122 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



able perquisite to the shepherds that take them ; and though many are 

 to be seen to my knowledge all the winter through in many parts 

 of the south of England. The most intelligent shepherds tell me 

 that some few of these birds appear on the downs in March, and then 

 withdraw to breed probably in warrens and stone-quarries ; now and 

 then a nest is ploughed up in a fallow on the downs under a furrow, but it 

 is thought a rarity. At the time of wheat-harvest they begin to be taken 

 in great numbers ; are sent for sale in vast quantities to Brightelm- 

 stone and Tunbridge ; and appear at the tables of all the gentry that 

 entertain with any degree of elegance. About Michaelmas they retire 

 and are seen no more till March. Though these birds are, when in 

 season, in great plenty on the south downs round Lewes, yet at East 

 Bourn, which is the eastern extremity of those downs, they abound 

 much more. One thing is very remarkable, that though in the height 

 of the season so many hundreds of dozens are taken, yet they never 

 are seen to flock ; and it is a rare thing to see more than three or four 

 at a time ; so that there must be a perpetual flitting and constant pro- 

 gressive succession. It does not appear that any wheat-ears are taken 

 to the westward of Houghton Bridge, which stands on the river A run. 



I did not fail to look particularly after my new migration of ring- 

 ousels ; and to take notice whether they continued on the downs to this 

 season of the year ; as I had formerly remarked them in the month of 

 October all the way from Chichester to Lewes wherever there were any 

 shrubs and covert : but not one bird of this sort came within my 

 observation. I only saw a few larks and whinchats, some rooks, and 

 several kites and buzzards. 



About Midsummer a flight of cross-bills comes to the pine-groves 

 about this house, but never makes any long stay. 



The old tortoise, that I have mentioned in a former letter, still con- 

 tinues in this garden ; and retired under ground about the twentieth of 

 November, and came out again for one day on the thirtieth : it lies now 

 buried in a wet swampy border under a wall facing to the south, and is 

 enveloped at present in mud and mire ! 



Here is a large rookery round this house, the inhabitants of which 

 seem to get their livelihood very easily ; for they spend the greatest 

 part of the day on their nest-trees when the weather is mild. These 

 rooks retire every evening all the winter from this rookery, where they 

 only call by the way, as they are going to roost in deep woods : at the 

 dawn of day they always revisit their nest-trees, and are preceded a few 

 minutes by a flight of daws, that act, as it were, as their harbingers. 



I am, &c. 



LETTER XVIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBOBNE, Jan. Z9tJi, 1774. 



DEAR SIR, The house-swallow, or chimney-swallow, is undoubtedly 

 the first comer of all the British hirundines ; and appears in general 

 on or about the thirteenth of April, as I have remarked from many 



