In the season of nidification the wildest birds are 

 comparatively tame. Thus the ring-dove breeds in 

 my fields, though they are continually frequented ; 

 and the missel-thrush, though most shy and wild in 

 the autumn and winter, builds in my garden close 

 to a walk where people are passing all day long. 



Wall-fruit abounds with me this year ; but my 

 grapes, that used to be forward and good, are at 

 present backward beyond all precedent: and this 

 is not the worst of the story ; for the same ungenial 

 weather, the same black cold solstice, has injured 

 the more necessary fruits of the earth, and dis- 

 coloured and blighted our wheat. The crop of hops 

 promises to be very large. 



Frequent returns of deafness incommode me sad- 

 ly, and half disqualify me as 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, etc., as August. My eyesight is, 

 thank God, quick and good ; but with respect to 

 the other sense, 1 am, at times, disabled: 



"And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out." 

 Selborne, Sept. 13, 1774. 



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