122 RETURN OF SUMMER BIRDS. 



LETTER XXXV. 



TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. 



SELBORNE, May 21, 1770. 

 DEAR SIR, 



THE severity and turbulence of last month so 

 interrupted the regular process of summer migration, 

 that some of the birds do but just begin to show 

 themselves, and others are apparently thinner than 

 usual ; as the white-throat, the black- cap, the red- 

 start, the fly-catcher. I well remember that, after 

 the very severe spring, in the year 1739-40, summer 

 birds of passage were very scarce. They come pro- 

 bably hither with a south-east wind, or when it blows 

 between those points ; but, in that unfavourable year, 

 the winds blew the whole spring and summer through 

 from the opposite quarters. And yet, amidst all these 

 disadvantages, two swallows, as I mentioned in my 

 last, appeared this year as early as the llth of April, 

 amidst frost and snow ; but they withdrew again for 

 a time. 



I am not pleased to find that some people seem so 

 little satisfied with Scopoli's new publication*. There 

 is room to expect great things from the hands of that 

 man, who is a good naturalist ; and one would think 

 that a history of the birds of so distant and southern 

 a region as Carniola would be new and interesting. 

 I could wish to see that work, and hope to get it sent 

 down. Dr. Scopoli is physician to the wretches that 

 work in the quicksilver mines of that district. 



* This work he calls his " Annus Primus Historico-Naturalis," 

 " First Annual of Natural History," is probably the most in- 

 telligible translation of the title. 



