NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. j 4I 



I wish it was in my power to procure you one of those songsters ; 

 but I arn no birdcatcher; and so little used to birds in a cage, 

 that I fear if I had one it would soon die for want of skill in feeding. 



Was your reed-sparrow, which you kept in a cage, the thick- 

 billed reed-sparrow of the Zoology, p. 320; or was it the less 

 reed-sparrow of Ray, the sedge-bird of Mr. Pennant's last publica- 

 tion, p. 1 6 ? 



As to the matter of long-billed birds growing fatter in moderate 

 frosts, I have no doubt within myself what should be the reason. 



THE REDWING. 



The thriving at those times appears to me to arise altogether from 

 the gentle check which the cold throws upon insensible perspira- 

 tion. The case is just the same with blackbirds, etc.; and farmers 

 and warreners observe, the first, that their hogs fat more kindly at 

 such times, and the latter that their rabbits are never in such good 

 case as in a gentle frost. But when frosts are severe, and of long 

 continuance, the case is soon altered ; for then a want of food 

 soon overbalances the repletion occasioned by a checked per- 

 spiration. I have observed, moreover, that some human constitu- 

 tions are more inclined to plumpness in winter than in summer. 



