164 



NATURAL HISTORY 



such desolate districts, birds are so little 

 acquainted with the human form that they 

 settle on men's shoulders ; and have no 

 more dread of a sailor than they would 

 have of a goat that was grazing. A young 

 man at Lewes, in Sussex, assured me that 

 about seven years ago ring-ousels abounded 

 so about that town in the Autumn, that he 

 killed sixteen himself in one afternoon : 

 he added further, that some had appeared 

 since in every Autumn ; but he could not 

 find that any had been observed before the 

 season in which he shot so many. I my- 

 self have found these birds in little parties 

 in the Autumn cantoned all along the Sus- 

 sex downs, wherever there were shrubs and 

 bushes, from Chichester to Lewes ; particu- 

 larly in the Autumn of 1770. 



I am, &c. 



