RE ED-SPARROW. 149 



with a south-east wind, or when it blows between 

 those points ; but in that unfavourable year the 

 winds blew the whole spring and summer 

 through from the opposite quarters. And yet, 

 amidst all these disadvantages, two swallows, as I 

 mentioned in my last, appeared this year as early 

 as the llth of April, amidst frost and snow; but 

 they withdrew again for a time. 



I am not pleased to find that some people seem 

 so little satisfied with Scopoli's new publication 1 . 

 There is room to expect great things from the 

 hands of that man, who is a good naturalist ; and 

 one would think that a history of the birds of so 

 distant and southern a region as Carniola would 

 be new and interesting. I could wish to see that 

 work, and hope to get it sent down. Dr. Scopoli 

 is physician to the wretches that work in the 

 quicksilver mines of that district. 



When you talked of keeping a reed-sparrow, 

 and giving it seeds, I could not help wondering ; 

 because the reed- sparrow, which I mentioned to 

 you (passer arundinaceus minor, Raii,) is a soft- 

 billed bird, and most probably migrates hence 

 before winter ; whereas the bird you kept (passer 

 torquatus, Raii,) abides all the year, and is a 

 thick-billed bird. I question whether the latter 

 be much of a songster ; but in this matter I want 

 to be better informed. The former has a variety 

 of hurrying notes, and sings all night. Some part 

 of the song of the former, I suspect, is attributed 

 to the latter. We have plenty of the soft-billed 

 sort ; which Mr. Pennant had entirely left out of 

 his British Zoology, till I reminded him of his 



1 This work he calls his " Annus Primus Historico-Natu- 

 ralis." 



