GOLDEtf-CKOWKED WEEN. 199 



arising from rural sounds ; and May is to me as silent and 

 mute, with respect to the notes of birds, &c., as August. 

 My eyesight is, thank Grod, quick and good ; but with respect 

 to the other sense, I am at times disabled, 



"And Wisdom at one entrance quite shut out." 



LETTEE LXIII. 



TO THOMAS PEKPTANT, 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 resembling 

 the hardy race of woodpeckers) migrates, while the feeble 

 little golden-crowned wren, that shadow of a bird, braves our 

 severest frosts, without availing himself of houses or villages, 

 to which most of our winter birds crowd in distressful sea- 

 sons, while he keeps aloof in fields and woods ; but perhaps 

 this may be the reason why they may often perish, and why 

 they are almost as rare as any bird we know.f 



* Nature has been very provident as to the subsistence of soft-billed birds 

 during the winter months ; vast numbers of insects hide themselves in 

 interstices of trees, walls, &c., where birds seek for and feed on them. I con- 

 stantly see birds clinging to old walls in search of food. The golden-breasted 

 wren harbours much in winter amongst Scotch firs, where it not only finds 

 shelter, but food, and often roosts in warm low sheds at night. ED. 



f- 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, 

 1 822. After a severe gale, with thick fog, from the north-east, thousands of 

 these birds were seen to arrive on the sea-shore and sand-banks of the North- 

 umbrian coast, many of them so fatigued by the length of their flight, as to 

 be unable to rise again from the ground ; and great numbers were, in conse- 

 quence, caught or destroyed. This flight must have been immense in quantity, 

 as its extent was traced through the whole length of the coasts of Northumber- 

 land and Durham. W. J. 



