78 NATURAL HISTORY 
The next rare birds (which were procured for 
me last week) were some RinGousELs (turdi tor. 
quatt). 
This week twelvemonth, a gentleman from Lon- 
don, being with us, was amusing himself with a gun, 
and found, he told us, on an old yew hedge where 
there were berries, some birds like blackbirds, with 
rings of white round their necks: a neighbouring 
farmer also at the same time observed the same; 
but, as no specimens were procured, little notice 
was taken. I mentioned this circumstance to you 
in my letter of November the 4th, 1767 (you, how- 
ever, paid but small regard to what I said, as I had 
not seen these birds myself); but last week the 
aforesaid farmer, seeing a large flock, twenty or 
thirty of these birds, shot two cocks and two hens; 
and says, on recollection, that he remembers to 
have observed these birds again last spring, about 
Lady Day, as it were, on their return to the north, 
Now perhaps these ousels are not the ousels of the 
north of England, but belong to the more northern 
parts of Europe, and may retire before the exces- 
sive rigour of the frosts in those parts, and return 
to lay their eggs in spring, when the cold abates. 
If this be the case, here is discovered a new bird of 
winter passage, concerning whose migrations the 
writers are silent ; but if these birds should prove 
the ousels of the north of England, then here is a 
migration disclosed within our own kingdom never 
before remarked. It does not yet appear whether 
they retire beyond the bounds of our island to the 
south; but it is most probable that they usually do, 
or else one cannot suppose that they would have 
continued so long unnoticed in the southern coun- 
