62 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
— 
One of my neighbours last Saturday, November the 26th, saw a 
martin in a sheltered bottom: the sun shone warm, and the bird was 
hawking briskly after flies. I am now perfectly satisfied that they 
do not all leave this island in the winter. 
You judge very right, I think, in speaking with reserve and caution 
concerning the cures done by toads: for, let people advance what 
they will on such subjects, yet there is such a propensity in mankind 
towards deceiving and being deceived, that one cannot safely relate 
anything from common report, especially in print, without express- 
ing some degree of doubt and suspicion. 
Your approbation, with regard to my new discovery of the 
migration of the ring-ousel, gives me satisfaction; and I find you 
concur with me in suspecting that they are foreign birds which visit 
us. You will be sure, I hope, not to omit to make inquiry whether 
your ring-ousels leave your rocks in the autumn. What puzzles me 
most, is the very short stay they make with us; for in about three 
weeks they are all gone. I shall be very curious to remark whether 
they will call on us at their return in the spring, as they did last 
year. 
I want to be better informed with regard to ichthyology. If 
fortune had settled me near the sea-side, or near some great river, 
my natural propensity would soon have urged me to have made 
myself acquainted with their productions : but as I have lived 
mostly in inland parts, and in an upland district, my knowledge of 
fishes extends little farther than to those common sorts which our 
brooks and lakes produce. 
Lam, &e 
