122 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
able perquisite to the shepherds that take them ; and though many are 
to be seen to my knowledge all the winter through in many parts 
of the south of England. The most intelligent shepherds tell me 
that some few of these birds appear on the downs in March, and then 
withdraw to breed probably in warrens and stone-quarries ; now and 
then a nest is ploughed up in a fallow on the downs under a furrow, but it 
is thought a rarity. At the time of wheat-harvest they begin to be taken 
in great numbers ; are sent for sale in vast quantities to Brightelm- 
stone and Tunbridge ; and appear at the tables of all the gentry that 
entertain with any degree of elegance. About Michaelmas they retire 
and are seen no more till March. Though these birds are, when in 
season, in great plenty on the south downs round Lewes, yet at East 
Bourn, which is the eastern extremity of those downs, they abound 
much more. One thing is very remarkable, that though in the height 
of the season so many hundreds of dozens are taken, yet they never 
are seen to flock ; and it is a rare thing to see more than three or four 
at a time ; so that there must be a perpetual flitting and constant pro- 
gressive succession. It does not appear that any wheat-ears are taken 
to the westward of Houghton Bridge, which stands on the river A run. 
I did not fail to look particularly after my new migration of ring- 
ousels ; and to take notice whether they continued on the downs to this 
season of the year ; as I had formerly remarked them in the month of 
October all the way from Chichester to Lewes wherever there were any 
shrubs and covert : but not one bird of this sort came within my 
observation. I only saw a few larks and whinchats, some rooks, and 
several kites and buzzards. 
About Midsummer a flight of cross-bills comes to the pine-groves 
about this house, but never makes any long stay. 
The old tortoise, that I have mentioned in a former letter, still con- 
tinues in this garden ; and retired under ground about the twentieth of 
November, and came out again for one day on the thirtieth : it lies now 
buried in a wet swampy border under a wall facing to the south, and is 
enveloped at present in mud and mire ! 
Here is a large rookery round this house, the inhabitants of which 
seem to get their livelihood very easily ; for they spend the greatest 
part of the day on their nest-trees when the weather is mild. These 
rooks retire every evening all the winter from this rookery, where they 
only call by the way, as they are going to roost in deep woods : at the 
dawn of day they always revisit their nest-trees, and are preceded a few 
minutes by a flight of daws, that act, as it were, as their harbingers. 
I am, &c. 
LETTER XVIII. 
% 
TO THE SAME. 
Selborne, Jan. '^^th, 1774. 
Dear Sir, — The house-swallow, or chimney-swallow, is undoubtedly 
the first comer of all the British hirundines ; and appears in general 
on or about the thirteenth of April, as I have remarked from many 
