LETTER XXIIL TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, February 28, 1769. DEAR SIR,It is not improbable that the Guernsey lizard and our green lizards may be specifically the same; all that I know is, that when, some years ago, many Guernsey lizards were turned loose in Pembroke college garden, in the university of Oxford, they lived a great while, and seemed to enjoy themselves very well; but never bred. Whether this circumstance will prove any thing either way, I shall not pretend to say. I return you thanks for your account of Cressi-hall; but recollect, not without regret, that in June, 1746, I was visiting for a week together at Spalding, without ever being told that such a curiosity was just at hand. Pray send me word in your next what sort of tree it is that contains such a quantity of herons' nests; and whether the heronry consists of a whole grove, or wood, or only of a few trees. It gave me satisfaction to find we accorded so well about the caprimulgus; all I contended for was, to prove that it often chatters sitting as well as flying, and therefore the noise was voluntary, and from organic impulse, and not from the resistance of the air against the hollow of its mouth and throat.* This is a common species in the United States of America, and is called by the natives whip-poor-will, from the similarity of his cry to these words. The following interesting account of their cry is given by Wilson: - "Every morning and evening his shrill and rapid repetitions are heard from the adjoining woods; and, when two or more are calling out at the same time, as is often the case in the pairing season, and at no great distance from each other, the noise, mingling with the echoes from the mountains, is really surprising. Strangers, in parts of the country where these birds are numerous, find it almost impossible for some time to sleep; while, to those long acquainted with them, the sound often serves as a lullaby to assist their repose. "These notes seem pretty plainly to articulate the words which have been generally applied to them, whip-poor-will, the first and last syllables being uttered with great emphasis, and the whole in about a second to each repetition; but when two or more males meet, their whip-poor-will altercations become much more rapid and incessant, as if each were straining to overpower or silence the other. When near, you often hear an introductory cluck between the notes. At these times, as well as at almost all others, they fly low, not more than a few feet from the surface, skimming about the house and before the door, alighting on the wood If ever I saw any thing like actual migration, it was last Michaelmas-day. I was travelling, and out early in the morning at first there was a vast fog, but, by the time that I was got seven or eight miles from home towards the coast, the sun broke out into a delicate warm day. We were then on a large heath, or common, and I could discern, as the mist began to break away, great numbers of swallows, hirundines rustica, clustering on the stunted shrubs and bushes, as if they had roosted there all night. As soon as the air became clear and pleasant, they all were on the wing at once; and, by a placid and easy flight, proceeded on southward, towards the sea: after this I did not see any more flocks, only now and then a straggler. I cannot agree with those persons that assert, that the swallow kind disappear some and some, gradually, as they come; for the bulk of them seem to withdraw at once; only some stragglers stay behind a long while, and do never, there is the greatest reason to believe, leave this island. Swallows seem to lay themselves up, and to come forth in a warm day, as bats do continually of a warm evening, after they have disappeared for weeks. For a very respectable gentleman assured me, that, as he was walking with some friends, under Merton-wall, on a remarkably hot noon, either in the last week in December, or the first week in January, he espied three or four swallows huddled together on the moulding of one of the windows of that college. I have frequently remarked that swallows are seen later at Oxford than elsewhere: is it owing to the vast, massy buildings of that place, to the many waters round it, or to what else? When I used to rise in a morning last autumn, and see the swallows and martens clustering on the chimneys and thatch of the neighbouring cottages, I could not help being touched with a secret delight, mixed with some degree of mortification : with delight, to observe with how much ardour and punctuality those poor little birds obeyed the strong impulse towards migration, or hiding, imprinted on their minds by their great Creator; and with some degree of mortification, when I reflected that, after all our pains and inquiries, we are yet not quite certain to what regions they do migrate; and are still farther embarrassed to find that some actually do not migrate at all. pile, or settling on the roof. Towards midnight, they generally become silent, unless in clear moonlight, when they are heard, with little intermission, till morning."