228 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
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 recollection .at 
seasons, and even when I am desirous of thinking of more 
serious matters. 
LETTER LII. 
A rare, 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 stands in the nectarium of each petal. Some- 
times it feeds on the ground like the hedge-sparrow, by hopping 
about on the grass-plots and mown walks." 
One of my neighbors, 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 weight, 
pressing down the twig so that it nearly touched the water. 
In this situation he watched them till he could see no longer. 
1 This description agrees more with the lesser white-throat. 
