222 NATURAL HISTORY 



owl in the nest of a small bird on the ground ; and 

 that it was fed by the little bird. I went to see this 

 extraordinary phenomenon, and found that it was a 

 young cuckoo hatched in the nest of a titlark : it was 

 become vastly too big for its nest, appearing 



in tenui re 



Majores pennas nido extendisse 



and was very fierce and pugnacious, pursuing my 

 finger, as I teased it, for many feet from the nest, and 

 sparring and buffeting with its wings like a game-cock. 

 The dupe of a dam appeared at a distance, hovering 

 about with meat in its mouth, and expressing the 

 greatest solicitude. 



In July I saw several cuckoos skimming over a large 

 pond ; and found, after some observation, that they 

 were feeding on the Libellulce, or dragon-flies ; some of 

 which they caught as they settled on the weeds, and 

 some as they were on the wing. Notwithstanding 

 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 crossbeaks (Loxice 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 



