is continued till about the middle of June. The willow-wrens (the
smaller sort) are horrid pests in a garden, destroying the peas,
cherries, currants, etc.; and are so tame that a gun will not scare them.

A LIST OF THE SUMMER BIRDS OF PASSAGE DISCOVERED IN THIS NEIGHBOURHOOD,
RANGED SOMEWHAT IN THE ORDER IN WHICH THEY APPEAR.

LINNAEI NOMINA.
Smallest willow-wren _Motacilla trochilus_
Wryneck _Jynx torquilla_
House-swallow _Hirundo rustica_
Martin _Hirundo urbica_
Sand-martin _Hirundo riparia_
Cuckoo _Cuculus canorus_
Nightingale _Motacilla luscinia_
Blackcap _Motacilla atricapilla_
Whitethroat _Motacilla sylvia_
Middle willow-wren _Motacilla trochilus_
Swift _Hirundo apus_
Stone-curlew? _Charadrius oedicnemus_?
Turtle-dove? _Turtur aldrovandi_?
Grasshopper-lark _Alauda trivialis_
Landrail _Rallus crex_
Largest willow-wren _Motacilla trochilus_
Redstart _Motacilla phoenicurus_
Goat-sucker, or fern-owl _Caprimulgus europus_
Fly-catcher _Muscicapa grisola_

My countrymen talk much of a bird that makes a clatter with its bill
against a dead bough, or some old pales, calling it a jar-bird. I
procured one to be shot in the very fact; it proved to be the _Sitta
europoea_ (the nuthatch). Mr. Ray says that the less spotted woodpecker
does the same. This noise may be heard a furlong or more.

Now is the only time to ascertain the short-winged summer birds; for,
when the leaf is out, there is no making any remarks on such a restless
tribe; and when once the young begin to appear it is all confusion: there
is no distinction of genus, species, or sex.

In breeding-time snipes play over the moors, piping and humming; they
always hum as they are descending. Is not their hum ventriloquous like
that of the turkey? Some suspect it is made by their wings.

This morning I saw the golden-crowned wren, whose crown glitters like
burnished gold. It often hangs like a titmouse, with its back downwards.

Yo