SELBORNE, _Nov. 9th_, 1773.
Dear Sir,--As you desire me to send you such observations as may occur, I
take the liberty of making the following remarks, that you may, according
as you think me right or wrong, admit or reject what I here advance, in
your intended new edition of the "British Zoology."
The osprey was shot about a year ago at Frinsham Pond, a great lake, at
about six miles from hence, while it was sitting on the handle of a
plough and devouring a fish: it used to precipitate itself into the
water, and so take its prey by surprise.
A great ash-coloured butcher-bird was shot last winter in Tisted Park,
and a red-backed butcher-bird [shrike] at Selborne: they are _rarae aves_
in this county.
Crows go in pairs all the year round.
Cornish choughs abound, and breed on Beachy Head, and on all the cliffs
of the Sussex coast.
The common wild pigeon, or stock-dove, is a bird of passage in the south
of England, seldom appearing till towards the end of November; is usually
the latest winter-bird of passage. Before our beechen woods were so much
destroyed we had myriads of them, reaching in strings for a mile together
as they went out in a morning to feed. They leave us early in spring:
where do they breed?
The people of Hampshire and Sussex call the missel-bird the storm-cock,
because it sings early in the spring in blowing, showery weather; its
song often commences with the year: with us it builds much in orchards.
A gentleman assures me he has taken the nests of ring-ousels on Dartmoor:
they build in banks on the sides of streams.
Titlarks not only sing sweetly as they sit on trees, but also as they
play and toy about on the wing, and particularly while they are
descending, and sometimes they stand on the ground.
Adanson's testimony seems to me to be a very poor evidence that European
swallows migrate during our winter to Senegal: he does not talk at all
like an ornithologist; and probably saw only the swallows of that
country, which I know build within Governor O'Hara's hall against the
roof. Had he known European swallows, would he not have mentioned the
species?
The house-swallow washes by dropping into the water as it flies: this
species appears commonly about a week before the house-martin, and about
ten or twelve days before the swift.
In 1772 there were young house-martins in their nest till October 23rd.
The swift appears about ten or twelve days later than the house-swallow:
viz., about the 24th or 26th April.
Whin-chats and stone-chatters stay with us the whole year.
Some wheat-ears continue with us the winter through.
Wag-tails, all sorts, remain with us all the winter. Bullfinches, 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 I should rather have 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 cannot say; but this I know, that when this noise happens,
the bird is always descending, and his wings are violently 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
fluttering and unable to rise, in a lane a few miles from Alresford,
where there is a great lake: it was kept awhile, but died.
I saw young teals taken alive in the ponds of Wolmer Forest in the
beginning of July last, along with 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 swallow 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.
Of the sedge-bird, be pleased to say it sings most part of the night; its
notes are hurrying, but not unpleasing, and imitative of several birds;
as the sparrow, swallow, skylark. When it happens to be silent in the
night, by throwing a stone or clod into the bushes where it sits you
immediately set it a-singing; or, in other words, though it slumbers
sometimes, yet as soon as it is awakened it reassumes its song.