The Natural History of Selborne

Peach & Nect. bloom scarce over yet: no fruit seems to be set.  Vine-buds do not open at all.  One of my neighbours, an intelligent, & observing man informs me, that about ten minutes before 8 o’clock in the eveing he discovered a great cluster of house swallows, 30 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 sate motionless in a row on the bough, with their heads all one way, & 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 & fall induce us greatly to suspect that house swallows have some strong attachement to water independent of the matter of food; & that, if they do not retire into that element, they conceal themselves in the banks of pools & rivers during the uncomfortable months of winter.

An uncommon, & I think a new little bird frequents my garden, which I have great readon to think is the Pettichaps.  It is common in some parts of the kingdom,  & I have received formerly several dead specimens from Gibraltar.  It much resembles the white throat, but has a more white, or rather silvery breast & belly; is restless & active like the willow-wrens, hopping from bough to bough, & examining every part for food. It also runs up the stems of the crown-imperials, & putting its head into the bells of those flowers, sips the liquor contained in the nectarium of each petal.  It sometimes feeds like the hedge-sparrow, hopping about on the grass-plots & mown walks.