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 torousels, 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 merits, 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 his 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-martens 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." 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.

* Annus Primus Historico-Naturalis.

But

SCOPOLI'S ANNUS PRIMUS.

97

LETTER XXXVIII.

TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

RINGMER, near LEWES, October 8, 1770.

DEAR SIR,-I am glad to hear that Kuekalm 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 great naturalists 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; 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 galine 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?

G

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.

A countryman told me he had found a young fern-owl 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 the nest, and sparring and buffeting with its wings like a game-cock. The dupe of a dam appeared 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 crossbeaks (loxia curvirostræ) have appeared this summer in the pine groves belonging to this house;† the water-ousel is

* The food of the cuckoo is insects and caterpillars, particularly those of the lepidopterous order, both smooth and rough, as also butterflies and moths themselves. Aububon says, the yellow-billed cuckoo of America robs smaller birds of their eggs, which it sucks on all occasions, and that the black-billed cuckoo lives on fruits, fresh water shell-fish, aquatic larvæ, and very young frogs. Ed.

+ Three species of crossbills have been identified as occasional visitants of Britain, namely, the American crossbill, (curvirostra Americana,) the white-winged crossbill, (curvirostra leucoptera,) and parrot-billed crossbill, (c. pytiopsittacus,) a specimen of which was shot in Scotland, and is in the cabinet of Sir William Jardine, Bart. In the autumn of 1821, a large flock of crossbills was discovered feeding in a grove of firs. "After watching them for some time," says a narrator, "with a gun, I procured fifteen specimens, out of which only two were in full feather, the breasts and backs of the others being nearly bare. After this, they used to visit the same spot pretty regularly twice a day. The males varied very much in colour, some being of a deeper red, and others inclining

THE DIPPER -RINGOUSEL.

99

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 rather more to yellow, particularly on the tail coverts, and being a little mottled with yellow upon the breast and back. The Weymouth pine was their particular favourite, indeed, I scarcely observed them on any other tree, except the sentinel, who regularly took his station on the top of a spruce-fir, which happened to be the highest in the immediate neighbourhood of their haunt. Their note, or call, very much resembled the chirping of a chicken. They continued their visits, though the flock certainly gradually diminished, during a great part of the winter; and one pair remained long after the rest had left, being constantly seen in February and beginning of March, 1822." This was the year in which Mr Selby mentions them as being so plentiful throughout the kingdom. See our note, page 26. -ED.

*This is the dipper of modern ornithologists, (cinclus aquaticus of Bechstein.) White does not seem to have been acquainted with the musical powers of this interesting species. The dipper begins to pour forth its strong, distinct, and varied notes in the beginning of spring, and is the earliest warbler of the remote situations where it usually localizes. Montagu says, "This bird is amongst the few that sing so early in the spring as the months of January and February. In hard frost, on the 11th of the latter month, when the thermometer in the morning had been at twentysix degrees, we heard this bird sing incessantly in a strong and elegant manner, and with much variation in notes, many of which were peculiar to itself, intermixed with a little of the piping of the woodlark. At the time it was singing, the day was bright, but freezing in the shade; the sun had considerably passed the meridian, and was obscured from the bird by the lofty surrounding hills. The dipper devours a considerable quantity of fishes' spawn, especially the large ova of the salmon."

The dipper dives with great dexterity, and can swim a considerable way under water, emerging at a distance from the spot where it disappeared. "We found a nest of this bird," says Colonel Montagu, "in a steep bank, projecting over a rivulet, clothed with moss. The nest was so well adapted to the surrounding materials, that nothing but the old bird flying in with a fish in its bill would have led to a discovery. The young were nearly full feathered, but incapable of tight; and the moment the nest was disturbed, they fluttered out, and dropped into the water, and, to our astonishment, instantly vanished; but, in a little time, made their appearance at some distance down the stream; and it was with difficulty that two out of the five were taken, as they dived on being approached."-En.

seem to have no manner of apprehensions of danger from a person with a gun. There are bustards on the wide downs near Brighthelmstone. No doubt you are acquainted with the Sussex downs. The prospects and rides round Lewes are most lovely.

As I rode along near the coast, I kept a very sharp lookout in the lanes and woods, hoping I might, at this time of the year, have discovered some of the summer short-winged birds of passage crowding towards the coast, in order for their departure; but it was very extraordinary that I never saw a redstart, white-throat, black-cap, uncrested wren, flycatcher, &c.; and I remember to have made the same remark in former years, as I usually come to this place annually about this time. The birds most common along the coast, at present, are the stone-chatters, whinchats, buntings, linnets, some few wheatears, titlarks, &c. Swallows and house-martens abound yet, induced to prolong their stay by this soft, still, dry season.

A land tortoise, which has been kept for thirty years in a little walled court belonging to the house where I am now visiting, retires under ground about the middle of November, and comes forth again about the middle of April. When it first appears, in the spring, it discovers very little inclination towards food; but, in the height of summer, grows voracious; and then, as the summer declines, its appetite declines; so that, for the last six weeks in autumn, it hardly eats at all. Milky plants, such as lettuces, dandelions, sow-thistles, are its favourite dish. In a neighbouring village, one was kept till, by tradition, it was supposed to be an hundred years old, instance of vast longevity in such a poor reptile!*

-an

* In the library of Lambeth Palace, is the shell of a tortoise, brought there in 1623; it lived until 1730, and was killed by being carelessly exposed to the inclemency of the weather. Another, at the episcopal palace at Fulham, procured by Bishop Laud, in 1628, died in 1753. One at Peterborough was known to have lived to the extraordinary age of two hundred and twenty years!

During the hybernation of animals, a temporary stagnation or suspension of active life ensues: their temperature becomes diminished, and the circulation of the blood slower; respiration less frequent, and sometimes entirely suspended; the action of their stomach and digestive organs are also suspended; and the irritability and sensibility of the muscular and nervous powers are greatly diminished. Heat and air are the only agencies which rouse them from their death-like lethargy. Judging from the circumstance of toads, lizards, and bats, being found alive in solid rocks, and in the centre of trees, this torpidity may endure the lapse of ages, without the extinction of life. Mr Murray, in his Researches in Natural History, says, "a tead was found, under the coal seam, in the ironstone