. 



Three gross-beaks (loxia coccothraustes) appeared some 

 years ago in my fields, in the winter ; one of which I 

 shot : since that, now and then one is occasionally seen 

 in the same dead season. 



A cross-bill (loxia curvirostra) was killed last year in 

 this neighbourhood. 



Our streams, which are small, and rise only at the end 

 of the village, yield nothing but the bull's head or miller's 

 thumb (gobius fluviatilis capilatus), the trout {Irutta 

 fluviaiilis), the eel (anguilla), the lampern (lampsetra 

 parva et fluviaiilis), and the stickle-back (pisciculus 

 aculeaius). 



We are twenty miles from the sea, and almost as many 

 from a great river, and therefore see but little of sea-birds. 

 As to wild fowls, we have a few teams of ducks bred in 

 the moors where the snipes breed ; and multitudes of 

 widgeons and teals in hard weather frequent our lakes in 

 the forest. 



Having some acquaintance with a tame brown owl, I 

 find that it casts up the fur of mice, and the^feathers of 

 birds in pellets, after the manner of hawks : when full, 

 like a dog, it hides what it cannot eat. 



The young of the barn-owl are not easily raised, as 

 they want a constant supply of fresh mice : whereas the 

 young of the brown owl will eat indiscriminately all that 

 is brought ; snails, rats, kittens, puppies, magpies, and 

 any kind of carrion or olTal. 



The house-martins have eggs still, and squab-young. 

 The last swift I observed was about the twenty-first of 

 August ; it was a straggler. 



Red-starts, fly-catchers, white-throats, and reguli non 

 crisiaii, still appear ; but I have seen no black-caps lately. 



I forgot to mention that I once saw, in Christ Church 



