Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Notices, &^c. 213 



or uncoloured. Contrast that with the n on -appreciation of a 

 picture by Arabs or certain other races of human kind ! 



" Well, in your No. 8, p. 323, I demolished a luckless Mon- 

 sieur Payen, who cheerfully fancied that he had made a grand 

 discovery about the comestible birds'-nests. Now it comes to 

 the turn of my good and exceedingly respected friend, Robert 

 F. Tomes, Esq., who tells us (p. 318) that, as far as he knows, 

 ' the name of Professor Macgillivray stands alone in justification 

 of the alleged Pringilline affinities^ of the so-called Bearded 

 Titmouse. 



" Now, it does so happen that the very first ornithological 

 essay I ever committed to writing in my life was about this 

 very bird, which I called ' Bearded Reedling,' and not Tit, or 

 Titmouse. This was in 1832, in the first number of Rennie's 

 * Field-Naturalist's Magazine,^ wherein I made my debut as a 

 scribbler in Natural-History matters. I have had much to 

 answer for since then ! But, however that may be, it seems 

 that I do not happen to have this particular number handy to 

 refer to at this instant ; nevertheless I recommend those who 

 possess the opportunity to revert to it, because they will find 

 some sound and direct personal observations on the habits of 

 the ' Bearded Reedlinff,' whose afiinities I at that time thought 

 were Shrikish. By the way, this species is ' the Least Butcher- 

 bird' of Goldsmith's ' Animated Nature,' in which I suppose 

 that the agreeable author of ' The Traveller ' and the * Deserted 

 Village ' copied BufFon as usual. 



" However, in that same ' Field-Naturalist's Magazine' for 

 April 1833, p. 190 et seq., in returning to the charge, I would 

 not listen to anything about affinity with Parus, and I think 

 that it may be discerned that even then my notions were already 

 approximating i'lncA- ward. 



"In 1838 I took a part in a new translation of Cuvier's 

 ' Regne Animal,' wherein, if you refer to p. 198, you will find 

 that I assert of the Reedlings {Panurus seu Calamophilus) that 

 * their anatomy is strictly that of a Finch ; and they are much 

 more nearly related to the Waxbill-Finches than to the Tits, 

 with which latter they have little in common. The gullet has 

 an extremely long dilatation, or craw, and the gizzard is remark- 



