OF SELBORNE. 
LETTER XLI. 
TO THE SAME. 
It is mattei" of curious inquiry to trace out Iiow thofe fpecies of 
foft-billed birds, that continue with us the winter through, fubfiil 
during the dead months. The imbeciUty of birds feems not to 
be the only reafon why they fliun the rigour of our winters ; for 
the robuft wry-neck (fo much refembling the hardy race of 'wood- 
peckers) migrates, while the feeble little golden- croivned wren, that 
fhadow of a bird, braves our feverefl; frofts without availing 
himfelf of houfes or villages, to which mod of our winter-birds 
crowd in diftrefsful feafons, while this keeps aloof in fields and 
woods; but perhaps this may be the reafon why they may often 
perifh, and why they are almoft as rare as any bird we know. 
I have no reafon to doubt but that the foft-billcd birds, 
which winter with us, fubfift chiefly on infers in their aurelia 
ftate. All the fpecies of wagtails in fevere weather haunt fliallow 
ftreams near their fpring-heads, where they never freeze ; and, by 
v/ading, pick out the aurelias of the genus of i Pbrygane^c, &c. 
Hedge-fparroivs frequent finks and gutters in hard weather, 
where they pick up crumbs and.^ other fweepings : and in mild 
weather they procure worms, which are ftirring every month in 
the year, as any one may fee that will only be at the trouble of 
taking a candle to a grafs-plot on any mild winter's night. Red- 
.breafts and wrens in the winter haunt out-houfes, ftables, and barns. 
9 See ZJfriaw's Phyfico-theology, p. 235« 
P 
where 
