MISCELLANY. 
381 
eye-witness of its habits. The liberality of Mr. Hoy has also furnished me with 
the nests and several beautiful varieties of the eggs, from which the figures are 
drawn; each the representative of a different nest. The Ortolan Bunting 
begins to build early in May; it places its nest almost invariably in the corn, 
preferring Bye to other kinds; indeed it is partial to light sandy soils, where Rye 
is much cultivated. The nest is placed in some little hollow in the ground, 
in the manner of that of the Sky Lark; it is formed of dry grass and roots, 
thickly lined towards the interior with very fine roots; in some the inside is 
finished with a few hairs. The eggs are four or five, sometimes, though rarely, 
six in number. As will be seen by the plate, they resemble a good deal those of 
the Yellow and Blackheaded Buntings. Mr. Hoy adds, “ I have never found 
them breeding except amongst corn. The male is almost incessant in his mono¬ 
tonous song during the pairing season; it much resembles that of the Girl as 
well as the Reed Bunting.”— Hewitson’s British Oology^ May, 1837. 
Swallows issuing out of Geasmere Lake. —In one of the country papers I 
have lately seen an extract from the Kendal Mercury, detailing the circumstance 
of a person having observed several Swallows emerge from Grasmere Bake this 
spring. He describes them as making their appearance on the surface of the 
water in the form of hell-shaped bubbles” which, on bursting, each liberated a 
Swallow. The Editor says:—‘‘We give the fact well authenticated by the 
parties from whom we received it, in the hope that it may prove an acceptable 
addition to the data on which naturalists frame their hypotheses,” &c. &c. How 
. gratified would the author of the Natural History of Selborne have been to have 
seen such a statement! Really I thought this notion had been exploded long 
since. I had no idea of meeting with such a paragraph (except to point out the 
erroneous views of our old naturalists), stated with all the semblance of truth, at 
this enlightened period of general knowledge. In a calendar kept at Upsal in 1755, 
Alexander Mal Berger says :—“ Aug. 4, birds of passage, after having cele¬ 
brated their nuptials, now prepare for departing;” and then, “Sept. 17, Swallows 
go under water”!—J. D. Salmon, Thetford, Norfolk, July 11, 1837. 
Distinctions between the Coal and Marsh Tits. —The note of the Coal 
Tit (JParus ater) is che-che, che-che, &c., while, on the contrary, in the ditty of 
the Marsh Tit (Parus palustrisJ the stress is laid on the last syllable, thus :— 
che-chee, che-chee, che-chee, as far as it can be expressed in writing. The Coal 
Tit is much wilder than the other species, although it usually inhabits nearer 
the dwellings of man. Both these interesting little creatures sing more un¬ 
ceasingly immediately before and after the breeding season than during its con¬ 
tinuance, and we have frequently heard them sing in the midst of winter when 
the weather was mild. The Marsh Tit will sometimes almost sing and feed at 
one and the same time, seeming to find both occupations so agreeable that it is 
No. 13, Vol. IL 3 e 
