60 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE, 



ing whose migrations 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 countries. 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. 

 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 corroborate 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. 



As yet I have not quite done with my history of the cedicnemtts, 

 or stone-curlew; for I shall desire a gentleman in Sussex (near 

 whose house these birds congregate in vast flocks in the autumn) to 

 observe nicely when they leave him (if they do leave him), and when 

 they return again in the spring : I was with this gentleman lately, 

 and saw several single birds. 



* White's observations upon the ring-ousel, at the time he wrote, were very important, 

 and made with great accuracy. As in other matters, it will be very interesting for 

 Professor Bell to give his attention to their present habits in the vicinity of Selborne, to 

 ascertain if their numbers continue as many, and their appearance as regular. In Scotland 

 the ring-ousel is a regular summer visitant, extending from the English border to Suther- 

 landshire ; in the rocky districts of the latter county it is tolerably frequent. In autumn 

 and before their departure they visit the lower country, and remain a day or a week 

 according to circumstances, feeding at this time upon various berries, and occasionally 

 visiting gardens. The broods are now joined and mixed together, and the young appear 

 in their imperfect mottled dresb. 



