MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 103 
Some wheat-ears continue with us the winter through. 
Wagtails, all sorts, remain with us all the winter.* 
Bulfinches, when fed on hempseed, often become wholly 
black. 
We have vast flocks of female chaffinches all the winter, with 
hardly any males among them. 
When you say that in breeding time the cock-snipes make a 
bleating noise, and I a drumming (perhaps- 1 should have rather 
said a humming), I suspect we mean the same thing. However, 
while they are playing about on the wing they certainly make a 
loud piping with their mouths : but whether that bleating or 
humming is ventriloquous, or proceeds from the motion of 
their wings, I sannot say ; but this I know, that when this noise 
happens the bird is always descending, and his v/ings are violentl / 
agitated. 
Soon after the lapwings have done breeding they congregate,* 
and, leaving the moors and marshes, 
betake themselves to downs and sheep- 
walks. 
Two years ago last spring the little 
auk was found alive and unhurt, but 
fiuttering and unable to rise, in a lane 
a fev/ miles from Alresford, where 
there is a great lake: it was kept 
awhile, but died. Crested Lapwing. 
I saw young teals taken alive in the ponds of Wolmer-forest 
in the beginning of July last, along v/ith flappers, or young wild- 
ducks. 
Speaking of the swift, that page says " its drink the dew 
whereas it should be, " it drinks on the wing for all the swal- 
low kind sip their water as they sweep over the face of pools or 
rivers: like Virgil's bees, they drink flying; "flumina summa 
libant/' In this method of drinking perhaps this genus may be 
peculiar. 
sides, every out-door observer must have noticed their comparative paucity in early spring, when 
a fine day calls forth all the birds to the tops of the bushes, and their sudden appearance in much 
greater numbers about the middle of April, a little before the arrival of their congener, which is 
acknowledged to be migratory. Neither of these birds have much natural song, but in confine- 
ment they evince considerable powers of imitation, as is the case also v.ith the redstart, which is 
somewhat allied to them. All are, however, excessive!}' tender in captivity'. — Ed. 
* From this it seems probable that the author had observed the field-wagtail during the winter 
months, which is contrary to its usual habits, as noticed at page 3/. Since that was written I 
have learned that the blue-headed field-wagtail {motacilla-budytes neglccta) has been several times 
observed in Scotland.— En. 
