NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 163 



We now begin to expect our vernal migration of ring- 

 ousels every week. Persons worthy of credit assure me 

 that ring-ousels were seen at Christmas 1770 in the forest 

 of Bere, on the southern verge of this county. Hence we 

 may conclude that their migrations are only internal, and 

 not extended to the continent southward, 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 show 

 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 x 

 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 after- 

 noon ; 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 Chichester to Lewes ; particularly 

 in the autumn of 1770. 



[Please to present my humble respects to M r - Barring- 

 ton ; & M r - Lightfoot to whom I return thanks for his last 

 letter. Hoping to hear from you soon, I remain with 



great esteem, 

 Your most humble servant, 



GIL : WHITE.] 



1 The Sooty Tern (Sterna fultginosa). [R. B. S.] 



