134 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
standing 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 cross-beaks 
(loxice 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 Newhaven ; and the Cornish 
chough builds, I know, all along the chalky chfFs of the Sussex 
shore. 
I was greatly pleased to see little parties of ring-ousels (my 
newly discovered migraters) 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 Jjewes 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 birds of passage crowding 
towards the coast in order for their de- 
parture : but it was very extraordinary that I never saw a redstart, 
whitethroat, blackcap, uncrested wren, flycatcher, &c. And I re- 
member to have made the same remark in former years, as I 
usually come to this place annually about this time. The birds 
most common along the coast at present are the stonechatters, 
whinchats, buntings, linnets, some few wheatears, titlarks, &c. 
Swallows and house-martins abound yet, induced to prolong their 
stay by this soft, still, dry season. 
A land tortoise, which has been kept for thirty years in a little 
* They certainly devour eggs and, I believe, callow nestlings ; but this is the extent of their 
predatory propensity. They feed, likewise, on worms and nioUuseous animals, and will devour 
cherries and the other smaller fruits, but caterpillars form their main subsistence ; and in 
spring they are often of essential service in clearing the fruit-trees.---ED. 
