its environs, where you heard so very few birds, is 

 not a woodland country, and therefore not stocked 

 with such songsters. If you will cast your eye on 

 my last letter, you will find that many species con- 

 tinued to warble after the beginning of July. 



The titlark and yellowhammer breed late, the lat- 

 ter very late ; and therefore it is no wonder that 

 they protract their song : for I lay it down as a 

 maxim in ornithology, that as long as there is anv 

 incubation going on there is music. As to the red- 

 breast and wren, it is well known to the most in- 

 curious observer that they whistle the year round, 

 hard frost excepted ; especially the latter. 



It was not in my power to procure you a black- 

 cap, or a lesser reed-sparrow, or sedge-bird, alive. 

 As the first is undoubtedl}^ and the last, as far as I 

 can yet see, a summer bird of passage, they would 

 require more nice and curious management in a cage 

 than I should be able to give them : they are both 

 distinguished songsters. The note of the blackcap 

 has such a wild sweetness that it always brings to 

 my mind those lines in a song in As You Like It, — 



" And tune his merry note 

 Unto the wild bird's throat." 



Shakespeare. 



The sedge-bird has a surprising variety of notes 

 resemblinor the sono- of several other birds ; but then 

 it has also a hurrving manner, not at all to its advan- 

 tage : it is notwithstanding a delicate polyglot. 



119 



