60 



NATURAL 



HISTORY 



be contained herself in the ball with her 

 young, which moreover would be daily in- 

 creasing in bulk. This wonderful procreant 

 cradle, an elegant instance of the efforts of 

 instinct, was found in a wheat-field sus- 

 pended in the head of a thistle. 



A gentleman, curious in birds, wrote me 

 word that his servant had shot one last 

 January, in that severe weather, which he 

 believed would puzzle me. I called to see 

 it this summer, not knowing what to ex- 

 pect : but, the moment I took it in hand, I 

 pronounced it the male garrulus bohemicus, 

 or German silk-tail, from the five peculiar 

 crimson tags or points which it carries at 

 the ends of five of the short remiges. It 

 cannot, I suppose, with any propriety, be 

 called an English bird : and yet I see by 

 Rays Philosoph, Letters, that great flocks 

 of them, feeding , on haws, appeared in this 

 kingdom in the Winter of 1685. 



The mention of haws puts me in mind 

 that there is a total failure of that wild fruit, 

 so conducive to the support of many of the 

 winged nation. For the same severe wea- 



