OF SEL BORNE. 
211 
camo determined to storm the nest of a miasel-thrush : the 
dams defended their mansion with great vigour, and fought 
resolntely pro aris et focis ; but numbers at last prevailed, 
they tore the nest to pieces, and swallowed the young alive. 
In the season of nidification the wildest birds are compa- 
ratively tame. Thus the ring-dove breeds in my fields, 
though they are continually frequented; and the missel- 
thrush, though most shy and wild in the autumn and winter, 
builds in my garden close to a walk where people are pass- 
ing all day long. 
Wall fruit abounds with me this year ; but my grapes, 
that used to be forward and good, are at present backward 
beyond all precedent: and this is not the worst of the 
story ; for the same ungenial weather, the same black cold 
solstice, has injured the more necessary fruits of the earth, 
and discoloured and blighted our wheat. The crop of hops 
promises to be very large. 
Frequent returns of deafness incommode me sadly, and 
half disqualify me for a naturalist ; for when those fits are 
upon me I lose all the pleasing notices and little intima- 
tions arising from rural sounds ; and May is to me as silent 
and mute with respect to the notes of birds, &c., as August. 
My eyesight is, thank God, quick and good ; but with 
respect to the other sense, I am, at times, disabled : 
" And Wisdom at one entrance quite shut out." 
LETTER XXIII. 
TO THE HONOUKABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 
Selborne, June 8, 1775. 
N September the 21st, 1741, being then on a 
visit, and intent on field diversions, I rose 
before daybreak : when I came into the en- 
closures, I found the stubbles and clover- 
grounds matted all over with a thick coat of 
;obweb, in the meshes of which a copious and heavy dew 
