NATURAL HISTORY 
By what I ean guefs from the admeafurements of the hills that 
have been taken round my houfc, I fhould fuppofe that thefe hills 
furmount the wild at an average at about the rate of five hundred 
feet. 
One thing is very remarkable as to the fheep : from the weftvvard 
till you get to the river Adur all the flocks have horns, and fmooth 
white faces, and white legs ; and a hornlefs flieep is rarely to be 
leen : but as foon as you pafs that river eaftward, and mount 
Beeding-hilly all the flocks at once become hornlefs, or, as they call 
them, poll-fheep ; and have moreover black faces with a white tuft 
of wool on their foreheads, and fpeckled and fpotted legs : fo 
that you would think that the flocks of Laban were pafturing on 
one fide of the ftream, and the variegated breed of his fon-in-law 
Jacob were cantoned along on the other. And this diverfity holds 
good refpedtively on each fide from the valley of Bramber and 
Seeding to the eaftward, and weilward all the whole length of the 
downs. If you talk with the fliepherds on this fubjed;, they tell 
you that the cafe has been fo from time immemorial ; and fmile at 
your fimplicity if you afk them whether the fituation of thefe two 
different breeds might not be reverfed ? However, an intelligent 
friend of mine near Chichejler is determined to try the experiment; 
and has this autumn, at the hazard of being laughed at, introduced a 
parcel of black-faced hornlefs rams among his horned weftern 
ewes. The black-faced poU-flieep have the fhorteft legs and the 
fineft wooL 
As I had hardly ever before travelled thefe downs at fo late a 
feafon of the year, I was determined to keep as fliarp a look-out as 
poflTible fo near the fouthern coaft, with refped to the fummer fliortr 
winged birds of palTage. We make great inq\iiries concerning the 
withdrawing of the fwallow kind, without examining enough into. 
the 
