138 MIGRATION. 



do not dust. I think they do ; and if thev do, whether they 

 wash also.* 



The alauda pratensis of Eay was the poor dupe that was 

 educating the booby of a cuckoo mentioned in my letter c f 

 October last.f 



Tour letter came too late for me to procure a ring-ousel 

 for Mr. Tunstal during their autumnal visit; but I wiU 

 endeavour to get him one when they call on us again in 

 April. I am glad that you and that gentleman saw my 

 Andalusian birds ; I hope they answered your expectation. 

 Eoyston, or grey crows, are winter birds that come much 

 about the same time with the woodcock: they, like the 

 fieldfare and redwing, have no apparent reason for migra- 

 tion ; for, as they fare in the winter like their congeners, sc 

 might they, in all appearance, in the summer. + Was not 

 Tenant, when a boy, mistaken ? Did he not find a missel- 

 thrush's nest, and take it for the nest of a fieldfare ? 



The stock-dove or wood-pigeon, oenas Eaii, is the last 

 winter bird of passage which appears with us, § and is not 

 seen till towards the end of November. About twenty 

 . years ago, they aboimded in the district of Selborne, and 

 strings of them were seen morning and evening that reached 

 a mile or more ; but since the beechen woods have been 

 greatly thinned, they have much decreased in number. The 

 ring-dove, palumbus Eaii, stays with us the whole year, and 

 breeds several times thi'ough the summer. 



Before I received your letter of October last, I had just 

 remarked in my journal that the trees were unusually green. 

 This uncommon verdure lasted on late into November, and 

 may be accounted for from a late spring, a cool and moist 



* Larks certainly dust, and, in a cage, wash themselves, but I am not 

 aware that they do the latter when in a wild state. — F.d. 



f Letter xxxviii. to the Hon. Daines Barrington. 



X The Royston crow breeds, and is stationary, on all the west coast of 

 Scotland ; and it is probable that most of those which visit England during 

 winter, arrive from Sweden and Norway, or the countries adjacent, — few, if 

 any, of the Scotch individuals leaving their regular abodes. — W. J. 



§ Here, as in a previous passage, Mr. Wliite has spoken of the wood-pigeon 

 as synonimous with the stock-dove. It is more usual to apply that name to 

 the ring-dove. Perhaps, with the view of avoiding confusion, it would be 

 better that the use of the name wood-pigeon should be altogether abandoned, 

 — Mr Bknnktt. 



