74 NATURAL HISTORY 



Another very unlikely spot is made use of by daws as a 

 place to breed in, and that is Stonehenge. These birds 

 deposit their nests in the interstices between the upright 

 and the impost stones of that amazing work of antiquity : 

 which circumstance alone speaks the prodigious height of 

 the upright stones, that they should be tall enough to secure 

 those nests from the annoyance of shepherd boys, who are 

 always idling round that place. 



One of my neighbours last Saturday, November the 26th, 

 saw a martin in a sheltered bottom : the sun shone warm, 

 and the bird was hawking briskly after the 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 

 deceived, that one cannot safely relate any thing from com- 

 mon report, especially in print, without expressing some 

 degree of doubt and suspicion. 



Your approbation, with regard to my new discovery of 

 the migration of the ring-ousel, 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 whether your ring-ousels 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. 1 

 If fortune had settled me near the seaside, or near some 



1 At the time when White's remark was made, Pennant had in pre- 

 paration the third volume of his " British Zoology," containing the 

 fishes, which was published in the folio wing year. This work, however, 

 has naturally been superseded by others of more modern date and 

 greater merit ; notably, Yarrell's " History of British Fishes," Couch's 

 " Fishes of the British Islands," and Giinther's " Catalogue of Fishes in 

 the British Museum." ED. 



