OF SELBOllNE.-' 6l 



ther, late in the Spring, which cut off all 

 the produce of the more tender and curi- 

 ous trees, destroyed also that of the more 

 hardy and common. 



Some birds, haunting with the missel- 

 thrushes, and feeding on the berries of the 

 yew-tree, which answered to the description 

 of the merula torquata, or rmg-ouzel, were 

 lately seen in this neighbourhood. I em- 

 ployed some people to procure me a speci- 

 men, but without success. See Letter VIII. 



Query — Might not Canary birds be natu- 

 ralized to this climate, provided their eggs 

 were put, in the Spring, into the nests of 

 some of their congeners, as goldfinches, 

 greenfinches, &c. ? Before Winter perhaps 

 they might be hardened, and able to shift 

 for themselves. 



About ten years ago I used to spend some 

 weeks yearly at Sunhury, which is one of 

 those pleasant villages lying on the Thames^ 

 near Hampton-court. In the Autumn, I 

 could not help being much amused with 

 those myriads of the swallow kind which 

 assemble in those parts. But what struck 



