~ 
$04 Remarks on Population~-Nightingales in Devonfbire. [May 1, 
linge in a houfe I built for myfelf at Don- 
eafter, but which did not entirely anfwer 
the purpofe they were intended, therefore I 
have,at a great deal of expence and trouble, 
invented {ome of a more fimple conftruc- 
tion, which, I have no doubt, will be 
found of general public utility. sla 
Faljord near York, Your’s, &c. 
April 123 1803. Joun Rawsrone. 
ee 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
N fo extenfive an undertaking as the 
late attempt to afcertain the population 
ef Great Britain, it is not furprizing that 
it fhould have been found impraéticable to 
obtain accounts equally accurate from all 
places. In the abftract of the enumera- 
tion, in fome inftances the returns are ac- 
knowledged to be defeétive, and a little 
attention will difcover this to be the cafe in 
many other parts. 5 
I beg leave to notice one inftance of ir- 
recularity,in the account of Edinburgh,in 
hopes fome of your friends refiding in that 
city may be able to explain the fingular dif- 
ference, if real, between the feveral pa- 
rifhes of which it confifts. In the follow- 
img parifhes the number of perfons to a 
houfe appears to be very much below the 
o{ual proportion in large towns, particu: 
larly in Scotland : 
St. Andrews. . 6 § 5% 
College Church... 4% 
High Church . -. «44 
PromChurchi 4. 6.07.38 
Ligdg OM eftiets i510) )5) 20it g8 
Worth Derbi ; ia0)3 va 
New North Church .. 4 
¥t feems, from the number of inhabited 
houfes, and of the families by which they 
are oc¢upied, being the fame in moft of 
thefe parifhes, that this diflinétion was 
mot made in the returns, and that the 
eve has been fupplied from the other: if fo, 
the number of /oufes probably exceeds the 
truth. It docs not appear very probable 
€xat in St. Andrew’s parifh containing 1932 
houfes, there fhould not be one uxizhabi- 
ted houfe*.—The other parifhes are 
Cannongate . 2. « 32g 
St, Cuthbert’s . . 1623 
New Grey Friars . 13 
Old: ditho 500i) dove AS 
South Leith . . . 163 
OldaChurch «3; 0256, 194 
Tolbooth . . . 4o% 
Here the proportion of inhabitants ap- 
* Itis {till more improbable that in the 
whole town of Dundee, containing according 
to the return 6952 houfes, there fhould not 
be one uninhabited houle. 
pears as much above the ufual rate, as in 
the former parifhes it is below it. 
Mr. Maitland in his Hiftory of Edin- 
burgh, fays ‘* The buildings, elfewhere 
called houfes, are denominated lands, and 
the apartments, in other places named 
fiories, here called houfes, are fo many, 
freeholds inhabited by different families, 
whereby the houfes are fo exceffively 
crowded with people, that the inhabitants 
of this city may be juftly pronounced to be 
more numerous than thofe of fome towns 
of triple its dimenfions.”” This account 
feems to render it probable that in fome. 
parifhes the apartments or ftories were re- 
turned as feparate houfes, while others in- 
tended toreturnthe actual number of houfes. 
Aprilg, 1803. J. J.G. 
wee 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, 
SIR, 
ae has long been an unexplained quef- 
tion among naturalifts why nightin- 
gales are not. found in Devonfhire? That 
they are found is certain, but not nume- 
roufly—the reafon has. not been affignable 
toany other caufe, than the dampnefs of 
the county, arifing from its being bounded 
on the north and on the fouth by the fea, 
which occafioning more rain, fogs, and 
mifts among the mountainous and woody 
parts with which it abounds, does not 
agree perhaps with the delicacy of this 
bird. In the adjoining county of Somer- 
fet, to the ealt, they are frequent; but in 
tle next to the weit, Cornwall, they are 
firangers. I remember that a few years 
ago, an old bird-catcher refiding in Exe- 
ter, found a nightingale’s nett in the neigh- 
bourhood with the old bird and its young ; 
and as it was fuch a fingular prize, I had 
the curiofity to call and fee it, and I be- 
lieve the whole together was at Jaft fold te 
a gentleman for two or three guineas. 
About two years ago, in the autumn, the 
nightingale was in the garden of a friend 
of mine at Hill’s Court, about half a mile 
from this place—he heard it two or three 
nights only, and as he had been accuf- 
tomed to be delighted with this bird, when 
refiding intheeaftern counties,was charmed 
with its fhort refidence in his territories. 
The pheafant is another bird not inha- 
biting, in any plenty, this county ; they 
fometimes afford pleafure to the {fportfman, 
becaufe they are fo rarely met: but the 
fame queftion as to nightingales might be 
applied to pheafants.* Your’s,&c. 5B. 
Exeter, April 14, 1803. | 
~~ * The robin is a bird revered here—wnile 
in other places it is not regarded fo much as* 
the fparrow. . : 
Ta 
