OF SELBOKNE 215 



" monicis musicara illam avium : non quod alia quoque non 

 " delectaretur ; sed quod ex musica humana relinqueretur in 

 "animo continens quaedam, attentionemque et soranum con- 

 " turbans agitatio ; dum ascensus, exscensus, tenores, ac muta- 

 " tiones illae sonorum, et consonantiarum euntque, redeuntque 

 " per phantasiam : cum nihil tale relinqui possit ex modulationi- 

 " bus avium, quae, quod non sunt perinde a nobis imitabiles, non 

 "possunt perinde internam facultatem commovere." 



Gassendus in VitA Peireskii. 



This curious quotation strikes me much by so well represent- 

 ing my own case, and by describing what I have so often felt, 

 but never could so well express. When I hear fine music I am 

 haunted with passages therefrom night and day ; and especially 

 at first waking, which, by their importunity, give me more un- 

 easiness than pleasure : elegant lessons still tease my imagination, 

 and recur irresistibly to my recollection at seasons, and even 

 when I am desirous of thinking of more serious matters. 

 I am, &c. 



LETTER LVII. 



TO THE SAME. 



A RARE, and I think a new, little bird frequents my garden, which 

 I have great reason to think is the pettichaps : l it is common in 

 some parts of the kingdom ; and I have received formerly several 

 dead specimens from Gibraltar. This bird much resembles the 

 white-throat, but has a more white or rather silvery breast and 

 belly ; is restless and active, like the willow-wrens, and hops from 

 bough to bough, examining every part for food ; it also runs up the 

 stems of the cr -own-imperials -, and, putting it's head into the bells 

 of those flowers, sips the liquor which stands in the nectarium of 

 each petal. Sometimes it feeds on the ground, like the hedge- 

 sparrow, by hopping about on the grass-plots and mown walks. 



One of my neighbours, an intelligent and observing man, in- 

 forms me that, in the beginning of May, and about ten minutes 

 before eight o'clock in the evening, he discovered a great cluster 



1 [Mr. Harting believes that White's little bird was not the garden warbler, but 

 the lesser whitethroat. Ray (Synopsis Avium, p. 79) and Willughby (Ornithologia, 

 p. 158) indicate that the name/ttftafc^f was peculiar to Yorkshire.] 



