NATURAL HISTORY 
LETTER VI. 
TO THE SAME. 
DEAR SIR, Seleorne, May 21, 1770. 
The feverity and turbulence of 1 aft month fo interrupted the re- 
gular procefs of fummer migration, that fome of the birds do but 
juft begin to fliew themfelves, and others are apparently thinner 
than ufual ; as the white-throat, the black-cap, the redftart, the 
fly-catcher. I well remember that after the very fevere fpring in 
the year 1739-40 fummer birds of paffage were very fcarce. They 
come probably hither with a fouth-eaft wind, or when it blows 
between thofe points ; but in that unfavourable year the winds 
blowed the whole fpring and fummer through from the oppofite 
quarters. And yet amidft all thefe difadvantages two fwallows, 
as I mentioned in my laft, appeared this year as early as the 
eleventh oi April amidft froft and fnow; but they withdrew again, 
for a time. 
1 am not pleafed to find that fome people feem fo little fatisfied 
with Scopoirs new publication there is room to expeft great things, 
from the hands of that man, who is a good naturalift : and one 
would think that an hiflory of the birds of fo diftant and fouthern a 
region as Carniola would be new and interefting. I could wifh to fee 
that work, and hope to get it fent down. Dr. ScopoU is ph)'fician 
to the wretches that work in the quickfilver mines of that dillrift. 
When you talked of keeping a reed-fparrow, and giving it 
feeds, I could not help wondering ; becaufe the reed-fparrow 
which I mentioned to you (pq[fer arundinaceus minor Rail) is a foft- 
billed bird; and moft probably migrates hence before winter, 
'• Tliis work he calls his A,inus Pri/uiis Hlforico Naturalise 
whereas 
