OF SELBORNE 53 



My countrymen talk much of a bird that makes a 

 clatter with its bill against a dead bough, or some old 

 pales, calling it a jar-bird. I procured one to be shot in 

 the very act ; it proved to be the sitta europxa (the nut- 

 hatch). 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 

 summer 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. 



This morning I saw the golden-crowned wren, whose 

 crown glitters like burnished gold. It often hangs like 

 a titmouse, with its back downwards. 



Yours, etc., etc. 



LETTER XVII 



Selborne, June 18, 1768. 

 Dear Sir, 



On Wednesday last arrived your agreeable letter of 

 June the 10th. It gives me great satisfaction to find that 

 you pursue these studies still with such vigour, and are 

 in such forwardness with regard to reptiles and fishes. 



The reptiles, few as they are, I am not acquainted 

 with, so well as I could wish, with regard to their 

 natural history. There is a degree of dubiousness and 

 obscurity attending the propagation of this class of 

 animals, sometimes analogous to that of the cryptogamia 



