“ tiones ills fonorum, et confonantiarum euntque, redeuntque
“ Per phantafiam : — cum nihil tale relinqui poflit ex modu-
“ lationibus avium, qua, quod non flint perinde. a nobis
“ imitabiles, non poffunt perinde internam facultatem com-
“ movere.” Gajfendus in Vita Peirejkii.
This curious quotation ftrikes me much by fo well reprefenting
my own cafe, and by defcribing what I have fo often felt, but
never could fo well exprefs. When I hear fine mufic I am
haunted with paflages therefrom night and day; and efpecially at
\f faft waking, which, by their importunity, give me more un-
eafinefs than pleafure : elegant leffons ftill teafe my imagination,
and recur irrefiftibly to my recollection at feafons, and even when
I am defirous of thinking of more ferious matters.
I am, &c.
L E T T E R LVH.
TO TH E S AM E .
A e a r e , and I think a new, little bird frequents my garden,
which I have, great, reafon to think is' the pettkhaps: it is common
in fome parts of the kingdom; and I have received formerly
feveral dead fpecimens from Gibraltar. This bird much refembles
the white-throat, but,has a more white or rather filvery bread: and
belly; is reftlefs and active, like the willou’-mem, and hops from
bough to bough, examining every, part for food ; it alfo runs up
the Items of the crown-imperials, and, putting it’s head into the bells
of tlrofe flowers, fips the liquor which Hands in the neBarium of
each petal. Sometimes it feeds on the ground like the hedge-
Jparrozv, by hopping about on the grafs-plots and mown walks.
One of my neighbours, an intelligent and- obferving man, informs
me that, in the beginning of May, and about ten minutes
before eight o’clock in the evening, he ,difcovered a great clufter
of houfe-fwallows, thirty at leaft he fuppofes, perching on a willow
that hung over the verge o i James'Knight’s upper -pond. His
attention was firft drawn by the twittering of thefe birds, which
fat motionlefs in a row on the bough, with their heads all one
way, and, by their weight, prefling down the twig fo that it nearly
touched the water. In this, fituation he watched them till he could
fee no longer. Repeated accounts of this fort, fpring and fall,
induce us greatly to fufpedt that houfe-fwallows have fome ftrong
a t t a c h m e n t