If they came to spend the whole winter with
us, as some of their congeners do, and then left us, as they do, in
spring, I should not be so much struck with the occurrence, since it
would be similar to that of the other winter birds of passage; but
when I see them for a fortnight at Michaelmas, and again for about
a week in the middle of April, I am seized with wonder, and long
to be informed whence these travellers come, and whither they go,
since they seem to use our hills merely as an inn or baiting place.
Your account of the greater brambling, or snow-fleck, is very
amusing; and strange it is that such a short-winged bird should
delight in such perilous voyages over the northern ocean! Some
country people in the winter time have every now and then told me
that they have seen two or three white larks on our downs; but on
considering the matter, I begin to suspect that these are some
stragglers of the birds we are talking of, which sometimes perhaps
may rove so far to the southward.
It pleases me to find that white hares are so frequent on the
Scottish mountains, and especially as you inform me that it is a
distinct species; for the quadrupeds of Britain are so few, that every
new species is a great acquisition.
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