NATURAL HISTOEY OF SELBORNE. 
61 
And liere, I tliink, will be the proper place to mention that those 
birds were most punctual again in their migration this autumn, 
appearing, as before, about the 30th of September ; but their flocks 
were larger than common, and their stay protracted somewhat beyond 
the usual time. If they came to spend the w^hole v/inter with us, as 
some of their congeners do, and then left us, as they do, in spring, 
I should not be so much struck with the occurrence, since it would be 
similar to that of the other winter birds of passage ; but when I see 
them for a fortnight at Michaelmas, and again for about a week in the 
middle of April, I am seized with wonder, and long to be informed 
whence these travellers come, and whither they go, since they seem to 
use our hills merely as an inn or baiting place. 
Your account of the greater brambling, or snow-fleck, is very amusing ; 
and strange it is that such a short-winged bird should delight in such 
perilous voyages over the northern ocean ! Some country people in the 
winter time have 
every now and then 
told me that they 
have seen two or 
three white larks on 
our downs; but, on 
considering the mat- 
ter, I begin to suspect 
that these are some 
stragglers of the 
birds we are talking 
of, which sometimes 
perhaps may rove so 
far to the southward. 
It pleases me to 
find that white hares 
are so frequent on 
the Scottish moun- 
tains, and especially as you inform me that it is a distinct species; 
stances of the fieldfare breeding have occurred, and that nests have been found in 
the southern counties. We have never known an authentic instance in Scotland, and 
we have received many letters upon the subject which invariably turned out that 
the supposed fieldfare was the missel-thrush. They often remain very late, until 
the middle of May, according to the season, and may sometimes be seen after 
some of the summer visitants have arrived. We should not consider it at all 
remarkable that the breeding of some solitary pairs should be authentically 
recorded. In the northern countries where it breeds, it is naturally a late incubator. 
The "snow-fieck" (plectrophanes nivalis) is not a short winged bird, and the first 
quill is the longest, which is the formation generally seen in birds of powerful or 
lengthened flight. This bird may occasionally remain and breed in Scotland. 
Professor Macgillivray and Dr. Greville observed a male on Ben-na Mae-Dui on the 
4th of August, and some days after a brood was observed on Lochnagar, but these 
are only exceptions, and no rule for the general breeding of the species in the 
north of Scotland. The white hare is the lepus variabilis, a northern species, but 
very common in the higher parts of the highlands of Scotland ; in summer the fur 
is of a bluish grey, and in some districts they are called " blue hares." It differs 
in habits from the common hare by making its retreat among rocks or large loose 
stones. The eagle owl is now admitted into most works on British ornithology, 
but its right to stand as a British species depends only on a few instances of its 
capture, and on one or two records of its appearance. 
