120 NATURAL HISTORY 



LETTER III. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne, Jan. 15, 1770. 

 DEAR SIR, 



IT was no small matter of satisfaction to me to find that you 

 were not displeased with my little methodus of birds. If there 

 was any merit in the sketch, it must be owing to it's punc- 

 tuality. For many months I carried a list in my pocket of 

 the birds that were to be remarked, and, as I rode or walked 

 about my business, I noted each day the continuance or 

 omission of each bird's song ; so that I am as sure of the 

 certainty of my facts as a man can be of any transaction 

 whatsoever. 



I shall now proceed to answer the several queries which 

 you put in your two obliging letters, in the best manner that 

 I am able. Perhaps Eastwick, and it's environs, where you 

 heard so very few birds, is not a woodland country, and there- 

 fore not stocked with such songsters. If you will cast your 

 eye on my last letter, you will find that many species con- 

 tinued to warble after the beginning of July. 



The titlark and yellowhammer breed late, the latter very 

 late ; and therefore it is no wonder that they protract their 

 song : for I lay it down as a maxim in ornithology, that as 

 long as there is any incubation going on there is music. As 

 to the redbreast and wren, it is well known to the most in- 

 curious observer that they whistle the year round, hard frost 

 excepted ; especially the latter. 



It was not in my power to procure you a black-cap, or a 

 less reed-sparrow, or sedge-bird, alive. As the first is un- 

 doubtedly, and the last, as far as I can yet see, a summer bird 

 of passage, they would require more nice and curious ma- 

 nagement in a cage than I should be able to give them : they 

 are both distinguished songsters. The note of the former has 



