OF SELBORNE 133 



LETTER XV 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON 



Selborne, July 8, 1773. 



Dear Sir, 

 Some young men went down lately to a pond on the verge 

 of Wolmer-forest to hunt flappers, or young wild-ducks, 

 many of which they caught, and, among the rest, some 

 very minute yet well-fledged wild-fowls alive, which upon 

 examination, I found to be teals. I did not know till then 

 that teals ever bred in the south of England, and was 

 much pleased with the discovery : this I look upon as a 

 great stroke in natural history. 



We have had, ever since I can remember, a pair of 

 white owls that constantly breed under the eaves of this 

 church. As I have paid good attention to the manner of 

 life of these birds during their season of breeding, which 

 lasts the summer through, the following remarks may not 

 perhaps be unacceptable: — About an hour before sunset 

 (for then the mice begin to run) they sally forth in quest 

 of prey, and hunt all round the hedges of meadows and 

 small enclosures for them, which seem to be their only 

 food. In this irregular country we can stand on an 

 eminence and see them beat the fields over like a setting- 

 dog, and often drop down in the grass or corn. I have 

 minuted these birds with my watch for an hour together, 

 and have found that they return to their nests, the one or 

 the other of them, about once in five minutes ; reflecting 

 at the same time on the adroitness that every animal is 

 possessed of as regards the well being of itself and off- 

 spring. But a piece of address, which they shew when 

 they return loaded, should not, I think, be passed over in 

 silence. — As they take their prey with their claws, so they 

 carry it in their claws to their nest : but, as the feet are 

 necessary in their ascent under the tiles, they constantly 

 perch first on the roof of the chancel, and shift the mouse 



