NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 155 



Some swifts stayed late, till the twenty-second of August 

 a rare instance ! for they usually withdraw within the 

 first week. 1 



On September the twenty-forth three or four ring-ousels 

 appeared in my fields for the first time this season : how 

 punctual are these visitors in their autumnal and spring 

 migrations ! 2 



[By the next return of the^waggon I shall send up a 

 small but rare collection of birds, which I beg that You & 

 M r - Banks would please to examine, that I may hear what 

 two such curious Naturalists have to say about some of 

 them. They are as follow : 



Merula passer solitarius : M : & F : 3 



Merula nigerrima uropygio, j Ig not ^ a nondescri t ? 3 



rectnabus que mvets : ) 



Fringilla petronia : 



Sturnus collaris Scopoli : An elegant bird ! 



Emberiza cirlus : 



Pratincola Krameri : Well engraved in Kramer. 



Anas clypeata pectore rubro : Differs from our shoveler. 



Species of lark : What ? 



Motacilla boarula Scopoli : 

 Species of perch : What ? 



You are welcome to take these birds into the country, 

 as you say London affords you no leisure for examination 

 in such matters : & if you shall think them worthy of being 

 drawn, you will lay us under great obligations by communi- 

 cating those drawings at a proper season. My Brother 

 makes no contemptible progress in Nat : history : & will 

 be able, I trust, by the assistance of good friends (to whom 

 he will be ready to make all due acknowledgements) to 

 produce in due time somewhat not unworthy the attention 

 of the candid Naturalist. Please to return the birds to my 



1 See Letter LIII to Mr. Barrington. [G. W.] On the 27th of August in the 

 present year (1899) I saw two swifts flying beneath the cliffs between Bexhill 

 and St. Leonard's. [R. B. S.] 



2 This and the two preceding paragraphs formed the P.S. to the original 

 letter. [R. B. S.] 



8 The Blue Rock-Thrush (Monticola solitaria) and the White-tailed Chat 

 (Saxicola leucusra, Cm.). [R. B. S.] 



