112 NATURAL HISTORY 



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 pro- 

 digious height of the upright stones, that they should 

 be tall enough to secure those nests from the annoy- 

 ance 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. 



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 any thing from common report, especially 

 in print, without expressing some degree of doubt and 

 suspicion. 



Your approbation, with regard to my new discovery 

 of the migration 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 ichthyo- 

 logy 3 . If fortune had settled me near the seaside, or 



9 At the time when White's remark was made, Pennant had in prepa- 

 ration the third volume of his British Zoology, which was intended to 

 supply the want that he, in common with others, felt ; it was published in 

 the following year, and was well adapted to fulfil the object had in view. In 



