86 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



In 1772 there were young house-martins^ in their nest till 

 October the twenty-third. 



The swifts appears about ten or twelve days later than 

 the house-swallow : viz. about the twenty-fourth or twenty- 

 sixth of April. 



Whin-chats and stone-chatters^ stay with us the whole 

 year. 



Some wheat-ears* continue with us the winter through. 



Wagtails, all sorts, remain with us all the winter. 



Bulfinches,^ when fed on hempseed, often become wholly 

 black. 



We have vast flocks of female chaffinches* all the winter, 

 with hardly any males among them. 



When you say that in breeding time the cock-snipes' 

 make a bleating noise, and I a drumming (perhaps I should 

 have rather said an humming), I suspect we mean the same 

 thing. However, while they are playing about on the 

 wing they certainly make a loud piping with their mouths : 

 but whether that bleating or humming is ventriloquous, or 

 proceeds from the motion of their wings, I cannot say ; but 

 this I know, that when this noise happens the bird is always 

 descending, and his wings are violently agitated. 



Soon after the lapwings * have done breeding they con- 

 gregate, and, leaving the moors and marshes, betake them- 

 selves to downs and sheep-walks. 



Two years ago® last spring the little auk was found 

 alive and unhurt, but fluttering and unable to rise, in a lane 

 a few miles from Alresford, where there is a great lake : it 

 was kept awhile, but died. 



I saw young teals ^^ taken alive in the ponds of Wolmer- 

 forest in the beginning of July last, along with flappers, or 

 young wild ducks. 



Speaking of the swift, ^^ that page says "its drink the 

 dew" ; whereas it should be "it drinks on the wing" ; 

 for all the swallow kind sip their water as they sweep over 

 the face of pools or rivers : like Virgil's bees, they drink 



