Volume I Part 10 (2/2)

SELBORNE, _June 30th_, 1769.

Dear Sir,--When I was in town last month I partly engaged that I would sometimes do myself the honour to write to you on the subject of natural history; and I am the more ready to fulfil my promise, because I see you are a gentleman of great candour, and one that will make allowances, especially where the writer professes to be an out-door naturalist, one that takes his observations from the subject itself, and not from the writings of others.

THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF THE SUMMER BIRDS OF Pa.s.sAGE WHICH I HAVE DISCOVERED IN THIS NEIGHBOURHOOD, RANGED SOMEWHAT IN THE ORDER IN WHICH THEY APPEAR:--

RAII NOMINA. USUALLY APPEARS ABOUT 1. Wryneck. _Jynx_, _sive The middle of March: Torquilla_. harsh note.

2. Smallest _Regulus non March 23rd: chirps till willow-wren. cristatus_. September.

3. Swallow. _Hirundo April 13th.

domestica_.

4. Martin. _Hirundo rustica_. Ditto.

5. Sand-martin. _Hirundo riparia_. Ditto.

6. Blackcap. _Atricapilla_. Ditto: a sweet, wild note.

7. Nightingale. _Luscinia_. Beginning of April.

8. Cuckoo. _Cuculus_. Middle of April.

9. Middle willow-wren. _Regulus non Ditto: a sweet, cristatus_. plaintive note.

10. Whitethroat. _Ficedulae affinis_ Ditto: mean note; sings on till September.

11. Redstart. _Ruticilla_. Ditto: more agreeable song.

12. Stone-curlew. _OEdicnemus_ End of March: loud nocturnal whistle.

13. Turtle-dove. _Turtur_.

14. Gra.s.shopper-lark. _Alauda minima Middle April: a small locustae voce_ sibilous note, till the end of July.

15. Swift. _Hirundo apus_. About April 27th.

16. Less reed-sparrow. _Pa.s.ser A sweet polyglot, but arundinaceus hurrying; it has the minor_. notes of many birds.

17. Land-rail. _Ortygometra_. A loud, harsh note--crex, crex.

18. Largest willow _Regulus non _Cantat voce stridula wren. cristatus_. locustae_; end of April, on the tops of high beeches.

19. Goat-sucker, or _Caprimulgus_. Beginning of May: fern-owl. chatters by night with a singular noise.

20. Fly-catcher. _Stoparola_. May 12th: a very mute bird: this is the latest summer bird of pa.s.sage.

This a.s.semblage of curious and amusing birds belongs to ten several genera of the Linnaean system, and are all of the _ordo_ of _pa.s.seres_ save the _Jynx_ and _Cuculus_, which are _picae_, and the _Charadrius_ (_OEdicnemus_) and _Rallus_ (_Ortygometra_), which are _grallae_.

These birds, as they stand numerically, belong to the following Linnaean genera:--

1, _Jynx_. 13. _Columba_.

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