The Natural History of Selborne 191 



at stated hours he strips off his clothes, and most scrupulously 

 rubs his body over with gand or dust. 



A countryman told nie he had found a young fern-owl in 

 the nest of a small bird on the ground ; and that it was fed 

 by the little bird. I went to see this extraordinary phenome- 

 non, and found that it was a young cuckoo hatched in the 

 nest of a titlark ; it was become vastly too big for its nest, 

 appearing 



.... /';/ tentd re 

 Majores pennas nido exlcndisse . . 



and was very fierce and pugnacious, pursuing my finger, as I 

 teased it, for many feet from the nest, and sparring and 

 buffeting with its wings like a game-cock. The dupe of a 

 dam appeared at a distance, hovering about with meat in its 

 mouth, and expressing the greatest solicitude. 



In July I saw several cuckoos skimming over a large pond ; 

 and found, after some observation, that they were feeding on 

 the Libellulce, or dragon-flies ; some of which they caught as 

 they settled on the weeds, and some as they were on the 

 wing. Notwithstanding what Linnasus says, I cannot be 

 induced to believe that they are birds of prey. 



This district affords some birds, that are hardly ever heard 

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

 beaks (Loxice 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 



