the reed-sparrow, which I mentioned to you (passer arundinaceus minor, Raii), is a soft-billed bird, and most probably migrates hence before winter; whereas the bird you kept (passer torquatus, Raii)1 abides all

the year, and is a thick-billed bird. I question whether the latter be much of a songster; but in this matter I want to be better informed. The former has a variety of hurrying notes, and sings all night. Some part of the song of the former, I suspect, is attributed to the latter. We have plenty of the softbilled sort; which Mr. Pennant had entirely left out

1 This was doubtless, as stated by the Rev. L. Jenyns, the reedbunting, emberiza schaniclus.-T. B.

of his British Zoology, till I reminded him of his omission. See British Zoology last published, p. 16.1

I have somewhat to advance on the different manners in which different birds fly and walk; but as this is a subject that I have not enough considered, and is of such a nature as not to be contained in a small space, I shall say nothing further about it at present.2

DEAR SIR,

LETTER VII.

Ringmer, near Lewes, Oct. 8, 1770.

I 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 entertainment to me.

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, may be the extreme poverty and distance of his country, into which the works of our

1 See Letter XXV. Part I. 2 See Letter XXXVIII. Part II.

great naturalist may have never yet 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 Entomology; and his characters of his 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;1 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 gallina order, as cocks and hens, partridges and pheasants, &c., are pulveratrices, such as dust themselves, using that method of cleaning 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?

1 The two species probably prefer different kinds of insects for their food: hence, it is not uncommon to see, for a time, the swallows occupying one part and the swifts another, of the same field or park.-T. B.

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.

A countryman told me he had found a young fernowl in the nest of a small bird on the ground; and that it was fed by the little bird. I went to see this extraordinary phenomenon, and found that it was a young cuckoo hatched in the nest of a titlark; it was become vastly too big for its nest, appearing

"in tenui re

Majores pennas nido extendisse,"

and was very fierce and pugnacious, pursuing my finger, as I teased it, for many feet from its nest, and sparring and buffeting with its wings like a gamecock, the dupe of a dam appearing at a distance, hovering about with meat in its mouth, and expressing the greatest solicitude.

In July I saw several cuckoos skimming over a large pond; and found, after some observation, that they were feeding on the libellulæ, or dragon-flies, some of which they caught as they settled on the weeds, and some as they were on the wing. Notwithstanding what Linnæus says, I cannot be induced to believe that they are birds of prey.

This district affords some birds that are hardly ever heard of at Selborne. In the first place, considerable flocks of crossbills (loxia curvirostræ) have appeared this summer in the pine groves belonging to the house (Ringmer, near Lewes); the water-ousel is said to haunt the mouth of the Lewes river, near

Newhaven; and the Cornish chough builds, I know, all along the chalky cliffs of the Sussex shore.

I was greatly pleased to see little parties of ringousels (my newly-discovered migrators) scattered, at intervals, all along the Sussex Downs, from Chichester to Lewes. Let them come from whence they will, it looks very suspicious that they are cantoned along the coast in order to pass the Channel when severe weather advances. They visit us again in April, as it should seem, in their return, and are not to be found in the dead of winter. It is remarkable that they are very tame, and seem to have no manner of apprehensions of danger from a person with a gun. There are