DISTINCTION OF SPECIES. 
sionally entering the water as above stated. On the contrary, the 
same exertion seems to be used by them as by other diving birds.” 
A large variety,” says the same author, with a dusky bar en- 
circling the bottom of the neck, and the white of the breast and belly 
having numerous small black streaks pointing downwards, is mentioned 
by Latham, in the Second Supplement to his General Synopsis, under 
the title of the Penrith Ouzel. Two other varieties mentioned in the 
Appendix to Montagu’s Supplement, I should consider as belonging to 
a very late brood of the preceding year, and which had not acquired the 
complete plumage of maturity.”* 
The young birds which were taken shewed no inclination to dive in 
a tub of water, but shewed great uneasiness by struggling on the surface. 
They refused all food, and soon perished. They will sometimes pick 
up insects at the edge of the water. When disturbed, it usually flirts 
up the tail, and makes a chirping noise. It sings prettily in the spring : 
their flight is even and rapid, like the kingfisher, as their wings are 
short. It is said to be met with in many parts of Europe, and even as 
far as Kamschatka ; and in some places it is said to be migratory. 
DISHWASHER. — A name for the Pied Wagtail. 
DISTINCTION OF SPECIES.— We shaU here mention the diffi- 
culty naturalists labour under in the description of some birds, their 
eggs, and nest. From a variation in plumage in some birds we doubt 
not naturalists have enumerated a greater variety in some genera than 
there really are ; in others a similitude of colour in distinct species 
has occasioned their being confounded and blended together for one 
and the same. We do not so much wonder at it in exotics, who come 
to us in an imperfect state. But this has frequently happened to those 
of our own country. 
If the ornithologist attended more to the habits and manners of birds, 
he would not be so liable to be led into these errors, being invariably 
distinct in some particulars, either in their notes, their nest, eggs, place 
of resort and various other circumstances necessary to be considered. 
It is true, as in the case of the marsh and cole tit, which are still 
supposed to be only a variety of the same sj)ecies by some persons who 
have never minutely attended them in their natural haunts, that the 
eggs, and sometimes the nest, of distinct species are so nearly allied, 
that it would puzzle the most scrutinizing eye to determine ; but other 
concomitant circumstances in the habits and manners of birds, such as 
the place of nidijication, &c., &c., would determine. The length of time 
some birds are arriving at maturity in their plumage is the cause of 
very great difficulty in determining their species. The gulls are not 
