72 LETTERS TO MERRETT. 



I send you a white Reed chock"^ by name some kind 

 of Junco or Htle sort thereof I haue had another very 

 white when fresh. 



Also the draught of a sea fowle called a sherewater 

 [see Note 17] billed like a cormorant, feirce & snapping 

 like it upon any touch. I kept 2 of them aliue 5 weekes 

 cramming them with fish refusing of themselues to feed 

 on anything & wearied with cramming them they liued 

 17 dayes without food. They often fly about fishing 

 [ves crossed out] shipps when they cleans their fish & 

 throwe away the offell. so that it may bee referred to 

 the Lari as Larus niger gutture albido rostro adunco. 



Gossander videtur esse puphini species [Pinax, p. 184]. 

 worthy Sr that wch we call a gossander \see Note 19] 

 & is no rare fowle among us is a large well colourd & 

 marked diuing fowle most answering the [mer crossed 

 out] Merganser, it may bee like the puffin in fattnesse 

 and [Ranknesse crossed out] Ranknesse butt no fowle is 



'''' It is impossible to form an idea as to what is here intended. I Icnow 

 of no Juncus which would answer the description. Professor Newton 

 reminds me that "Junco " was a common name for " a bird that inhabited 

 reeds," and was loosely applied, some old authors taking it to be the Reed 

 Thrush (i.e., the Great Reed-Warbler of these days), and others, the 

 Reed-Sparrow or Bunting. But bearing in mind Browne's practice of 

 referring to Jonston, it seems possible that the latter's Junco may be 

 here intended, and that, as the figure (pi. 53) shows, is a small Sand- 

 piper, almost certainly the Dunlin. It is lettered "Junco Bellonii," 

 but this he must have taken second-hand from Aldrovandus, since Belon 

 never used the word "Junco" in this connexion, but called it 

 ' ' Schoeniclus " or " Alouette-de-mer " — terms rendered Junco by Aldro- 

 vandus (iii. p. 487). Charleton took the same view in his " Onomasticon " 

 (p. 108), published in 1668 (the year assigned as that of this letter), stating 

 that it was so-called because " in juncis libenter degat," and identifying it 

 with the Alouette-de-mer of the French, and the English " Stint, or Sparr, 

 or Perr." Gilbert White appears to have thus applied the term (cf. " Life" 

 by Rashleigh Holt-White, i. pp. 186, 194, 250). In one place he says, 

 "No. five is Ray's y««ra and the Turdus arundinaceus of Linn.'' That 

 "Junco" is the name of a bird is absolutely certain, but the context, 

 " very white when fresh," does not seem to admit of explanation. 



