when grain fails, can subsist on the leaves of vege- 

 tables. There is reason to suppose that they would 

 not long be healthy without, for turkeys, though 

 corn-fed, delight in a variety of plants, such as cab- 

 bage, lettuce, endive, &c., and poultry pick much 

 grass ; while geese live for months together on com- 

 mons by grazing alone. 



" Nought is useless made ; 



On the barren heath 



The shepherd tends his flock that daily crop 

 Their verdant dinner from the mossy turf 

 Sufficient : after them the cackling goose, 

 Close-grazer, finds wherewith to ease her want." 



Philipps's Cyder.] 



—Observations on Nature. 



Selborne, May 12, 1770. 



LETTER XXXV. 



To THE Honourable Daines Barrington. 



The severity and turbulence of last month so in- 

 terrupted the regular process of summer migration, 

 that some of the birds do but just begin to show 

 themselves, and others, as the whitethroat, the black- 

 cap, the redstart, the fly-catcher, are apparently thin- 

 ner than usual. I well remember that after the very 

 severe spring in the year 1739-40, summer birds of 

 passage were very scarce. They come hither proba- 



135 



