AND ROBERT MARSIIAM. 289 



the increase of the Beech (at 5 feet) was 3 inches & 2 tenths. 

 Sixteen Beeches of the same age, viz. all i had measured 

 except some i had digged round before, produced very little 

 above one inch a Tree. Therefore about 3 to one gained. 

 Now tho' the expense of digging cost much more than the 

 worth of the timber gained, yet it affords me much more 

 pleasure, than i could have felt, if i had not digged them, as i 

 do not feel the want of the digging money. You see 'tis like 

 Dean Swift in Gulliver of propagating a breed of Sheep with 

 hair instead of wool. But here is no injury, but to self. By 

 the bye i received a letter last post, informing me of a hollow 

 Oak within a few miles of Warwick 55 feet round at 3 feet. 

 I tell you honestly i do not believe it. I know there is a 

 Baronet of the name of Cullum in Suffulk, but i have never 

 seen him. I have been to very few of the public meetings of 

 Suffolk, & none in these last 50 years. 



Oct r 30. My infirmities force me to write by instalments, & 

 Madam Procrastination will command the use of my pen. 

 My man has just now shot me a bird, which was flying about 

 my house : i am confident i have never seen its likeness 

 before. But on application to Willughby, i conclude it is the 

 Wall-creeper, or Spider-catcher. I find he had not seen it in 

 England *. It is very beautifully coloured, 'tho' the chief is 

 cinereous ; but the shades of red on the wings, & the large 

 spots of white & yellow on the quil feathers, are uncommonly 

 pleasingf. You see Willughby does not mention them. 



I have asked several members for the Report, &c., but yet 

 without success : however, i have a few more in store. I am 

 surprised that M r Etty should hear the English language at 

 Canton. If the Chinese can read English, it will be their 

 fault as well as misfortune, if they do not read the Hist, of 

 Selborne. I had the pleasure of recommending a Vol. to 



* [Willughby 's words are : " In Anglia nostra earn invenire aiunt, 

 quamvis nobis nondum fuerit conspecta " (Ornithologist, 1676, p. 99). 

 Ray Englishes them : " They say it is found in England ; but we have not 

 as yet had the hap to meet with it " (p. 143). Who the authors were who 

 made such an assertion I do not know. A. N.] 



t [An exquisite drawing of two wing-feathers of the bird accompanied 

 a subsequent letter from Marsham (see pp. 294 and 297). T. B.] 



VOL. II. U 



