The Natural History of Selborne 89 



I was last at his house ; which was that, in a warren joining to his 

 outlet, many daws (corin monedul<e} build every year in the rabbit- 

 burrows under-ground. The way he and his brothers used to take 

 their nests, while they were boys, was by listening at the mouths of 

 the holes ; and, if they heard the young ones cry, they twisted the 

 nest out with a forked stick. Some water-fowls (viz., the puffins) 

 breed, I know, in that manner ; but I should never have suspected 

 the daws of building in holes on the flat ground. 



Another very unlikely spot is made use of by daws as a place to 

 breed in, and that is Stonehenge. These birds deposit their nests in 

 the interstices between the upright and the impost stones of that 

 amazing work of antiquity : which circumstance alone speaks the 

 prodigious height of the upright stones, that they should be tall 

 enough to secure those nests from the annoyance of shepherd-boys, 

 who are always idling round that place. 



One of my neighbours last Saturday, November the 26th, saw a 

 martin in a sheltered bottom : the sun shone warm, and the bird was 

 hawking briskly after flies. I am now perfectly satisfied that they 

 do not all leave this island in the winter. 1 



You judge very right, I think, in speaking with reserve and 

 caution concerning the cures done by toads : for, let people advance 

 what they will on such subjects, yet there is such a propensity in 

 mankind towards deceiving and being deceived, that one cannot 

 safely relate anything from common report, especially in print, with- 

 out expressing some degree of doubt and suspicion. 



Your approbation, with regard to my new discovery of the migra- 

 tion of the ring-ousel, gives me satisfaction ; and I find you concur 

 with me in suspecting that they are foreign birds which visit us. 

 You will be sure, I hope, not to omit to make inquiry whether your 

 ring-ousels leave your rocks in the autumn. What puzzles me most, 

 is the very short stay they make with us ; for in about three weeks 

 they are all gone. I shall be very curious to remark whether they 

 will call on us at their return in the spring, as they did last year. 



I want to be better informed with regard to ichthyology. If 

 fortune had settled me near the sea-side, or near some great river, 



1 In this our author was, of course, mistaken. ED. 



