LETTER XXXVIII.

10 THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE.

SELBORNE, March 15, 1773.

Y my journal for last autumu it appears that the house martins bred very late, and stayed very late in these parts; for on the 1st of October, I saw young martins in their nest nearly fledged; and again, on the 21st of October, we had, at the next house, a nest full of young martins just ready to fly; and the old ones were hawking for insects with great alertness. The next morning the brood forsook their nest, and were flying round the village. From this day I never saw one of the swallow kind till November the 3rd; when twenty, or perhaps thirty, house martins were playing all day long by the side of the hanging wood, and over my fields. Did these small weak birds, some of which were nestlings twelve days ago, shift their quarters at this late season of the year to the other side of the northern tropic? Or rather, is it not more probable that the next church, ruin, chalk cliff, steep covert, or perhaps sandbank, lake or pool (as a more. northern naturalist would say), may become their hybernaculum, and afford them a ready and obvious retreat?

We now begin to expect our vernal migration of ringousels every week. Persons worthy of credit assure me that ring-ousels were seen at Christmas, 1770, in the forest of Bere, on the southern verge of this country. Hence wo may conclude that their migrations are only internal, and not extended to the continent southward, if they do at first come at all from the northern parts of this island only, and not from the north of Europe. Come from whence they will, it is plain, from the fearless disregard that they show for men or guns, that they have been little accustomed to places of much resort. Navigators mention, that, in tho Isle of Ascension, and other such desolate districts, birds

are so little acquainted with the human form that they settle on men's shoulders, and have no more dread of a sailor than they would have of a goat that was grazing. A young man at Lewes, in Sussex, assured me that about seven years ago ring-ousels abounded so about that town in the autumn, that he killed sixteen himself in one afternoon: he added further, that some had appeared since in every autumn; but he could not find that any had been observed before the season in which he shot so many. I myself have found these birds in little parties in the autumn cantoned all along the Sussex downs, wherever there were shrubs and bushes, from Chichester to Lewes; particularly in the autumn of 1770.

LETTER XXXIX.

TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE.

S

SELBORNE, Nov. 9, 1773.

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 at Selborne: they are raræ aves in this county.?

1 This was the third edition, which subsequently appeared in 1776, and contained many of the notes forwarded by Gilbert White in this and the succeeding letter.-ED.

2 Another butcher bird, or shrike, of which mention has been made

Crows go in pairs the whole year round.

Cornish choughs abound, and breed on Beachy Head and on all the cliffs of the Sussex coast.1

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? 2

2

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 ringousels on Dartmoor. They build in banks on the sides of streams.

Titlarks3 not only sing sweetly as they sit on trees, but

on p. 86, has also occurred at Selborne. Amongst the extracts from White's MS. diary published by Mr. Jesse ("Gleanings in Natural History," 2nd series, p. 161), is the following, under date May 22nd: "Farmer Hoare's son shot a hen Wood-chat, or small butcher-bird, as it was washing at Wellhead, attended by the cock. It is a rare bird in these parts. In its craw were insects."-ED.

1 The chough, unfortunately, is no longer to be found on the Sussex coast. Mr. A. E. Knox in his delightful" Ornithological Rambles in Sussex," (1st ed. p. 210,) thus refers to it in 1849:--" Late writers on British ornithology speak of this bird as a denizen of the cliffs of Beachy Head. I regret to say that it is to be found there no longer. This was certainly its last stronghold, but it disappeared from the coast

about twenty years ago. I have frequently examined the entire line of cliffs between Brighton and Eastbourne, but could never-even with the assistance of a spy-glass-discover one, or procure a recent specimen in any part of Sussex." In 1865 the writer found choughs breeding in the limestone cliffs of the Dorsetshire coast, not far from Lulworth, and procured the eggs from two nests there in May of that year. The old birds were frequently seen, and scrupulously left unmolested. (Cf. "The Zoologist," 1865, p. 9668.) The following summer the writer was informed that they were still in their old quarters.-ED.

2 See Letter XLIV. to Pennant, and the notes thereon.-ED. 3 Gilbert White here applies the name titlark to the tree pipit, although elsewhere he thus designates the meadow pipit.-ED.

also as they play and toy about on the wing; and particularly while they are descending, and sometimes as 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 the 23rd.

The swift appears about ten or twelve days later than the house swallow, viz., about the 24th or 26th of April. Whinchats and stonechats stay with us the whole year.1 Some wheatears continue with us the winter through. Wagtails, all sorts, remain with us all the winter. Bullfinches, when fed on hempseed, often become wholly black.3

4

We have vast flocks of female chaffinches all the winter, with hardly any males among them.

1 We know of no instance in which the whinchat has been found here in winter, although the stonechat occasionally passes that season with us. It is possible that female stonechats may have been mistaken for whinchats, and may thus have given occasion to the above remark.-ED.

2 The pied wagtail, Motacilla Yarrellii, and the grey wagtail, M. boarula. As to the latter, which White elsewhere calls the yellow wagtail, see p. 47, note 4.-ED.

* Bullfinches are not the only birds which have been observed to turn black from feeding on hempseed, nor is hempseed the only seed which conduces to such a change of colour. Larks have been known to become black after being fed for some time on hempseed; and the late Mr. Blyth informed us that he had seen one of the little Amandavat finches which had become black, though fed entirely on canary seed.-ED.

"British Zoology," vol. ii. p. 306. See also Letter XIII. to Pennant, p. 46.-ED.

When you say that in breeding time the cock snipes make a bleating noise, and I a drumming (perhaps I 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 cannot say; but this I know, that when this noise happens, the bird is always descending, and his wings are violently agitated.2

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

1 "British Zoology," vol. ii. p. 358.

2 Reference has already been made to this curious sound, and to the mode in which it is supposed to be produced. See antea, p. 35, note 4.

The Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert, in a note to the above passage, has the following pertinent remarks:-"I have observed the drumming of snipes in bright days at the beginning of April, and I could very clearly discern the manner in which the sound is produced. After rising high, and crying peet, peet, peet, which is the snipe's vernal note, it lets itself drop obliquely through the air, keeping the wings motionless, but turning by some muscular contraction each individual quill sideways in the same manner that the bars of a Venetian blind are turned to admit more light, and having descended to the customary point, it readjusts its feathers, and rises again obliquely without sound. They will continue for hours together amusing themselves in this manner upon a mild day, and when they are in this mood, the sportsman has very little chance of getting near them. The cushat has a sportive movement a little similar, in the summer time, in the narrow wooded valleys amongst the hills; it is less observed in flat countries. It descends obliquely without any motion of the wings, and when it has dived to the usual point of descent, flaps its wings with a loud noise, and towers again obliquely to the other side of the valley."

The rook, the peewit, and the black-headed gull all produce at times a loud humming sound with the wings.-ED.

3 Although the little auk is a sea-bird, many instances have been recorded of its having been found inland during or after stormy weather.-ED.