OF SELBORNE 85 



used to precipitate itself into the water, and so take its prey 

 by surprise. 



A great ash-coloured butcher-bird^ was shot last winter 

 in Tisted-park, and a red-backed butcher-bird at Selborne : 

 they are rarae aves in this country. 



Crows ^ go in pairs the whole year round. 



Cornish choughs' abound, and breed on Beachy-head 

 and on all the cliffs of the Sussex coast. 



The common wild pigeon,* or stock-dove, is a bird of 

 passage in the south of England, seldom appearing till 

 towards the end of November ; is usually the latest winter 

 bird of passage. Before our beechen woods were so much 

 destroyed we had myriads of them, reaching in strings for 

 a mile together as they went out in a morning to feed. 

 They leave us early in spring ; where do they breed .'' 



The people of Hampshire and Sussex call the missel-bird ° 

 the storm-cock, because it sings early in the spring in blow- 

 ing showery weather ; its song often commences with the 

 year : with us it builds much in orchards. 



A gentleman assures me that he has taken the nests of 

 ring-ousels* on Dartmoor : they build in banks on the sides 

 of streams. 



Titlarks' not only sing sweetly as they sit on trees, but 

 also as they play and toy about on the wing ; and particu- 

 larly while they are descending, and sometimes as they 

 stand on the ground. 



Adanson's* testimony seems to me to be a very poor 

 evidence that European swallows migrate during our winter 

 to Senegal : he does not talk at all like an ornithologist ; 

 and probably saw only the swallows of that country, which 

 I know build within Governor O'Hara's hall against the 

 roof. Had he known European swallows, would he not 

 have mentioned the species ? 



The house-swaUow washes by dropping into the water as 

 it flies : this species appears commonly about a week before 

 the house-martin, and about ten or twelve days before the 

 swift. 



1 British Zoology, vol. i. p. 161. *p. 167. »p. 19S. 



*p. 2 16. *p. 224. 'p. 229. '^VoL ii. p. 237. ^p. 242. 



