SPECIMENS OF BIRDS. 125 



When I was last in town, our friend Mr. Barring- 

 ton most obligingly carried me to see many curious 

 sights. As you were then writing to him about 

 horns, he carried me to see many strange and won- 

 derful specimens. There is, I remember, at Lord 

 Pembroke's, at Wilton, a horn-room furnished with 

 more than thirty different pairs ; but I have not seen 

 that house lately. 



Mr. Barrington showed me many astonishing col- 

 lections of stuffed and living birds from all quarters 

 of the world. After 1 had studied over the latter for 

 a time, I remarked that every species almost, that 

 came from distant regions, such as South America, 

 the coast of Guinea, &c., were thick-billed birds, of 

 the loxia and fringilla genera ; and no motacilla or 

 muscicapidte* , 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 (cu- 

 rious as they are,) are defective, and we are deprived 

 of some of the most delicate and lively genera. 



* This collection must have been very limited, and, of course, 

 the conclusions erroneously drawn from a few species. The mus- 

 cicapidce and sylviada abound in all South America. W. J. 



