XVI.] 
OF SELBORNE. 
58 
pests in a oarden, destroying the peas, cherries, and currants, 
and are so tame that a gun will not scare them.^ 
My countrymen talk much of a bird that makes a clatter with 
its bill against a dead bough, or some old pales, calling it a jar- 
bird. 1 procured one to be shot in the very fact ; it proved to 
be the nuthatch, {Sitta Enropcva). Mr. liay says that the less 
spotted woodpecker does the same. This noise may be heard a 
furlong or more off. 
J^ow is the only time to ascertain the short-winged summer 
birds; for when the leaf is out there is no making any remarks on 
such a restless tribe : and when once the young begin to appear 
it is all confusion: there is no distinction of genus, species or sex. 
In breeding-time snipes piny over the moors, piping and 
humming: they always hum as they are descending. Is not 
their hum ventriloquous, like that of the turkey ? Some suspect 
it is made by their wings. 
This morning I saw the golden-crowned wren, whose crown 
glitters like burnished gold. It often hangs like a titniouse, 
with its back downwards. 
1 A list of the Summer Bmls of Passage discovered in lliis ueighbouihuud 
ranged somewhat in the order in which they appear :— 
Linnaei Nomina. 
Smallest willow- wren, 
Wryneck, 
House-swallow, 
Martin, 
Sand-martin, 
Cuckoo, 
Nightingale, 
Blackcap, 
Whitethroat, 
Middle willow-wren. 
Swift, 
Stone curlew, I 
Turtle-dove, I 
Grassliopperdark, 
Landrail , 
Largest willow- www , 
Redstart, 
(jroatsueker, or ^erll-l»^\■l. 
Fly-catclicr, 
Mo tacilla trochiius. 
Junx torquilla. 
Hirundo rustica. 
Chelidon urhica. 
Cot lie rvparia. 
Ciiculus canoruH. 
Lusinia philornda. 
Motacilla atricap illn. 
Motacilla sylvia. 
Motacilla trochilns. 
Hirvndi) iijins. 
Cliji fadriiis mil icitrm/i-^. 
Til liar aldnirandi. ■ 
Alauda tririalis. 
Rallus crrx. 
Motarlllo trnrh ilux. 
lint ic ilia phin t ic nra. 
Cdjiri iiiuliiu>^ /'Jiil'iijxr,!, 
M liscii-ajHi 1/ r Isold , 
Sf.lborxk, April IS, 1 7(is, 
