146 



Birds. 



I cannot decidedly say whether they were the common or the sand- 

 martin, as I had only a minute or two to observe them in, and they 

 were flying high and the sky was bright. I could only see their figure, 

 and not colour at all. I know they were not swallows, and had I seen 

 them late in the season, should have called them common martins at 

 once, as I do not remember ever to have seen a sand-martin since I 

 have been here. They were not travelling, but sporting about back- 

 wards and forwards, and I believe them to have been the common 

 martin. I never saw one of the tribe so early before by nearly three 

 weeks, although T once had the luck, some twenty years ago, to kill a 

 house martin, whilst snipe-shooting in the osier-beds at Wandsworth, 

 on the 13th of November. Are you aware that there are no wrynecks 

 in these parts ? I have been here four springs, and never yet heard 

 one, I must say to my sorrow, for to my ears there is something very 

 pleasant and spring-like in their note, ugly as it really is. — fV. Wilcox; 

 Bideford, Devon, March 18, 1843.* 



Note on the Sand-martin, Many a field-naturalist, reading the vo- 

 lume of nature, far removed from the society and converse of kindred 

 spirits, will hail the appearance of * The Zoologist ' with feelings of 

 the liveliest satisfaction : such, at least, are my own emotions, and in 

 gi'atitude for the services it has rendered to naturalists and to the pub- 

 lic at lai'ge, I beg to offer a few contributions to its pages. The first 

 shall be a note on the sand-martin or bank swallow. Mr. White, of 

 Selborne, mentions the solitary habits of this swallow, and in this his 

 accuracy has been impugned, by at least two of his commentators. I 

 have no reverence for names, no regard for writings that do not bear 

 the impress of originality — that will not stand the test of truth. In 

 the latter quality there can be no medium. What is * The Natural 

 History of Selborne ' but the faithful record of a good man's life, — of 

 a gifted, well-regulated mind, untainted by ambition, which never 

 wished to ramble far from his native village ? He never sought to 

 rise to general laws ; he wrote to support no system ; he is, what he 

 ever wished to be, the faithful faunist of his own province. His work 

 will descend to future generations. Some, by overlooking the spirit 

 — the letter of his work, have done him a passing injury, and thereby 

 exposed themselves to ridicule. Did they ever tread the classic 

 shades of Selborne ? Did they question gi'ey -haired men, who, per- 

 haps searched the south-east end of the Hanger, on the 11th of April, 

 1781, for torpid swallows, how and where the sand-martin nestled in 



* Communicated by William Wilson Saunders, Esq., of East Hill, Wandsworth. 



