548 
NATURAL HISTORY 
ho-pe to be ready: and as I have got my materials, trust 
that when I do set about the business verba hand invita 
sequentur/^ By all means get a sight of the sixth Report 
of the Commissioners, &c. : it will entertain you, and furnish 
you with much matter, and many anecdotes respecting 
Selborne, of which I could have availed myself greatly had 
they been printed before I published my work/ My book 
is gone to Madras, and several to France, and one to Swit- 
zerland, and one copy is going to China with Lord Macartney, 
but whether some Mandareen will read it, I know not. We 
have a young gent, here now on a visit, the son of our late 
A^icar Etty, who assures me, that at Canton he has seen the 
Chinese reading English books ; and has heard them 
converse sensibly on the manners and police of this kingdom. 
The Chif-Chaf of this village is the smallest willow wren of 
my History."^ Once I had a spaniel that was pupped in a 
rabbit burrow on the verge of Wolmer forest. Though I 
have long ceased to be a sportsman, yet I still love a dog ; 
and am attended daily by a beautiful spaniel with long ears, 
and a spotted nose and legs, who amuses me in my walks 
by sometimes springing a pheasant, or partridge, and 
seldom by flushing a woodcock, of late become with us 
a very rare bird. Remember the story of Pylades and 
Orestes ; and do not say that exalted friendship never 
existed among men. Chif-Chaf, the first bird of passage, 
was heard here March 20 ; Swallow was seen, March 26 ; 
IN^ightingale and Cuckoo, April 9 ; House Martins, April 12; 
Redstart, April 19; Swift, April 14; Fern-owl heard May 
19; Fly-catcher, the latest summer bird. May 20. We 
have experienced a very black wet summer, and solstice ; 
but none of those floods and devastations mentioned in the 
newspapers ! Indeed we know no floods here, but frequent 
rains. Yet in warm summers we have as fine melons, and 
grapes, and wall-fruit as I have ever seen. July at an 
average produces the most rain of any English month. 
' This Report was printed in February, 1790. See p. 542. — Ed. 
* See Letter XVI. to Pennant, p. 56, note 2. — Ed. 
