446 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



been opened about a week. The shepherds usually begin catching 

 in the last week in July. Ringmer, female Viper taken full of 

 young, 15 in number; gaped and menaced as soon as they were 

 out. Aug. 7 : Timothy, Mrs. Snookes' old Tortoise, which has 

 been kept full 30 years in her court before the house, weighs six 

 pounds three quarters and one ounce. It was never weighed 

 before, but seems to be much grown since it came. (Mentor's 

 note, 'Pray let it be weighed every year'). Aug. 12 : Full moon. 

 High tides frequently discompose the weather in places so near 

 the coast, even in the dryest and most settled seasons, for a day 

 or two. Aug. 14 : Two great Bats [V. noctula] appear. They 

 feed high, and are very rare in Hants and Sussex. Low fog. 

 G. W. observed Cimex linearis. Also at Chilgrove, Rabbits. 

 Rabbits make incomparably the best turf; for they not only bite 

 closer than larger quadrupeds, but they allow no bents to rise ; 

 hence warrens produce much the most delicate turf for gardens. 

 Sheep never touch the stalks of grasses." This passage is given 

 in the " Observations on Quadrupeds," which now is bound with 

 the ' Selborne,' but it is quoted to prove that it was strictly, as the 

 diary shows, an observation made in Sussex. When White returned 

 to Selborne, Aug. 19th, he found the wheat harvest finished, and 

 noted, "Harvest weather much finer at Ringmer than at Sel- 

 borne." He had evidently greatly enjoyed his Sussex trip in 1775. 

 "1776. August 15. Chilgrove: Showery." In one of his 

 late expeditions he got thoroughly wet through on the Downs, 

 and seems to have remembered the lesson. Aug. 16th, Ringmer; 

 Aug. 26th, Isfield; Aug. 27th, Ringmer; Aug. 29th, Findon. 

 Aug. 81st, Chilgrove: Arriving at Selborne that Saturday appa- 

 rently between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., as marked in the diary, 8 p.m., 

 sun; 12 noon, sun and cloud; 4 p.m., fine harvest day; 8 p.m., 

 Selborne. The last letter is looped to about an hour before 8, 

 so exact was he in chronicling time. No doubt he preached an 

 old sermon at Selborne Church on Sunday, Sept. 1st, 1776. It 

 was in the low damp water-meads of the Ouse, at Ringmer and 

 Isfield, that the observation of the friendship between the Wag- 

 tails and Cows, which is given in " Observations on Birds " 

 (' Selborne'), was originally made. "While the cows are feeding 

 in moist low pastures, broods of Wagtails, white and grey, run 

 picking run round them close up to their noses, and under their 

 very bellies, availing themselves of the insect flies that settle on 



