OF SELBORNE. 179 



any. It builds in a vine, or a svveetbriar, against the 

 wall of a house, or in the hole of a wall, or on the end 

 of a beam or plate, and often close to the post of a door 

 where people are going in and out all day long. This 

 bird does not make the least pretension to song, but 

 uses a little inward wailing note when it thinks its 

 young in danger from cats or other annoyances: it 

 breeds but once, and retires early 8 . 



Selborne parish alone can and has exhibited at times 

 more than half the birds that are ever seen in all 

 Sweden ; the former has produced more than one hun- 

 dred and twenty species, the latter only two hundred 

 and twenty-one. Let me add also that it has shown 

 near half the species that were ever known in Great 

 Britain 9. 



On a retrospect, I observe that my long letter carries 

 with it a quaint and magisterial air, and is very sen- 

 tentious ; but, when I recollect that you requested 

 stricture and anecdote, I hope you will pardon the 

 didactic manner for the sake of the information it may 

 happen to contain. 



LETTER XLI. 



TO THE SAME. 



IT is matter of curious inquiry to trace out how those 

 species of soft-billed birds, that continue with us the 

 winter through, subsist during the dead months. The 

 imbecility of birds seems not to be the only reason 



8 I have known the spotted flycatcher build and breed twice. W. Y. 



9 Sweden two hundred and twenty-one, Great Britain two hundred 

 and fifty-two species. 



[Ray enumerated, in 1678, one hundred and ninety species of British 

 birds. The number at present known is about three hundred ; exclu- 

 sive of upwards of twenty presumed stragglers of doubtful authority. 

 E. T. B.] 



N2 



