400 Hetrospedive Criticism. 



the day as well as early and late, and that constantly. As the ponds I have 

 generally seen them in are, however, but little frequented, that may have 

 rendered them more bold than usual there. — Thomas Thompsoii. Hull, 

 July^O. 1829. 



Sturnus Cmclrn. — In Vol. II. p. 301., Mr. Thos. Thompson of Hull com- 

 plains that of the specific name he can " make nothing ;'^ and thinks it ought 

 to be written clnc^us : fancifully, this may do, and I like his wit well. Cfnclus, 

 however, is undoubtedly right, and derived from the Greek for a thrush, 

 KixM ; which word, Mr. Editor, if you can hit in English type, you shall 

 " be clapped on the shoulder," (as honest Benedick says) " and called 

 Adam " clever fellow ! — It may be pronounced hink-le, and is spelt in La- 

 tin with a c, because k is one of the letters not used by the Romans. By 

 many ornithologists it was, and is, incorporated with the TVardi, and the 

 present specific is probably retained for no other reason. Cfnclus was, 

 therefore, an " excellent good word, till it became ill-sorted." That the 

 bird dives there is no doubt, and for which we have the authority of Lin- 

 ngeus, who expresses his wonder thereat, being digit-footed. " Hyeme (ha- 

 bitat) ad cataractas, fontesque non congelandos,;^ubi inirb descendit per 

 rapidos voragines, voratura oniscos aquaticos insectaque alia ; emergitque 

 non palmipes,^'* With regard to this gentleman's (Mr. Thompson's) unbe- 

 lief of its lualking at the bottom of water, I can with confidence inform him, 

 that my excellent friend, Mr. Joseph Warren, now of Bryn-Morda, once 

 lived in a house directly overlooking that bright and rapid little river, and tells 

 me, that he has occasionally, but rarely, seen it do so, but in a very awkward, 

 tumbling, and shuffling wriggle. Its song is very singular and infrequent, 

 which I have heard (as 1 find by my notes) late in October. I have seen 

 this bird dart through the broad, powerful, and heavy waterfall of a mill- 

 dam, on the property of my just-named friend, which he, in consequence, 

 caused for a few minutes to be stopped, and behind it we found the nest, 

 in shape and materials very like that of the common wren ; being made of 

 dry leaves, bents, and moss : I say dry, for the leaves were not only dead of 

 the last year, but so placed that the spray of the vast over-shoot could 

 scarcely wet them. This bird is very common about the rapid rivers of Wales, 

 and on our Border here ; and I have seen it very frequent in Cumberland 

 and Scotland, as far north as the Falls of Foyers, near Inverness. It has 

 been generised with the ilfotacillae ; and indeed Linnaeus says it can hardly 

 be distinguished from them in the beak and nostrils. Long before I knew 

 this, it had often struck me, that this bird very closely resembles the merry 

 Troglodite in habits and motions; and facetiously to my friends 1 have 

 called it the Brook-wren ; and in Westmoreland (where their brilliant ra- 

 pids are called Becks), the Beck-wren. Pardon the pun (for I hate pjiny 

 wit), as it well suits the " becks and nods " of this neat, nimble, and lively 

 bird, who, 'like^ his more illustrious companion, the king-fisher, and their 

 happy admirer, myself, loves the streams and glades inglorious. — John F. 

 AT. Dovaston, Westfelton, near Shrewsbur?/, July 21, 1829. 



Kniirrhinum Cymhalaria in Wales. — Sir, T. F. (Vol. I. p. 378.) found the 

 j^ntirrhinum Cymbalaria, which he calls Toadflax (A. Linaria), on a rock 

 near Barmouth, North Wales. That neither this gentleman nor others be 

 thereby misled in imagining it a native, I here declare that several years ago, 

 in one of my numerous tours through that and other mountainous regions, I 

 carried a box of the seeds of this beautiful, graceful, and tenacious plant, which 

 I distribute i in appropriate places, on rocks, ruins, churches, castles, and 

 bridges, where I have since beheld it thriving in tresses and festoons to my 

 fullest satisfaction. I particularly remember sowing it on the rock he men- 



* " In the winter it frequents waterfalls and wells that freeze not, where 

 it wonderfully plunges through rapid whirlpools, to feed on water-oMWci, 

 and other insects ; and, though not web^ooled, reascemU.'* 



