LETTER XXXI 



TO THE SAME 



SELBORNE, Sept. itfA, 1770. 



DEAR SIR, [A set of company which stayed with me 

 five weeks, & from whom I parted but yesterday, unavoid- 

 ably took up my time ; & prevented my paying such atten- 

 tion to You & some other correspondents, as y r engaging 

 letters might reasonably demand. 



In the first place I am to return you thanks for your 

 epistle of Sept r 2. From what I may gather from y r 

 frequent visits to the mountains, & from y r nice topo- 

 graphical examination of those wild scenes, I begin to 

 suspect & hope that you intend to favour y e world with 

 a nat : history of some of y e counties of N : Wales.] 



You saw, I find, the ring-ousels again among their 

 native crags ; and are farther assured that they con- 

 tinue resident in those cold regions the whole year. 

 From whence then do our ring-ousels migrate so regu- 

 larly every September, and make their appearance again, 

 as if in their return, every April? They are more early 

 this year than common, for some were seen at the usual 

 hill on the fourth of this month. 



An observing Devonshire gentleman tells me that they 

 frequent some parts of Dartmoor, and breed there ; but 

 leave those haunts about the end of September or begin- 

 ning of October, and return again about the end of March. 



Another intelligent person assures me that they breed 

 in great abundance all over the Peak of Derby, and are 

 called there Tor-ousels; withdraw in October and November, 



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