318 



SUNDRIES. 



white iris until it is two years old, which has caused it to have been 

 entirely overlooked by writers ; indeed the birds of that age are altoge- 

 ther much handsomer than those of the preceding summer ; in some 

 individuals of this species the iris is of the purest white : the breast of 

 the cock whitethroat, also, does not acquire its full roseate tinge until 

 the second summer. 



The different species of Ficedida are all, together with the aquatic 

 warbler and the spotted grey flycatcher, very commonly confounded 

 together under the one name ' c whitethroat." Some of the more discern- 

 ing, however, among the peasantry, distinguish the different species by 

 the names of billy whitethroat, for the garden warbler, peggy whitethroat 

 for the common whitethroat, little grey whitethroat, for the babillard, 

 &c, the latter bird (and not the whitethroat, as is said in books,) is very 

 commonly known by the name of nettle creeper. The garden warbler I 

 have also heard calledjuggler and nightingale's mate ; and the few persons 

 who know the furze warbler call it, some by the name of furze wren, 

 and others by the term rattlesnake-bird ; though the latter evidently 

 confound it with the grasshopper -warbler, one of the aquatic species, 

 which also haunts commons, but which I have never noticed in the same 

 situation with the furze warbler. I have preferred terming the Ficedula 

 Hortensis, garden warbler, rather than fauvette ; the common fauvette 

 (la fauvette proprement diie of Cuvier) referring to the Ficedula Orphea 

 (Sylvia Orphea, Temminck) of southern Europe, from which the 

 garden warbler is distinguished by the term la petite fauvette. It is as 

 well always to prevent, as much as possible, the confusion of names, 

 which has already much obscured the natural history of many species. 



Tooting, June2\, 1833. 



SUNDRIES. 



BY BURICOLA. 



Several nests in my grounds having been robbed at different times, 

 and some disappointment having been thus occasioned to members of 

 my family, who were looking forward to the young birds making their 

 appearance in due time, inquiry was made after the depredators, who 

 were supposed to be idle boys or birdcatchers in the neighbourhood. 

 One case in particular occurred of the plunder of a redpole's nest, 

 which was known to contain four eggs, on which the female was sitting, 

 about noon of a particular day, (May 14,) but was found to be quite 



