NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 55 



of birds with us, which writers mention as only to be 

 seen in the northern counties. The first that was brought 

 me (on the 14th May) was the sandpiper, Tringa 

 hypoleucus : it was a cock bird, and haunted the banks of 

 some ponds near the village ; and, as it had a companion, 

 doubtless intended to have bred near that water. Besides, 

 the owner has told me since, that, on recollection, he has 

 seen some of the same birds round his ponds in former 

 summers. 



The next bird that I procured (on the 21st May) was 

 a male red-backed butcher bird, Lanius collurio. My 

 neighbour, who shot it, says that it might easily have 

 escaped his notice, had not the outcries and chattering of 

 the whitethroats and other small birds drawn his attention 

 to the bush where it was ; its craw was filled with the 

 legs and wings of beetles. 



The next rare birds (which were procured for me last 

 week) were some ring-ousels. Tardus torquatus. 



This week twelve months a gentleman from London 

 being with us, was amusing himself with a gun, and found, 

 he told us, on an old yew hedge where there were berries, 

 some birds like blackbirds, with rings of white round 

 their necks : a neighbouring farmer also at the same time 

 observed the same ; but, as no specimens were procured, 

 little notice was taken. I mentioned this circumstance to 

 you in my letter of November 4th, 1767 (you, however, 

 paid but small regard to what I said, as I had not seen 

 these birds myself) ; but last week the aforesaid farmer, 

 seeing a large flock, twenty or thirty, of these birds, shot 

 two cocks and two hens, and says, on recollection, that he 

 remembers to have observed 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 



