Wood-ivren 



LETTER XIX. 



To the same. 



SELBORNE, August 17 Ih, 1768. 

 EAR SIR, I have now, past dispute, made 

 out three distinct species of the willow-wrens 

 (motacillce trochili) which constantly and 

 invariably use distinct notes. But at the 

 same time I am obliged to confess that I 

 know nothing of your willow-lark.* In 

 my letter of April the i8th, I had told you 

 peremptorily that I knew your willow-lark, but had not seen 

 it then ; but when I came to procure it, it proved in all 

 respects a very tnotacilla trochilus, only that it is a size larger 

 than the two other, and the yellow-green of the whole upper 

 part of the body is more vivid, and the belly of a clearer 

 white. I have specimens of the three sorts now lying before 

 me, and can discern that there are three gradations of sizes, 

 and that the least has black legs, and the other two flesh- 

 coloured ones. The yellowest bird is considerably the 

 largest, and has its quill-feathers and secondary feathers 

 tipped with white, which the others have not. This last 

 haunts only the tops of trees in high beechen woods, and 



* " Brit. Zool.," edit. 1776, 8vo, p. 381. 



