OF SELBORNE 53 



mouths of the holes ; and, if they heard the young ones 

 cry, they twisted the nest out with a forked stick. Some 

 water-fowls (viz. the puffins) breed, I know, in that 

 manner ; but I should never have suspected the daws of 

 building in holes on the flat ground. 



Another very unlikely spot is made use of by daws as a 

 place to breed in, and that is Stonehenge. These birds 

 deposit their nests in the interstices between the upright 

 and the impost stones of that amazing work of antiquity : 

 which circumstance alone speaks the prodigious height of 

 the upright stones, that they should be tall enough to 

 secure those nests from the annoyance of shepherd-boys, 

 who are always idling round that place. 



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 any thing 

 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: 



