i26 
NATURAL EISTOBY 
LETTER XLI. 
TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 
T is matter of curious inquiry to trace out how 
those species of soft-billed birds^ that con- 
tinue with us the winter through, subsist 
during the dead months. The imbecility 
of birds seems not to be the only reason 
why they shun the rigour of our winters ; for the robust 
wryneck (so much resembling the hardy race of wood- 
peckers) migrates, while the feeble little golden-crowned 
wren, that shadow of a bird, braves our severest frosts 
without availing himself of houses or villages, to which 
most of our winter birds crowd in distressful seasons, while 
this keeps aloof in fields and woods; but perhaps this 
may be the reason why they may often perish, and why 
they are almost as rare as any bird we know/ 
I have no reason to doubt but that the soft-billed birds, 
which winter with us, subsist chiefly on insects in their 
aurelia state. All the species of wagtails in severe weather 
haunt shallow streams near their spring-heads, where they 
never freeze ; and, by wading, pick out the aurelias of the 
genus of Phrygancce, &g,^ 
Hedge sparrows frequent sinks and gutters in hard 
weather, where they pick up crumbs and other sweepings : 
and in mild weather they procure worms, which are stirring 
^ The golden-crested wren and the common brown wren are both 
very impatient of cold. In confinement, as observed by the Hon. and 
Rev. W. Herbert, the least frost is immediately fatal to them. In a 
wild state, they keep themselves warm by constant active motion in thf 
day, and at night they secrete themselves in places where the frost canri<;>i 
reach them ; but numbers doubtless perish in severe winters. — Ed 
^ See Derham's " Physico- Theology," p. 235.— G. W 
