96 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



loxia and fringilla genera ; and no motacillce, or musricapa, were 

 to be met with. When I came to consider, the reason was 

 obvious enough ; for the hard-billed birds subsist on seeds which 

 are easily carried on board ; while the soft-billed birds, which are 

 supported by worms and insects, or, what is a succedaneum for 

 them, fresh raw meat, can meet with neither in long and tedious 

 voyages. It is from this defect of food that our collections (curious 

 as they are) are defective, and we are deprived of some of the 

 most delicate and lively genera. 



I am, etc. 



LETTER XXXI. 



SELBORNE, Sept. 14/7*, 1770. 



DFAR SIR, You saw, I find, the ring-ousels again among their 

 native crags ; and are farther assured that they continue resident 

 in those cold regions the whole year. From whence then do our 

 ring-ousels migrate so regularly every September, and make their 

 appearance again, as if in their return, every April ? They are 

 more early this year than comrnon, for some were seen at the 

 usual hill on the fourth of this month. 



An observing Devonshire gentleman tells me that they frequent 

 some parts of Dartmoor, and breed there ; but leave those haunts 

 about the end of September, or beginning of October, and return 

 again about the end of March. 



Another intelligent person assures me that they breed in great 

 abundance all over the peak of Derby, and are called there 

 tor-ousels ; withdraw in October and November, and return in 

 spring. This information seems to throw some light on my new 

 migration. 



Scopoli's new work (which I have just procured) has its merit 

 in ascertaining many of the birds of the Tirol and Carniola. 

 Monographers, come from whence they may, have, I think, fair 

 pretence to challenge some regard and approbation from the 

 lovers of natural history ; for, as no man can alone investigate 



