9fr CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 



this change from proper colours to white in Larks which 

 are about Carlisle, to be very usual in Titlarks [Anthus 



fratensis] , which I have seen on our moors ; in Crows 

 Corvus corone], whereof there is one just now in Cliffe- 

 wood, near Peirce Bridge; in Daws [Corvus monedula], 

 whereof, this year, one was at Hurworth, near Croft 

 Bridge, which was altogether white, neb [beak], nails, 

 and all ; and in Sparrows [Passer domesticus], which 

 is usual. I have sent you the little yellow bird 

 [Sylvia sylvicola*] you called Regulus non-cristatus, what 

 bird it is I know not ;f but we have great store of them 

 each morning about sunrise, and many times a day ; 

 besides, she mounts the highest branch in the bush, and 

 there, with bill erect, and wing hovering, she sends forth 

 a sibilous noise like that of the grasshopper, but much 

 shriller. 



It is like enough our Whitethroat [Curruca cinerea] is 

 of the FicedulfB ; for it is her manner with us to fall 

 upon a fair and ripe cherry, whose skin when she hath 

 broken, with a chirp she invites her young brood, who 

 devour it in a moment. 



Brignall, near Greta Bridge, March 29, 72. 



Dr. LISTER to Mr. RAY. 



DEAR SIR, I shall teh 1 you only that Kermes is this 

 year a greater puzzle to rne than I expected it would have 

 proved. For I observe 1, That these are soft in the 

 early spring, and very pulpy. 2. That not only that 

 which I took to be the excrement of the bees, but also 



* Called also S. sibilatrix, in reference to its note. 



f Doubtless this bird was the Locustella, in Willughb. Ornith. book 2, 

 ch. 2, sec. 5, and not the Regulus non-cristatus, ch. 12, which I call the 

 Yellow Wren, and of which I have discovered three distinct species, but not 

 one of them that sings as is here described, and as I have seen two sorts (if 

 I mistake not) of Locustella birds do. W. D[erham]. 



