LETTER LXI. 



To Thomas Pennant, Esq. 



It is matter of curious inquiry to trace out how 

 those species of soft-billed birds, that continue with 

 us the winter through, subsist during the dead 

 months. The imbecility of birds seems not to be the 

 only reason why they shun the rigour of our win- 

 ters ; for the robust wryneck* (so much resembling 

 the hardy race of woodpeckers) migrates, while the 

 feeble little golden-crowned wren, that shadow of 

 a bird, braves our severest frosts without availing 

 himself of houses or villages, to which most of our 

 winter-birds crowd in distressful seasons, while this 

 keeps aloof in fields and woods ; but perhaps this 

 may be the reason why they may often perish, 

 and why they are almost as rare as any bird we 

 know. 



I have no reason to doubt but that the soft-billed 

 birds, which winter with us, subsist chiefly on in- 

 sects in their aurelia state. All the species of wag- 

 tails in severe weather haunt shallow streams near 

 their spring heads, where they never freeze ; and, by 



* " Wrynecks appear on the grass-plots and walks ; they walk a 

 little as well as hop, and thrust their bills into the turf, in quest, I 

 conclude, of ants, which are their food. While they hold their bills in 

 the grass, they draw out their prey with their tongues, which are so 

 long as to be coiled round their heads," says White in his " Obser- 

 vations." 



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