LETTER XXXVII.

TO THE SAME.

DEAR SIR;

SELBORNE, 1771.

On the twelfth of July I had a fair oppor tunity of contemplating the motions of the caprimulgus, or fern-owl, as it was playing round a large oak that swarmed with scarabai solstitiales, or fern-chafers. The powers of its wing were wonderful, exceeding, if possible, the various evolutions and quick turns of the swallow genus. But the circumstance that pleased me most was, that I saw it distinctly, more than once, put out its short leg while on the wing, and, by a bend of the head, deliver somewhat into its mouth. Ifit takes any part of its prey with its foot, as I have now the greatest reason to suppose it does these chafers, I no longer wonder at the use of its middle toe, which is curiously furnished with a serrated claw.

Swallows and martins, the bulk of them I mean, have forsaken us sooner this year than usual; for, on September the twentysecond, they rendezvoused in a neighbour's walnut-tree, where it seemed probable they had taken up their lodging for the night. At the dawn of the day, which was foggy, they arose all together in infinite numbers, occasioning such a rushing from the strokes of their wings against the hazy air, as might be heard to a considerable distance: since that no flock has appeared, only a few stragglers.

Some swifts staid late, till the twentysecond of August—a rare instance! for they usually withdraw within the first week.*

On September the twenty-fourth three or four ring-ousels appeared in my fields for the first time this season: how punctual are these visitors in their Autumnal and Spring migrations!

* See Letter liii. to Mr. Barrington.

VOL. I.

M

LETTER XXXVIII.

TO THE SAME.

DEAR SIR;

SELBORNE, March 15, 1773.

By my journal for last Autumn it appears that the house-martins bred very late, and staid very late in these parts; for, on the first of October, I saw young martins in their nest nearly fledged; and again, on the twenty-first of October, we had at the next house a nest full of young martins just ready to fly; and the old ones were hawking for insects with great alertness. The next morning the brood forsook their nest, and were flying round the village. From this day I never saw one of the swallow kind till November the third; when twenty, or perhaps thirty, house-martins were playing all day long by the side of the hanging wood, and over my fields. Did these small weak birds, some of which were nestlings

twelve days ago, shift their quarters at this late season of the year to the other side of the northern tropic? Or rather, is it not more probable that the next church, ruin, chalk-cliff, steep covert, or perhaps sandbank, lake or pool (as a more northern naturalist would say), may become their hybernaculum, and afford them a ready and obvious retreat?

We now begin to expect our vernal migration of ring-ousels every week. Persons worthy of credit assure me that ring-ousels were seen at Christmas 1770 in the forest of Bere, on the southern verge of this county. Hence we may conclude that their migrations are only internal, and not extended to the continent southward, if they do at first come at all from the northern parts of this island only, and not from the north of Europe. Come from whence they will, it is plain, from the fearless disregard that they show for men or guns, that they have been little accustomed to places of much resort. Navigators mention that in the Isle of Ascension, and other

such desolate districts, birds are so little acquainted with the human form that they settle on men's shoulders; and have no more dread of a sailor than they would have of a goat that was grazing. A young man at Lewes, in Susser, assured me that about seven years ago ring-ousels abounded so about that town in the Autumn that he killed sixteen himself in one afternoon : he added further, that some had appeared since in every Autumn; but he could not find that any had been observed before the season in which he shot so many. I myself have found these birds in little parties in the Autumn cantoned all along the Susser downs, wherever there were shrubs and bushes, from Chichester to Lewes ; particularly in the Autumn of 1770. I am, &c.