of Selborne 233 



LETTER LVII 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES RARRINGTON 



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

 garden, which I have great reason to think is the petti- 

 chaps : 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 crown-imperials, and, putting 

 its 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, informs me that, in the beginning of May, and 

 about ten minutes before eight o'clock in the evening, he 

 discovered a great cluster of house-swallows, thirty at 

 least he supposes, perching on a willow that hung over 

 the verge of James Knight's upper-pond. His attention 

 was first draAvn by the twittering of these birds, which sat 

 motionless in a row on the bough, with their heads all 

 one way, and, by their weight, pressing down the twig so 

 that it nearly touched the water. In this situation he 

 watched them till he could see no longer. Repeated 

 accounts of this sort, spring and fall, induce us greatly to 

 suspect that house-swallows have some strong attachment 

 to water, independent of the matter of food ; and though 

 they may not retire into that element, yet they may con- 

 ceal themselves in the banks of pools and rivers during 

 the uncomfortable months of winter. 



One of the keepers of Wolmer-forest sent me a peregrine 

 falcon, which he shot on the verge of that district as it was 

 devouring a wood-pigeon. The falco peregrinus^ or 

 haggard falcon, is a noble species of hawk seldom seen in 



