176 SUBSISTENCE OF BIRDS IN WINTER. 



disqualify me for a naturalist ; for, when those fits are upon 

 me, I lose all the pleasing notices and little intimations arising 

 from rural sounds ; and May is to me as silent and mute, with 

 respect to the notes of birds, &c. as August. My eyesight is, 

 thank God, quick and good ; but with respect to the other 

 sense, I am, at times, disabled, 



And Wisdom at one entrance quite shut out. 



LETTER LXIII. 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 



IT is matter of curious inquiry to trace out how those species 

 of soft-billed birds, that continue with us the winter through, 

 subsist during the dead months. The imbecility of birds 

 seems not to be the only reason why they shun the rigour of 

 our winters ; for the robust wry-neck (so much resembling the 

 hardy race of woodpeckers) migrates, while the feeble little 

 golden-crowned wren, that shadow of a bird, braves our 

 severest frosts, without availing himself of houses or villages, 

 to which most of our winter birds crowd in distressful seasons, 

 while he keeps aloof in fields and woods ; but perhaps this 

 may be the reason why they may often perish, and why they 

 are almost as rare as any bird we know. * 



I have no reason to doubt, but that the soft-billed birds, 

 which winter with us, subsist chiefly on insects in their aurelia 

 state. All the species of wagtails, in severe weather, haunt 

 shallow streams, near their spring-heads, where they never 

 freeze ; and, by wading, pick out the aurelias of the genus 

 phrygane&j^ &e. 



Hedge-sparrows frequent sinks and gutters in hard weather, 

 where they pick up crumbs and other sweepings ; and in mild 

 weather, they procure worms, which are stirring every month 

 in the year, as any one may see, that will only be at the 

 trouble of taking a candle to a grass-plot on any mild winter's 

 night. Redbreasts and wrens, in the winter, haunt out- 

 houses, stables, and barns, where they find spiders and flies, 

 that have laid themselves up during the cold season. J But 



* This bird inhabits Britain, from the Landsend to the Shetland 

 Islands, as also Ireland and the Isle of Man. It is sometimes migratory. 

 See our note, page 42. En. 



f See Derham's Physico - Theology, p. 2,35. 



| Both redbreasts and wrens approach villages and towns in winter, 

 and will eat crumbs of bread, and other farinaceous substances. \Ve 



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