OF SELBORNE 79 



verge of this county. 1 Hence we may conclude that their migra- 

 tions are only internal, and not extended to the continent south- 

 ward, if they do at first come at all from the northern parts of 

 this island only, and not from the north of Europe. Come from 

 whence they will, it is plain, from the fearless disregard that 

 they shew for men or guns, that they have been little accustomed 

 to places of much resort. Navigators mention that in the Isle of 

 Ascension, and other such desolate districts, birds are so little 

 acquainted with the human form that they settle on men's 

 shoulders ; and have no more dread of a sailor than they would 

 have of a goat that was grazing. A young man at Lewes, in 

 Sussex, assured me that about seven years ago ring-ousels 

 abounded so about that town in the autumn that he killed 

 sixteen himself in one afternoon : he added further, that some 

 had appeared since in every autumn ; but he could not find that 

 any had been observed before the season in which he shot so 

 many. I myself have found these birds in little parties in the 

 autumn cantoned all along the Sussex downs, wherever there 

 were shrubs and bushes, from Ckichester to Lewes; particularly 

 in the autumn of 1770. 



I am, &c. 



LETTER XXXIX. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne, Nov. 9, 1773. 

 DEAR SIR, 



As you desire me to send you such observations as may occur, I 

 take the liberty of making the following remarks, that you may, 

 according as you think me right or wrong, admit or reject what 

 I here advance, in your intended new edition of the British 

 Zoology. 



The osprey 2 was shot about a year ago at Frinsham-pond, a 

 great lake, at about six miles from hence, while it was sitting on 

 the handle of a plough and devouring a fish : it used to pre- 

 cipitate itself into the water, and so take it's prey by surprise. 



A great ash-coloured 3 butcher-bird was shot last winter in 



1 [Either the " persons worthy of credit " were not really such, or the occurrence 

 was quite exceptional. In any case White's inference (that the migration was 

 only internal) was too hasty.] 



* British Zoology, vol. i., p. 128, 3 p. 161. 



