74 
NATURAL HISTORY 
Another very unlikely spot is made use of by daws as a 
place to breed in^ and that is Stonehenge. These birds 
deposit their nests in the interstices between the upright 
and the impost stones of that amazing work of antiquity : 
which circumstance alone speaks the prodigious height of 
the upright stones, that they should be tall enough to secure 
those nests from the annoyance of shepherd boys, who are 
always idling round that place. 
One of my neighbours last Saturday, l^ovember the 26th, 
saw a martin in a sheltered bottom : the sun shone warm, 
and the bird was hawking briskly after the flies. I am 
now perfectly satisfied that they do not all leave this island 
in the winter. 
You judge very right, I think, in speaking with reserve 
and caution concerning the cures done by toads : for, let 
people advance what they will on such subjects, yet there is 
such a propensity in mankind towards deceiving and being 
deceived, that one cannot safely relate any thing from com- 
mon report, especially in print, without expressing some 
degree of doubt and suspicion. 
Your approbation, with regard to my new discovery of 
the migration of the ring-ousel, gives me satisfaction; and 
I find you concur with me in suspecting that they are 
foreign birds which visit us. You will be sure, I hope, not 
to omit to make inquiry whether your ring-ousels leave 
your rocks in the autumn. What puzzles me most, is the 
very short stay they make with us ; for in about three 
weeks they are all gone. I shall be very curious to remark 
whether they will call on us at their return in the spring, as 
they did last year. 
I want to bo better informed with regard to ichthyology.^ 
If fortune had settled me near the seaside, or near some 
^ At the time when AVhite's remark was made, Pennant had in pre- 
paration the third volume of his " British Zoology," containing the 
fishes, which was published in the following year. This work, however, 
has naturally been superseded by others of more modern date and 
greater merit; notably, Yarrell's "History of British Fishes," Couch's 
" Fishes of the British Islands," and Giinther's " Catalogue of Fishes in 
the British Museum." — Ed. 
