68 RINGOUSELS LIZARD. 



these birds again last spring, about Lady-day, as 

 it were, on their return to the north. Now, 

 perhaps these ousels are not the ousels of the 

 north of England, but belong to the more northern 

 parts of Europe ; and may retire before the 

 excessive rigour of the frosts in those parts ; and 

 return to breed in spring when the cold abates. 

 If this be the case, here is discovered a new bird 

 of winter passage, concerning whose migrations 

 the writers are silent; but if these birds should 

 prove the ousels of the north of England, then 

 here is a migration disclosed within our own 

 kingdom never before remarked. It does not yet 

 appear whether they retire beyond the bounds of 

 our island to the south ; but it is most probable 

 that they usually do, or else one cannot suppose 

 that they would have continued so long unnoticed 

 in the southern counties. The ousel is larger than 

 a blackbird, and feeds on haws ; but last autumn 

 (when there were no haws) it fed on yewberries : 

 in the spring it feeds on ivy-berries, which ripen 

 only at that season, in March and April. 



I must not omit to tell you (as you have been 

 so lately on the study of reptiles) that my people, 

 every now and then, of late, draw up with a bucket 

 of water from my well, which is 63 feet deep, a 

 large black warty lizard, with a fin-tail and yellow 

 belly. How they first came down at that depth, 

 and how they were ever to have got out thence 

 without help, is more than I am able to say. 



My thanks are due to you for your trouble and 

 care in the examination of a buck's head. As far 

 as your discoveries reach at present, they seem 

 much to coiToborate my suspicions ; and I hope 



Mr. may find reason to give his decision in 



my favour ; and then, I think, we may advance 

 this extraordinary provision of nature as a 



