46 THE NATUEAL HISTORY 



LETTER XX. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne, October 8, 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 14th of May) was the sandpiper, tringa 

 hypoleuciM : 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 recollection, he has seen some of the same 

 birds round his ponds in former summers. 



The next bird that I procured (on the 21st of May) was a male 

 red-backed butcher bird, lanius collurio. My neighbour, who 

 shot it, says that it might easily have escaped his notice, had 

 not the outcries and chattering of the white-throats and other 

 small birds drawn his attention to the bush where it was : it's 

 craw was filled with the legs and wings of beetles. 



The next rare birds (which were procured for me last week) 

 were some ring-ousels, turdi torquatL 



This week twelve months a gentleman from London, being 

 with us, was amusing himself with a gun, and found, he told us, 

 on an old yew hedge where there were berries, some birds like 

 blackbirds, with rings of white round their necks : a neighbouring 

 farmer also at the same time observed the same ; but, as no 

 specimens were procured, little notice was taken. I mentioned 

 this circumstance to you in my letter of November the 4th, 1767 : 

 (you however paid but small regard to what I said, as I had not 

 seen these birds myself) : but last week the aforesaid farmer, 

 seeing a large flock, twenty or thirty of these birds, shot two 

 cocks and two hens : and says, on recollection, that he remembers 

 to have observed these birds again last spring, about Lady-day, 

 as it were, on their return to the north. Now perhaps these 

 ousels are not the ousels of the north of England, but belong to 

 the more northern parts of Europe ; and may retire before the 

 excessive rigor of the frosts in those parts ; and return to breed 



