LETTER XXXIX 1 



TO THE SAME 



SELBORNE, Nov. gth, 1773. 



DEAR SIR, As you desire me to send you such ob- 

 servations 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 was shot about a year ago at Frinskam* 

 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 precipitate itself into the water, and so take 

 its prey by surprise. 



A great ash-coloured butcher-bird 4 was shot last winter 

 in Tisted-park, and a red-backed butcher-bird at Selborne : 

 they are rara aves in this county. 



Crows 6 go in pairs all the year round. 



Cornish choughs 6 abound, and breed on Beachy-head, 

 and on all the cliffs of the Sussex coast. 



The common wild-pigeon, or stock-dove, 7 is a bird of 

 passage in the south of England, seldom appearing till 

 towards the end of November; is usually the latest 

 winter-bird of passage. Before our beechen woods were 

 so much destroyed we had myriads of them, reaching 



1 Although Pennant occasionally mentions Gilbert White's name as that of 

 one of his correspondents, he does not give the latter the credit for many of his 

 field-notes, though be often adopts them, and uses White's own words without a 

 word of acknowledgment. [R. B. S.] 



2 British Zoology, vol. i. p. 128. [G. W.] * Frensham. [R. B. S.] 

 4 British Zoology, vol. i. p. 161. [G. W.] 8 Ibid., p. 167. [G. W.] 

 Ibid., p. 198. [G. W.] 7 Ibid., p. 216. [G. W.] 



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