120 The Natural History of Se I borne 



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 re- 

 member, 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 nwtacillce, or nmscicapce, 

 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, &c. 



