SUMMER BIRDS REED-SPARROW. 91 



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 

 eleventh 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, f 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 omission. See 

 British Zoology last published, p. 16. J 



f This work he calls his " Annus Primus Historico-Naturalis." 

 \ See Letter XXVI.- To Thomas Pennant, Esq. 



