290 
NATURAL HISTOBY 
animo continens quaedam^ attentionemque et somnum coa- 
turbans^ agitatio j dum ascensus, exscensus, tenores, ac mu- 
tationes illge sonorum et consonantiarum euntque redeuntque 
per phantasiam : — cum niMl tale relinqui possit ex modula- 
tionibus avium^ quae, quod non sunt perinde a nobis imita- 
biles_, non possunt perinde inter nam facultatem commovere." 
— Gassendus in Vita PeireshiL 
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 HONOUKABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 
EARE, 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,^ 
This could not be the pettychaps, or garden warbler, as Gilbert 
