156 
NATURAL HISTORY 
feeding on the Libellulce, or dragon flies ; some of wliicli 
they caught as they settled on the weeds, and some as they 
were on the wing. Notwithstanding what Linnaeus says, I 
cannot be induced to believe that they are birds of prey. 
This district affords some birds that are hardly ever heard 
of at Selborne. In the first place considerable flocks of 
crossbeaks {Loxim curvirostrce) have appeared this summer 
in the pine-groves belonging to this house ; the water- ousel 
is said to haunt the mouth of the Lewes river, near New- 
haven ; and the Cornish chough builds, I know, all along 
the chalky cliff's of the Sussex shore. ^ 
I was greatly pleased to see little parties of ring-ousels 
(my newly discovered migrators) scattered, at intervals, all 
along the Sussex downs from Chichester to Lewes. Let 
them come from whence they will, it looks very suspicious 
that they are cantoned along the coast in order to pass the 
Channel when severe weather advances. They visit us 
again in April, as it should seem, in their return ; and are 
not to be found in the dead of winter. It is remarkable 
that they are very tame, and seem to have no manner of 
apprehensions of danger from a person with a gun. There 
are bustards on the wide downs near Brighthelmstone.^ No 
doubt you are acquainted with the Sussex Downs : the 
prospects and rides round Lewes are most lovely ! 
As I rode along near the coast I kept a very sharp look- 
out in the lanes and woods, hoping I might, at this time of 
the year, have discovered some of the summer short- winged 
^ This is now no longer the case. See Letter XXXIX. to Pennant, 
p. 117, note.— Ei>. 
2 The great bustard has long ceased to frequent the South Downs 
except as a rare and accidental visitant. Amongst various extracts 
from Gilbert White's MS. diary, published by Mr. Jesse in the second 
series of his " Gleanings in Natural History," is one (p. 1 64) wherein 
the author states that on Nov. 17, 1782, he spent three hours at a lone 
farm-house in the midst of the downs between Andover and Winton, 
where " the carter told us that about twelve years ago he had seen a 
flock of eighteen bustards at one time on that farm, and once since 
only two." Further on (p. 180) he adds: "Bustards when seen on the 
downs resemble fallow-deer at a distance." 
See Letter II. to Daines Barrington, p. 143, note. — Ed. 
