OF SELBORNE. 79 
ties. The ousel is larger than a blackbird, and 
feeds on haws ; but last autumn (when there were 
no haws) it fed on yew-berries: in the spring it 
feeds on ivy-berries, which ripen only at that sea. 
son, in March and April. 
I must not omit to tell you (as you have been 
so lately on the study of reptiles) that my people 
every now and then, of late, draw up with a bucket 
of water from my well, which is sixty-three feet 
deep, a large black warty Lizarp, with a fin-tail 
and yellow belly. How they first came down at 
that depth, and how they were ever to have got out 
thence without help, is more than I am able to say. 
My thanks are due to you for your trouble and 
care in the examination of a buck’s head. As far 
as your discoveries reach at present, they seem 
much to corroborate my suspicions ; and I hope 
Mr. may find reason to give his decision in 
my favour; and then, I think, we may advance 
this extraordinary provision of nature as a new 
instance of the wisdom of God in the creation. 
As yet I am not quite done with my history of 
the edicnemus, or stone curlew ; for I shall desire 
