NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORN&. 



69 



old yew hedge where there were berries, some birds like black- 

 birds, 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. I mentioned 

 this circumstance to you in my letter of November 4th, 1767 

 (you, however, paid but small regard to what I said, as I had not 

 seen these birds myself) ; 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 



THE KNOT SANDPIPER (Tringa. canutus). 



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 dis- 

 covered a new bird of winter passage, concerning whose migrations 

 the writers are silent ; but if these birds should prove the ousels 

 of the north of England, then here is a migration disclosed within 

 our own kingdom never before remarked. It does not yet appear 



