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- 1 ,4 *"; ^ :> 



134 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



standing what Linnaeus 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 

 (loxicB 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 migraters) 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 from a person with a gun. 

 There are bustards on the wide downs 

 near Brighthelmstone. 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 de- common Bustard, 



parture : but it was very extraordinary that I never saw a redstart, 

 whitethroat, blackcap, uncrested wren, flycatcher, &c. And I re- 

 member 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 stonechatters, 

 whinchats, buntings, linnets, some few wheatears, 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 



* They certainly devour eggs and, 1 believe, callow nestlings ; but this is the extent of their 

 predatory propensity. They feed, likewise, on worms and molluscous animals, and will devour 

 cherries and the other smaller fruits, but caterpillars form their main subsistence ; and in 

 spring they are often of essential service in clearing the fruit-trees. ED. 



