144 
THE NATURAL HISTORY 
[LETT. 
Crows go in pairs the whole year round. 
Cornish choughs abound, and breed on Beachy Head and on 
all the cliffs of the Sussex coast. 
The common wild pigeon, or stock-dove, is a bird of passage 
in the south of England, seldom appearing till towards the end 
of November ; and is usually the latest wdnter-bird of passage. 
Before our beechen w^oods were so much destroyed, we had 
myriads of them, reaching in strings for a mile together as they 
went out in a morning to feed. They leave us early in spring ; 
where do they breed ? 
The people of Hampshire and Sussex call the missel-bird 
the storm-cock, because it sings early in the spring in blowing 
showery weather ; its song often connnences with the year : 
with us it builds much in orchards. 
A gentleman assures me he has taken the nests of ring-ousels 
on Dartmoor ; they build in banks on the sides of streams. 
Titlarks not only sing sweetly as they sit on trees, but also 
as they play and toy about on the wing ; and particularly 
while they are descending, and sometimes as they stand on 
the ground. 
Adanson's testimony seems to me to be a very poor evi- 
dence that European swallows migrate during our winter to 
Senegal : he does not talk at all like an ornithologist ; and 
probably saw only the swallows of that country, which I know 
build within Governor O'Hara's hall against the roof. Had 
he known European swallows, would he not have men- 
tioned the species? 
The house-swallow washes by dropping into the water as it 
flies : this species appears commonly about a week before the 
house-martin, and about ten or twelve days before the swift. 
In 1772 there were young house-martins in their nest till 
the 23rd of October. 
The swift appears about ten or twelve days later than 
the house-swallow : viz. about the 24th or the 26th of 
April. 
Whin-chats and stone-chatters stay with us the whole year. 
Some wheat-ears continue with us the winter through. 
Wagtails of all sorts remain with us all the winter. 
