306 PETTICHAPS. 



have so often felt, but never could so well express. 

 When I hear fine music, I am haunted with passages 

 therefrom night and day ; and especially at first 

 waking, which, by their importunity, give me more 

 uneasiness than pleasure : elegant lessons still teaze 

 my imagination, and recur irresistibly to my recol- 

 lection at seasons, and even when I am desirous of 

 thinking of more serious matters. 



LETTER CI. 



TO THE SAME. 



A RARE, and I think a new, little bird frequents 

 my garden, which, I have great reason to think, is 

 the pettichaps : it is common in some parts of the 

 kingdom ; and I have received formerly several 

 dead specimens from Gibraltar. This bird much 

 resembles the white-throat, but has a more white, 

 or rather silvery, breast and belly ; is restless and 

 active like the willow- wrens, and hops from bough 

 to bough, examining every part for food ; it also runs 

 up the stems of the crown imperials, and putting its 

 head into the bells of those flowers, sips the liquor 

 which stands in the nectarium of each petal. Some- 

 times it feeds on the ground like the hedge-sparrow, 

 by hopping about on the grass-plots and mown 

 walks. 



One of my neighbours, an intelligent and observing 

 man, informs me, that, in the beginning of May, and 

 about ten minutes before eight o'clock in the even- 

 ing, he discovered a great cluster of house- swallows, 

 thirty, at least, he supposes, perching on a willow 

 that hung over the verge of James Knight's upper 



