LETTER II I 



TO THE SAME 



SELBORNE, Jan. i$tk, 1770. 



DEAR SIR, It was no small matter of satisfaction to me 

 to find that you were not displeased with my little methodus 

 of birds. If there was any merit in the sketch, it must be 

 owing to its punctuality. For many months I carried a 

 list in my pocket of the birds that were to be remarked, 

 and, as I rode or walked about my business, I noted each 

 day the continuance or omission of each bird's song ; so 

 that I am as sure of the certainty of my facts as a man can 

 be of any transaction whatsoever. 



I shall now proceed to answer the several queries which 

 you put in your two obliging letters, in the best manner 

 that I am able. Perhaps Eastwick, and its environs, where 

 you heard so very few birds, is not a woodland country, 

 and therefore not stocked with such songsters. If you 

 will cast your eye on my last letter, you will find that many 

 species continue to warble after the beginning of July. 



The titlark and yellowhammer breed late, the latter 

 very late ; and therefore it is no wonder that they protract 

 their song : for I lay it down as a maxim in ornithology, 

 that as long as there is any incubation going on there is 

 music. As to the redbreast and wren, it is well known to 

 the most incurious observer that they whistle the year 

 round, hard frost excepted ; especially the latter. 



It was not in my power to procure you a black-cap, 

 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 



VOL. II. 9 B 



