186 
NATTJEAL HISTOEY OF SELBOP.NE. 
" Pr^habebat porro vocibus humanis, instrumentisque harmonicis 
musicam illam avium : non quod alia quoque non delectaretur : sed 
quod ex music^ humanii relinqueretur in animo continens quaedam, 
attentionemque et somnum conturbans agitatio ; dum ascensus, 
exscensus, tenores, ac mutationes illse sonorum^ et consonantiarum 
euntque, redeuntque per phantasiam : — cum nihil tale relinqui possit 
ex modulationibus avium^ quae, quod non sunt perinde a nobis imitabiles, 
non possunt perinde internam facultatem commovere." — Gassendus in 
Vita Peireshii. 
This curious quotation strikes me much by so well representing my 
own case, and by 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 recol- 
lection at seasons, and even when 1 am desirous of thinking of more 
serious matters. I am, &c. 
LETTEE LVIL 
TO THE SAME. 
A KAEE, and I think a new, little bird frequents my garden, which 
I have great reason to think is the pettichaps : it is common in some 
parts of the kingdom ; and I have received 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 restless 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 stand 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. 
One of my neighbours, an intelligent and observing man, informs 
me that, in the beginning of May, and about ten minutes before eight 
o'clock in the evening, he discovered a great cluster of house-swallows, 
thirty, at least, he supposes, perching on a willow that hung over the 
verge of James Knight's upper-pond. His attention was first drawn by 
the twittering of these birds, which sat motionless in a row on the 
bough, with their heads all one way, and, by their we,ight, pressing 
down the twig so that it nearly touched the water. In this situation 
he watched them till he could see no longer. Repeated accounts of 
this sort, spring and fall, induce us greatly to suspect that house- 
swallows have some strong attachment to water, independent of the 
matter of food ; and, though they may not retire into that element, yet 
they may conceal themselves in the banks of pools and rivers during 
the uncomfortable months of winter. 
One of the keepers of Woolmer Forest sent me a peregrine-falcon. 
