108 NATURAL HISTORY 



it is as steep as the roof of any house, and 

 therefore secure from the annoyances of 

 water; and it is moreover clothed with 

 beechen shrubs, which, being stunted and 

 bitten by sheep, make the thickest covert 

 imaginable ; and are so entangled as to be 

 impervious to the smallest spaniel : besides, 

 it is the nature of underwood beech never 

 to cast its leaf all the winter ; so that, 

 with the leaves on the ground and those 

 on the twigs, no shelter can be more com- 

 plete. I watched them on to the thirteenth 

 and fourteenth of October, and found their 

 evening retreat was exact and uniform : 

 but after this they made no regular appear- 

 ance. Now and then a straggler was seen ; 

 and, on the twenty-second of October, I 

 observed two, in the morning, over the vil- 

 lage, and with them my remarks for the 

 season ended. 



From all these circumstances put toge- 

 ther, it is more than probable that this 

 lingering flight, at so late a season of the 

 year, never departed from the island. Had 

 they indulged me that Autumn with a No- 



