GO NATURAL HISTORY 
Whitetliroat, Motacilla sylvia : 
Middle willow wren, Motacilla ti^ochilus : 
Swift, Hirundo apus : 
Stone Curlew ? Charadrius cedicnemus '! 
Turtle-dove? Turtur Aldrovandi? 
Grasshopper lark, Alauda trivialis : 
Landrail, Rallus crex : 
Largest willow wren, Motacilla trochilus: 
Redstart, Motacilla phoenicurus : 
Goatsucker or Fern-owl, Caprimulgus europceus: 
Flycatcher, Muscicapa grisola. 
My countrymen talk mucli of a bird that makes a clatter 
with his bill against a dead bough, or some old pales, calling 
it ajar-bird. I procured one to be shot in the very fact; 
it proved to be the 8itta europcea (the nuthatch) . Mr. Ray 
says that the less spotted woodpecker does the same. This 
noise may be heard a furlong or more. 
]N"ow is the only time to ascertain the short-winged sum- 
mer 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 play 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 
titmouse, with its back downwards. 
^ The " humming " of the snipe has already been adverted to in Letter 
X., and will be found again noticed in Letter XXXIX. See foot-note 
antea, p. 35. In addition to the authorities there quoted, the reader 
may be referred on this subject to Stevenson's " Birds of Norfolk," 
vol. ii. p. 316, and Saxby's " Birds of Shetland," p. 204. The last- 
named author remarks : " The many years' intimate acquaintance with 
the bird and its habits which I have enjoyed, confirms me in the now 
generally received opinion that the 'drumming' is produced by the 
vibration of the wings alone." — Ed. 
