98 NATURAL HISTORY 



and may retire before the excessive rigor of 

 tie frosts in those parts; and return to 

 Lreed in the Spring-, when the cold abates. 

 If this be the case, here is discovered a new 

 bird (f 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 migra- 

 tion disclosed within our own kingdom 

 never before remarked. It does not yet ap- 

 pear 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 con- 

 tinued so long unnoticed in the southern 

 counties. The ousel is larger than a black- 

 bird, and feeds on haws ; but last Autumn 

 (when there were no haws) it fed on yew- 

 berries : in the Spring it feeds on ivy-ber- 

 ries, 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 0/ water from my 



