296 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 



Evereley Rectory, Winohfield, 



April. 1867. 



My dear Newton, 



Terrible hard work — and a sad death in our 

 family, have prevented my thanking you and John 

 Clark for your kind correction of my lecture. 



I am very glad to know what the Bearded Tit feeds 

 on and that it is not a Shrike. But most thankful am 

 I for your guess at ficedulae. It is proof of high 

 critical power — you should take to editing Greek 

 plays. 



I knew Jicedulee was " beccaficos." But thought the 

 French used it for Wheatears and other little birds. 

 But T^icedulse is a delightful correction. But " hawks " 

 for " auetes " was the printer's error. 



I am well pleased that you found so little fault with 

 the whole. I omitted the antiquity of man, and flint 

 implements : because it was unfair to commit good 

 Norman McLeod, who is a martyr already to his liberal 

 opinions, responsible for the discussing so great a subject 

 in a single paragraph. 



Thank God, the birds are coming — which always 

 make my heart grow young again. Chifiiehaff, wryneck, 

 wheatear, and garden warbler are here, and I am 

 straining my ears everywhere for that jolly little 

 feathered Bacchus, the black cap. I wiU see Stevenson's 

 " Birds of Norfolk." I was very sorry to hear of your 

 illness ; but I was told it was gout. 

 ' Ever yours obliged, 



C. KiNGSLEY. 



Loudon, 



January 18, 1870. 



Dear Newton, 



Can you inform me if there is any canal you 

 know of in your part of the country with a strajight 

 piece (without locks) five or six miles long, or any 

 piece of water of that extent ? I have undertaken (for 

 a heavy wager) to prove by measurement the rotundity 

 of the earth, to one of those strange phenomena who 



