54 RINGOUSEL. 



saw a marten in a sheltered bottom ; the sun shone warm, and 

 the bird was hawking briskly after flies. I am now perfectly 

 satisfied that they do not all leave this island in the winter. 



You judge very right, I think, in speaking with reserve and 

 caution concerning the cures done by toads ; for, let people 

 advance what they will on such subjects, yet there is such a 

 propensity in mankind towards deceiving and being deceiv ed, 

 that one cannot safely relate any thing from common repo rt, 

 especially in print, without expressing some degree of dou bt 

 and suspicion. 



Your approbation with regard to my new discovery of the 

 migration of the ringousel, gives me satisfaction ; and I find 

 you concur with me in suspecting that they are foreign birds 

 which visit us. You will be sure, I hope, not to omit to make 

 inquiry \vhether your ringousels leave your rocks in the 

 autumn. What puzzles me most, is the very short stay they 

 make with us ; for in about three weeks they are all gone. I 

 shall be very curious to remark whether they will call on us 

 at their return in the spring, as they did last year.* 



I want to be better informed with regard to ichthyology. 

 If fortune had settled me near the sea-side, or near some great 

 river, my natural propensity would soon have urged me to 

 have made myself acquainted with their productions ; but as 

 I have lived mostly in inland parts, and in an upland district, 

 my knowledge of fishes extends little farther than to those 

 common sorts which our brooks and lakes produce. 



LETTER XXII. 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 



SELBORNE, January 2, 1769. 



DEAR SIR, As to the peculiarity of jack-daws building 

 with us under the ground, in rabbit burrows, you have, in 

 part, hit upon the reason ; for, in reality, there are hardly 

 any towers or steeples in all this country. And perhaps, 

 Norfolk excepted, Hampshire and Sussex are as meanly 

 furnished with churches as almost any counties in the kingdom. 

 We have many livings of two or three hundred pounds a-year, 

 whose houses of worship make little better appearance than 



* The ring blackbirds invariably remain a week or two in the cultivated 

 districts of the country previous to their migration, and commit great 

 havock amongst fruits; seemingly to make up for their more meagre 

 repasts during incubation. ED. 



