OF SELBORNE. 199 



whistle the year round, hard frost excepted ; especially 

 the latter. 



It was not in my power to procure you a blackcap, 

 or a less reed-sparrow, or sedge bird, alive. As the 

 first is undoubtedly, and the last, as far as I can yet 

 see, a summer bird of passage, they would require more 

 nice and curious management in a cage than I should 

 be able to give them 1 : they are both distinguished song- 

 sters. The note of the former has such a- .wild sweet- 

 ness that it always brings to my mind those/ lines in 

 a song in " As You Like It." 



" And tune his merry note 

 Unto the wild bird's throat." 



SHAKSPEARE. 



The latter has a surprising variety of notes resem- 

 bling the song of several other birds ; but then it has 



1 [In the preceding edition several Notes by the late Mr. Sweet, intro- 

 duced in various parts of the volume, were principally directed to the 

 supplying of information on the habits in confinement of many of the more 

 delicate birds, and on the care and treatment necessary for them in cap- 

 tivity : the success of that well-known horticulturist in preserving these 

 interesting creatures has never been exceeded. His observations bring 

 many of them before us under circumstances in which they were not stu- 

 died by Gilbert White, and convey to us, in consequence, additional know- 

 ledge respecting them : while to those who may be desirous of retaining 

 in captivity any of these sweetest of songsters, it will be advantageous to 

 be made acquainted with the plan which he pursued with respect to those 

 that were from time to time under his care. His Notes are here subjoined 

 in a single series ; preceded by his general observations on the] 



FOOD OF SOFT-BILLED BIRDS (Sylviado?). The birds of this sort, though 

 the finest songsters and most interesting of all the feathered tribe, have 

 been less known or noticed than others, probably owing to the greater 

 number only visiting us in summer, when the trees are so densely clothed 

 with foliage, that birds are not easily seen, and when heard sing, are 

 generally considered by those who hear them, to be either blackbirds or 

 thrushes, or some of the more common singing birds. When they are 

 seen the greater number of them receive the general appellation of white- 

 throats without distinction, though this is rather singular, since they are 

 all very distinct when examined, and their songs are all very different. 

 If you speak to a bird-fancier or bird-catcher about any of them, you 

 might as well talk of a bird in the wilds of America, for they know no- 

 thing of them. Many of them are therefore difficult to be procured in the 

 neighbourhood of London, though most of them are plentiful there. 



With care, the whole of them may be preserved in good health through 

 the year, and many of them will sing through the greater part of the 



