NATURAL HISTORY OF SEL BORNE. 47 



not their hum ventriloquous like that of the turkey 1 Some 

 suspect 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 downwards. 



LETTER XVII. 



Selborne, June 18th, 1763. 



On Wednesday last arrived your agreeable letter of June 

 10th. It gives me great satisfaction to find that you 

 pursue these studies still with such vigour, and are in such 

 forwardness with regard to reptiles and fishes. 



The reptiles, few as they are, I am not acquainted with 

 so well as I could wish, with regard to their natural 

 history. There is a degree of dubiousness and obscurity 

 attending the propagation of this class of animals, some- 

 thing analogous to that of the cryptogamia in the sexual 

 system of plants ; and the case is the same with regard to 

 some of the fishes ; as the eel, etc. 



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 classes them among his 

 oviparous animals ; and is silent with regard to the manner 

 of their bringing forth. Perhaps they may be eow fxkv 

 tooTOKot, e^w Se ^(ooTOKot_, as is known to be the case with the 

 viper. 



The copulation of frogs (or at least the appearance of it ; 

 for Swammerdam proves that the male has no penis intrans) 



