The Natural History of Selborne 179 



I will endeavour to get a hen, and to examine. 



Your supposition that there may be some natural obstruction in 

 singing birds while they are mute, and that when this is removed 

 the song recommences, is new and bold ; I wish you could discover 

 some good grounds for this suspicion. 



I was glad you were pleased with my specimen of the capri- 

 mulgus, or fern-owl ; you were, I find, acquainted with the bird 

 before. 



When we meet I shall be glad to have some conversation with 

 you concerning the proposal you make of my drawing up an 

 account of the animals in this neighbourhood. Your partiality 

 towards my small abilities persuades you, I fear, that I am able to 

 do more than is in my power : for it is no small undertaking for a 

 man unsupported and alone to begin a natural history from his own 

 autopsia ! Though there is endless room for observation in the 

 field of nature, which is boundless, yet investigation (where a man 

 endeavours to be sure of his facts) can make but slow progress ; 

 and all that one could collect in many years would go into a very 

 narrow compass. 



Some extracts from your ingenious " Investigations of the Dif- 

 ference between the Present Temperature of the Air in Italy," &c., 

 have fallen in my way ; and gave me great satisfaction : they have 

 removed the objections that always arose in my mind whenever I 

 came to the passages which you quote. Surely the judicious Virgil, 

 when writing a didactic poem for the region of Italy, could never 

 think of describing freezing rivers, unless such severity of weather 

 pretty frequently occurred. 



P.S. Swallows appear amidst snows and frost. 



