‘te 
OF SELBORNE. 121 
clude that their migrations are only internal, and 
not extended to the Continent southward, if they do 
at first come at all from the northern parts of this 
island only, and not from the north of Europe. 
Come from whence they wiil, it is plain, from the 
fearless disregard that they show for men or guns, 
that they have been little accustomed to places of 
much resort. Navigators mention that, in the Isle 
of Ascension and other such desolate districts, birds 
are so little acquainted with the human form that 
they settle on men’s shoulders, and have no more 
dread of a sailor than they would have of a goat 
that was grazing. A young man at Lewes, in 
Sussex, assured me that, about seven years ago, 
ringousels abounded so about that town in the au. 
tumn that he killed sixteen himself in one afternoon: 
he added farther, that some had appeared since in 
every autumn ; but he could not find that any had 
been observed before the season in which he shot 
so many. I myself have found these birds in little 
parties, in the autumn, cantoned all along the Sus. 
sex Downs, wherever there were shrubs and bushes, 
from Chichester to Lewes, particularly in the au. 
tumn of 1770. 
LETTER XXXIX. 
Selborne, Nov. 9, 1773. 
Dear Str,—As you desire me to send you such 
observations as may occur, I take the liberty of 
making the following remarks, that you may, ac- 
cording as you think me right or wrong, admit or 
L 
