SELBORNE, _Sept. 14th_, 1770.
Dear Sir,--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 Tirol 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 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 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-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.