NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 59 
The next bird that I procured (on the 2Ist of May) was a male 
red-backed butcher-bird, Zazzus collurio. My neighbour, who shot 
it, says that it might easily have escaped his notice, had not the 
outcries and chattering of the whitethroats and other small birds 
drawn his attention to the bush where it was; its craw was filled 
with the legs and wings of beetles. The next rare birds (which 
were procured for me last week) were some ring-ousels, turdz 
torquatz, 
This week twelve months a gentleman from London, being with 
us, was amusing himself with a gun, and found, he told us, on an 
old yew hedge where there were berries some birds like blackbirds, 
with rings of white round their necks : a neighbouring farmer also 
at the same time observed the same; but, as no specimens were 
procured, little notice was taken. J mentioned this circumstance 
RING-OUSEL. 
to you in my letter of November the 4th, 1767 (you, however, paid 
but small regard to what I said, as I had not seen these birds my- 
self); but last week the aforesaid farmer, seeing a large flock, 
twenty or thirty of these birds, shot two cocks and two hens, and 
says, on recollection, that he remembers to have observed these 
birds again last spring, about Lady-day, as it were on their return to 
the north. Now perhaps these ousels are not the ousels of the north 
of England, but belong to the more northern parts of Europe ; and 
may retire before the excessive rigour of the frosts in those parts, 
and return to breed in the spring, when the cold abates. If this be 
the case, here is discovered a new bird of winter passage, concern- 
