SNIPES GOLDEN-CROWNED WREN. 57 



it is all confusion ; there is no distinction of genus, 

 species, or sex. 



In breeding-time, snipes play over the moors, 

 piping and humming; they always hum as they 

 are descending. Is not their hum ventriloquous, 

 like that of the turkey ? Some suspect that it is 

 made by their wings. 



This morning I saw the golden -crowned wren, 

 whose crown glitters like burnished gold. It 

 often hangs like a titmouse, with its back down- 

 wards. 



XVII. 



Ox Wednesday last arrived your agreeable let- 

 ter of June the 10th. It gives me great satisfac- 

 tion to find that you pursue these studies still with 

 such vigour, and are in such forwardness with re- 

 gard to reptiles and fishes. 



The reptiles, few as they are, I am not ac- 

 quainted with, so well as I could wish, with re- 

 gard to their natural history. There is a degree 

 of dubiousness and obscurity attending the propa- 

 gation of this class of animals, something analo- 

 gous to that of the cryptogamia in the sexual sys- 

 tem of plants ; and the case is the same with re- 

 gard to some of the fishes, as the eel, &c. 



The method in which toads procreate and bring 

 forth, seems to be very much in the dark. Some 

 authors say that they are viviparous ; and yet Ray 



of his character, the speculation in his eye, the assiduity 

 of his labour, and his most extraordinary fearlessness and 

 familiarity, though coupled with fierceness, gave us a con- 

 sideration for him that may appear ridiculous to those who 

 have never so nearly observed the ways of an animal as 

 to feel interested in its fate. With us it was different." 

 W. J. 



