252 NATURAL HISTORY 



at seasons, and even when I am desirous of thinking of more 

 serious matters *. 



I am, &c. 



LETTEK LYII. 



TO THE SAME. 



A BARE, 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 it's head into the bells of those flowers, 

 sips the liquor which stands in the nectarium of each petal. 

 Sometimes 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 evening, 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-pond. His attention was first drawn by the 

 twittering of these birds, which sat motionless in a row on the 

 bough, with their heads all one way, and, by their weight, 

 pressing down the twig so that it nearly touched the water. 

 In this situation he watched them till he could see no longer. 



* [That Gilbert White was very much impressed by this passage in 

 Gassendi's life of his friend and patron Peiresc is shown by the remark- 

 able fact that he quotes the same passage with the same remarks upon it, 

 and a similar allusion to his own experience, in a letter to his niece Mary 

 "White, and in a letter to Mr. Churton, both which letters will be found 

 in the appendix. These manifest his great fondness for music, and show 

 also that he was not deficient in musical memory. T. B.] 



