100 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



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 house, 

 or in the hole of a wall, or on the end of a beam or plate, 

 and often close to the post of a door where people are going 

 in and out all day long. This bird does not make the least 

 pretension to song, but uses a little inward wailing note 

 when it thinks its young in danger from cats or other 

 annoyances ; it breeds but once, and retires early. 



Selborne parish alone can and has exhibited at times 

 more than half the birds that are ever seen in all Sweden ; 

 the former has produced more than one hundred and twenty 

 species, the latter only two hundred and twenty-one. Let 

 me add also that it has shown near half the species that 

 were ever known in Great Britain. 



On a retrospect, I observe that my long letter carries 

 with it a quaint and magisterial air, and is very senten- 

 tious ; but when I recollect that you requested stricture 

 and anecdote, I hope you will pardon the didactic manner 

 for the sake of the information it may happen to contain. 



LETTER XLI. 



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 wryneck (so much 



