LETTER XXX. TO THE SAME. SELBORNE, Aug. 1st, 1770. DEAR SIR, The French, I think, in general are strangely prolix in their natural history. What Linnæus says with respect to insects holds good in every other branch: "Verbositas præsentis sæculi, calamitas artis." Pray how do you approve of Scopoli's new work? As I admire his "Entomologia," I long to see it. I forgot to mention in my last latter (and had not room to insert in the former) that the male moose, in rutting time, swims from island to island, in the lakes and rivers of North America, in pursuit of the females. My friend, the chaplain, saw one killed in the water as it was on that errand in the river St. Lawrence: it was a monstrous beast, he told me; but he did not take the dimensions. When I was last in town our friend Mr. Barrington most obligingly carried me to see many curious sights. As you were then writing to him about horns, he carried me to see many strange and wonderful specimens. There is, I remember, at Lord Pembroke's, at Wilton, an horn room furnished with more than thirty different pairs; but I have not seen that house lately. Mr. Barrington showed me many astonishing collections of stuffed and living birds from all quarters of the world. After I had studied over the latter for a time, I remarked that every species almost that came from distant regions, such as South America, the coast of Guinea, &c., were thick-billed birds of the loxia and fringilla genera; and no motacillæ, or muscicapæ, were to be met with. When I came to consider, the reason was obvious enough; for the hard-billed birds subsist on seeds which are easily carried on board; while the soft-billed birds, which are supported by worms and insects, or, what is a succedaneum for them, fresh raw meat, can meet with neither in long and tedious voyages. It is from this defect of food that our collections (curious as they are) are defective, and we are deprived of some of the most delicate and lively genera. I am, &c. LETTER XXXI. TO THE SAME. SELBORNE, Sept. 14th, 1770. DEAR SIR,-You 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 ringousels 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 migration. Scopoli's* new work (which I have just procured) has its merit in ascertaining many of the birds of the Tirol 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 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 "pullos extra nidum non nutrit." This assertion I know to be wrong from repeated observation this summer; for house-martins do feed their young flying, though it must be acknowledged not so commonly as the house-swallow; 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 “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. 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. I am, &c. LETTER XXXII. TO THE SAME. SELBORNE, October 29th, 1770. DEAR SIR,-After an ineffectual search in Linnæus, Brisson, &c., I begin to suspect that I discern my brother's hirundo hyberna in Scopoli's new discovered hirundo rupestris, p. 167. His description of "Supra murina, subtus albida; rectrices maculâ ovali albâ in latere interno ; pedes nudi, nigri ; rostrum nigrum; remiges obscuriores quam plumœ * "Annus I. Historico Naturalis,-descriptiones avium musei proprii earumque rariorum, quos vidit in vivaria augustiss. imperatoris, et in museo excell. comitis Francisci Annib. Turriani." Lipsiæ, MDCCLXVIII. In the preface to the above work Scopoli states, "Observationes meas ad scientiam naturalem et agriculturam pertinentes singulis annis erudito orbi in posterum communicabo," and the Anni were continued for five years, and contain some very valuable papers and observations, the first is devoted entirely to ornithology. The last (Annus V.) bears the date of MDCCLXXII. dorsales; rectrices remigibus concolores; cauda emarginata, nec forcipatâ," agrees very well with the bird in question: but when he comes to advance that it is "staturn hirundinis urbica," and that "definitio. hirundinis riparia Linnæi huic quoque conveniit," he in some measure invalidates all he has said; at least he shows at once that he compares them to these species merely from memory: for I have compared the birds themselves, and find they differ widely in every circumstance of shape, size, and colour. However, as you will have a specimen, I shall be glad to hear what your judgment is in the matter.* *There is little doubt that the bird in question was the H. rupestris of Linnæus. In the correspondence of Linnæus published in "Contributions" for 1849, he frequently refers to this bird by name in reply to questions put by Mr. White's brother, who had evidently written to Linnæus about it under that appellation. John White was, in fact, Linnæus's authority for this swallow, and first communicated specimens to him from Gibraltar; Linnæus says, "H. rupestris, mihi antea ignota; vere distincta." Whether my brother is forestalled in his non-descript or not, he will have the credit of first discovering that they spend their winters under the warm and sheltery shores of Gibraltar and Barbary. Scopoli's characters of his ordines and genera are clear, just, and expressive, and much in the spirit of Linnæus. These few remarks are the result of my first perusal of Scopoli's "Annus Primus." The bane of our science is the comparing one animal to the other by memory for want of caution in this particular Scopoli falls into errors: he is not so full with regard to the manners of his indigenous birds as might be wished, as you justly observe: his Latin is easy, elegant, and expressive, and very superior to Kramer's.