62 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



on their return to the north. Now perhaps these ousels 

 are not the ousels of the north of England, but belong to 

 the more northern parts of Europe ; and may retire 

 before the excessive rigour of the frosts in those parts ; 

 and return to breed in the spring, when the cold abates. 

 If this be the case, here is discovered a new bird of 

 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 migration disclosed 

 within our own kingdom never before remarked. It 

 does not yet appear 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 continued so long unnoticed in the 

 southern counties. The ousel is larger than a blackbird, 

 and feeds on haws ; but last autumn (when there were 

 no haws) it fed on yew-berries : in the spring it feeds on 

 ivy-berries, 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 of water from my 

 well, which is 63 feet deep, a large black warty lizard 

 with a fin-tail and yellow belly. How they first came 

 down at that depth, and how they were ever to have got 

 out thence without help, is more than I am able to say. 



My thanks are due to you for your trouble and care in 

 the examination of a buck's head. As far as your dis- 

 coveries reach at present, they seem much to corroborate 



my suspicions ; and I hope Mr. may find reason to 



give his decision in my favour ; and then, I think, we 

 may advance this extraordinary provision of nature as a 

 new instance of the wisdom of God in the creation. 



As yet I have not quite done with my history of the 

 oedicnemiis, or stone curlew ; for I shall desire a gentleman 



