NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 9 



tinguished by the title of the Raven Tree. Many were the 

 attempts of the neighbouring youths to get at this eyry : the 

 difficulty whetted their inclinations, and each was ambitious of 

 surmounting the arduous task. But, when they arrived at the 

 swelling, it jutted out so in their way, and was so far beyond their 

 grasp, that the most daring lads were awed, and acknowledged 

 the undertaking to be too hazardous : so the ravens built on, nest 

 upon nest, in perfect security, till the fatal day arrived in which 

 the wood was to be levelled. It was in the month of February, 

 when these birds usually sit. The saw was applied to the butt, 

 the wedges were inserted into the opening, the woods echoed to 

 the heavy blow of the beetle or mall or mallet, the tree nodded 

 to its fall ; but still the dam sat on. At last, when it gave way, 

 the bird was flung from her nest ; and, though her parental affec- 

 tion deserved a better fate, was whipped down by the twigs, which 

 brought her dead to the ground. 1 



NOTE TO LETTER II. 



1 The landrail, that shyest of birds, often sits upon its eggs on the ground in 

 the hayfield until it is slain by the scythe of the mowers. Instances innumer- 

 able of the tenacity with which birds will sit on their eggs when they are nearly 

 hatched may be cited. I once lifted a hen blackbird off her nest, and she came 

 back again when we had moved a few feet away. All birds and animals are 

 bold in the defence of their young, and it seems strange that this affection 

 should so completely vanish as it does when the young are able to shift for 

 themselves. 



LETTER III. 



THE fossil-shells of this district, and sorts of stone, such as have 

 fallen within my observation, must not be passed over in silence. 

 And first I must mention, as a great curiosity, a specimen that 

 was ploughed up in the chalky fields, near the side of the Down, 

 and given to me for the singularity of its appearance, which, to 

 an incurious eye, seems like a petrified fish of about four inches 