-ED. These reflections made so strong an impression on my imagination, that they became productive of a composition, that may perhaps amuse you for a quarter of an hour when next I have the honour of writing to you. LETTER XXIV. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, May 29, 1769. DEAR SIR,-The scarabæus fullo I know very well, having seen it in collections; but have never been able to discover one wild in its natural state. Mr Banks told me he thought it might be found on the sea-coast. ; On the 13th of April, I went to the sheep-down, where the ringousels have been observed to make their appearance at spring and fall, in their way, perhaps, to the north or south and was much pleased to see three birds about the usual spot. We shot a cock and a hen; they were plump and in high condition. The hen had but very small rudiments of eggs within her, which proves they are late breeders; whereas those species of the thrush kind that remain with us the whole year have fledged young before that time. In their crops was nothing very distinguishable, but somewhat that seemed like blades of vegetables nearly digested. In autumn they feed on haws and yew-berries, and in the spring on ivy-berries. I dressed one of these birds, and found it juicy and well-flavoured. It is remarkable that they make but a few days' stay in their spring visit, but rest near a fortnight at Michaelmas. These birds, from the observations of three springs and two autumns, are most punctual in their return; and exhibit a new migration unnoticed by the writers, who supposed they never were to be seen in any of the southern counties. One of my neighbours lately brought me a new salicaria, which, at first, I suspected might have proved your willowlark, but on a nicer examination, it answered much better to the description of that species which you shot at Revesby, in Lincolnshire. My bird I describe thus - It is a size less than the grasshopper-lark; the head, back, and coverts of the wings, of a dusky brown, without the dark spots of the grasshopper-lark; over each eye is a milk-white stroke; the chin and throat are white, and the under parts of a yellowish white; * For this salicaria, see Letter XXVI. the rump is tawny, and the feathers of the tail sharp pointed; the bill is dusky and sharp, and the legs are dusky, the hinder claw long and crooked."* The person that shot it says, that it sung so like a reed-sparrow, that he took it for one; and that it sings all night: but this account merits farther inquiry. For my part, I suspect it is a second sort of locustella, hinted at by Dr Derham in Ray's Letters: see p. 74. He also procured me a grasshopper-lark. The question that you put with regard to those genera of animals that are peculiar to America, namely, How they came there, and whence? is too puzzling for me to answer; and yet so obvious as often to have struck me with wonder. If one looks into the writers on that subject, little satisfaction is to be found. Ingenious men will readily advance plausible arguments to support whatever theory they shall choose to maintain; but then the misfortune is, every one's hypothesis is each as good as another's, since they are all founded on conjecture. The late writers of this sort, in whom may be seen all the arguments of those that have gone before, as I remember, stock America from the western coast of Africa, and the south of Europe; and then break down the isthmus that bridged over the Atlantic. But this is making use of a violent piece of machinery it is a difficulty worthy of the interposition of a god! "Incredulus odi.” WHEN day, declining, sheds a milder gleam, What time the May-flyt haunts the pool or stream; The sedge bird, sylvia phragmitis, of Bechstein. Mr Sweet says, "It is almost constantly in song, both by night and by day, and may be heard at a considerable distance, beginning with chit, chit, chiddy, chiddy, chiddy, chit, chit, chit. It is a very lively bird, and shews scarcely any symptoms of fear, approaching very near to any person who does not drive or frighten it."-ED. The angler's May-fly, the ephemera vulgata, Linn. comes forth from its aurelia state, and emerges out of the water, about six in the evening, and dies about eleven at night, determining the date of its fly state in When the still owl skims round the grassy mead, While deep'ning shades obscure the face of day, As fancy warms, a pleasing kind of pain Steals o'er the cheek, and thrills the creeping vein! about five or six hours. They usually begin to appear about the 4th of June, and continue in succession for near a fortnight. See Swammerdam, Derham, Scopoli, &c. * Vagrant cuckoo; so called, because, being tied down by no incubation, or attendance about the nutrition of its young, it wanders without control. + Charadrius oedicnemus. Gryllus campestris. $ In hot summer nights, woodlarks soar to a prodigious height, and hang singing in the air. |