186 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



" Praehabebat porrd vocibus humanis, instrumentisque harmonicis 

 musicam illam avium : non quod alia quoque non delectaretur : sed 

 quod ex musica humana relinqueretur in animo continens quaedam, 

 attentionemque et somnum conturbans agitatio ; dum ascensus, 

 exscensus, tenores, ac mutationes illae sonorum, et consonantiarum 

 euntque, redeuntque per phantasiam : cum nihil tale relinqui possit 

 ex modulationibus avium, quae, quod non sunt perinde a nobis imitabiles, 

 non possunt perinde internam facultatem commovere." Gassendus in 

 Vita PeiresMi. 



This curious quotation strikes me much by so well representing my 

 own case, and by describing what I have so often felt, but never could 

 so well express. When I hear fine music I am haunted with passages 

 therefrom night and day ; and especially at first waking, which, by 

 their importunity, give me more uneasiness than pleasure ; elegant 

 lessons still tease my imagination, and recur irresistibly to my recol- 

 lection at seasons, and even when 1 am desirous of thinking of more 

 serious matters. I am, &c. 



LETTER LVIL 



TO THE SAME. 



A RARE, and I think a new, little bird frequents my garden, which 

 I have great reason to think is the pettichaps : it is common in some 

 parts of the kingdom; and I have received formerly several dead 

 specimens from Gibraltar. This bird much resembles the white-throat, 

 but has a more white or rather silvery breast and belly ; is restless and 

 active, like the willow-wrens, and hops from bough to bough, examining 

 every part for food ; it also runs up the stems of the crown-imperials, 

 and, putting its head into the bells of those flowers, sips the liquor 

 which stand in the nectarium of each petal. Sometimes it feeds on the 

 ground like the hedge-sparrow, by hopping about on the grass-plots and 

 mown walks. 



One of my neighbours, an intelligent and observing man, informs 

 me that, in the beginning of May, and about ten minutes before eight 

 o'clock in the evening, he discovered a great cluster of house-swallows, 

 thirty, at least, he supposes, perching on a willow that hung over the 

 verge of James Knight's upper-pond. His attention was first drawn by 

 the twittering of these birds, which sat motionless in a row on the 

 bough, with their heads all one way, and, by their weight, pressing 

 down the twig so that it nearly touched the water. In this situation 

 he watched them till he could see no longer. Repeated accounts of 

 this sort, spring and fall, induce us greatly to suspect that house- 

 swallows have some strong attachment to water, independent of the 

 matter of food ; and, though they may not retire into that element, yet 

 they may conceal themselves in the banks of pools and rivers during 

 the uncomfortable months of winter. 



One of the keepers of Woolmer Forest sent me a peregrine-falcon, 



