OF SELBORNE 237 



and seem to be appointed by Nature as fellow-scavengers 

 to remove all cadaverous nuisances from the face of the 

 earth. 



I am, etc. 



LETTER LIX 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON 



The 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 Oakhanger 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 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). Some of them pass 

 over or near my house almost every evening after it is 

 dark, from the uplands of the hill and North field, 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 watchwards to keep them 

 together, that they may not stray or lose each the 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. 



