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I perceive there are more than one species of the Motacilla trochilus: Mr. Derham supposes, in Ray's "Philosophical Letters," that he has discovered three.1 In these there is again an instance of some very common birds that have as yet no English name.

Mr. Stillingfleet makes a question whether the blackcap (Motacilla atricapilla) be a bird of passage or not; I think there is no doubt of it, for in April, in the first fine weather, they come trooping all at once into these parts, but are never seen in the winter.2 They are delicate songsters.3

Numbers of snipes breed every summer in some moory ground on the verge of this parish. It is very amusing to see the cock bird on wing at that time, and to hear his piping and humming notes.*

I have had no opportunity yet of procuring any of those

1 Three are now well recognized, namely—the willow wren, the wood wren, and the chiff-chaff.-ED.

2 It is now well known that the blackcap, as White surmised, migrates southwards at the approach of the cold weather, and spends the winter in Palestine, Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, and other parts of Africa, on the west coast, as well as on the east. Many even spend the winter in Italy, Greece, and some of the islands of the Mediterranean.-ED.

3 For a description of the song of the blackcap see the letter to Mr. Pennant, numbered XL. This description was copied by Pennant, in the third edition of his "British Zoology," vol. i. p. 375.-ED.

4 Amongst the many rural sounds which greet the ear of the vagrant naturalist in spring, none is more remarkable than that produced by the common snipe in pairing time. This peculiar sound, which is never heard except from a bird on the wing, has been variously termed "humming," "drumming," "neighing," and "bleating," according to the fancy of the auditor; and nothing has puzzled naturalists more, perhaps, than to discover how this noise is produced.

Among German ornithologists especially, this has been a favourite theme for discussion, and various have been the opinions expressed by eminent observers on the subject. Some, like Bechstein, have maintained that the sound is emitted through the bill; others, like Naumann, considered it to result from a vibratory movement of the wings; whilst the latest and most remarkable theory, that of Herr Meves, is that it is produced by the outer tail feather on each side as it is drawn rapidly through the air in the bird's descent. In an article on this subject, contributed to the Field, 27th April, 1872, we examined the various theories here referred to, and gave our reasons for believing that the view expressed by Naumann is probably the right one.-ED.

mice which I mentioned to you in town. The person that brought me the last says they are plenty in harvest, at which time I will take care to get more; and will endeavour to put the matter out of doubt, whether it be a nondescript species or not.

I suspect much there may be two species of water-rats. Ray says, and Linnæus after him, that the water-rat is webfooted behind. Now I have discovered a rat on the banks of our little stream that is not web-footed, and yet is an excellent swimmer and diver: it answers exactly to the Mus amphibius of Linnæus (see Syst. Nat.), which he says, "natat in fossis et urinatur." I should be glad to procure one "plantis palmatis." Linnæus seems to be in a puzzle about his Mus amphibius, and to doubt whether it differs from his Mus terrestris; which, if it be, as he allows, the "Mus agrestis capite grandi, brachyuros," of Ray, is widely different from the water-rat, both in size, make, and manner of life.1

As to the Falco, which I mentioned in town, I shall take the liberty to send it down to you into Wales; presuming on your candour, that you will excuse me if it should appear as familiar to you as it is strange to me. Though mutilated, qualem dices . . . antehac fuisse, tales cum sint reliquiæ!"

1 Willughby was the originator of the confusion alluded to, as pointed out by Mr. Bennett in a note to this passage. He described the water-rat as having its toes connected together by intervening webs; and his description was published by Ray in the "Synopsis Quadrupedum." Linnæus, believing that such authorities were to be relied on, admitted into several editions of his "Fauna Suecica" a ratlike animal, having its hinder feet webbed. Subsequently, however, he referred to it as of doubtful existence, as being perhaps inaccurately described, and as probably to be referred to his Mus terrestris. Willughby's error no doubt was occasioned by his having assumed from a certain habit that a certain structure which he regarded as indicated by it must necessarily be coexistent with it.

The Mus agrestis capite grandi, brachyuros, of Ray, is the shorttailed field mouse or vole, Arvicola agrestis, LINN.; the water rat, or rather water vole, being the Arv. amphibia, DESM. The hybernaculum, or winter nest of the water vole, is described later by White in his twenty-sixth letter to Pennant.-ED.

