290 NATURAL HISTORY 



animo continens qugedam, attentionemque et somnum con 

 turbans, agitatio ; dum ascensus, exscensus, tenores, ac mu- 

 tationes illze sonorum et consonantiarum euntque redeuntque 

 per phantasiam : cum nihil tale relinqui possit ex modula- 

 tionibus avium, quae, quod non sunt perinde a nobis inrita- 

 biles, non possunt perinde internam facultatem commovere." 

 GASSENDUS in Vita Peireskii. 



This curious quotation strikes me much by so well repre- 

 senting my own case, and 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 recollec- 

 tion at seasons, and even when I am desirous of thinking of 

 more serious matters. 



LETTER LVII. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 



BARE, and I think a new, little bird fre- 

 quents my garden, which I have great reason 

 to think is the pettychaps : it is common in 

 some parts of the kingdom ; and I have re- 

 ceived 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 rest- 

 less 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 stands 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. 1 



1 This could not be the pettyehaps, or garden warbler, as Gilbert 



