312 ROOKS. 



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 inlay- 

 ing it along with whiter woods. 



Those that are much abroad on evenings after it is 

 dark, in spring and summer, frequently hear a noc- 

 turnal bird passing by on the wing, and repeating 

 often a short quick note. This bird I have remarked 

 myself, but never could make out till lately. I am 

 assured now, that it is the stone -curlew (charadrius 

 oedicnemus.J Some of them pass over or near my 

 house almost every evening after it is dark, from 

 the uplands of the hill and Northfield, away down 

 towards Dorton ; where, among the streams and 

 meadows, they find a greater plenty of food. Birds 

 that fly by night are obliged to be noisy ; their notes, 

 often repeated, become signals or watch- words to keep 

 them together, that they may not stray or lose each 

 other in the dark. 



The evening proceedings and manoeuvres of the 

 rooks are curious and amusing in the autumn. Just 

 before dusk, they return in long strings from the 

 foraging of the day, and rendezvous by thousands 

 over Selborne-down, where they wheel round in the 

 air, and sport and dive in a playful manner, all the 

 while exerting their voices, and making a loud 

 cawing, which, being blended and softened by the 

 distance that we at the village are below them, 

 becomes a confused noise or chiding ; or rather a 

 pleasing murmur, very engaging to the imagination, 

 and not unlike the cry of a pack of hounds in 

 hollow, echoing woods, or the rushing of the wind 

 in tall trees, or the tumbling of the tide upon a 

 pebbly shore. When this ceremony is over, with 

 the last gleam of day, they retire for the night to 



