The fly-catcher (Jloparela) has not yet appeared: it ufually
breeds in my vine. The redfiart begins tp fing : it’s note is Ihort
and imperfect, but is continued till about the middle of June.
The willow-wrens (the fmaller fort) are horrid pelts in a garden,
deftroying the peafe, cherries, currants, &c .; and are fo tame
that a gun will not fcare them.
A L I S T o f the S u m m e r B i r d s of P a s s a g e difeovered in this
neighbourhood, ranged fomewhat in the Order in which they appear :
Smalleft willow-wren,
Wryneck,
Houfe-fwallow,
Martin,
Sand-martin,
Cuckoo,
Nightingale,
Blackcap,
Whitethroat,
Middle willow-wren,
Swift,
Stone curlew, ?
Turtle-dove, ?
Grafshopper-lark,
Landrail,
Largeft willow-wren,
Redftart,
Goatfueker, or fern-owl,
Fly-catcher,
Lijinsei Nomina.
Motacilla trochilus:
Jynx torquilla:
Hirundo rujlica:
Hirundo urbica:
Hirundo riparia:
Cuculus canons:
Motacilla lufcinia :
Motacilla atricapilla :
Motacilla fylvia:
Motacilla trochilus: b
Hirundo apus :
■ Charadrius oedicnemus P
Turtur aldrovandi ?
Alauda trivialis:
Radius crex:
Motacilla trochilus:
Motacilla phanicurus:
Caprimulgus europaus:
Mufcicapa grifola.
My Countrymen talk much of a bird that makes a clatter with
it’s bill againft a dead bough, or fome old pales, calling it a jar-
bird. I procured one to be {hot in the very faft; it proved to
be the fitta europaa (the nuthatch.) Mr. Ray fays that the lefs
{potted woodpecker does the fame. This noife may be heard a
furlong or more.
Now is the only time to afeertain the fhort-winged fummer
birds; for, when the leaf is out, there is no making any remarks on
fuch a reffilefs tribe j and, when once the young begin to-appear, it
is all confufion : there is no'diftinction of genus, fpecies, or fex.
In breeding-time fnipes play over the moors, piping and humming
: they always hum as they are defending. Is not their hum
ventriloquous like that of the turkey * Some fufpeft it is made by
their wings.
This morning I faw the golden-crowned wren, whofe crown
glitters like burnifhed gold. It often hangs like a titmoufe, with
it’s back downwards.
Yours,. See. &c.
L E T T !
TO THE
DEAR SIR,
| R XVII.
I S A M E .
O n JVednefday laft arrived your
It gives me great fatisfa&ion to
Hill with fuch vigour, and are ii
reptiles and fifties.
Se l borne, June iS, 1768.
agreeable letter of June the 10th.
find that you purfue thefe ftudies
1 fuch forwardnefs with regard to
The