NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 173 



of spring. Do they lie in a torpid state ? if they do not, 

 how are they supported ? 



The note of the white-throat, which is continually 

 repeated, and often attended with odd gesticulations on 

 the wing, is harsh and displeasing. These birds seem of 

 a pugnacious disposition ; for they sing with an erected 

 crest and attitudes of rivalry and defiance ; are shy and 

 wild in breeding-time, avoiding neighbourhoods, and haunt- 

 ing lonely lanes and commons ; nay even the very tops of 

 the Sussex-downs, where there are bushes and covert ; 

 but in July and August they bring their broods into gardens 

 and orchards, and make great havoc among the summer- 

 fruits. 1 



The black-cap has in common a full, sweet, deep, loud, 

 and wild pipe ; yet that strain is of short continuance, and 

 his motions are desultory ; but when that bird sits calmly 

 and engages in song in earnest, he pours forth very sweet, 

 but inward melody, and expresses great variety of soft and 

 gentle modulations, superior perhaps to those of any of 

 our warblers, the nightingale excepted. 



Black-caps mostly haunt orchards and gardens ; while 

 they warble their throats are wonderfully distended. 



The song of the redstart is superior, though somewhat 

 like that of the white-throat ; some birds have a few more 

 notes than others. Sitting very placidly on the top of a 

 tall tree in a village, the cock sings from morning to night : 

 he affects neighbourhoods, and avoids solitude, and loves 

 to build in orchards and about houses ; with us he perches 

 on the vane of a tall maypole. 



The fly-catcher is of all our summer birds the most 

 mute and the most familiar ; it also appears the last of any. 

 It builds in a vine, or a sweetbriar, against the wall of a 



1 The whole of this letter appears to have been composed for the published 

 work, as the only portion of it which was ever addressed to Pennant is the above 

 account of the White-throat. This is to be found in White's original letter to 

 Pennant, dated July 8, 1773, the remainder of which deals with the Barn and 

 Brown Owls, and appears as the sixteenth Letter to Barrington in the completed 

 work. 



