LETTER XXXVII.

TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ.

OU saw, I find, the ring-ousels again among their native crags; and are farther assured that they continue resident

in those cold regions the whole year. From whence then do our ring-ousels migrate so regularly every September, and make their appearance again, as if in their return, every April? They are more early this year than common, for some were seen at the usual hill on the fourth of this month.

An observing Devonshire gentleman tells me that they frequent some parts of Dartmoor, and breed there; but leave those haunts about the end of September or beginning of October, and return again about the end of March.

Another intelligent person assures me that they breed in great abundance all over the peak of Derby, and are called there tor-ousels; withdraw in October and November, and return in spring. This information seems to throw some light on my new migra

Scopoli's new work (which I have just procured) has its merit in ascertaining many of the birds of the Tyrol and Carniola. Monographers, come from whence they may, have, I think, fair pretence to challenge some regard and approbation from the lovers of natural history; for, as no man can alone investigate all the works of nature, these partial writers may, each in their department, be more accurate in their discoveries, and freer from errors, than more general writers; and so by degrees may pave the way to an universal correct natural history. Not that Scopoli is so circumstantial and attentive to the life and conversation of his birds as I could wish he advances some false facts; as when he says of the hirundo urbica that "it does not feed its young after it leaves the nest ;" "pullos extra nidum non nutrit." This assertion I know to be wrong from repeated observation this summer; for housemartins do feed their young flying, though it must be acknowledged not so commonly as the houseswallow; and the feat is done in so quick a manner as not to be perceptible to indifferent observers. He also advances some (I was going to say) improbable facts; as when he says of the woodcock that, "as it flies from its enemies, it carries its young in its beak:" "pullos rostro portat fugiens ab hoste." But candour forbids me to say absolutely that any fact is false, because I have never been witness to such a fact.†

* "Annus Primus Historico-Naturalis."

† Several well authenticated instances are given of the woodcock carrying its young. At Brechan castle, Ross-shire, the game-keepers asserted that they had seen the old woodcocks carry their young in their claws, and this was confirmed by a third witness. Another writer in the "Magazine of Natural History" had seen the same thing done. Again,

I have only to remark that the long unwieldy bill of the woodcock is perhaps the worst adapted of any among the winged creation for such a feat of natural affection.

a gentleman saw, in the park of Drummond Castle, the old bird repeatedly take up one of the young in its claws. Mr. Lloyd in his "Field Sports" has an illustration of the old bird doing the same thing. He says:-"When you meet with a brood of woodcocks, and the young ones cannot fly, the old bird takes them separately between her feet, and flies from the dogs with a moaning cry."-ED.

SELBORNE, Sept. 14, 1770.

ment to me.

AM glad to hear that Kuckahn* is to furnish you with the birds of Jamaica; a sight of the hirundines of that hot and distant island would be a great entertain

The" Anni" of Scopoli are now in my possession;. and I have read the "Annus Primus" with satisfaction; for though some parts of this work are exceptionable, and he may advance some mistaken observations, yet the ornithology of so distant a country as Carniola is very curious. Men that undertake only one district are much more likely to advance natural knowledge than those that grasp at more than they can possibly be acquainted with: every kingdom, every province, should have its own monographer.

The reason perhaps why he mentions nothing of Ray's "Ornithology" is the extreme poverty and

Kuckahn is only known as the author of a paper in the Philosophical Transactions "On Setting up Birds." The communication alluded to was probably in the shape of manuscript notes or drawings.-ED.

distance of his country, into which the works of our great naturalist may never yet have found their way. You have doubts, I know, whether this "Ornithology" is genuine, and really the work of Scopoli: as to myself, I think I discover strong tokens of authenticity; the style corresponds with that of his "Entomologia;" and his characters of the ordines and genera are many of them new, expressive, and masterly. He has ventured to alter some of the Linnæan genera with sufficient show of reason.

It might perhaps be mere accident that you saw so many swifts and no swallows at Staines; because, in my long observation of those birds, I never could discover the least degree of rivalry or hostility between the species.

Ray remarks that birds of the gallinæ order, as cocks and hens, partridges, and pheasants, &c. are pulveratrices, such as dust themselves, using that method of cleansing their feathers, and ridding themselves of their vermin. As far as I can observe, many birds that dust themselves never wash: and I once thought that those birds that wash themselves would never dust; but here I find myself mistaken; for common house-sparrows are great pulveratrices, being frequently seen grovelling and wallowing in dusty roads; and yet they are great washers. Does not the skylark dust?

Query.-Might not Mahomet and his followers take one method of purification from these pulveratrices? because I find from travellers of credit, that if a strict mussulman is journeying in a sandy desert where no water is to be found, at stated hours he strips off his clothes, and most scrupulously rubs his body over with sand or dust.