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animo continens quædam, attentionemque et somnum con. turbans, agitatio; dum ascensus, exscensus, tenores, ac mutationes illæ sonorum et consonantiarum euntque redeuntque per phantasiam :—cum nihil tale relinqui possit ex modulationibus avium, quæ, quod non sunt perinde a nobis imitabiles, non possunt perinde internam facultatem commovere." -GASSENDUS in Vitâ Peireskii.

This curious quotation strikes me much by so well representing my own case, and 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 recollection at seasons, and even when I am desirous of thinking of more serious matters.

LETTER LVII.

TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON.

RARE, and I think a new, little bird frequents my garden, which I have great reason to think is the pettychaps: 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. Sometimes it feeds on the ground like the hedge sparrow, by hopping about on the grass-plots and mown walks.1

1 This could not be the pettychaps, or garden warbler, as Gilbert

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 weight, 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.1

One of the keepers of Wolmer Forest sent me a peregrine falcon, which he shot on the verge of that district as it was devouring a wood-pigeon. The Falco peregrinus, or haggard falcon, is a noble species of hawk seldom seen in the southern counties. In winter, 1767, one was killed in the neighbouring parish of Faringdon, and sent by me to Mr. Pennant into North Wales.3 Since that time I have met with none till now. The specimen mentioned above was in fine preservation, and not injured by the shot; it

White supposed. His description of its appearance and habits points to the lesser whitethroat.-ED.

1 This attachment of swallows to the neighbourhood of water at roosting-time may be easily accounted for by the circumstance that the willow branches not only afford them most convenient perches, but enable the birds to crowd close together and so secure greater warmth to individuals than they could possibly enjoy if each roosted upon a separate twig in trees or shrubs of different growth. The noisy fluttering which ensues in a struggle for inside places must frequently have attracted the notice of attentive observers.-ED.

2 The peregrine breeds in the sea-cliffs of Sussex, Dorset, and the Isle of Wight, and doubtless did so in the days of Gilbert White, although the fact was unknown to him.-ED.

3 See my tenth and eleventh [and twelfth] Letters to that gentlemar. -G. W.

measured forty-two inches from wing to wing, and twenty-one from beak to tail, and weighed two pounds and a half standing weight. This species is very robust, and wonderfully formed for rapine: its breast was plump and muscular; its thighs long, thick, and brawny; and its legs remarkably short and well set the feet were armed with most formidable, sharp, long talons: the eyelids and cere of the bill were yellow, but the irides of the eyes dusky; the beak was thick and hooked, and of a dark colour, and had a jagged process near

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the end of the upper mandible on each side: its tail, or train, was short in proportion to the bulk of its body: yet the wings, when closed, did not extend to the end of the train. From its large and fair proportions it might be supposed to have been a female; but I was not permitted to cut open the specimen. For one of the birds of prey, which are usually lean, this was in high case: in its craw were many barleycorns, which probably came from the crop of the wood pigeon, on which it was feeding when shot: for voracious birds do not eat grain; but, when devouring their quarry, with undistinguishing vehemence swallow bones

and feathers, and all matters, indiscriminately. This falcon was probably driven from the mountains of North Wales or Scotland, where they are known to breed, by rigorous weather and deep snows that had lately fallen.'

LETTER LVIII.

TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON.

M

Y near neighbour, a young gentleman in the service of the East India Company, has brought home a dog and a bitch of the Chinese breed from Canton; such as are fattened in that country for the purpose of being eaten they are about the size of a moderate spaniel; of a pale yellow colour, with coarse bristling hairs on their backs; sharp upright ears, and peaked heads, which give them a very fox-like appearance. Their hind legs are unusually straight, without any bend at the hock or ham, to such a degree as to give them an awkward gait when they trot. When they are in motion their tails are curved high over their backs like those of some hounds, and have a bare place each on the outside, from the tip midway, that does not seem to be matter of accident, but somewhat singular. Their eyes are jet black, small, and piercing: the insides of their lips and mouths of the same colour, and their tongues blue. The bitch has a dew-claw on each hind-leg; the dog has none. When taken out into a field the bitch showed some disposition for hunting, and dwelt on the scent of a covey of partridges till she sprung them, giving her tongue all the time. The dogs in South America are dumb; but these bark much in a short thick manner, like foxes; and

1 Although it is possible that this bird may have been migrating from the north, it is not unlikely to have been a wanderer from the Sussex or Dorsetshire sea-cliffs. See page 291, note 2.--ED.

have a surly, savage demeanour like their ancestors, which are not domesticated, but bred up in sties, where they are fed for the table with rice-meal and other farinaceous food. These dogs, having been taken on board as soon as weaned, could not learn much from their dam; yet they did not relish flesh when they came to England. In the islands of the Pacific Ocean the dogs are bred up on vegetables, and would not eat flesh when offered them by our circumnavigators.

We believe that all dogs, in a state of nature, have sharp, upright, fox-like ears; and that hanging ears, which are esteemed so graceful, are the effect of choice breeding and cultivation. Thus, in the "Travels of Ysbrandt Ides from Muscovy to China," the dogs which draw the Tartars on snow sledges near the river Oby are engraved with prick-ears, like those from Canton. The Kamtschatdales also train the same sort of sharp-eared, peaked-nosed dogs to draw their sledges; as may be seen in an elegant print engraved for Captain Cook's last voyage round the world.

Now we are upon the subject of dogs, it may not be impertinent to add, that spaniels, as all sportsmen know, though they hunt partridges and pheasants as it were by instinct, and with much delight and alacrity, yet will hardly touch their bones when offered as food; nor will a mongrel dog of my own, though he is remarkable for finding that sort of game. But, when we came to offer the bones of partridges. to the two Chinese dogs, they devoured them with much greediness, and licked the platter clean.

No sporting dogs will flush woodcocks till inured to the scent and trained to the sport, which they then pursue with vehemence and transport; but then they will not touch their bones, but turn from them with abhorrence, even when they are hungry.

Now that dogs should not be fond of the bones of such birds as they are not disposed to hunt is no wonder; but why they reject and do not care to eat their natural game is not so easily accounted for, since the end of hunting seems to be, that the chase pursued should be eaten. Dogs again will not devour the more rancid water-fowls, nor indeed the

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