72 WHITE 



America, the coast of Guinea, etc., 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 ; while 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 defect 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, etc. 



LETTER XXXI 



SELBORNE, Sept. itfh, 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 

 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 

 October, 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 re- 

 turn in spring. This information seems to throw some light 

 on my new migration. 



Scopoli's new work (which I have just procured) has its 

 merit in ascertaining many of the birds of the Tyrol and Car- 

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

 think, fair pretence to challenge some regard and approba- 

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

 alone investigate the works of nature, these partial writers 



