OF SELBORNE. 53 
or RincouseEL, were lately seen in this neighbour. 
hood. I employed some people to procure mea 
specimen, but without success. (See Letter VIII.) 
Query—Might not Canary birds be naturalized 
to this climate, provided their eggs were put, in 
the spring, into the nests of some of their conge- 
ners, as goldfinches, greenfinches, &c.? Before 
winter, perhaps, they might be hardened, and able 
to shift for themselves. 
About ten years ago, I used to spend some 
weeks yearly at Sunbury, which is one of those 
pleasant villages lying on the Thames, near Hamp- 
ton Court. In the autumn | could not help being 
much amused with those myriads of the swallow 
kind which assemble in those parts. But what 
struck me most was, that from the time they be- 
gan to congregate, forsaking the chimneys and 
houses, they roosted every night in the osier-beds 
of the aits or islets of that river. Now this re- 
sorting towards that element, at that season of the 
year, seems to give some countenance to the nor- 
EK 2 
