344 MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 



termination of fashionable ladies to buy no music but that of Thaiberg^ 

 appears exceedingly ridiculous. What use they can make of it — except to 

 curl their hair — I am at a loss to imagine. It shows how small a share rea- 

 son has in the musical predilections of the aristocracy ; for besides the extra- 

 ordinary mechanical difficulties with which the compositions of Thalberg 

 abound, a power and energy scarcely to be acquired by two years hard prac- 

 tice is indispensable to give them due effect. Now, the aversion of the 

 fashionable world to studies and exercises is notorious ; Kalkbrenner and 

 Hummel are characterized as too difficult both of comprehension and exe- 

 cution, and consequently are but little studied except by the professional 

 musician. Yet he who is able to appreciate both these admirable compos- 

 ers, and to play their works with effect, has travelled but a small portion of 

 the road necessary to enable him to render equal justice to Thalberg. But 

 in London it would seem that every thing must bow to fashion. Poor 

 Herz has now given way to a more powerful lion. Instead of this successive 

 idolatry and neglect, how much more would a just appreciation of every 

 composer according to his intrinsic merits be in accordance with the march of 

 intellect in the nineteenth century." — I fully agree with the sentiments of 



the above ; it is, indeed, high time that fashion should be voted vulgar. 



From a Correspondent. 



Eggs of the Merlin Falcon and Ortolan Bunting — I am glad 

 to see that it is your intention to continue the critical and analytical articles 

 on Gould's Birds of Europe. To those who do not possess a copy of this 

 splendid work, these notices must be valuable. 1 perceive the eggs of the 

 Merlin Falcon (p. 78) and Ortolan Bunting (p. 79) are incorrectly described. 

 Those of the former are very similar to the Peregrine Falcon's eggs. The 

 second figure of Hewitson's plate (62) will illustrate the general markings, 

 but they are much smaller, the egg scarcely exceeding in size that of the 

 Kestril Falcon. The eggs described in The Analyst are those of the Sparrow 

 Hawk. The eggs of the Ortolan Bunting are not streaked, like those of the 

 Yellow or Cirl Bunting, but are, for the most part, dotted ; in this particu- 

 lar they differ from those of all the other Buntings. At least such is the 

 case with my specimens, but possibly the marking of the eggs may varv in 

 different nests — J. D. Salmon, Thetford, Norfolk, April 22, 1837. [In the 

 British Odogy for May, 1837, two varieties of the egg of the Ortolan Bunt- 

 ing are figured with streaks, and one with dots alone Ed.] 



Grammar — " I now see clearly the advantage of paying little attention 

 to the grammar till you have made some progress in the language. Instead 

 of having both precepts and examples to learn, I need attend only to the 

 general rules of what I have alreadv seen in a variety of particular instances. 

 It is examining the map of a country through which I have before travel- 

 led." — Gibbon's Journal. [We have always been of opinion that it is not 

 only useless and tedious, but absolutely pernicious, in imparting language, to 

 attend so minutely to those abstract rules in which thoughtless routine mas- 

 ters so delight. Depend upon it, grammar may enter the brain by a much 

 less irksome process than " parsing," ♦' construing," &c., however much we 

 may be and have been ridiculed for the opinion Eds.] 



The Cirl Bunting in Yorkshire — The Cirl Bunting (Emheriza cir- 

 lus) has hitherto been supposed to be confined to a few of the warmer parts 

 of the south of England ; but we have seen a specimen, a fine female, in ex- 



