76 NATURAL HISTORY 



corroborates my discovery, which I made many years ago, 

 of the same sort, on a sunny sandbank near Farnham, in 

 Surrey. I am well acquainted with the south hams of 

 Devonshire ; and can suppose that district, from its south- 

 erly situation, to be a proper habitation for such animals in 

 their best colours. 1 



Since the ring-ousels of your vast mountains do certainly 

 not forsake them against winter, our suspicions that those 

 which visit this neighbourhood about Michaelmas are not 

 English birds, but driven from the more northern parts of 

 Europe by the frosts, are still more reasonable ; and it will 

 be worth your pains to endeavour to trace from whence they 

 come, and to inquire why they make so very short a stay. 



In your account of your error with regard to the two 

 species of herons, you incidentally gave me great entertain- 

 ment in your description of the heronry at Cressi Hall; 

 which is a curiosity I never could manage to see. Four- 

 score nests of such a bird on one tree is a rarity which I 

 would ride half as many miles to have a sight of. Pray be 

 sure to tell me in your next whose seat Cressi Hall is, and 

 near what town it lies.' 2 I have often thought that those 

 vast extents of fens have never been sufficiently explored. 

 If half a dozen gentlemen, furnished with a good strength 

 of water-spaniels, were to beat them over for a week, they 

 would certainly find more species. 



There is no bird, I believe, whose manners I have 

 studied more than those of the Caprimulgus (the goat- 

 sucker) , as it is a wonderful and curious creature : but I have 

 always found that though sometimes it may chatter as it 

 flies, as I know it does, yet in general it utters its jarring 

 note sitting on a bough : and I have for many a half hour 

 watched it as it sat with its under mandible quivering, and 

 particularly this summer. It perches usually on a bare 



1 Mr. Bell thinks these were probably unusually bright and large 

 individuals of Lacerta stirpium, now ascertained to be indigenous to this 

 country. See Jenyns, " Man. Brit. Vert. An." p. 291. ED. 



2 Cressi or Cressy Hall, situate near Spalding, in Lincolnshire, was the 

 seat of a branch of the ancient family of Heron. The heronry there has 

 been long since destroyed. ED. 



