676 APPENDIX, 



(as I obferved before) continue in fong above ten 

 weeks. 



The food of finging birds confifts of plants, 

 infects, or feeds, and of the two firft of thefe there 

 is infinitely the greateft profufion in the fpring. 



As for feeds, which are to be met with only in 

 the autumn, I think they cannot well find any great 

 quantities of them in a country fo cultivated as 

 England is 5 for the feeds in meadows are deftroyed 

 by mowing ; in paftures, by the bite of the cattle •, 

 and in arable, by the plough, when moil: of them 

 are buried too deep for the bird to reach them *. 



I know well that the finging of the cock-bird 

 in the fpring is attributed by many -f- to the motive 

 only of pleafing its mate during incubation. 



They, however, who fuppofe this, mould recol- 

 lect, that much the greater part of birds do not 

 fing at all : why mould their mate therefore be de- 

 prived of this folace and amufement ? 



The bird in a cage, which, perhaps, fings nine 

 or ten months in a year, cannot do fo from this 

 inducement j and, on the contrary, it arifes chiefly 

 from contending with another bird, or indeed a- 

 gainft almoft any fort of continued noife. 



and fed with minnows, are almoft at all feafons of a good fla- 

 vour, and are red when drefTed. 



* The plough indeed may turn up fome few feeds, which 

 may ftill be in an eatable ftate. 



f See, amongft others, M, de Buffon, in his lately-publifh- 

 cd Ornithology. 



Superiority 



