66 
NATUUAL HISTOliy OP SELBOllNE 
which proves they are late breeders ; whereas those species of the thrush 
kind that remain with us the whole year have fledged young before that 
time. In their crops was nothing very distinguishable, but somewhat 
that seemed like blades of vegetables nearly digested. In autumn they 
feed on haws and yew-berries, and in the spring on ivy-berries. I dressed 
one of these birds, and found it juicy and well flavoured. It is remark- 
able that they make but a few days' stay in their spring visit, but rest 
near a fortnight at Michaelmas. These birds, from the observations of 
three springs and two autumns, are most punctual in their return ; and 
exhibit a new migration unnoticed by the writers, who supposed they 
never were to be seen in any southern countries. 
One of my neighbours lately brought me a new salicaria, which at 
first I suspected might have proved your willow-lark,* but, on a nicer 
examination, it answered much better to the description of that species 
which you shot at Eevesby,t in Lincolnshire. My bird I describe 
thus : " It is a size less than the grasshopper-lark ; the head, back, and 
coverts of the wings, of a dusky brown, without those dark spots of 
the grasshopper-lark ; over each eye is a milkwhite stroke ; the chin 
and throat are white, and the under parts of a yellowish white ; the 
mmp is tawny, and the feathers of the tail sharp-pointed ; the bill is 
dusky and sharp, and the legs are dusky ; the hinder claw long and 
crooked." The person that shot it says that it sung so like a reed- 
sparrow that he took it for one ; and that it sings all night : but this 
, account merits farther inquiry. For my part, I suspect it is a second 
I sort of locustela, hinted at by Dr. Derham in Eay's Letters : seep. 108.J 
He also procured me a grasshopper-lark. 
The question that you put with regard to those genera of animals 
that are peculiar to America, viz., how they came there, and whence 1 
is too puzzling for me to answer ; and yet so obvious as often to have 
struck me with wonder. If one looks into the writers on that subject 
little satisfaction is to be found. Ingenious men will readily advance 
plausible arguments to support whatever theory they shall choose to 
maintain ; but then the misfortune is, every one's hypothesis is each as 
good as another's, since they are all founded on conjecture. The late 
writers of this sort, in whom may be seen all the arguments of those 
that have gone before, as I remember, stock America from the western 
coast of Africa and the south of Europe ; and then break down the 
Isthmus that bridged over the Atlantic. But this is making use of a 
Julius Pollux, B. 9, ch. 7, says, n /uc/iXoXovBt;, ^mov Ttrvivov Itrrtv, v,v tco.) /u,'.^Xokoiv6rtV 
xotkoutriv, viTOi \k rij; ccv67iTi&)<; tmv {jcrikuv yj (Tvv tyi ccvd'/itru yivo/u-ivov. "The melolonthe 
is a winged animal, which they also call melolanthe, either from the bloom of 
pples, or its occurring with this bloom." 
Stobceus quotes from Herod.es (Sermo 76), the boys' game with the melolonthae, 
thus — *j TO£/<r/ f/.7iXokov6y]<; a,u,jU,ocT l^otTTTUv tov Kttrxiov, fjcoi tov yi^ovrtx, Xu^YiTcci, — "Or 
tieing strings of tow to the cockchafers, jeer at the old man for me." 
* For this Salicaria see next letter. f The seat of Sir Joseph Banks. 
t Dr. Derham writes — "Doubtless this bird was the locustela in Willoughby's 
ornithology, and not the ngulus non-cristatus, which I call the yellow wren, and of 
which I have discovered three distinct species, but not one of them that sings as 
here described, and as I have seen two sorts (if I mistake not) of locustelce birds 
do."— W. D.—Corres. of Ray, Hay Society, p. 96. 
The bird here meant is " the titlark that sings like a grasshopper. " — ^Willottghby, 
p. 207 ; and the Salicaria locustella (Selby) alluded to Letter XYI. 
