48 HAWS CANARY BIRD. 



short remiges. It cannot, I suppose, with any pro- 

 priety, be called an English bird ; and yet I see, by 

 Ray's Philosophical Letters , that great flocks of them, 

 feeding on haws, appeared in this kingdom, in the 

 winter of 1685.* 



The mention of haws puts me in mind that there 

 is a total failure of that wild fruit, so conducive to 

 the support of many of the winged nation. For, the 

 same severe weather, late in the spring, which cut 

 off all the produce of the more tender and curious 

 trees, destroyed also that of the more hardy and 

 common. 



Some birds, haunting with the missel-thrushes, 

 and feeding on the berries of the yew-tree, which 

 answered to the description of the merula torquata, 

 or ringousel, were lately seen in this neighbourhood. 

 I employed some people to procure me a specimen, 

 but without success. See Letter VIII. 



Query Might not Canary birds be naturalized 

 to this climate, provided their eggs were put, in the 

 spring, into the nests of some of their congeners, 

 as goldfinches, greenfinches, &c. ? Before winter, 

 perhaps, they might be hardened, and able to shift 

 for themselves. 



About ten years ago, I used to spend some weeks 

 yearly at Sunbury, which is one of those pleasant 

 villages lying on the Thames, near Hampton Court. 

 In the autumn I could not help being much amused 

 with those myriads of the swallow kind which assem- 

 ble in those parts. But what struck me most was, 



* In 1810, large flocks of this species were dispersed 

 through various parts of the kingdom ; and from that period, 

 few appear to have visited the island, until February, 1822, 

 when several occurred, and one was killed on the Calton Hill, 

 Edinburgh. They appeared also during the severe storm of 

 1823, and several were killed in East Lothian last winter, (1828.) 

 W.J. 



