fight of. Pray he fure to tell me in your -next w'hofe feat Cnjji-
h ill is, an'd near what town it lies’ . I have often thought that
thofe vaft extents of fens have never been fufficiently explored«
If half a dozen gendemen, furnilhed.with. a good ftrength of
water-fpaniels, were to beat them over for a week, they Would
certainly find more fpectes.
There is no birds, I "believe, whole manners I have ftudied
more than that of the caprimalgus ('the goat-fucker), as it "is a wonderful
and 'curious creature: but I havé always found that though
fometimes it may charter as it flies» 'as I know it does, yet in
general it Utters ids jarring note fitting on a bough; and -I have
for many an half hour watched it as it fat with it’s under mandible
Quivering, and particularly this fumrrier. It perches ufually, on
a bare twig, with it’s head lower than it’s tail, in an attitude well
expreffed by your draughtfman in the folio "Briiifh Zoology. This
bird is molt pundtual in beginning it’s fong exactly at the dole of
day; jfo exadl'ythat I have known itftrike up more -than once or
twice juft at the report of the Pvrtfmcmth evening gun, which we
can hear when the weather is Hill. It appears to -me jpaft all
doubt that it’s notes are formed by organic impulte, by the
powers of the parts of- it’s windpipe, formed for found, juft as cats
pur. You will credit me, I hope, when I affure you that, as my
neighbours were affembled in anf hermitage on the fide of a fteep
hill where we drink tea, one of tbefe cliurn-owls came and
fettled on the crofs of that little ftraw edifice and began-to chatter,
and continued'his'note for many minutes ; and we were all ftruck
with wonder’to find that the organs of that little animal, when put
in motion, gave a fetifibie vibration to the whole building ! This
a CreJJi-hall is near Spalding.,, in Lincolnjhire.
b See the vignette in this book.
bird
bird alfo fometimes makes a fmall fqueak, repeated four or five
times; and I have obferved that to happen when the cock has
been-purfuing the hen in a toying way through the boughs of
a tree.
It would not be at all ftrange if" your bat, which you have
procured» fhould prove a new one, fince five fpecies have been
found in a neighbouring kingdom. The great fort that I mentioned
is certainly a non-defcript: I faw but one this fumrner, and
that I had no opportunity of taking.
Yopr account of the Indian Agrafe was entertaining, I am no
angler myfelf; but inquiring of thofe that are,, what they fuppofcd
that part of their tackle to be made of ? they replied ‘ ‘ of the in-
t( teftines of a filkworm.”
Though I mnft not pretend to great fikill in .entofoplogy, yet I
cannot fay that I am ignorant of that kind of knowledge : I may
rtow and then' perhaps; be able to furni-fti you with a little
information.
The vaft rains ceafed with us much about the fame time as with
you, and fince we have had delicate weather. Mr. Barker, who
has meafured the rain for more than thirty years, fays, in a late
letter, that more has fallen this year than in any he ever attended
to ; though, from July 1763 to January 17.64, more fell than in
any feven months, of this. year..
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