O F S E L B O R N E. g r 
difpofed to breed in my outlet ; but were frighted and perfecuted 
by idle boys, who would never let them be at reft. 
Three grofs-beaks (loxia coccothraujles) appeared fome years ago in 
my fields, in the winter ; one of which I fhot : fince that, now 
and then one is occafionally feen in the fame dead feafon. 
A crofs-bill (loxia curvirojira) was killed laft year in this neigh- 
bourhood. 
Our ftreams, which are fmall, and rife only at the end of the 
village, yield nothing but the bull's-head or miller'' s-thumb (goblus 
jluviatilis capitatus), the trout (trutta fluviatilis), the eel (anguilla), the 
lampern (lampatra parva et fiuviatilis)^ and the Jiickle-back (pifciculus 
aculeatus). 
We are twenty miles from the fea, and almofl as many from a 
great river, and therefore fee but little of fea-birds. As to wild 
fowls, we have a few teems of ducks bred in the moors where the 
fnipes breed j and multitudes of widgeons and teals in hard weather 
frequent our lakes in the foreft. 
Having fome acquaintance with a tame brozvn owl, I find that it 
calls up the fur of mice, and the feathers of birds in pellets, after 
the manner of hawks : when full, like a dog, it hides what it can- 
not eat. 
The young of the barn-owl are not eafily ralfed, as they want 
a conftant fupply of frefti mice : whereas the young of the brown 
owl will eat indifcriminately all that is brought ; fnails, rats, 
kittens, puppies, magpies, and any kind of carrion or ofFaL 
The houfe-martins have eggs flill, and fquab-young. The lafb 
fwift I obferved was about the twenty-firft of Jugujl ; it was a 
ftraggler. 
Red-Jlarts, fy-catchers, white-throats, and regull non crijlaii, ftill 
appear ; but L have feen no black-cap lately, 
I forgot 
