82 NATURAL HISTORY 



to the description of that species which you shot at Revesby, 

 in Lincolnshire. 1 My bird I describe thus : " It is a size 

 less than the grasshopper lark ; the head, back, and coverts 

 of the wings, of a dusky brown, without those dark spots of 

 the grasshopper lark ; over each eye is a milkwhite stroke ; 

 the chin and throat are white, and the under parts of a 

 yellowish white ; the rump is tawny, and the feathers of the 

 tail sharp pointed ; the bill is dusky and sharp, and the legs 

 are dusky; the hinder claw long and crooked/' 2 The per- 

 son that shot it says that it sung so like a reed sparrow that 

 he took it for one ; and that it sings all night : but this 

 account merits farther inquiry. For my part, I suspect it 

 is a second sort of Locustella, hinted at by Dr. Derham in 

 "Ray's Letters;" see p. 108. He also procured me a 

 grasshopper lark. 



The question that you put with regard to those genera of 

 animals that are peculiar to America, viz. how they came 

 there, and whence ? is too puzzling for me to answer ; and 

 yet so obvious as often to have struck me with wonder. If 

 one looks into the writers on that subject, little satisfaction 

 is to be found. Ingenious men will readily advance plausi- 

 ble arguments to support whatever theory they shall choose 

 to maintain; but then the misfortune is, every one's hypo- 

 thesis is each as good as another's, since they are all founded 

 on conjecture. The late writers of this sort, in whom may 

 be seen all the arguments of those that have gone before, 

 as I remember, stock America from the western coast of 

 Africa, and the south of Europe ; and then break down the 

 isthmus that bridged over the Atlantic. But this is making 

 use of a violent piece of machinery ; it is a difficulty worthy 

 of the interposition of a god ! te Incredulus odi." 



sibilatrix. But here he extends the term to include the sedge warblers, 

 which really belong to a well marked and very distinct group. ED. 



1 The seat of Sir Joseph Banks, where Pennant was staying on a visit 

 in May, 1767. ED. 



2 This is the sedge warbler, Salicaria pJiragmitis. The remark of 

 White's informant that the bird he procured " sung so like a reed sparrow" 

 is a mistake which a casual observer might easily make, since the sedge 

 warbler often sings concealed in a patch of reeds or sedge, while the un- 

 musical reed bunting (Embcriza schoeniclu!?), sitting conspicuously on a 

 reed top, gets all the credit for the song. ED. 



