io6 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



ward, if they do at first come at all from the northern parts of this 

 island only, and not from the north of Europe. Come from whence 

 they will, it is plain, from the fearless disregard that they show for 

 men or guns, that they have been little accustomed to places of 

 much resort. Navigators mention that in the Isle of Ascension, 

 and other such desolate districts, birds are so little acquainted 

 with the human form that they settle on men's shoulders ; and 

 have no more dread of a sailor than they would have of a goat 

 that was grazing. 1 A young man at Lewes, in Sussex, assured me 

 that about seven years ago ring-ousels abounded so about that 

 town in the autumn that he killed sixteen himself in one afternoon; 

 he added further, that some had appeared since in every autumn ; 

 but he could not find that any had been observed before the 

 season in which he shot so many. I myself have found these 

 birds in little parties in the autumn cantoned all along the Sussex 

 downs, wherever there were shrubs and bushes, from Chichester 

 to Lewes; particularly in the autumn of 1770. 



I am, etc. 



NOTE TO LETTER XXXVIII. 



1 Even in England birds often show great confidence in man. I seem to 

 have a peculiar knack of making friends with them and with wild animals. One 

 evening last summer I was sitting in Jesmond Dene, Newcastle-on-Tyne, when 

 a robin hopped close by me, and as I kept perfectly still, it inspected me closely, 

 flew on to my boot, on to the seat by my side, and closely inspected my hand, 

 then hopped on to my knee, and finally on to my shoulder. This familiarity 

 was repeated on a subsequent occasion, to my great satisfaction. While lying 

 down by some rabbit holes on a summer's afternoon, the bunnies have sat at 

 the mouths of their burrows, coolly gazing at me, and proceeding with their 

 toilets within three yards of my head, Squirrels, too, have made friends with 

 me ; but then, I prefer quietly watching birds and animals to killing them. 



