60 NATURAL HISTORY 



be contained herself in the ball with her 

 young, which moreover would be daily in- 

 creasing in bulk. This w^onderful procreant 

 cradle, an elegant instance of the efforts of 

 instinct, was found- in a wheat-field sus- 

 pended in the head of a thistle. 



A gentleman, curious in birds, wrote me 

 word that his servant had shot one last 

 January, in that severe weather, which he 

 believed would puzzle me. I called to see 

 it this summer, not knowing what to ex- 

 pect : but, the moment I took it in hand, I 

 pronounced it the male garrulus hohemicus, 

 or German silk-tail, from the five peculiar 

 crimson tags or points which it carries at 

 the ends of five of the short remiges. It 

 cannot, I suppose, with any propriety, be 

 called an English bird : and yet I see by 

 Rdjf'a Philosoph. Letters, that great flocks 

 of them, feeding on haws, appeared in this 

 kingdom in the Winter of 1G85. 



The mention of haws puts me in mind 

 that there is a total failure of that wild fruit, 

 so conducive to the support of many of the 

 winged nation. For the same severe wea- 



