138 MIGEATION. 



do not dust. I think they do ; and if they do, whether they 

 wash also.* 



The alauda pratensis of Eay was the poor dupe that was 

 educating the booby of a cuckoo mentioned in my letter of 

 October last.f 



Tour letter came too late for me to procure a ring-ousel 

 for Mr. Tunstal during their autumnal visit ; but I will 

 endeavour to get him one when they call on us again in 

 April. I am glad that you and that gentleman saw my 

 Andalusian birds ; I hope they answered your expectation. 

 Eoyston, or grey crows, are winter birds that come much 

 about the same time with the woodcock: they, like the 

 fieldfare and redwing, have no apparent reason for migra- 

 tion ; for, as they fare in the winter like their congeners, so 

 might they, in all appearance, in the summer.^ "Was not 

 Tenant, when a boy, mistaken ? Did he not find a missel- 

 thrush's nest, and take it for the nest of a fieldfare ? 



The stock-dove or wood-pigeon, cenas Eaii, is the last 

 winter bird of passage which appears with us, and is not 

 seen till towards the end of November. About twenty 

 years ago, they abounded in the district of Selborne, and 

 strings of them were seen morning and evening that reached 

 a mile or more ; but since the beechen woods have been 

 greatly thinned, they have much decreased in number. The 

 ring-dove, palumbus Eaii, stays with us the whole year, and 

 breeds several times through the summer. 



Before I received your letter of October last, I had just 

 remarked in my journal that the trees were unusually green. 

 This uncommon verdure lasted on late into November, and 

 may be accounted for from a late spring, a cool and moist 



* Larks certainly dust, and, in a cage, wash themselves, but I am not 

 aware that they do the latter when in a wild state. ED. 



-) Letter xxxvm. to the Hon. Daines Barrington. 



J The Royston crow breeds, and is stationary, on all the west coast of 

 Scotland ; and it is probable that most of those which visit England during 

 winter, arrive from Sweden and Norway, or the countries adjacent, few, if 

 any, of the Scotch individuals leaving their regular abodes. W. J; 



Here, as in a previous passage, Mr. White has spoken of the wood-pigeon 

 as synonimous with the stock-dove. It is more usual to apply that name to 

 the ring-dove. Perhaps, with the view of avoiding confusion, it would be 

 better that the use of the name wood-pigeon should be altogether abandoned. 

 Ma. BKNNETT. 



