118 EEED-SPAEEOW — PLUMAaE. 



I am not pleased to find that some people seem so little 

 satisfied witt Scopoli's new publication.* There is room to 

 expect great things from the hands of that man, who is a 

 good naturalist ; and one woxild think that a history of the 

 birds of so distant and southern a region as Camiola would 

 he new and interesting. I could wish to see that work, and 

 hope to get it sent down. Dr. Scopoli is physician to the 

 wretches that work in the quicksilver mines of that district. 



When you talked of keeping a reed-sparrow, and giving it 

 seeds, I could not help wondering ; because the reed-sparrowf 

 which I mentioned to you {passer arwnivnaoeus minor, Eaii) 

 is a soft-billed bird, and most probably migrates hence before 

 winter ; whereas the bird you kept ( passer torquatus, Eaii) J 

 abides all the year, and is a thick-billed bird. I question 

 whether the latter be much of a songster ; but in this matter 

 I want to be better informed. The former has a variety of 

 hurrying notes, and sings all night. Some part of the song 

 of the former, I suspect, is attributed to the latter. We 

 have plenty of the soft-billed sort, which Mr. Pennant had 

 entirely left out of his British Zoology, tiU I reminded him 

 of his omission. See British Zoology last published, p. 16. § 



I have somewhat to advance on the different manners ia 

 which different birds fly and walk ; but as this is a subject 

 that I have not enough considered, and is of such a nature 

 as not to be contained in a small space, I shall say nothing 

 farther about it at present. || 



No doubt the reason why the sex of birds in their first 

 plumage^ is so difficult to be distinguished is, as you say, 

 " because they are not to pair and discharge their parental 

 functions till the ensuing spring." As colours seem to be 



* This work he calls his " Anwus Primus Sistorico-Naiuralis," — "First 

 Annual of Natural History," is probably the most intelligible translation of 

 the title. 



•f* The Sedge-warbler (Salicaria phragmitis). 



X The Reed-bunting {Emheriza sduEniclus). 



§ See Letter xsvi. To Thomas Pennant, Esq. 



^ See Letter Lxxiv. To the Hon. Daines Barrington, 



II If the young had their full plumage the first year, or when they quitted 

 their nest, they would in their then feeble slate he more exposed to be killed 

 by birds of prey, and other casualties. It seems therefore a benevolent design 

 of Providence that the more humble plumage should remain on them till they 

 are more able to protect themselves. — Ed. 



