NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 5 1 



and feeds on haws ; but last autumn (when there were no haws) 

 it fed on yew-berries : in the spring it feeds on ivy-berries, 

 which ripen only at that season, in March and April. 



I must not omit to tell you (as you have been so lately on the 

 study of reptiles) that my people, every now and then of late, 

 draw up with a bucket of water from my well, which is sixty- 

 three feet deep, a large black warty lizard with a fin-tail and 

 yellow belly. How they first came down at that depth, and 

 how they were ever to have got out thence without help, is more 

 than I am able to say. 



My thanks are due to you for your trouble and care in the 

 examination of a buck's head. As far as your discoveries reach 

 at present, they seem much to corroborate my suspicions ; and 



I hope Mr. may find reason to give his decision in my 



favor ; and then, I think, we may advance this extraordinary 

 provision of nature as a new instance of the wisdom of God 

 in the creation. 



As yet I have not quite done with my history of the cedicne- 

 mus, or stone-curlew ; for I shall desire a gentleman in Sus- 

 sex (near whose house these birds congregate in vast flocks in 

 the autumn) to observe nicely when they leave him (if they do 

 leave him), and when they return again in the spring : I was 

 with this gentleman lately, and saw several single birds. 



NOTE 



1 The ring-ousel was common on the Eglwyseg Rocks bordering the 

 Vale of Llangollen. It appears to make a partial migration to the south 

 of England in the autumn. G. C. D. 



LETTER XXI 



_U5- SELBORNE, Nov. zWi, 1768. 



DEAR SIR, With regard to the cedicnemus, or stone-curlew, 

 I intend to write very soon to my friend near Chichester, in 

 whose neighborhood these birds seem most to abound ; and 

 shall urge him to take particular notice when they begin to con- 

 gregate, and afterwards to watch them most narrowly whether 

 they do not withdraw themselves during the dead of the winter. 



