84 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



come at all from the northern parts of this island only, and 

 not from the north of Europe. Come from whence 

 they will, it is plain, from the fearless disregard that they 

 show for men or guns, that they have been little accustomed 

 to places of much resort. Navigators mention that in the 

 Isle of Ascension, and other such desolate districts, birds 

 are so little acquainted with the human form that they 

 settle on men's shoulders ; and have no more dread of a 

 sailor than they would have of a goat that was grazing. A 

 young man at Lewes, in Sussex, assured me that about 

 seven years ago ring-ousels abounded so about that town 

 in the autumn that he killed sixteen himself in one after- 

 noon : he added farther, that some had appeared since in 

 every autumn ; but he could not find that any had been 

 observed before the season in which he shot so many. I 

 myself have found these birds in little parties in the autumn 

 cantoned all along the Sussex downs, wherever there were 

 shrubs and bushes, from Chichester to Lewes ; particularly 

 in the autumn of 1770. 



I am, etc. 



LETTER XXXIX 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE 



Selborne, Nov. 9, 1773. 



DEAR SIR, 



As you desire me to send you such observations as may 

 occur, I take the liberty of making the following remarks, 

 that you may, according as you think me right or wrong, 

 admit or reject what I here advance, in your intended new 

 edition of the British Zoology. 



The osprey 1 was shot about a year ago at Frinsham-pond, 

 a great lake, at about six miles from hence, while it was 

 sitting on the handle of a plough and devouring a fish : it 



1 British Zoology, vol. i. p. 128. 



