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White, Gilbert, 1720-1793

"The Natural History of Selborne"


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 during our winter to Senegal: he does
not talk at all like an ornithologist; and probably saw only the
swallows of that country, which I know build within Governor
O'Hara's hall against the roof. Had he known European swallows,
would he not have mentioned the species ?
The house-swallow washes by dropping into the water as it flies:
this species appears commonly about a week before the house-
martin, and about ten or twelve days before the swift.
In 1772 there were young house-martins in their nest till October
the twenty-third.
The swift appears about ten or twelve days later than the house-
swallow: viz., about the twenty-fourth or twenty-sixth of April.
Whin-chats and stone-chattel stay with us the whole year.
Some wheat-ears continue with us the winter through.


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