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that Linnaeus’s Disciples, & their followers, are mistaken in their 
supposed rule of Nature, that all plants must follow in order. 
For you sec by the Indications of Spring in the last "\ ol. of the 
Phil. Trans, which very imperfect as it is, the It. S. did me the 
honour to print, there arc reverses of many days. 
Sir, i was much pleased with your Poetry in the Sum r Evening 
walk. — I hope you will excuse my asking you some questions for 
my information. The copulation of Frogs as you describe,* is the 
manner of Toads with us : & i never saw Frogs so engaged. 
By your account of the Swallows on the 29 of Sep. 17G8, i 
presume that you believe in their migrating : & there are very 
strong reasons to believe so of some other Birds. Many Woodcocks 
are found by the Light-houses in Norfolke in the Autumn, that 
are kill’d by Hying against the Lights : & the Earl of Orford 3 
informed mo, that the Landgrave of Ilesso sent him a ring taken 
from the leg of an Heron, with Ld 0. name upon it. This is 
certain proof of the Heron’s going from England : & myself have 
seen (coming from Holland) a Wagtail (Motacilla alba) flying 
about the Ship, seemingly at ease, when out of sight of Land. 
These, without Admiral Wager’s, 4 Adanson’s, 5 & Smith’s, 6 (the earliest 
account that i recollect in print) are sufficient for migration : & 
the proofs for torpidity are also undoubted. So we may conclude 
* See Letter XVII to Pennant. — J. E. II. 
1 George Walpole, grandson of the great Sir Robert, succeeded his father 
as third Earl of Orford in 1751, and died in 1791. He was a celebrated 
falconer, but is perhaps better remembered from having sold the valuable 
collection of pictures at Houghton to the Czarina. At his death the title 
passed to his uncle the well known Horace Walpole. — A.N. 
* The evidence of Admiral Sir Charles Wager, sometime First Lord of the 
Admiralty, was first published by Collinson in 1760 (Phil. Trans, li. p. 461), 
and has been often reprinted. — A.N. 
5 ‘Ilistoire Naturelle de Senegal, &c. Par M. Adanson.’ Paris: 1757 
pp. 67 and 90. Reference is again made to his observations further on. 
They have been frequently quoted. — A.N 
* The reference here is probably to a passage in f A Natural History of 
Nevis, and the rest of the English Leeward Charibee Islands in America, &c. 
In Eleven Letters from the Rev d Mr. [William] Smith, &c., Cambridge : 
1745.’ Writing of Nevis and St. Christopher’s, the author says (p. 51) “at 
the Sun’s declension towards the Tropick of Capricorn from the Equator, we 
are visited by a few Swallows.” — A.N. 
