OF SELBORNE. loi 
has the long feathers in it's tail that give it that forked (hape ; 
with this difference, that they are longer in the tail of the male 
than in that of the female. 
Nightingales, when their young firft come abroad, and are 
helplefs, make a plaintive and a jarring noife; and alfo a fnapping 
or cracking, purfuing people along the hedges as they walk : 
thefe laft founds feem intended for menace and defiance. 
The grafshopper-lark chirps all night in the height of fummer. 
Swans turn white the fecond year, and breed the third. 
Weafeb prey on moles, as appears by their being fometimes 
caught in mole-traps. 
Sparrow-hawks fometimes breed in old crows' nefts, and the 
keflril in churches and ruins. 
There are fuppofed to be two forts of eels in the ifland of Ely. 
The threads fometimes difcovered in eels are perhaps their young : 
the generation of eels is very dark and myfterious. 
Hen-harriers breed on the ground, and feem, never to fettle on 
trees. 
When redftarts fliake their tails they move them horizontally, 
as dogs do when they fawn : the tail of a wagtail, when in motion, 
bobs up and down like that of a jaded horfe. 
Hedge-fparrows have a remarkable flirt with their wings in 
breeding-time ; as foon as froffcy mornings come they make a very 
piping plaintive noiie. 
Many birds which become filent about Midfummer reaiTume 
their notes again in September', as the thrufli, blackbird, wood- 
lark, willow-wren, &c. ; hence Augujl is by much the moil mute 
month, the fpring, fummer, and autumn through. Are birds 
induced to fing again becaufe the temperament of autumn re- 
fembles that of fpring ? 
