Birds that cease to be in full song, and are usually silent at

or before midsummer :

17. Middle, willow-} Regulus non crista-Middle of June; begins

18. Redstart,

19. Chaffinch,

20. Nightingale.

Ruticilla.

Fringilla.

Luscinia.

in April. Ditto; begins in May. Beginning of June; sings first in February.

Middle of June; sings first in April.

Birds that sing for a short time, and very early in the

spring :

Birds that have somewhat of a note or song, and yet are hardly to be called singing birds :

RAII NOMINA.

23. Golden-crowned} Regulus cristatus.

wren,

Its note as minute as its person; frequents tops of high oaks and firs: the smallest British bird.

Although our author has ranked this species amongst our singing birds, much variety of opinion prevails, up to the present day, whether or not it is a bird of song. Several articles, however, which have recently appeared in the Magazine of Natural History, places this beyond a doubt. The following are the facts recorded:- One writer says, vol. iii. p. 193, "The note resembles that of the blackbird more than the common thrush, and is, I believe, generally mistaken for the former, but it is much louder, and less mellow, and free from that warbling nature so peculiar to the blackbird." Another correspondent, in Ayrshire, says, "It often happens that the woods resound, far and near, with its powerful melody, on a still day, or middle of winter, or early in the spring, when no other songster is heard." Mr J. D. Marshall, of Belfast, an authority which we highly respect, says, "This bird seems to have two kinds of song, one not unlike the notes of the blackbird, the other very sweet, though in a much lower tone, and more nearly resembling those of the common thrush. I have one which I reared from the nest; and, having been kept a year near a canary, it has, to a certain degree, acquired its song, as, in several notes, it has imitated it almost to perfection."

-ED.

24. Marsh titmouse, Parus palustris.

Haunts great woods; two harsh, sharp notes.

25. Small willow-Regulus non crista-Sings in March, and on

• tus.

Do.

Alauda minima

voce locusta.

Hirundo agrestis.
Pyrrhula.*

Emberiza alba.

to September.

Cantat voce stridula lo

custa; from end of April to August.

Chirps all night, from the middle of April to the end of July.

All the breeding time; from May to September.

From the end of January

to July.

All singing birds, and those that have any pretensions to song, not only in Britain, but perhaps the world through, come under the Linnæan ordo of passeres.

The above-mentioned birds, as they stand numerically,

belong to the following Linnæan genera :

Birds that sing as they fly are but few :

Both male and female bullfinches sing; their notes are not much varied, but possess a degree of simple wildness, which is delivered in a low, but pleasing strain. The call note is very audible, and greatly resembles the action of metallic substances against each other. In a domesticated state, these birds are capable of attaining various tunes in a high degree of perfection. We have heard them singing, with much exactness," Braw, braw lads o' Gala Water," and other melodies. In Germany, they are taught a variety of waltzes. Our friend, William Sharp, Esq. Cononsyth, near Montrose, has one of these foreign birds, which sings several difficult waltzes and airs in a beautiful manner.

-ED.

Birds that breed most early in these parts :—

All birds that continue in full song till after midsummer, appear to me to breed more than once.

Most kinds of birds seem to me to be wild and shy, somewhat in proportion to their bulk; I mean in this island, where they are much pursued and annoyed; but in Ascension Island, and many other desolate places, mariners have found fowls so unacquainted with a human figure, that they would stand still to be taken, as is the case with boobies, &c. As an example of what is advanced, I remark that the golden-crested wren, (the smallest British bird,) will stand unconcerned till you come within three or four yards of it, while the bustard, (otis,) the largest British land fowl, does not care to admit a person within so many furlongs.

LETTER XXVIII.

TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ.

SELBORNE, December 8, 1769.

