innefr 



LETTER v. 



To the 



SELBORNE, April i2th, 1770. 

 EAR SIR, I heard many birds of several 

 species sing last year after Midsummer ; 

 enough to prove that the summer solstice is 

 not the period that puts a stop to the music 

 of the woods. The yellowhammer no doubt 

 persists with more steadiness than any other; 

 but the woodlark, the wren, the redbreast, 

 the swallow, the whitethroat, the goldfinch, the common 

 linnet, are all undoubted instances of the truth of what I 

 advanced. 



If this severe season does not interrupt the regularity of the 

 summer migrations, the blackcap will be here in two or three 

 days. I wish it was in my power to procure you one of 

 those songsters ; but I am no birdcatcher, and so little used 

 to birds in a cage, that I fear if I had one it would soon die 

 for want of skill in feeding. 



