88 The Natural History of Selborne 



they would have continued so long unnoticed in the southern 

 countries. The ousel is larger than a blackbird, 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 x 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 sus- 

 picions; and I hope Mr. may find reason to give his 



decision in my favour ; 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 

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

 Sussex (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. 



1 This was, no doubt, a Great Crested Newt. ED. 



