Largest willow-wren, Motacilla
trochilus.
Redstart, Motacilla
phoenicurus.
Goat-sucker, or fern-owl, Caprimulgus
europaeus.
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
europaea (the nut-hatch). 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.
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