of Selborne 85 



that they show for men or guns, that they have been little 

 accustomed to places of much resort. Navigators men- 

 tion that in the Isle of Ascension, and other such deso- 

 late 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 you n^ man at Lewes, in Sussex, 

 assuredrne 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 farther, 

 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. 



I am, etc. 



LETTER XXXIX 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE 



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^ was shot about a year ago at Frinsham- 

 pond, a great lake, at about sjx 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^ was shot last winter 

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

 borne : they are rarcB aves in this country. 



1 British Zoology, vol. i., p. 128. "-^ p. 161. 



