XXXV.] 



OF SELBORNE. 



105 



nice and tender tops of turnips. These she washed and boiled, 

 and so sat down to a choice and delicate plate of greens, culled 

 and provided in this extraordinary manner. 



Hence we may see that graminivorous birds, when grain fails, 

 can subsist on the leaves of vegetables. There is reason to sup- 

 pose that they would not long be healthy without ; for turkeys, 

 though corn-fed, delight in a variety of plants, such as cabbage, 

 lettuce, endive, &c., and poultry pick much grass ; while geese 

 live for months together on commons by grazing alone. 



" Nought is useless made ; 



^ On the barren heath 

 The shepherd tends his flock that daily crop 

 Their verdant dinner from the mossy turf 

 Sufficient : after them the cackling goose, 

 Close-grazer, finds wherewith to ease her want." 



PHILIPS'S Cyder.] 



OBSERVATIONS ON NATURE. 



SELBORNE, May 12, 1770. 



LETTER XXXV. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES SARRINGTON. 



THE severity and turbulence of last month so interrupted the 

 regular process of summer migration, that some of the birds do 

 but just begin to show themselves, and others, as the white- 

 throat; the blackcap, the redstart, the flycatcher, are apparently 

 thinner than usual. I well remember that after the very severe 

 spring in the year 1739-40, summer birds of passage were very 

 scarce. They come hither probably with a south east wind, or 

 when it blows between those points ; but in that unfavourable 

 year the winds blowed the whole spring and summer through 

 from the opposite quarters. And yet amidst all these dis- 

 advantages, two swallows, as I mentioned in my last, appeared 



VOL. I. P 



