50 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



LETTER XX 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE 



Selborne, October 8, 1768. 

 It is, I find, in zoology as it is in botany : all nature is so 

 full, that that district produces the greatest variety which 

 is the most examined. Several birds, which are said to 

 belong to the north only, are, it seems, often in the south. 

 I have discovered this summer three species of birds with 

 us, which writers mention as only to be seen in the northern 

 counties. The first that was brought me (on the 14th of 

 May) was the sandpiper, tringa hypoleucus : it was a cock 

 bird, and haunted the banks of some ponds near the village ; 

 and, as it had a companion, doubtless intended to have bred 

 near that water. Besides, the owner has told me since, that, 

 on recollection, he has seen some of the same birds round 

 his ponds in former summers. 



The next bird that I procured (on the 2 1 st of May) was 

 a male red-backed butcher bird, lanius collurio. My 

 neighbour, who shot it, says that it might easily have 

 escaped his notice, had not the outcries and chattering of 

 the white-throats and other small birds drawn his attention 

 to the bush where it was : its craw was filled with the legs 

 and wings of beetles. 



The next rare birds (which were procured for me last 

 week) were some ring-ousels, turdi torquati. 



This week twelve months a gentleman from London, 

 being with us, was amusing himself with a gun, and found, 

 he told us, on an old yew hedge where there were berries, 

 some birds like blackbirds, with rings of white round their 

 necks : a neighbouring farmer also at the same time 

 observed the same ; but, as no specimens were procured, 

 little notice was taken. I mentioned this circumstance 

 to you in my letter of November the 4th, 1767 : (you, 

 however, paid but small regard to what I said, as I had 

 not seen these birds myself :) but last week the aforesaid 



