74 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



LETTER XXXI 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE 



Selborne, Sept. 14, 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 

 frequent some parts of Dartmoor, and breed there ; but 

 leave those haunts about the end of September or begin- 

 ning 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 Novem- 

 ber, and return in spring. This information seems to 

 throw some light on my new migration. 



Scopoli's 1 new work (which I have just procured) has 

 its merits in ascertaining many of the birds of the Tirol 

 and Carniola. 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 history. Not that 

 Scopoli is so circumstantial and attentive to the life and 

 conversation of his birds as I could wish : he advances 



1 Annus Primus Historico-Naturalis. 



