108 NATURAL HISTORY 



was the sandpiper ( Tringa Hypoleucos *) : it was a cock 

 bird, and haunted the banks of some ponds near the 

 village ; and, as it had a companion, doubtless intended 

 to have bred near that water. Besides, the owner has 

 told me since, that, on recollection, he has seen some of 

 the same birds round his ponds in former summers. 



The next bird that I procured (on the 21st 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 chat- 

 terings 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 3 . 



The next rare birds (which were procured for me last 

 week) were some ring-ousels ( Turdi torquati). 



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 procured, little notice was taken. I mentioned 

 this circumstance to you in my letter of November the 

 4th, 1767 : (you however 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 



3 [Totanus Hypoleucos, TEMM.] 



3 The circumstance mentioned in the text of the clamour of small birds 

 against the flusher (Laniits Collurio), by no means accords with my obser- 

 vation ; for though the bird is very common in my neighbourhood, where 

 it is called Jack Baker, I never remarked any small birds manifesting 

 any hostility towards it Captain Mitford also, an excellent observer, 

 assured Mr. Selby that he never witnessed " any particular hostility 

 displayed by them towards the neighbouring smaller birds; and that he 

 has found the nest of different species (Sylvia, &c.) within a very short 

 distance of that of one of these shrikes, which allowed them to bring up 

 their young without molestation." RENME. 



