JACK-DAWS. 81 



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 anything from com- 

 mon report, especially in print, without expressing some 

 degree of doubt and suspicion. 



Tour 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 ; 

 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, Jan. 2, 1769. 



DEAR SIE, As to the peculiarity of jack-daws building 

 with us under ground, in rabbit-burrows, you have, in part, 

 hit upon the reason ; for, in reality, there are hardly any 

 towers or steeples in all this country. And perhaps, Nor- 



