OF SELBORNE. 223 



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 pros- 

 pects 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 sum- 

 mer short-winged birds of passage crowdipg towards 

 the coast in order for their departure: but it was 

 very extraordinary that I never saw a redstart, white- 

 throat, blackcap, uncrested wren, flycatcher, &c. And 

 I remember 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 walled court belonging to the house where I 

 now am visiting, retires under ground about the middle 

 of November, and comes forth again about the middle 

 of April. When it first appears in the spring it dis- 

 covers very little inclination towards food ; but in the 

 height of summer grows voracious: and then as the 

 summer declines, its appetite declines ; so that for the 

 last six weeks in autumn it hardly eats at all. Milky 

 plants, such as lettuces, dandelions, sow thistles, are its 

 favourite dish. In a neighbouring village one was 

 kept till by tradition it was supposed to be a hundred 

 years old. An instance of vast longevity in such a 

 poor reptile ! 



