7'6 
NATURAL HISTORY 
corroborates my discovery^ wMcli I made many years ago, 
of the same sort^ on a sunny sandbank near Farnham, in 
Surrey. I am well acquainted with the south hams of 
Devonshire ; and can suppose that district^ from its south- 
erly situation, to be a proper habitation for such animals in 
their best colours.^ 
Since the ring-ousels of your vast mountains do certainly 
not forsake them against winter, our suspicions that those 
which visit this neighbourhood about Michaelmas are not 
English birds, but driven from the more northern parts of 
Europe by the frosts, are still more reasonable ; and it will 
be worth your pains to endeavour to trace from whence they 
come, and to inquire why they make so very short a stay. 
In your account of your error with regard to the two 
species of herons, you incidentally gave me great entertain- 
ment in your description of the heronry at Cressi Hall; 
which is a curiosity I never could manage to see. Four- 
score nests of such a bird on one tree is a rarity which I 
would ride half as many miles to have a sight of. Pray be 
sure to tell me in your next whose seat Cressi Hall is, and 
near what town it lies.^ I have often thought that those 
vast extents of fens have never been sufficiently explored. 
If half a dozen gentlemen, furnished with a good strength 
of water-spaniels, were to beat them over for a week, they 
would certainly find more species. 
There is no bird, I believe, whose manners I have 
studied more than those of the Gaprimulgus (the goat- 
sucker) , as it is a wonderful and curious creature : but I have 
always found that though sometimes it may chatter as it 
flies, as I know it does, yet in general it utters its jarring 
note sitting on a bough : and I have for many a half hour 
watched it as it sat with its under mandible quivering, and 
particularly this summer. It perches usually on a bare 
^ Mr. Bell thinks these were probably unusually bright and large 
individuals of Lacerta stirpium, now ascertained to be indigenous to this 
country. See Jenyns, " Man. Brit. Vert. An." p. 291. — Ed. 
2 Cressi or Cressy Hall, situate near Spalding, in Lincolnshire, was the 
seat of a branch of the ancient family of Heron. The heronry there has 
been long since destroyed. — Ed. 
