159 
I have not seen Dailies Barrington’s controversy with D r Ducarrel. 1 
But although I respect M r Barrington, yet i must see he is too 
partial to any opinion that he has adopted, to allow the weight 
of any evidence that makes against him. You may remember 
his zeal against birds migrating. 3 The latest bird that i have 
noticed appearing here, I mean its first appearance, is the Fern 
Owlo. I saw ono this Spring May 2. but did not hear one sing 
’till Juno 1 4 th - I wonder Willoughby says nothing of their 
migrating. — I have been much entertained witli M r Townsend’s 
travels in Spain. 4 But i must conclude that he was misinformed 
when he says that “ Nightingales sing all the year” Yol. 3. p. 45. 
Your friend that lived in Andalusia, i doubt not, knew it is not 
so. With us the song of that bird is confined to as short a time 
as any. By the bye, i was as careful as in my power towards the 
love-making of tho frogs last Spring, & the gentlewoman seemed 
to bo a toad. She walked , not jumped , her belly was the ash 
colour with black spots, & the colour of her back, like the 
toad. I am ignorant of the characteristic marks of either of 
y r gentry. I was pleased long ago, with tho rows of Oakes by 
Odiham, as growing well upon unpromising Land. But i have 
seen great Oakes upon absolute sand, viz Ld Thanet’s in West- 
moreland 5 was 31 F. 9 1 round in 1765 & M r Lemon’s at Northaw 
’ In the * Philosophical Transactions’ for 1769 (vol. lix.) is a communica- 
tion from Barrington “on Trees which are supposed to be indigenous to 
Great Britain,” in the course of which lie maintained that the Spanish Chestnut 
was not one of them, and controverted the opinion of Ducarel previously 
published ( Anglo-Norman A ntiquities, p. 96 ) that not only was old London 
built of Chestnut-timber, but that there still existed a large tract of Chestnut 
Woods near Sittingbourne in Kent. The controversy was continued by 
Ducarel and others in 1771 (Phil. Trans,, vol. lxi., pp. 136 — 166), and 
Barrington replied on the whole case (tom. cit. pp. 167 — 169 )■ Barrington 
seems on the whole to have been right (see Loudon, Arb. Brit. p. 1987). — A.N. 
3 Barrington contributed to the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ for 1772 
(vol. lxii. pp. 265 — 326), “ An Essay on the periodical Appearance and 
Disappearance of certain Birds at different Times of the year.” — A.N. 
4 ‘A Journey through Spain in the years 1786 and 17S7. By Joseph 
Townsend, A.M. Rector of Pewsey, Wilts ; and late of Clare-Ilall, Cam- 
bridge.’ Second Edition, 3 vols. London : 1792. The author being of the 
same College as Marsham was very likely personally known to him. — A.N. 
4 At Whinfield Park (Loudon, ut supra p. 1771). — A.N. 
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