OF SELBORNE 195 



decent reserve more may be said than can with truth of 

 every individual of her sex ; since she is 



" quae nee reticere loquenti, 



Nee prior ipsa loqui didicit resonabilis echo." 



I am, etc. 



P.S. The classic reader will, I trust, pardon the following 

 lovely quotation, so finely describing echoes, and so poeti- 

 cally accounting for their causes from popular superstition : 



"Quae bene quom videas, rationem reddere possis 

 Tute tibi atque aliis, quo pacto per loca sola 

 Saxa pareis formas verborum ex ordine reddant, 

 Palanteis comites quom mcnteis inter opacos 

 Quaerimus, et magna disperses voce ciemus. 

 Sex etiam, aut septem loca vidi reddere voces 

 Unam quom jaceres : ita colles collibus ipsis 

 Verba repulsantes iterabant dicta referre. 

 Haec loca capripedes Satyros, Nymphasque tenere 

 Finitimi fingunt, et Faunos esse loquuntur; 

 Quorum noctivago strepitu, ludoque jocanti 

 Adfirmant volgo taciturna silentia rumpi, 

 Chordarumque sonos fieri, dulceisque querelas, 

 Tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum : 

 Et genus agricolum late sentiscere, quom Pan 

 Pinea semiferi capitis velamina quassans, 

 Unco saepe labro calamos percurrit hianteis, 

 Fistula silvestrem ne cesset fundere musam." 



LUCRETIUS, Lib. iv. 1. 576. 



LETTER XXXIX 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON 



Selborne, May 13, 1778. 



DEAR SIR, 



AMONG the many singularities attending those amusing 

 birds the swifts, I am now confirmed in the opinion that 

 we have every year the same number of pairs invariably ; 

 at least the result of my inquiry has been exactly the 



