I have known a dove-house infested by a pair of white owls, which made great havock among the young pigeons: one of the owls was shot as soon as possible; but the survivor readily found a mate, and the mischief went on. After some time the new pair were both destroyed, and the annoyance ceased.

Another instance I remember of a sportsman, whose zeal for the increase of his game being greater than his humanity, after pairing-time1 he always shot the cock bird of every couple of partridges upon his grounds; supposing that the rivalry of many males interrupted the breed: he used to say, that, though he had widowed

The very beautiful, one may almost say poetical way, in which the male bird procures a mate by the power of his song, may be seen in the preface to Mr. Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary, p. xxx.; from which this corollary may be inferred, that if a confined bird had learned the song of another, without retaining any part of its natural notes, and was set at liberty, it is probable, that it would never find a mate of its own.MITFORD.

2 Mr. Montagu has observed that some birds exert themselves in rivalry of singing, as a mode of wooing the female. I think I have some reason to believe that the cocks very much predominate in number over the females, amongst the birds which are the most ardent songsters; and the females are most numerous amongst those which have vocal powers, but are sluggish in using them. Two of the most ardent songsters we have are the nightingale and the whitethroat: the whitethroat, whose song Mr. White strangely undervalues, appears to exert itself to the utmost, and perpetually. I have found the cocks very prevalent amongst the young of these two species. Indeed of seven whitethroats reared from the nest within the last few years, the whole number proved to be cocks. A nest of nightingales which I reared contained only cocks. On the other hand, of seventeen young whin chats only three were cocks, and I think the general average is quite as much in favour of the females. The whin chat reared under other birds will learn to sing from all, but in its wild state it seldom sings continuously or with variety. The males and females seem pretty equally divided in the nests of blackcaps; and they, though perpetually singing, are lazy, and rarely exert themselves to vary their strain as much as they are able to do. The birdcatchers reckon, when they take a cock nightingale which has a mate, that if they leave the hen she will have another mate in a few days, and sometimes they take five or six successive husbands from one female. Having taken a young stone chat, and caught the old cock which belonged to the brood, I found, three days after, that the hen had provided herself with another mate, and he was just as solicitous about the young as their own father had been.-W. H.

the same hen several times, yet he found she was still provided with a fresh paramour, that did not take her away from her usual haunt.

Again: I knew a lover of setting, an old sportsman, who has often told me that soon after harvest he has frequently taken small coveys of partridges, consisting of cock birds alone; these he pleasantly used to call old bachelors.

There is a propensity belonging to common house cats that is very remarkable; I mean their violent fondness for fish, which appears to be their most favourite food and yet nature in this instance seems to have planted in them an appetite that, unassisted, they know not how to gratify: for of all quadrupeds cats are the least disposed towards water; and will not, when they can avoid it, deign to wet a foot, much less to plunge into that element.

Quadrupeds that prey on fish are amphibious: such is the otter, which by nature is so well formed for

diving, that it makes great havock among the inhabitants of the waters. Not supposing that we had any of those beasts in our shallow brooks, I was much

pleased to see a male otter brought to me, weighing twenty-one pounds, that had been shot on the bank of our stream below the Priory, where the rivulet divides the parish of Selborne from Harteley Wood.

LETTER XXX.

TO THE SAME.

DEAR SIR,

SELBORNE, Aug. 1, 1770. 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 letter (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, a 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 Motacilla or Muscicapa, 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.

LETTER XXXI.

TO THE SAME.

I am, &c.

DEAR SIR,

SELBORNE, Sept. 14, 1770. 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 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 migration.

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 a 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.

Annus Primus Historico-Naturalis.