KING-OUSELS. TOET01SE. 173 



nightingales, white-throats, black-caps, &c., &c., are very ill 

 provided for long flights ; have never been once found, as I 

 ever heard of, in a torpid state ; and yet can never be sup- 

 posed, in such troops, from year to year, to dodge and elude 

 the eyes of the curious and inquisitive, which, from day to 

 day, discern the other small birds that are known to abide 

 our winters. But, notwithstanding all my care, I saw 

 nothing like a summer bird of passage ; and, what is more 

 strange, not one wheatear, though they abound so in the 

 autumn as to be a considerable perquisite to the shepherds 

 that take them ; and though many are seen to my knowledge 

 all the winter through, in many parts of the south of Eng- 

 land. The most intelligent shepherd tells me, that some 

 few of these birds appear on the downs in March, and then 

 withdraw to breed, probably, in warrens and stone quarries : 

 now and then a nest is ploughed up in a fallow on the downs, 

 under a furrow ; but it is thought a rarity. At the time of 

 wheat-harvest, they begin to be taken in great numbers ; are 

 sent for sale in vast quantities to Brighthelmstone and Tun- 

 bridge, and appear at the tables of all the gentry that enter- 

 tain with any degree of elegance. About Michaelmas they 

 retire, and are seen no more till March. Though these birds 

 are, when in season, in great plenty on the South Downs 

 round Lewes, yet at East Bourn, which is the eastern ex- 

 tremity of those downs, they abound much more. One thing 

 is very remarkable, that, though in the height of the season 

 so many hundreds of dozens are taken, yet they are never 

 seen to flock ; and it is a rare thing to see more than three 

 or four at a time : so that there must be a perpetual flitting 

 and constant progressive succession. It does not appear that 

 any wheatears are taken to the westward of Houghton-bridge, 

 which stands on the river Arun. 



I did not fail to look particularly after my new migration 

 of ring-ousels ; and to take notice whether they continued on 

 the downs to this season of the year ; as I had formerly re- 

 marked them in the month of October, all the way from 

 Chichester to Lewes, wherever there were any shrubs and 

 covert ; but not one bird of this sort came within my observ- 

 ation. I only saw a few larks and whinchats, some rooks, 

 and several kites and buzzards. 



About midsummer, a flight of crossbills comes to the 



