LETTER XLIII. 1 



To the same. 



SELBORNE, Sept. tyh, 1778. 



EAR SIR, From the motion of birds, the 

 transition is natural enough to their notes 

 and language, of which I shall say something. 

 Not that I would pretend to understand 

 their language like the vizier ; who, by the 

 recital of a conversation which passed be- 

 tween two owls reclaimed a sultan,* before 

 delighting in conquest and devastation; but I would be 



* See "Spectator," Vol. vii., No. 512. 



1 This is clearly not a real letter, but an additional essay on the notes 

 of birds, written when the idea of publication had been adopted. ED. 



