V Tttm ouse 



LETTER XLL 



1*0 the same. 



is matter of curious inquiry to trace out how 

 those species of soft-billed birds that continue 

 with us the winter through, subsist during the 

 dead months. The imbecility [feebleness] of 

 birds seems not to be the only reason why they 

 shun the rigour of our winters ; for the robust 

 wryneck (so much resembling the hardy race of 

 woodpeckers) migrates, while the feeble little golden-crowned wren, 

 that shadow of a bird, braves our severest frosts without availing 

 himself of houses and villages, to which most of our winter birds 

 crowd in distressful seasons, while this keeps aloof in fields and 

 woods ; but perhaps this may be the reason why they may often 

 perish, and why they are almost as rare as any bird we know. 



I have no reason to doubt but that the soft-billed birds, which 

 winter with us, subsist chiefly on insects in their aurelia state. All 

 the species of wagtails in severe weather haunt shallow streams near 

 their spring-heads, where they never freeze ; and, by wading, pick 

 out the aurelias of the genus of Phryg&neje* &c. 



* See Derham's " Physico-theology," p. 235. 



