'O SINGING BIRDS AVIARIES. 



By my journal it appears, that curlews clamoured on to 

 October the thirty-first ; since which, I have not seen or heard 

 any. Swallows were observed on to November the third. 



LETTER XXIX. 



TO THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. 



SELBORNE, January 15, 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 w r ere 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 tw r o 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 wall find that many species continued to 

 warble after the beginning of July. 



The titlark and yellow r -hammer 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 



* While we admit the truth of our author's remarks, we are inclined 

 to believe that birds sing frequently from buoyancy of spirits and joy, as 

 well as from rivalry. Every one must have observed, that birds in con- 

 finement immediately commence singing whenever a noise is made in the 

 room where they are situated. 



Mr Sweet, who has devoted much time to taming the musical genus 

 sylvia, has, by diligent observation, and appropriate management, actually 

 changed most of the species from annual to perennial songsters. In the 

 month of March, these interesting choristers may be heard, pouring 

 forth the familiar strains of midsummer. A little room, with a fire- 

 place, serves as an aviary ; and in this he has two large cages, which 

 contain the nightingale, white-throat, pettychaps, white-ear, whin-chat, 

 stone-chat, redstart, black-cap, willow-wren, siskin, and other birds. 



The management of an aviary is a most interesting amusement to the 

 lover of nature. If the apartment be sufficiently large, the little songsters 

 feel none of the tedium of imprisonment, but sport about, with all the 

 ardour manifested in their natural groves. The scene is greatly heightened 