* I am pleased to see that my description of the moose corresponds so well with yours. I am, &c. LETTER XXXIII. TO THE SAME. SELBORNE, Nov. 26th, 1770. DEAR SIR, I was much pleased to see, among the collection of birds from Gibraltar, some of those short-winged English summerbirds of passage, concerning whose departure we have made so much inquiry. Now if these birds are found in Andalusia to migrate to and from Barbary, it may easily be supposed that those that come to us may migrate back to the continent, and spend their winters in some of the warmer parts of Europe. This is certain, that many soft-billed birds that come to Gibraltar appear there only in spring and autumn, seeming to advance in pairs towards the northward, for the sake of breeding during the summer months; and retiring in parties and broods towards the south at the decline of the year: so that the rock of Gibraltar is the great rendezvous, and place of observation, from whence they take their departure each way towards Europe or Africa. It is therefore no mean discovery, I think, to find that our small short-winged summer birds of passage are to be seen spring and autumn on the very skirts of Europe; it is a presumptive proof of their emigrations. Scopoli seems to me to have found the hirundo melba, the great Gibraltar swift, in Tirol, without knowing it. For what is his hirundo alpina but the afore-mentioned bird in other words? Says he "Omnia prioris" (meaning the swift); "sed pectus album; paulo major priore." I do not suppose this to be a new species. It is true also of the melba, that " nidificat in excelsis Alpium rupibus." Vid. Annum Primum.+ * See his "Elenchus Vegetabilium et Animalium per Austriam Inferiorem, &c." t "Annus I." p. 166. Quite right, it is the cypselus melba, Gmelin. The alpine or white-bellied swift of British authors, and communicated to Linnæus by John White during his residence at Gibraltar. There are a few instances recorded of its having been killed in Great Britain and Ireland. The letters from his brother while at Gibraltar would be exceedingly interesting to White while his attention was turned to migration, and there is little doubt that the great bulk of our migratory species follow the line as suggested in the My Sussex friend, a man of observation and good sense, but no naturalist, to whom I applied on account of the stone-curlew, oedicnemus, sends me the following account: "In looking over my Naturalist's Journal for the month of April, I find the stone-curlews are first mentioned on the seventeenth and eighteenth, which date seems to me rather late. They live with us all the spring and summer, and at the beginning of autumn prepare to take leave by getting together in flocks. They seem to me a bird of passage that may travel into some dry hilly country south of us, probably Spain, because of the abundance of sheepwalks in that country; for they spend their summers with us in such districts. This conjecture I hazard, as I have never met with any one that has seen them in England in the winter. I believe they are not fond of going near the water, but feed on earth-worms, that are common on sheep-walks and downs. They breed on fallows and lay-fields abounding with grey mossy flints, which much resemble their young in colour; among which they skulk and conceal themselves. They make no nest, but lay their eggs on the bare ground, producing in commor. but two at a time. There is reason to think their young run soon after they are hatched; and that the old ones do not feed them, but only lead them about at the time of feeding, which, for the most part, is in the night." Thus far, my friend. In the manners of this bird you see there is something very analogous to the bustard, whom it also somewhat resembles in aspect and make, and in the structure of its feet.* text; at the same time, however, some of the species, the common swallow for instance, has a very extensive range, and I believe is permanently resident nowhere. The more distant cannot be expected to reach northern Europe or Great Britain, which in all probability are supplied from North or North-Eastern Africa. * The bustard is only mentioned twice in White's Letters, above where referred to, and in Letter II. to Barrington, p. 96. Mitford has the following note. "The bustard is extinct in England: and as it is now so scarce in Scotland owing to population and enclosures, it becomes interesting to remark that two birds of this kind (male and female) have been kept in the garden-ground belonging to the Norwich Infirmary, and have been but lately sold by the owner of them. The male bird was very beautiful and courageous, apparently afraid of nothing, seizing any one that came near him by the coat, yet on the appearance of any small hawk high in the air, he would squat close to the ground, expressing strong marks of fear. The female was very shy." In England they may be said to be almost extirpated, or if a few do remain they will not long be preserved. Upon the continent, however, as we learn by a very interesting paper read before the Linnæan Soeiety, by Mr. Yarrell in January last, they are still abundant, particularly in some parts of Spain, upon the extensive grass marshes which stretch along the banks of the Guadalquiver, and in the corn plains of Seville; but the important part of this paper is a correction of an anatomical error which has been handed down and copied, and the parts figured even in the most recent ornithological works. Edwards in his "Gleanings" figures a gular pouch, supposed to be a bag for the purpose of holding water, when in desert lands or removed from it. This was given upon the authority of Dr. Douglas, of the College of Physicians in London. Mr. Yarrell, anxious to satisfy himself of the presence of this pouch or bag, took the opportunity of a mature male bustard dying in the Zoological Gardens, to examine this structure. He carefully did so, but could find no enlargement of the membrane or any sac. Not satisfied with his own accuracy he examined the descriptions of animals dissected by the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, where he was equally unsuccessful; and he concludes his interesting paper in the following words: "unwilling, however, to offer my statement to the notice of the Linnean Society without consulting the best living authority in this country, namely, Professor Owen, I mentioned the subject to him, and had the satisfaction to find that Mr. Owen agreed with |