DEAR SIR,-I was much gratified by your communicative letter on your return from Scotland, where you spent, I find, some

The missel-thrush occasionally sings on the wing. In Loudon's Magazine, we have the following statement by a correspondent:-" 1 have once in my life observed one to sing, whilst in the act of flying from one side of a field to the other;" and the Rev. W. T. Bree remarks, in the above, "On the 3d of March, 1831, I was an eye and ear witness of the fact of a missel-thrush singing-and singing in good style-on the wing, flying over the Lammas Fields, between the village of Allesley and Coventry." Ed.

considerable time, and gave yourself good room to examine the natural curiosities of that extensive kingdom, both those of the islands, as well as those of the Highlands. The usual bane of such expeditions is hurry, because men seldom allot themselves half the time they should do; but, fixing on a day for their return, post from place to place, rather as if they were on a journey that required despatch, than as philosophers investigating the works of nature. * You must have made, no doubt, many discoveries, and laid up a good fund of materials for a future edition of the British Zoology, and will have no reason to repent that you have bestowed so much pains on a part of Great Britain that perhaps was never so well examined before.

It has always been matter of wonder to me, that fieldfares, which are so congenerous to thrushes and blackbirds, should never choose to breed in England: but that they should not think even the Highlands cold and northerly, and sequestered enough, is a circumstance still more strange and wonderful.† The ringousel, you find, stays in Scotland the whole year round; so that we have reason to conclude that those migrators that visit us for a short space every autumn, do not come from thence.

And here, I think, 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

The justice of this remark will be appreciated by every person of reflection, when it is considered that the examination of the parish of Selborne was the principal business of the intelligent White for nearly a lifetime, although he paid but little attention to the insects and botany of the parish. We remember an account of the geology of the country betwixt Cork and Dublin having been read before a certain learned society, from observations made by a certain learned and Reverend Doctor, from the top of a mail coach! ED.

t In the Nat. Hist. Mag. v. p. 276, the following remarkable circumstance is narrated:-" Last week, (19th February, 1832,) as Mr Mitcalf, keeper to Lord Lowther, in Ravenstondale, was ranging the fields with his gun, he observed a hawk hovering near him; and while preparing to give it a shot, a fieldfare flew in terror against his breast, and then perched upon his shoulder. He fired at the hawk with the first barrel, (while the fieldfare sat still,) but missed; the hawk, intent upon his prey, disregarded that shot; with the second barrel he brought the bird down. The fieldfare left his shoulder, and fluttered for a short time around its fallen and dead enemy, uttering a chirp of joy, and then winged away from its friend and unexpected protector. There is something more than instinct in such a circumstance."-ED.

CHANGE OF COLOUR IN ANIMALS.

75

protracted somewhat beyond the usual time. If they came to spend the whole winter 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 matter, 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 mountains, and especially as you inform me that it is a distinct species; for the quadrupeds of Britain are so few, that every new species is a great acquisition.†

* See note, page 36. The snow-fleck, plectrophanes nivalis, has been separated from the genus emberiza by Myer, on account of the length of its wings greatly exceeding those of other birds, which now form this natural genus. Hence they are fitted for more extensive excursions.-ED.

This is the Alpine hare, lepus variabilis, of British naturalists. Its ears are shorter than the head, and black towards the tips; the rest of the body, dusky in summer, and white in winter. There appears to be a correlative connection in the distribution of colour in animals as regards temperature. In tropical regions, the colour of man and animals exhibits more variety and intensity than in northern latitudes. In temperate climates, animals, in general, suffer little change from the vicissitudes of the seasons, although, in many cases, winter and summer clothing is very different in some species. In Britain, the white hare is an instance, whose fur is tawny gray in summer, but changes, in September or October, to a snowy white. This remarkable transition takes place in the following manner:- About the middle of September, the gray feet begin to get white, and, before the end of the month, all the four feet are white, and the ears and muzzle are of a brighter colour. The white generally ascends the legs and thighs, and whitish spots are osberved under the gray hairs, which continue to increase till the end of October; but still the back remains of a gray colour, while the eyebrows and ears are nearly white. From this period, the change of colour advances very rapidly, and, by the middle of November, the whole fur, with the excep tion of the tips of the ears, which continue black, is of a shining white.