OF SELBORNE 49 



alone speaks the prodigious height of the upright stones, that 

 they should be tall enough to secure those nests from the annoy 

 ance 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 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 ad- 

 vance what they will on such subjects, yet there is such a pro- 

 pensity in mankind towards deceiving and being deceived, that 

 one cannot safely relate any thing from common 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. 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 know- 

 ledge of fishes extends little farther than to those common sorts 

 which our brooks and lakes produce. 



I am, &c. 



LETTER XXII. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne, Jan. 2, 1769. 



Dear Sir, 



As to the peculiarity of jackdaws 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 

 4 



