L E T T E R XXXI.
TO THE SAME.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, Sept. 14, »770.
Y OU law, I find, die ring-oufels again among their native
crags; and are farther allured that they continue refident in thofe
cold regions the whole year. From whence then do our ring-
oufels migrate fo regularly every September, and make their
appearance again, as if in their return, every April? They are-
more early this year than common, for fome were feen at the
ufual hill on the fourth of this month.
An obferving Devonjhire gentleman tells me that they frequent
fome parts of Dartmoor, and breed- there; but leave thofe haunts
about the end of September or beginning of October, and return
again about the end of March.
Another intelligent perfon allures me that they breed in great
abundance all over the Peak of Derby, and are called there Tor-
oufels; withdraw in ÖBober' and November, and return in fpring.
This information feems to throw fome light on my new
migration,
Scopoli’sm new work (which I have juft procured) has it’s merit
in afcertaining. many of the birds of the Pirol and Garniola.
Monographers, come from whence they may, have, I think,
fair pretence to challenge fome regard and approbation from the
*-■ Anna] Primus Hijtorico-Naturalis,
lovers
lovers of natural hiftory; for, as no man can alone inveftigate all
the works of nature, thefe partial writers may, each in their _. ^
department, be more accurate in their difcoveries, and f r e e r . -—* -y
from errors, than more general writers ; and fo by degrees may
pave the way to an univerfal corredt natural hiftory. Not that^£— ^
Scopoli is fo circumftantial and attentive to the life and converfation*-*^«-*'.. '
of his birds as I could wilh : he advances fome falfe facts; as
when he fays of the hirundo urbica that “ pulloS extra nidtrn non
“ nutrit.” This affertion I know to be wrong from repeated
obfervation this, fummer; for houfe-martins do feed their young .«e» . „ A i t - /
flying, though it muft be acknowledged not fo commonly as ***-«*' ~ -
the houfe-fwallow; and the feat is done in fo quick a manner as
not to be perceptible to indifferent obfervers. He alfo advances
fome (I was going to fay) improbable fadts; as when he fays of
the woodcock that “ pullos rojiro portat fugiens ab hojle.” But candour
forbids me to lay abfolutely that any fadt is falfe, becaufe I have /
never been witnefs to fuch a fadt. I have only to remark that the
long unweildy bill of the woodcock is perhaps the worft adapted
of any among the winged creation for fuch a feat of natural
affedtion. I am, &c-
L E T T E R
ill ill
f
•8*. ira
fifi 1}
I
fIfiji
m
ill 1
|imll!1■Im
'I