OF SELBORNE. 311 
&c., were intended to be messmates with dogs* 
over their carrion, and seem to be appointed by 
Nature as fellow-scavengers, to remove all caday- 
erous nuisances from the face of the earth. 
LETTER LV. 
Tuk fossil wood buried in the bogs of Wolmer 
Forest is not yet all exhausted, for the peat-cutters 
now and then stumble upon a log. I have just 
seen a piece which was sent by a labourer of Oak- 
hanger to a carpenter of this village; this was the 
but-end of a small oak, about five feet long, and 
about five inches in diameter. It had apparently - 
been severed from the ground by an axe, was very 
ponderous, and as black as ebony. Upon asking 
the carpenter for what purpose he had procured it, 
he told me that it was to be sent to his brother, a 
joiner at Farnham, who was to make use of it in 
cabinet work, by inlaying it along with whiter 
woods. 
Those that are much abroad on evenings after it 
is dark in spring and summer, frequently hear a 
nocturnal bird passing by on the wing, and repeat. 
ing often a short, quick note. This bird I have re- 
marked myself, but never could make out till late- 
ly. I am assured now that it is the Stone Cur. 
LEW (charadrius edicnemus). Some of them pass 
over or near my house almost every evening after 
it is dark, from the uplands of the hill and North- 
* The Chinese word for a dog to a European ear sounds like 
loh. 
