86 The Natural History of Selborne 



Besides, the owner has told me since, that on recollection, he has 

 seen some of the same birds round his ponds in former summers. 1 



The next bird that I procured (on the 2ist of May) was a male 

 red-backed butcher-bird, lanius collurio. My neighbour, who shot 

 it, says that it might easily have escaped his notice, had not the 

 outcries and chattering of the whitethroats and other small birds 

 drawn his attention to the bush where it was ; its craw was filled 

 with the legs and wings of beetles. The next rare birds (which 

 were procured for me last week) were some ring-ousels, turdi tor- 

 quati. 



This week twelve months a gentleman from London, being with 

 us, was amusing himself with a gun, and found, he told us, on an 

 old yew hedge where there were berries some birds like blackbirds, 

 with rings of white round their necks : a neighbouring farmer also 

 at the same time observed the same ; but, as no specimens were pro- 

 cured, little notice was taken. I mentioned this circumstance to you 

 in my letter of November the 4th, 1767 [Letter XII.] (you, how- 

 ever, paid but small regard to what I said, as I had not seen these 

 birds myself) ; but last week the aforesaid farmer, seeing a large 

 flock, twenty or thirty of these birds, shot two cocks and two hens, 

 and says, on recollection, that he remembers to have observed these 

 birds again last spring, about Lady-day, as it were on their return to 

 the north. Now perhaps these ousels are not the ousels of the north 

 of England, but belong to the more northern parts of Europe ; and 

 may retire before the excessive rigour of the frosts in those parts, 

 and return to breed in the spring, when the cold abates. If this be 

 the case, here is discovered a new bird of winter passage, concerning 

 whose migrations the writers are silent ; but if these birds should 

 prove the ousels of the north of England, then here is a migration 

 disclosed within our own kingdom never before remarked. It does 

 not yet appear whether they retire beyond the bounds of our island 

 to the south ; but it is most probable that they usually do, or else 

 one cannot suppose that they would have continued so long un- 

 noticed in the southern countries. The ousel is larger than a black- 



1 The sandpiper is not, as White thought, a specially northern bird. It 

 occurs in most parts of our southern counties. ED. 



