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

 those points ; but in that unfavourable year the winds 

 blowed the whole spring and summer through from 

 the opposite quarters. And yet amidst all these dis- 

 advantages, 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, *' Annus 

 Primus Historico-Naturalis." There is room to ex- 

 pect great things from the hands of that man, who is 

 a good naturalist : and one would think that an his- 

 tory of the birds of so distant and southern a region 

 as Carniola would be new and interesting. I could 

 wish to see the 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 Rail)* is a soft-billed bird, and 

 most probably migrates hence before winter ; 

 whereas the bird you kept {Passer torquatus Raii) f 

 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 



* Sedge-warbler, Salica7'ia phragmitis, Selby. 

 f Reed-bunting, Emberiza schceniclas, Linn. 

 136 



