OF SELBORNE. bo 



April ? They are more early this year than common, for 

 some were seen at the usual hill on the fourth of this month. 



An observing Devonshire gentleman tells me that they fre- 

 quent some parts of Dartmoor, and breed there ; but leave 

 those haunts about the end of September or beginning of Oc- 

 tober, and return again about the end of March. 



Another intelligent person assures me that they breed in 

 great abundance all over the Peak of Derby, and are called 

 there Tor-ousels; withdraw in October and November, and 

 return in spring. This information seems to throw some light 

 on my new migration. 



Scopolis new work (which I have just procured) has it's 

 merits in ascertaining many of the birds of the Tirol and Car- 

 niola. Monographers, come from whence they may, have, I 

 think, fair pretence to challenge some regard and approbation 

 from the lovers of natural history ; for, as no man can alone 

 investigate all the works of nature, these partial writers may, 

 each in their department, be more accurate in their discoveries, 

 and freer from errors, than more general writers ; and so by 

 degrees may pave the way to an universal correct natural his- 

 tory. Not that Scopoli is so circumstantial and attentive to 

 the life and conversation of his birds as I could wish: he ad- 

 vances some false facts ; as when he says of the hirundo ur- 

 bica that " pullos extra nidum non nutrit" This assertion I 

 know to be wrong from repeated observation this summer ; 

 for house-martins do feed their young flying, though it must 

 be acknowledged not so commonly as the house-swallow ; and 

 the feat is done in so quick a manner as not to be perceptible 

 to indifferent observers. He also advances some (I was going 

 to say) improbable facts; as when he says of the woodcock that, 

 " pullos rostro portat fugiens ab hoste." But candour forbids 

 me to say absolutely that any fact is false, because I have 

 never been witness to such a fact. I have only to remark 

 that the long unwieldy bill of the woodcock is perhaps the 

 worst adapted of any among the winged creation for such a 

 feat of natural affection*. I am, &c. 



111 Annus Primus Historico-Naturalis. 



* [So many instances are recorded by trustworthy observers, attesting 



