OF SELBORNE. 165 
sharp look-out in the lanes and woods, hoping I 
might, at this time of the year, have discovered 
some of the summer short-winged birds of passage 
crowding towards the coast in order for their de- 
parture ; but it was very extraordinary that I nev- 
er saw a redstart, whitethroat, blackcap, uncrested 
wren, fly-catcher, &c.; and I remember to have 
made the same remark in former years, as I usu- 
ally come to this place annually about this time. 
The birds most common along the coast at present 
are the stone chatterers, whinchats, buntings, lin- 
nets, some few wheatears, titlarks, &c. Swallows 
and house-martins abound yet [October 8th], in- 
duced to prolong their stay by this soft, still, dry 
season. 
A land tortoise, which has been kept for thirty 
years in a little walled court belonging to the house 
where I am now visiting, retires under ground 
about the middle of November, and comes forth 
again about the middle of April. When it first ap- 
pears in the spring it discovers very little inclina- 
tion towards food, but in the height of summer 
grows voracious, and then, as the summer declines, 
its appetite declines, so that for the last six weeks 
in autumn it hardly eats at all. Milky plants, such 
as lettuces, dandelions, sow-thistles, are its favourite - 
dish. In a neighbouring village one was kept till, 
by tradition, it was supposed to be a hundred years 
old: an instance of vast longevity in such a poor 
reptile ! 
