NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORXE. 



LETTER XX. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, October Wi, 1768. 



IT is I find in zoology as it is in botany ; all nature is so full that 

 that district produces the greatest variety which is the most 

 examined. Several birds, which are said to belong to the north 

 only, are it seems often in the south. I have discovered this summer 

 three species of birds with us, which writers mention as only to be 

 seen in the northern counties. The first that was brought me (on 

 the I4th of May) was the sandpiper, tringa hypoleucus : 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 recol- 

 lection, he has seen some of the same birds round his ponds in 

 former summers. * 



* Of the sandpiper we may remark that it would be 'the unfavourable localities in the 

 vicinity of Selborne that caused its scarcity. The common sandpiper, Totanus (triuga of 

 Linnaeus) hyfoleucus, is not particularly a northern bird. It has a very extensive foreign 

 range, as well as British, and in this country frequents, during the breeding season, lakes 

 with gravelly margins, or clear rocky streams, where it arrives in spring and remains until 

 its broods are ready to remove. It is a regular summer visitant, and to the angler is a 

 pleasant companion, enlivening the streams with its shrill whistle, and by its active motions. 

 During winter there seems to be a partial as well as general migration, some leaving the 

 country altogether, others retiring only to the sea-shores. 



