192 The Natural History of Se I borne 



from a person with a gun. There are bustards on the wide 

 downs near Brighthelmstone [Brighton]. 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 

 redstart, white-throat, black-cap, uncrested wren, flycatcher, 

 &c. 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, winchats, buntings, linnets, 

 some few wheat-ears, titlarks, &c. Swallows and house-martins 

 abound yet, induced 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 

 favourite dish. In a neighbouring village one was kept till by 

 tradition it was supposed to be an hundred years old. An 

 instance of vast longevity in such a poor reptile ! l 



1 Still older instances are now on record. El). 



