Page:White - The natural history of Selborne, and the naturalist's calendar, 1879.djvu/63

Rh

$e1$ One occasionally sees mention made in the scientific and natural history periodicals of the occurrence of the hoopoe (upupa epops). Of course it is generally shot, and no chance is given it of breeding. Its nest has only rarely been found in England.

$e2$ The grossbeak (coccothraustes vulgaris), or as it is more commonly called, the hawfinch, is not so rare as is generally supposed. Its shyness prevents its being easily observed.

$e3$ The crossbill may occasionally be seen, in small flocks, in districts where the larch is plentiful. With its peculiar curved mandibles, it extracts the seeds from the fir-cones. The birds vary greatly in size and colour, according to age and sex. They are yellow, green, red, or brown at different times, so if it were not for their crossed bills, it would be rather hard to distinguish them. They breed in Norway and Sweden, and very occasionally in England.

$e4$ We used, when I was a boy, to catch great numbers of bull-heads to bait our eel lines with. They were found under every flat stone in the Shropshire streams, in company with the loach, also an excellent bait.

$e5$ It is now well known that there are three kinds of eels which inhabit our rivers and pools,—the snig, and the broad-nosed and sharp-nosed species. The habits of eels are very peculiar. Nothing certain is known about their breeding, but it is believed that the young are born alive. In the autumn the eels descend the rivers in vast numbers, and go either to sea or to the brackish waters, where they breed. In the spring the little eels, or elvers, ascend the rivers in columns so dense that they may be scooped out by the bucketful.

$e6$ In the Dee at Llangollen, lamperns were very numerous. They hold on to stones by means of their round sucker-like mouths, and can move very heavy ones.

$e7$ There are six kinds of sticklebacks. Everyone knows the common three-finned one. One kind builds a nest among the weeds, and guards it with the utmost vigilance.

$e8$ There seem to be about twenty species of British bats. Four or five species are tolerably common. The squeak made by the bat is so very fine, that while to some ears it is loud, by others it cannot be heard. I once, when a boy, was exploring a hollow tree after owls' nests, when the smell from one particular hole was so dreadful that we put some lighted paper down to see what would come out; and to our astonishment dozens of large, reddish bats flew out, and dashed madly about in the bright sunlight. The bat has more vermin upon it than any other creature of its size. It seems needless to state that the bat is an animal, and not a bird or an insect; but I saw it gravely stated in the columns of a local journal by two correspondents that it was either of the two latter.