80 RINGOUSELS. 



such subjects, yet there is such a propensity in 

 mankind towards deceiving and being deceived, 

 that one cannot safely relate any thing from common 

 report, especially in print, without expressing some 

 degree of doubt and suspicion. 



Your approbation with regard to my new disco- 

 very of the migration of the ringousel, 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 ringousels 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. 



LETTER XXII. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, January, 2, 1769. 

 DEAR SIR, 



As to the peculiarity of jack- daws building with 

 us under the ground, in rabbit burrows, you have, 

 in part, hit upon the reason ; for, in reality, there 



