12 



The Natural History 



it a quaint and magisterial air, and is very sententious : 

 but, when I recollect that you requested stricture and 

 anecdote, I hope you will pardon the didactic manner 

 for the sake of the information it may happen to 



contain. 



LETTER XL! 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE 



It 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 of birds seems not to be the only reason why 

 they shun the rigour of our winters ; for the robust wry- 

 neck (so much resembling the hardy race of wood-peckers) 

 migrates, while the feeble litlle golden-crowned wren, that 

 shadow of a bird, braves our severest frosts without avail- 

 ing himself of houses or 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 

 aurclia state. All the species of wagtails in severe 

 weather haunt shallow streams near their spring-heads, 

 where they never freeze ; and, by w^ading, pick out the 

 aurelias of the genus oi PhrygamcB^ etc. 



Hedge-sparrows frequent sinks and gutters in hard 

 weather, where they pick up crumbs and other sweep- 

 ings : and in mild weather they procure worms, which 

 are stirring every month in the year, as anyone may see 

 that will only be at the trouble of taking a candle to a 

 grass-plot on any mild winter's night. Red-breasts and 

 wrens in the winter haunt out-houses, stables, and barns, 

 where they find spiders and flies that have laid them- 



^ See Doiham's rhysico-theolo^}\ p. 235. 



