I 



is no making any remarks on such a restless tribe : 

 and when once the young begin to appear it is all 

 confusion : there is no distinction of genus, species 

 or sex. 



In breeding-times snipes play over the moors, 

 piping and humming : they always hum as they are 

 descending. Is not their hum ventriloquous, like 

 that of the turkey? 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. 



Selborne, April i8, 1768. 



LETTER XVII. 

 To Thomas Pennant, Esq. 



On Wednesday last arrived your agreeable letter 

 of June the loth. 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 ac- 

 quainted with so well as I could wish, with regard 

 to their natural history. There is a degree of du- 

 biousness and obscurity attending the propagation 

 of this class of animals, something analogous to that 

 7 65 



