OF SELBORNE. 29 
paler colour and softer nature, which the inhabitants 
called fir; but, upon nice examination and trial by 
fire, I could discover nothing resinous in them, and 
therefore rather supposed that they were parts of a 
willow or alder, or some such aquatic tree. 
This lonely domain is a very agreeable haunt for 
many sorts of wild fowls, which not only frequent 
it in the winter, but build their nests there in the 
summer, such as lapwings, snipes, wild ducks, and, 
as I have discovered within these few years, teals. 
Partridges in vast plenty are bred in good seasons 
on the verge of this forest, into which they love to 
make excursions; and in particular, in the dry 
summer of 1740 and 1741, and some years after, 
they swarmed to such a degree, that parties of un- 
reasonable sportsmen killed twenty and sometimes 
thirty brace in a day. 
But there was a nobler species of game in this 
forest, now extinct, which I have heard old people 
say abounded much before shooting flying became 
so common, and that was the HEATH-cock, or Br +-~ 
