212 AUTUMNAL NESTIXO OF THE HOOK. 



October, 1823, and on the morning of the 1st. of November, we were awoke 

 by the crash occasioned by the falling of huge limbs and branches- of trees; 

 the superincumbent weight of the snow, occurring as it did, before the fall 

 of the' leaf, causing them to give way on all sides, so that in a few hours, 

 long avenues of stately trees were, throughout this finely timbered district, 

 completely despoiled of their beauty; and when daylight appeared, the ground 

 was found to be strewn with their fragments; and in such immense quantities 

 that hundreds of loads were collected in this parish alone — enough, in fact, 

 to supply its entire population with fuel the whole of that winter, and the 

 greater part of the succeeding one; exclusive of a vast quantity of a size 

 large enough for building and other purposes. Amongst the wreck occasioned 

 by this storm, a nest of young Rooks nearly fledged was discovered. A young 

 ui.fledged Ring-Dove, (Columha palumhus,) was also, on this memorable 

 morning, found in the same locality. 



Since that time I have met with several other instances in that county 

 and the adjoining one, Oxon; but as I neglected to note the particular years 

 in which they occurred, I must pass them over without further notice, and 

 proceed to record three which have recently occurred in the latter county, 

 in three successive seasons. In November, 1849, a pair succeeded in rearing 

 their young brood in a Rookery at Standlake, near Witney. In November, 

 1850, another pair produced their young at Cokethorpe Park, the seat of 

 Walter Strickland, Esq. They were not, however, successful in their endea- 

 vours to rear them, for the weather becoming intensely cold, they perished 

 when about half-fledged. In the latter part of October, 1851, a nest was again 

 formed in this park, but a sudden change in the weather put a stop to further 

 proceedings, so that no eggs were this time laid. Two young unfledged 

 Ring-Doves were also this year brought to me the first week in November. 



Occurrences of this kind usually take place when there happens to be at 

 this season a long continuance of the "dark, still, dry, warm weather," which 

 the late Rev. Gilbert White did not fail to notice as "occasionally happening 

 in the winter months;" and the effects of which he has so truthfully described 

 in some lines upon the subject, contained in various editions of his delightful 

 "Natural History of Selborne." At such times, to quote from the lines 



above mentioned 



"The cawing Rook 

 Anticipates the spring, selects her mate, 

 Haunts her tall nest-trees, and with sedulous care 

 Repairs her wicker eyrie," 



I am of opinion that these unseasonable and generally abortive attempts 

 at reproduction, are to be attributed to young birds of the year — precocious 

 individuals, who would fain be wiser than their parents. 



"Choose not alone a proper mate, 

 But proper time to marry," 



is the lesson deduced by the Poet Cowper, from an analogous circumstance, 