It haunted a marshy piece of ground in quest of wild ducks and snipes; but, when it was shot, had just knocked down a rook, which it was tearing in pieces. I cannot make it answer to any of our English hawks; neither could I find any like it at the curious exhibition of stuffed birds in Spring Gardens. I found it nailed up at the end of a barn, which is the countryman's museum.1

The parish I live in is a very abrupt, uneven country, full of hills and woods, and therefore full of birds.

LETTER XI.

TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE.

SELBORNE, September 9, 1767.

T will not be without impatience that I shall wait for your thoughts with regard to the Falco. As to its weight, breadth, &c., I I wish I had set them down at the time: but to the best of my remembrance, it weighed two pounds and eight ounces, and measured, from wing to wing, thirty-eight inches. Its cere and feet were yellow, and the circle of its eyelids a bright yellow. As it had been killed some days, and the eyes were sunk, I could make no good observation on the colour of the pupils and the irides."

The most unusual birds I ever observed in these parts were a pair of hoopoes (Upupa), which came several years ago in the summer, and frequented an ornamented piece of ground, which joins to my garden, for some weeks. They used to march about in a stately manner, feeding in the walks, many times in the day; and seem disposed to breed

The species proved to be the Peregrine, Falco peregrinus of naturalists.-ED.

2 The irides of all the true Falcons are brown.-ED.

in my outlet; but were frighted and persecuted by idle boys, who would never let them be at rest.'

Three gros-beaks (Loxia coccothraustes) appeared some years ago in my fields, in the winter; one of which I shot:

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since that, now and then, one is occasionally seen in the same dead season.

1 The hoopoe is an irregular spring and autumn visitant to this country. It has occasionally nested here, and would do so, no doubt, more frequently if unmolested. Colonel Montagu states, in his "Ornithological Dictionary," that a pair of hoopoes began a nest in Hampshire, but being disturbed forsook it, and went elsewhere; and Dr. Latham, in the Supplement to his "General Synopsis," has referred to a young Hoopoe in nestling plumage, which was shot in this country in May. A pair nested for several years in the grounds of Pennsylvania Castle, Portland (cf. Garland, 'Naturalist," 1852, p. 82), and according to Mr. Turner, of Sherborne, Dorsetshire, the nest has been taken on three or four occasions by the school-boys from pollard willows on the banks of the river at Lenthay. The birds were known to the boys as "hoops." Mr. Jesse, in a note to this passage in his edition of the present work, states that a pair of hoopoes bred for many years in an old ash tree in the grounds of a lady in Sussex, near Chichester.-ED.

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2 Coccothraustes vulgaris of modern systematists.

A cross-bill (Loxia curvirostra) was killed last year in this neighbourhood.1

Our streams, which are small, and rise only at the end of the village, yield nothing but the bull's head or miller's thumb (Gobius fluviatilis capitatus), the trout (Trutta.

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fluviatilis), the eel (Anguilla), the lampern (Lampetra parva et fluviatilis), and the stickle-back (Pisciculus aculeatus).

We are twenty miles from the sea, and almost as many

1 In the fourth volume of the "Zoological Journal," and subsequently in the second volume of his "History of British Birds," Mr. Yarrell published an excellent account of the muscles by which the singular beak and tongue of the cross-bill are made to serve the peculiar purposes for which they are designed.-ED.

2 These names were derived from Ray's "Synopsis Avium et Piscium." The more modern nomenclature, as adopted by Yarrell in his "History of British Fishes," is as follows:-The river bull-head or miller's-thumb, Cottus gobio; the trout, Salmo fario; of eel three species are admitted by Yarrell as indigenous to this country, the Sharp-nosed, Anguilla acutirostris, the Broad-nosed, A. latirostris, and the Snig, A. mediorostris; but the first and third are now regarded as identical, whilst the second is as much a marine as a fresh-water species; the Lampern, Petromyzon fluviatilis; and the Common Stickleback (there are several species), Gasterosteus aculeatus.--ED.

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