FIELDFAKES. 103 



would be similar to that of the other winter birds of passage; 

 but when I see them for a fortnight at Michaelmas, and 

 again for about a week in the middle of April, I am seized 

 with wonder, and long to be informed whence these travel- 

 lers come, and whither they go, since they seem to use our 

 hills merely as an inn, or baiting place. 



Tour account of the greater brambling, or snow-fleck, is 

 very amusing; and strange it is that such a short- winged 

 bird should delight in such perilous voyages over the 

 northern ocean ! Some country people in the winter time 

 have every now and then told me that they have seen two or 

 three white larks on our downs ; but, on considering the 

 matter, I begin to suspect that these are some stragglers of 

 the birds we are talking of, which sometimes, perhaps, may 

 rove so far to the southward.* 



It pleases me to find that white hares are so frequent on 

 the Scottish mountains, and especially as you inform me that 

 it is a distinct species ; for the quadrupeds of Britain are so 

 few, that every new species is a great acquisition. 



The eagle-owl,t could it be proved to belong to us, is so 

 majestic a bird, that it would grace our fauna much. I 

 never was informed before where wild geese are known to 

 breed.J 



You admit, I find, that I have proved your fen salicaria 

 to be the lesser reed-sparrow of Ray ; and I think you may 

 be secure that I am right ; for I took very particular pains 

 to clear up that matter, and had some fair specimens ; but as 

 they were not well preserved they are decayed already. 

 You will, co doubt, insert it in its proper place in your 

 next edition. -Your additional plates will much improve 

 your work. 



* In the enow-fleck, which is now separated from the huntings, and, with 

 the Lapland finch, forms the genus plectrophanes of Meyer and modern 

 ornithologists, the wings are of considerable length, fitting them for more 

 exten ive journeys than the true emberizae. W. J. 



f This is now admitted into the British Fauna, having been killed at different 

 times in various parts of Great Britain. W. J. Mr. Bennett says it has been 

 shot in Yorkshire and Suffolk as well as in Scotland. 



J Under the term "wild geese," four or five snecies are generally included. 

 They used to breed in the fens of Lincolnshire, but improvements in agricul- 

 ture have driven them from that locality. They now urobably breed much in 

 Sweden, but not far inland. ED. 



