LETTERS TO MERRETT. 79 



omitted, [here crossed oui\ being comon in hard winters 

 & differenced from [the crossed oui\ our River swanns by 

 the Aspera Arteria. [See also pp. 80 and 83 infra:\ 



Fulica and cotta Anglorum [see Note 23] are different 

 birds though good resen^Jjlance between them, so some 

 doubt may bee made whether it bee to bee made a 

 coote except you set it downe fulica nostras. & cotta 

 Anglorum I pray consider whether that waterbird 

 whose draught I sent in the last box & thought it might 

 bee named Anatula or mergulus melanoleucos may not 

 bee some gallinula. it hath some resemblance with 

 gallina hypoleucos of Johnst Tab 32 [31] butt myne 

 hath shorter wings by much & the bill not so long 

 \FoL 198 verso'l & slender & shorter leggs & lesser & 

 so may ether be calld gallina Aquatica hypoleucos 

 nostras or hypoleucos or melanoleucos Anatula or 

 mergulus nostras."' 



Tis much there should be no Icon of Rallus or Ralla 

 Aquatica I haue a draught of one & they are found 

 among us 



Feb xii 1668. 



The vesicaria I sent is like that you mention \see 

 Note 91] if not the same the comon fanago resembleth 

 the husk of peas this of [Part crossed out] Barly when the 



W9 The "draught" of this bird sent to Merrett is not forthcoming. 

 Professor Newton has been kind enough to send me the following note 

 on this puzzling passage. "Jonston's figure (tab. 31) of Gallina 

 hypoleucos, to which Browne says it bore some resemblance, undoubtedly 

 represents what we know as the Common Sandpiper, Totanus hypoleucus or 

 Actitis hyfoleuca, the Fysterlin of the Germans of Jonston's time (p. 160), 

 and Fisterlein or Pfisterlein of modern days. But there seems to be some 

 strange confusion that cannot now be cleared, between this bird and 

 Browne's Anatula or Mergulus melanoleucos [see p. 76 ante\ of which 

 some years later, he sent a drawing, under the latter name, to Willughby, 

 in whose work it is described and figured (Lat. Ed. p. 261, Engl. 343, 

 tab. lix. ), for this most certainly is the Rotche or Little Auk, Mergulus alle 

 al modern ornithology." In the next letter (p. 81), Browne mentions 

 that he encloses the draft of " Ralla aquatica " here referred to. 



