6 Chit-chat. 



and then go alter the signs in their unfinished calculations ; 

 changing their — s into +s or -~ or =s ; causing incalculable 

 errors, and exhausting perplexities. 



Dov. " Tilly valley, Sir" Von. 



Von Os. Oh ! Natural history still : the weeds and flowers 

 of the mind are as much within her province, as those of the 

 fields. But did you never question him ? 



Dov. He left the country ; and I was too idle to repeat the 

 experiment : the servants grumbled at the dirt made by the 

 swallows ; and I grumbled at the pigeons getting in, and 

 breaking windows and looking-glasses ; so the light-winged 

 wanderers were ejected. But that migratory birds, or some 

 of their progeny, do return to, and build in, the very same 

 spot, I have no doubt. A spotted flycatcher has invariably 

 built in the same corner of my piazza, as long as I can re- 

 member, though the other corners are equally accommodated 

 with brackets or perches i a wren usually occupies another ; 

 but she is not so constant as the traveller : and last summer 

 a female wasp planted on the ceiling, and rapidly increased, 

 her colony, who suspended their flaky ball of streaky olive 

 papery folds, close to the door ; yet was no person stung or 

 molested all the season. 



Von Os. Migration has long been absolutely established. 

 I wonder it was ever doubted, particularly by such a man as 

 White ; but he — mild, amiable, and modest creature — was 

 over-influenced by the great names of Pennant and Daines 

 Barrington. 



Dov. Yet he never quite gave in to their notion of the 

 torpidity of birds. I will read you a passage of great beauty, 

 describing a single straggler at sea : not that I doubt migra- 

 tion, and that they travel in companies ; but merely that my 

 Chit-chat may have some little in it that is really good. 



Von Os. The Public unfeignedly like your Chit-chat, by 

 what is said by some of our best contributors ; and the private 

 letter of the editor: — and much of it is copied into the news- 

 papers. 



Dov. Like as the grinding of tunes on barrel-organs is 

 always a proof they are approved. I thought it best to wait 

 some time for the opinions of the subscribers ; and I have 

 now had letters enough to satisfy a more modest scribbler : 

 for myself, indeed, the approbation, however slight, of such a 

 man as Waterton alone were amply enough — the intrepid 

 traveller, the accurate and almost unerring observer, the 

 benevolent protector, the classic scholar, the animated writer, 

 the 



Von Os. Enough, enough ; though all true. His descrip- 



