io8 The Natural History of Selborne 



which are so congenerous to thrushes and blackbirds, should 

 never choose to breed in England ; but that they should not 

 think even the highlands cold and northerly, and sequestered 

 enough, is a circumstance still more strange and wonderful. 

 The ring-ousel, you find, stays in Scotland the whole year 

 round ; so that we have reasons to conclude that those 

 migrators that visit us for a short space every autumn do not 

 come from thence. 



And here, I think, will be the proper place to mention that 

 those birds were most punctual again in their migration this 

 autumn, appearing, as before, about the 3oth of September; 

 but their flocks were larger than common, and their stay 

 protracted somewhat beyond the usual time. If they came 

 to spend the whole winter with us, as some of their congeners 

 do, and then left us, as they do, in spring, I should not be 

 so much struck with the occurrence, since it would be similar 

 to that of the other winter birds of passage ; but when I see 

 them for a fortnight at Michaelmas, and again for about a 

 week in the middle of April, I am seized with wonder, and 

 long to be informed whence these travellers come, and whither 

 they go, since they seem to use our hills merely as an inn or 

 baiting-place. 



Your account of the greater brambling, or snow-fleck, is 

 very amusing ; and strange it is that such a short-winged 

 bird should delight in such perilous voyages over the northern 

 ocean ! Some country people in the winter-time have every 

 now and then told me that they have seen two or three white 

 larks on our downs ; but, on considering the matter, I begin 

 to suspect that these are some stragglers of the birds we are 

 talking of, which sometimes perhaps may rove so far to the 

 southward. 



It pleases me to find that white hares are so frequent on 

 the Scottish mountains, and especially as you inform me that 

 it is a distinct species ; for the quadrupeds of Britain are so 

 few, that every new species is a great acquisition. 



The eagle-owl, could it be proved to belong to us, is so 

 majestic a bird, that it would grace our fauna much. I 



