212 GOLDEN-CROWNED WREN. 



and half disqualify me for a naturalist; for, when 

 those fits are upon me, I lose all the pleasing notices 

 and little intimations arising from rural sounds ; and 

 May is to me as silent and mute, with respect to the 

 notes of birds, &c. as August. My eye -sight is, 

 thank God, quick and good ; but with respect to the 

 other sense, I am, at times, disabled, 



" And Wisdom at one entrance quite shut out." 



LETTER LXITI. 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 



IT is matter of curious inquiry to trace out how 

 those species of soft-billed birds, that continue with 

 us the winter through, subsist during the dead 

 months. The imbecility of birds, seems not to be 

 the only reason why they shun the rigour of our 

 winters ; for the robust wry-neck (so much resem- 

 bling the hardy race of woodpeckers) migrates, 

 while the feeble little golden-crowned wren, that 

 shadow of a bird, braves our severest frosts, with- 

 out availing himself of houses or villages, to which 

 most of our winter birds crowd in distressful seasons, 

 while he keeps aloof in fields and woods; but per- 

 haps this may be the reason why they may often 

 perish, and why they are almost as rare as any bird 

 we know*. 



* This species extends as far as the Orkney Isles. There is a 

 constant migration of them, about the end of autumn, from the 

 north of Europe, though we also have a great many that are 

 stationary. Mr. Selby has recorded a very singular instance of 

 migration, which occurred on the 24th and 25th October, 1822. 

 After a severe gale, with thick fog, from the north-east, thou- 



