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LETTER XXXIV.

TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ.

SELBORNE, May 12, 1770. DEAR SIR,-Last month we had such a series of cold turbulent weather, such a constant succession of frost, and snow, and hail, and tempest, that the regular migration, or appearance of the summer birds, was much interrupted. Some did not show themselves (at least were not heard) till weeks after their usual time, as the black-cap and white-throat; and some have not been heard yet, as the grasshopper-lark and largest willow-wren. As to the fly-catcher, I have not seen it; it is, indeed, one` of the latest, but should appear about this time; and yet, amidst all this meteorous strife and war of the elements, two swallows discovered themselves as long ago as the eleventh of April, in frost and snow: but they withdrew quickly, and were not visible again for many days.* House-martins, which are always more backward than swallows, were not observed till May came in.

Among the monogamous birds, several are to be found, after pairing time, single and of each sex ; but whether this state of celibacy is matter of choice or necessity is not so easily discoverable. When the house-sparrows deprive my martins of their nests, as soon as I cause one to be shot, the other, be it cock or hen, presently procures a mate, and so for several times following.†

I have known a dove-house infested by a pair of white owls, which made great havoc among the young pigeons:

It is certain that swallows re-migrate; that is, if on some of them arriving in this country the weather is ungenial, they leave it again for a short time. So in the autumnal migrations, swallows, after their flight, will return again to this country if they meet in their passage with adverse winds or storms. An observant naturalist residing near Liverpool has assured me of this fact.-ED.

The celerity with which birds find mates after a male or female has been shot, is very extraordinary. I have observed this among pigeous more particularly.-ED.

one of the owls was shot as soon as possible; but the survivor readily found a mate, and the mischief went on. After some time the new pair were both destroyed, and the annoyance ceased.

Another instance I remember of a sportsman, whose zeal for the increase of his game being greater than his humanity, after pairing time, he always shot the cock-bird of every couple of partridges upon his grounds: supposing that the rivalry of many males interrupted the breed. He used to say, that though he had widowed the same hen several times, yet he found she was still provided with a fresh paramour, that did not take her away from her usual haunt.

Again: I knew a lover of setting, an old sportsman, who has often told me that, soon after harvest, he has frequently taken small coveys of partridges consisting of cock-birds alone these he pleasantly used to call old bachelors.

There is a propensity belonging to common house cats that is very remarkable: I mean their violent fondness for fish, which appears to be their most favourite food; and yet nature, in this instance, seems to have planted in them an appetite that, unassisted, they know not how to gratify: for of all quadrupeds, cats are the least disposed towards water; and will not, when they can avoid it, deign to wet a foot, much less to plunge into that element.*

*In the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, on the authority of Dr. Darwin, cats fish: he says, "Mr. Leonard, a very intelligent friend of mine, saw a cat catch a trout, by darting upon it in a deep clear water, at the mill at Weaford, near Lichfield. The cat belonged to Mr. Stanley, who had often seen her catch fish in the same manner in summer, when the mill-pool was drawn so low that the fish could be seen. I have heard cf other cats taking fish in shallow water, as they stood on the bank. This seems to be a natural method of taking their prey, usually lost by domestication, though they all retain a strong relish for fish." The Rev. W. Bingley mentions another instance of a cat freely taking the water, related by his friend Mr. Bill, of Christchurch. When he lived at Wallington, near Carshalton, in Surrey, he had a cat that was often known to plunge, without hesitation, into the river Wandle, and swim over to an island at a little distance from the bank. To this there could be no other inducement than the fish she might catch on her passage, or the vermin that the island afforded.-W. J.

"These are curious instances," says the editor of the London Literary Gazette, in reviewing a former edition of this volume," but the following, which may be depended upon as a fact, is still more remarkable. At Caverton Mill, in Roxburghshire, a beautiful spot upon Kale Water, there was a favourite cat, domesticated in the dwelling-house, which stood at two or three

Quadrupeds that prey on fish are amphibious; such is the otter, which by nature is so well formed for diving, that it makes great havoc among the inhabitants of the waters. Not supposing that we had any of those beasts in our shallow brooks, I was much pleased to see a male otter brought to me, weighing twenty-one pounds, that had been shot on the bank of our stream, below the Priory, where the rivulet divides the parish of Selborne from Harteleywood.

LETTER XXXV.

TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

SELBORNE, May 21, 1770. DEAR SIR,―The severity and turbulence of last month so interrupted the regular process of summer migration, that some of the birds do but just begin to show themselves, and others are apparently thinner than usual; as the whitethroat, the black-cap, the red-start, the fly-catcher. I well remember that, after the very severe spring in the year 1739-40, summer birds of passage were very scarce. They come probably hither with a south-east wind, or when it blows between those points; but, in that unfavourable year, the winds blew the whole spring and summer through from the opposite quarters. And yet, amidst all these disadvantages, two swallows, as I mentioned in my last, appeared this year as early as the 11th of April, amidst frost and snow; but they withdrew again for a time.

hundred yards from the mill. When the mill-work ceased, the water was, as usual, stopped at the dam-head, and the dam below consequently ran gradually more shallow, often leaving trout, which had ascended when it was full, to struggle back with difficulty to the parent stream; and so well acquainted had puss become with this circumstance, and so fond was puss of fish, the moment the noise of the mill-clapper ceased, she used to scamper off to the dam, and, up to her belly in water, continue to catch fish like an otter. It would not be very easy to cite a more curious case of animal instinct approaching to reason, and overcoming the usual habits of the species."

*

I am not pleased to find that some people seem so little satisfied with Scopoli's new publication. There is room to expect great things from the hands of that man, who is a good naturalist; and one would think that a history of the birds of so distant and southern a region as Carniola would be new and interesting. I could wish to see that work, and hope to get it sent down. Dr. Scopoli is physician to the wretches that work in the quicksilver mines of that district.

When you talked of keeping a reed-sparrow, and giving it seeds, I could not help wondering; because the reed-sparrowt which I mentioned to you (passer arundinaceus minor, Raii) is a soft-billed bird, and most probably migrates hence before winter; whereas the bird you kept (passer torquatus, Raii)‡ abides all the year, and is a thick-billed bird. I question whether the latter be much of a songster; but in this matter I want to be better informed. The former has a variety of hurrying notes, and sings all night. Some part of the song of the former, I suspect, is attributed to the latter. have plenty of the soft-billed sort, which Mr. Pennant had entirely left out of his British Zoology, till I reminded him of his omission. See British Zoology last published, p. 16.§

We

I have somewhat to advance on the different manners in which different birds fly and walk; but as this is a subject that I have not enough considered, and is of such a nature as not to be contained in a small space, I shall say nothing farther about it at present.||

No doubt the reason why the sex of birds in their first plumage is so difficult to be distinguished is, as you say, because they are not to pair and discharge their parental functions till the ensuing spring." As colours seem to be

66

*This work he calls his "Annus Primus Historico-Naturalis,"—" First Annual of Natural History," is probably the most intelligible translation of the title.

The Sedge-warbler (Salicaria phragmitis).

The Reed-bunting (Emberiza schaniclus).

§ See Letter XXVI. To Thomas Pennant, Esq.

See Letter LXXIV. To the Hon. Daines Barrington.

If the young had their full plumage the first year, or when they quitted their nest, they would in their then feeble state be more exposed to be killed by birds of prey, and other casualties. It seems therefore a benevolent design

of Providence that the more humble plumage should remain on them till they are more able to protect themselves.-ED.

the chief external sexual distinction in many birds, these colours do not take place till sexual attachments begin to obtain. And the case is the same in quadrupeds, among whom, in their younger days, the sexes differ but little; but, as they advance to maturity, horns and shaggy manes, beards and brawny necks, &c., &c., strongly discriminate the male from the female. We may instance still farther in our own species, where a beard and stronger features are usually characteristic of the male sex ; but this sexual diversity does not take place in earlier life; for a beautiful youth shall be so like a beautiful girl, that the difference shall not be discernible :

Quem si puellarum insereres choro,
Mirè sagaces falleret hospites
Discrimen obscurum, solutis

Crinibus, ambiguóque vultu."--HOR.

If he were by girls surrounded,
Strangers soon would be confounded:
Manhood's form could no one trace
In his beardless female face.

LETTER XXXVI.

TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ.

SELBORNE, Aug. 1, 1770. DEAR SIR, The French, I think, in general, are strangely prolix in their natural history. What Linnæus says with respect to insects holds good in every other branch: "Verbositas præsentis sæculi, calamitas artis."

Pray how do you approve of Scopoli's new work? As I admire his Entomologia, I long to see it.

I forgot to mention in my last letter (and had not room to insert in the former) that the male moose, in rutting time, swims from island to island, in the lakes and rivers of North America, in pursuit of the females. My friend, the chaplain, saw one killed in the water, as it was on that errand, in the river St. Lawrence: it was a moustrous beast, be told me; but he did not take the dimensions.

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