OFSELBORNE. 6? 
autumn they feed on haws and yew-berries, and in the Ipring on 
ivy-berries. I dreffed one of thefe birds, and found it juicy and 
well flavoured. It is remarkable that they make but a few days 
ftay in their fpring vifit^ but reft near a fortnight at Michaelmas. 
Thefe birds, from the obfervations of three fprings and two 
autumns, are moft punftual in their return; and exhibit a new 
migration unnoticed by the writers, who fuppofed they never 
were to be feen in any of the fouthern counties. 
One of my neighbours lately brought me a new faUcaria, which 
at firft 1 fufpeded might have proved your willow-lark % 
but, on a nicer examination, it anfwered much better to the de- 
fcription of that fpecies which you fliot at Reve/hy, in Lincoln/hire. 
My bird I defcribe thus : It is a fize lefs than the grafshopper- 
*^ lark ; the head, back, and coverts of the wings, of a dulky 
*' brown, without thofe dark fpots of the grafshopper-lark ; over 
each eye is a milkwhite ftroke ; the chin and throat are white, 
and the under parts of a yellowifh white ; the rump is tawny, 
and the feathers of the tail fharp-pointed ; the bill is dulky and 
" fliarp, and the legs are duiky; the hinder claw long and 
*^ crooked." The perfon that fhot it fays that it fung fo like a 
reed-fparrow that he took it for one ; and that it fmgs all night : 
but this account merits farther inquiry. For my part, I fufped: 
it is a fecond fort of locujlella, hinted at by Dr. Derham in Ray's 
Letters : fee p. io8. He alfo procured me a grafshopper-lark. 
The queftion that you put with regard to thofe genera of 
animals that are peculiar to America, viz. how they came there, and 
whence ? is too puzzling for me to anfwer ; and yet fo obvious as 
often to have firuck me with wonder. If one looks into the writers 
f For this fallcaria fee letter Augufl 30, 176^. 
K z 
on 
