62 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORKE. 



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 

 anything from common report, especially in print, without express- 

 ing 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 ichthyology. If 

 fortune had settled me near the sea -side, or near some great river, 

 my natural propensity would soon have urged me to have made 

 myself acquainted with their productions : but as I have lived 

 mostly in inland parts, and in an upland district, my knowledge of 

 fishes extends little farther than to those common sorts which our 

 brooks and lakes produce. 



I am, &c. 



