OF SELBORNE. 131 



of at Selbbrne. In the first place considerable flocks of cross- 

 beaks * (loxicK curvirostrce) have appeared this summer in the 

 pine-groves belonging to this house; the water-ousel is said to 

 haunt the mouth of the Lewes river, near Newhaven; and the 

 Cornish chough builds, I know, all along the chalky cliffs of 

 the Sussex shore. 



I was greatly pleased to see little parties of ring-ousels (my 

 newly discovered migrators) scattered, at intervals, all along 

 the Sussex downs from Chichester to Lewes. Let them come 

 from whence they will, it looks very suspicious that they are 

 cantoned along the coast in order to pass the channel when 

 severe weather advances. They visit us again in April, as it 

 should seem, in their return ; and are not to be found in the 

 dead of winter. It is remarkable that they are very tame, 

 and seem to have no manner of apprehensions of danger from 

 a person with a gun. There are bustards on the wide downs 

 near Brighthelmstone. No doubt you are acquainted with the 

 Sussex downs : the prospects and rides round Lewes are most 

 lovely ! 



As I rode along near the coast I kept a very sharp look out 

 in the lanes and woods, hoping I might, at this time of the 

 year, have discovered some of the summer short-winged birds 

 of passage crowding towards the coast in order for their 

 departure : but it was very extraordinary that I never saw a 

 redstart, white-throat, black-cap, uncrested wren, fly-catcher, 

 &c. And I remember to have made the same remark in 

 former years, as I usually come to this place annually about 

 this time. The birds most common along the coast at present 

 are the stone-chatters, whinchats, buntings, linnets, some few 

 wheat-ears, titlarks, &c. Swallows and house-martins abound 

 yet, induced to prolong their stay by this soft, still, dry 

 season. 



A land tortoise, which has been kept for thirty years in a 



* [It must be observed that both this letter and the seventeenth to 

 Barrington, in which mention is made of " flights of cross-bills," are 

 dated from Ringmer in Sussex ; Yarrell is therefore in error (' British 

 Birds,' ii. p. 14) when he attributes the occurrence to Selborne. See 

 note, p. 32. T. B.] 



K2 



