112 WHITE 



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 red- 

 start, whitethroat, blackcap, uncrested wren, fly-catcher, etc. 

 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, whin-chats, buntings, linnets, some few wheat- 

 ears, titlarks, etc. Swallows and house-martins abound yet, in- 

 duced to prolong their stay by this soft, still, dry season. 



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

 little walled court belonging to the house where I now am 

 visiting, retires under ground about the middle of November, 

 and comes forth again about the middle of April. When it 

 first appears in the spring it discovers very little inclination 

 towards food ; but in the height of summer grows voracious ; 

 and then as the summer declines its appetite declines; so 

 that for the last six weeks in autumn it hardly eats at all. 

 Milky plants, such as lettuces, dandelions, sowthistles, are its 

 favorite dish. In a neighboring village one was kept till 

 by tradition it was supposed to be a hundred years old. An 

 instance of vast longevity in such a poor reptile ! 



