NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 33 
seemed disposed to breed in my outlet ; but were frighted and per- 
secuted by idle boys, who would never let them be at rest. 
Three grossbeaks (loxia coccothraustes) appeared some years ago 
in my fields, in the winter; one of which I shot. Since that, now 
and then, one is occasionally seen in the same dead season. 
A crossbill (loxda curvirostra) was killed last year in this neigh- 
bourhood. 
Our streams, which are small, and rise only at the end of the 
village, yield nothing but the bull’s head or miller’s thumb (godzus 
fluviatilis capitatius) , the trout (¢ructa fluviatilis), the eel (anguzlla), 
the lampern (dampetra parva et fluviatilis), and the stickle-back 
(pisciculus aculeatus). 
MILLER’S THUMB AND STICKLE-BACK. 
We are twenty miles from the sea, and almost as many from a 
great river, and therefore see but little of sea birds. As to wild 
fowls, we have a few teems of ducks bred in the moors where the 
snipes breed ; and multitudes of widgeons and teals in hard weather 
frequent our lakes in the forest. 
Having some acquaintance with a tame brown owl, I find that it 
casts up the fur of mice and the feathers of birds in pellets, after 
the manner of hawks; when full, like a dog, it hides what it can- 
not eat. 
The young of the barn-owl are not easily raised, as they want a 
constant supply of fresh mice ; whereas the young of the brown 
owl will eat indiscriminately all that is brought ; snails, rats, kittens, 
puppies, magpies, and any kind of carrion or offal. 
The house-martins have eggs still, and squab young. The last 
swift I observed was about the 21st of August: it was a straggler. 
D 
