122 
Natural history 
House sparrows build under eaves in the spring ; as tlie 
weather becomes hotter they get out for coolness, and nest 
in plum-trees and apple-trees. These birds have been 
known sometimes to build in rooks^ nests, and sometimes 
in the forks of boughs under rooks' nests. 
As my neighbour was housing a rick he observed that 
his dogs devoured all the little red mice that they could 
catch, but rejected the common mice ; and that his cats ate 
the common mice, refusing the red. 
Redbreasts sing all through the spring, summer, and 
autumn. The reason that they are called autumn songsters 
is, because in the two first seasons their voices are drowned 
and lost in the general chorus; in the latter their song 
becomes distinguishable. Many songsters of the autumn 
seem to be the young cock redbreasts of that year; notwith- 
standing the prejudices in their favour, they do much mis- 
chief in gardens to the summer fraits.^ 
The titmouse which early in February begins to make 
two quaint notes, like the whetting of a saw, is the marsh 
titmouse ; the great titmouse sings with three cheerful 
joyous notes, and begins about the same time. 
Wrens sing all the winter through, frost excepted. 
House martins came remarkably late this year both in 
Hampshire and Devonshire ; is this circumstance for or 
against either hiding or migration ? 
Most birds drink sipping at intervals ; but pigeons take 
a long continued draught, like quadrupeds. 
Notwithstanding what I have said in a former letter, no 
grey crows were ever known to breed on Dartmoor ; it was 
my mistake. 
The appearance and flying of the Scarahcens soJstitiah's, 
^ Thej eat also the berries of the ivy, the honeysuckle, and the 
Euonymus europceus, or spindle-tree. — G. W. 
The Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert observed a robin feed its young en- 
tirely upon red currants. He thought they did not eat any other fruit, 
but were troublesome in the hothouse. In one year they devoured 
every seed of Hcemanthus multiflorus and Griffinia hyacinthina just as 
they were ripening ; and it was very difficult to save the berries of any 
Daphne from them. Mr. Rennie found that a redbreast which he had 
in a cage greedily devoured the berries of Solanum dulcamara^ but 
would not touch those of privet. — Ed. 
