NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 103 



LETTER III 



SELBORNE, Jan. i$tA, 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 its punctuality. 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 con- 

 tinuance 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 transac- 

 tion 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 its 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 continued 

 to warble after the beginning of July. 



The titlark and yellow-hammer 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 incuri- 

 ous observer that they whistle the year round, hard frost 

 excepted ; especially the latter. 



It was not in my power to procure you a blackcap, or a less 

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

 and the last, as far as I can yet see, a summer bird of pas- 

 sage, they would require more nice and curious management 

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

 distinguished songsters. The note of the former has such a 

 wild sweetness that it always brings to my mind those lines 

 in a song in " As You Like It : " 



" And tune his merry note 

 Unto the wild bird's throat." SHAKESPEARE. 



The latter has a surprising variety of notes resembling the 

 song of several other birds ; but then it has also a hurrying 



