OF SELBORNE 51 



farmer, seeing a large flock, twenty or thirty of these 

 birds, shot two cocks and two hens : and says, on recollec- 

 tion, that he remembers to have observed these birds again 

 last spring, about Lady-day, as it were, 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 rigor 

 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 black- 

 bird, 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 

 oedicnemus, or stone-curlew ; for I shall desire a gentleman 

 in Sussex (near whose house these birds congregate in vast 



