OF SELBORNE. 109 



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 migra- 

 tions 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 

 unnoticed in the southern counties. The ousel is larger 

 than a blackbird, and feeds on haws ; but last autumn 

 (when there were no haws) it fed on yew-berries : in the 

 spring it feeds on ivy-berries, which ripen only at that 

 season, in March and April. 



I must not omit to tell you (as you have been so 

 lately on the study of reptiles) that my people, every 

 now and then, of late, draw up with a bucket of water 

 from my well, which is sixty-three feet deep, a large 

 black warty lizard with a fin-tail and yellow belly 4 . 

 How they first came down at that depth, and how they 

 were ever to have got out thence without help, is more 

 than I am able to say. 



My thanks are due to you for your trouble and care 

 in the examination of a buck's head. As far as your 

 discoveries reach at present, they seem much to corro- 

 borate my suspicions ; and I hope Mr. may find 



reason to give his decision in my favour ; and then, I 

 think, we may advance this extraordinary provision of 

 nature as a new instance of the wisdom of God in the 

 creation. 



4 The black warty lizard is Triton palustris ; and the dorsal expansion 

 proves that the individuals in question were males. T. B. 



