with all birds of prey.* When owls fly, they stretch out their legs behind them, as a balance to their large heavy heads; for, as most nocturnal birds have large eyes and ears, they must have large heads to contain them. Large eyes, I presume, are necessary to collect every ray of light, and large concave ears to command the smallest degree of sound or noise.

The hirundines are a most inoffensive, harmless, entertaining, social, and useful tribe of birds; they touch no fruit in our gardens; delight, all except one species, in attaching themselves to our houses; amuse us with their migrations, songs, and marvellous agility: and clear our outlets from the annoyances of gnats and other troublesome insects. Some districts in the South Seas, near Guiaquil,t are desolated, it seems, by the infinite swarms of venomous mosquitoes, which fill the air, and render those coasts insupportable. It would be worth inquiring, whether any species of hirundines is found in these regions. Whoever contemplates the myriads of insects that sport in the sunbeams of a summer evening in this country, will soon be convinced to what a degree our atmosphere would be choked with them were it not for the friendly interposition of the swallow tribe.‡

* All birds of prey are capable of sustaining the want of food and water for long periods, particularly the latter, but of which they also seem remarkably fond, drinking frequently in a state of nature, and, during summer, washing almost daily.-W. J.

See Ulloa's Travels.

This passage alone ought to be sufficient to prevent persons from wantonly destroying this useful, engaging, and elegant bird. If they were more encouraged than they are about hop-grounds,-suitable erections being made, against which they would build, the editor is convinced that much of the blight so common on the bind of hops would be prevented. Mr. Knapp, in his Journal of a Naturalist, remarked, that the immense quantity of flies destroyed in a short space of time, by one individual bird, is scarcely to be credited by those who have not actual experience of the fact. He adds, that he was once present when a swift was shot. It was in the breeding season, when the young were hatched, at which time the parent birds are in the habit of making little excursions into the country, for the purpose of collecting flies, which they bring to their infant progeny. He says, that on picking up the bird, he observed a number of flies, some mutilated, others scarcely injured, crawling out of the bird's mouth. The throat and pouch seemed absolutely stuffed with them, and an incredible number was at length disgorged. He thinks that he is within compass in stating, that there was a mass of flies, just caught by this single swift, larger than, when pressed close, would conveniently be contained in the bowl of an ordinary table-spoon.-ED.

Many species of birds have their peculiar lice: but the hirundines alone seem to be annoyed with dipterous insects which infest every species, and are so large, in proportion to themselves, that they must be extremely irksome and injurious to them. These are the hippobosca hirundinis, with narrow subulated wings, abounding in every nest; and are hatched by the warmth of the bird's own body during incubation, and crawl about under its feathers.

A species of them is familiar to horsemen in the south of England, under the name of forest-fly, and, to some, of side-fly, from its running sideways, like a crab. It creeps under the tails and about the groins of horses, which, at their first coming out of the north, are rendered half frantic by the tickling sensation; while our own breed little regards them.

The curious Reaumur discovered the large eggs, or rather pupa, of these flies, as big as the flies themselves, which he hatched in his own bosom. Any person that will take the trouble to examine the old nests of either species of swallows, may find in them the black shining cases, or skins, of the pupae of these insects; but, for other particulars, too long for this place, we refer the reader to L'Histoire d'Insectes of that admirable entomologist.—Tom. iv. pl. 11.

LETTER LIV.

TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ.

SELBORNE, Nov. 9, 1773.

DEAR SIR,-As 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

* British Zoology, vol. i. p. 128. This beautiful bird, the Falco haliaetus of Pennant, has been frequently seen and destroyed in this country.-Ed.

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 scarce birds in this country.

Crowst go in pairs the whole year round.

Cornish choughs abound, and breed on Beechy Head, and on all the cliffs of the Sussex coast.§

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?

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.

Titlarks not only sing sweetly as they sit on trees, but also as they play and toy about on the wing; and particularly while they are descending, and sometimes as they stand on the ground.§§

Adamson's testimony seems to me to be a very poor evidence that European swallows migrate TT during our winter

*British Zoology, p. 161.

+ Ibid. p. 167.

Ibid. p. 198.

§ Cornish choughs abound in the Isle of Man, and breed there. They are also found on the Galloway and Kirkcudbright coasts.-W. J.

British Zoology, vol. i. p. 216.

Ibid. vol. i. p. 224.

** In Staffordshire it is called the thrice cock; but for what reason I know not.-ED.

++ British Zoology, p. 229.

+Ibid. vol. ii. p. 237.

§§ Mr. White must have mistaken this for anthusarboreus, or tree-lark. The titlark (anthus pratensis) seldom sits on trees.-W. J.

British Zoology, vol. ii. p. 242.

¶¶ I have reason to believe that there is no portion of the world in which swallows congregate at certain seasons, from which they do not periodically migrate.-Eo.

M