MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 201 



while they warble, their throats are wonderfully dis- 

 tended. 



The song of the redstart is superior, though some- 

 what like that of the white-throat ; some birds have 

 a few more notes than others. Sitting very placidly 

 on the top of a tall tree in a village, the cock sings 

 from morning to night ; he affects neighbourhoods, 

 arid avoids solitude, and loves to build in orchards 

 and about houses ; with us he perches on the vane of 

 a tall maypole. 



The fly-catcher is, of all our summer birds, the 

 most mute and the most familiar ; it also appears the 

 last of any. It builds in a vine, or a sweet-brier, 

 against the wall of a house, or in the hole of a wall, 

 or on the end of a beam or plate, and often close to 

 the post of a door where people are going in and out 

 all day long. This bird does not make the least pre- 

 tension to song, but uses a little inward wailing note, 

 when it thinks its young in danger from cats or 

 other annoyances : it breeds but once, and retires 

 early*. 



Selborne parish alone can and has exhibited at 

 times more than half the birds that are ever seen in 

 all Sweden : the former has produced more than one 

 hundred and twenty species, the latter only two 

 hundred and twenty-one. Let me add also, that it 

 has shown near half the species that were ever known 

 in Great Britain f. 



On a retrospect, I observe that my long letter 

 carries with it a quaint and magisterial air, and is 

 very sententious : but when 1 recollect that you re- 

 quested stricture and anecdote, hope you will pardon 

 the didactic manner for the sake of the information 

 it may happen to contain. 



* The muscicapa grisola, Linn. W. J. 

 f Sweden 221, Great Britain 252 species. 



