84 NATURAL HISTORY 



saw one killed in the water as it was on that errand in the 

 river St. Laivrence : it was a monstrous beast, he told me ; 

 but he did not take the dimensions. 



When I was last in town our friend Mr. Harrington 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 wonderful specimens. There is, I remem- 

 ber, at Lord Pembroke's, at Wilton, an horn room furnished 

 with more than thirty different pairs ; but I have not seen that 

 house lately. 



Mr. Barrington showed me many astonishing collections of 

 stuffed and living birds from all quarters of the world. After 

 I 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 motacillce, or musci- 

 capce, 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 ; w^hile 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 de- 

 fect of food that our collections (curious as they are) are 

 defective, and we are deprived of some of the most delicate 

 and lively genera. 



I am, &c. 



LETTER XXXI. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne, Sept. 14, 1770. 

 DEAR SIR, 



You saw, I find, the ring-ousels again among their native 

 crags ; and are farther assured that they continue resident in 

 those cold regions the whole year. From whence, then, do 

 our ring-ousels migrate so regularly every September, and 

 make their appearance again, as if in their return, every 



