1773 



THE SEDGE-BIRD 219 



have a pair of lamb-skin breeches soon. Jack behaves 

 very well, and is very obliging; and in his readiness to 

 assist, and put an helping hand, often puts me in mind 

 of a gentlewoman that is very nearly related to him. 

 Mr. and Mrs. Etty take a great deal of notice of him, 

 and have him to dine every Sunday. 



No doubt your wren that you saw was the shivering 

 wren. So Mr. Lever does not know the grasshopper-lark ; 

 that is plain. But as it has done whispering there will 

 be no procuring one 'til next season. He seems also to 

 be unacquainted with the laughing sort. 



If you were to recollect you would call to mind that 

 my letters to Mr. Pennant are full of accounts of the 

 sedge-bird. It was by my means that that bird, when 

 omitted totally in the * Zoology ' : was inserted in the 

 Appendix.* Mr. Pennant had seen it in Lincolnshire, but 

 did not at all know what to make of it, nor how to 

 ascertain it. He was misled by Ray's classing it among 

 the " Pids affines"] Your appellative of polyglott pleases 

 me so much that I shall adopt it. It has the notes of 

 many birds: and could it be persuaded not to sing in 

 such an hurry would be an elegant songster. They abound 

 with us, especially on the verge of the forest: and are 

 sometimes at James Knight's ponds. In short, wherever 

 there are pools or streams. 



Mr. Lever may very probably be right with respect to 

 the short-eared owl. I have always suspected that Mr. 

 P[ennant]'s tawny owl and brown owl were only different 

 sexes of the same species. 



I am sorry that you met with such a rebuff at Mid- 

 summer, such a cold and dismal summer solstice. For if 



* p. 16, plate X. (1770). 



t ' Synopsis Methodica Avium,' p. 47, No. 3. In Gilbert White's own 

 copy of Ray's work, now in my possession, he has written "Sedge-bird" on 

 the margin. — A. N. 



