108 
THE NATURAL HISTORY 
[LETT. 
When I was last in town our friend Mr. Barrington most 
obligingly carried me to see many curious sights. As you were 
then writing to him about horns, he carried me to see many 
strange and wonderful specimens. There is, I remember, at 
Lord Pembroke's, at Wilton, an horn-room furnished with more 
than thirty different pairs ; but I have nut seen that house 
lately. 
Mr. Barrington showed me many astonishing collections of 
stuffed and living birds from all quarters of the world. After I 
had studied over the latter for a time, I remarked that every 
species almost that came from distant regions, such as South 
America, the coast of Guinea, &c., were thick-billed birds of the 
loxla and fringilla genera ; and no motacillce or muscicapce were 
to be met with. When I came to consider, the reason was 
obvious enough ; for the hard-billed birds subsist on seeds 
which are easily carried on board, while solt-billed birds, which 
are supported by worms and insects, or, what is a succedaneum 
for them, fresh raw meat, can meet with neither in long and 
tedious voyages. It is from this defect of food that our col- 
lections (curious as they are) are defective, and we are deprived 
of some of the most delicate and lively genera. 
Selborne, A ug. 1, 1770. 
LETTER XXXVIL 
TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 
You saw, I find, the ring-ousels again among their native 
crags ; and are further assured that they continue resident in 
those cold regions the whole year. From whence then do our 
ring-ousels migrate so regularly every September, and make 
their appearance again, as if in their return, every April ? They 
are more early this year than common, for some were seen at the 
usual hill on the fourth of this month. 
