260 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
kinds.” Audubon also states that in its habits and manners it much resembles 
the Sparrow, resorting for shelter during cold weather to stacks of corn and hay, 
but in fine weather evincing a preference for the evergreen foliage of the Holly, 
Cedar, low Pines, &c. Of its nest and eggs nothing is known. According to 
Audubon its flesh is extremely delicate and juicy, on which account it is fre¬ 
quently exhibited for sale. The female differs from the male in being of a lighter 
tinged with brown. 
Campsall Hall, Jan. 4, 1839. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
Supposed Popularity of Natural History. 
To the Editor of the Naturalist. 
Sir, —I perfectly agree with your able and very agreeable contributor, Mr. 
Edwin Lees, respecting the supposed popularity of Natural History. No one 
can regret more sincerely than myself the very slender and superficial interest 
taken in the study of Nature by the majority of our countrymen. The matter, 
however, rests in our own hands, whether or not this state of things shall con¬ 
tinue. We must evidently begin by treating the subject in a familiar and 
“ popular” style. There is, I think, no fear that such a course will prove in any de¬ 
gree detrimental; for a small medium of knowledge, duly and timely administered, 
only begets an increased desire for further instruction. Every one will sow and 
reap according to his talents, and the result will be an extensive and ever- 
increasing love and admiration of God’s wonderful works. 
As a proof, however, that a certain advance has been made in this respect, I 
may allude to the frequent occurrence of interesting facts relating to the animal, 
vegetable, and mineral kingdoms in most of our metropolitan and provincial 
newspapers, and the introduction of a department devoted to these subjects in 
many popular periodicals. 
As regards the increase in the number of Journals expressly devoted to Natural 
History, I fear I cannot cite the circumstance in illustration of an increased in¬ 
clination towards the subject. In general, periodicals of all kinds are started with 
a view to pecuniary gain, and their scope and objects are therefore necessarily in 
unison with the feelings and desires of a large class of readers. With the natural- 
historical press it is otherwise—here the magazine forms and increases the taste, 
instead of the taste forming the magazine. The Zoological Journal was the first 
to take the field, under the auspices of many able and eminent scientific men. 
