OF SELBORNE 99 



LETTER XXXIX 



Selborne, Nov. 9, 1773. 

 Dear Sir, 



As you desire me to send you such observations as may 

 occur, I take the liberty of making the following remarks, 

 that you may, according as you think me right or wrong, 

 admit or reject what I here advance, in your intended 

 new edition of the British Zoology. 



The osprey was shot about a year ago at Frinsham- 

 pond, a great lake, at about six miles from hence, while 

 it was sitting on the handle of a plough and devouring a 

 fish : it used to precipitate itself into the water, and so 

 take its prey by surprise. 



A great ash-coloured butcher-bird was shot last winter 

 in Tisted-park, and a red-backed butcher-bird at Sel- 

 borne : they are rarx aves in this country. 



Crows go in pairs the whole year round. 



Cornish choughs abound, and breed on Beachy-head 

 and on all the cliffs of the Sussex coast. 



The common wild-pigeon, or stock-dove, is a bird of 

 passage in the south of England, seldom appearing till 

 towards the end of November ; is usually the latest winter 

 bird of passage. Before our beechen woods were so much 

 destroyed we had myriads of them, reaching in strings 

 for a mile together as they went out in a morning to 

 feed. They leave us early in spring ; where do they 

 breed ? 



The people of Hampshire and Sussex call the missel- 

 bird the storm-cock, because it sings early in the spring 

 in blowing showery weather ; its song often commences 

 with the year : with us it builds much in orchards. 



A gentleman assures me that he has taken the nests of 



