It is new to me that titlarks in cages sing in the 

 night ; perhaps only caged birds do so. I once knew 

 a tame redbreast in a cage that always sang as long 

 as candles were in the room ; but in their wild state 

 no one supposes they sing in the night. 



I should be almost ready to doubt the fact, that 

 there are to be seen much few^er birds in July than 

 in any former month, notwithstanding so many 

 young are hatched daily. Sure I am that it is far 

 otherwise with respect to the swallow tribes, which 

 increase prodigiously as the summer advances. I 

 saw, at the time mentioned, many hundreds of young 

 wagtails on the banks of the Cherwell, which almost 

 covered the meadows. If the matter appears as you 

 say in the other species, may it not be owing to the 

 dams being engaged in incubation, while the young 

 are concealed by the leaves ? 



Many times have I had the curiosity to open the 

 stomach of woodcocks and snipes ; but nothing ever 

 occurred that helped to explain to me what their 

 subsistence might be : all that I could ever find was 

 a soft mucus, among which lay many pellucid small 

 gravels. 



Selborne, y^;/. 15, 1770. 



120 



