146 CUCKOO. 



the swallow, the white-throat, the goldfinch, the 

 common linnet, are all undoubted instances of the 

 truth of what I advanced. 



If this severe season does not interrupt the re- 

 gularity of the summer migrations, the black-cap 

 will be here in two or three days \ I wish it was 

 in my power to procure you one of those song- 

 sters ; but I am no bird-catcher ; and so little used 

 to birds in a cage, that I fear, if I had one, it 

 would soon die for want of skill in feeding. 



Was your red sparrow, which you kept in a 

 cage, the thick-billed red sparrow of the Zoology, 

 p. 320 ; or was it the less red sparrow of Ray, 

 the sedge bird of Mr. Pennant's last publication, 

 p. 16? 



As to the matter of long-billed birds growing 

 fatter in moderate frosts, I have no doubt within 

 myself what should be the reason. The thriving 

 at those times appears to me to arise altogether 

 from the gentle check which the cold throws 

 upon insensible perspiration. The case is just 

 the same with blackbirds, &c. ; and farmers and 

 warreners observe, the first, that their hogs fat 

 more kindly at such times; and the latter, that 

 their rabbits are never in such good case as in a 

 gentle frost. But when frosts are severe, and of 

 long continuance, the case is soon altered; for 

 then a want of food soon overbalances the reple- 

 tion occasioned by a checked perspiration. I 

 have observed, moreover, that some human consti- 

 tutions are more inclined to plumpness in winter 

 than in summer. 



1 Through the attention of W. Carruthers, Esq. of 

 Dormont, I have lately received the black-cap, with some 

 others of our summer birds, from Madeira, where it is 

 probable they partly retire on leaving their breeding places* 

 W. J. 



