122 NATURAL HISTORY 
reject what I here advance in your intended new 
edition of the British Zoology. 
The osprey* was shot about a year ago at 
Frinsham Pond, a great lake at about six miles 
from hence, while it was sitting on the handle of a 
plough and devouring a fish; it used to precipi- 
tate itself into the water, and so take its prey by 
surprise. 
A great ash-colouredt butcher-bird was shot last 
winter in Tisted Park, and a red-backed butcher- 
bird at Selborne. ‘They are rare aves in this 
country. 
Crows$ go in pairs the whole year round. 
Cornish choughs§ abound on Beechy Head, and 
on the cliffs of the Sussex coast. 
The common wild pigeon,|| or stock-dove, is a 
bird of passage in the south of England, seldom 
appearing till towards the end of November; is 
usually the latest winter bird of passage. Before 
our beechen woods were so much destroyed, we 
had myriads of them, reaching in strings for a mile 
together, as they went out in the morning to feed. 
They leave us early in spring: where do they 
build ? 
The people of Hampshire and Sussex call the 
missel-bird{ the storm-cock, because it sings early 
in the spring, in blowing, showery weather. Its 
song often commences with the year; with us it 
builds much in orchards. 
A gentleman assures me he has taken the nests 
of ringousels** on Dartmoor ; they build in banks _ 
on the sides of streams. an 
* British Zoology, ii : 2P. 128. + P. 161. TF 167. 
§ P. 198. | P.2 q P. 224. ** P, 229, 
