OF SELBORNE 127 
§lucry. Does each female cuckoo lay but one egg In a feafon, 
or does flie drop feveral in d liferent nefts according as opportunity 
offers ? I am, &c. 
LETTER V. 
TO THE SAME. 
DEAR SIR, Selborne, April 12, 1770. 
I HEARD many birds of feveral fpecies fing lad year after Mid- 
fummer ; enough to prove that the fummer folilice is not the period 
that puts a ftop to the mufic of the woods. The yellowhammcr 
no doubt perfifts with more fteadinefs than any other; but the 
woodlark, the wren, the redbreaft, the fwallow, the white-throat, 
the goldfinch, the common linnet, are all undoubted inftances of 
the truth of what I advanced. 
If this fcvere feafon does not interrupt the regularity of the fum- 
mer migrations, the blackcap will be here in two or three days. 
I wifli it was in my power to procure you one of thofe fongftcrs ; 
but I am no birdcatcher ; and fo little ufed to birds in a cage, 
that I fear if I had one it would foon die for want of Ikill in 
feeding. 
Was 
