III.] OF SELBORNE. 



their grasp, that the most daring lads were awed, and acknow- 

 ledged 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 those birds usually sit. The saw was 

 applied to the butt, the wedges were inserted into the opening, 

 the woods echoed to the heavy blows of the beetle 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 affection deserved a better fate, was whipped down by 

 the twigs, which brought her dead to the ground. 



LETTER III. 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 



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 

 long, the cardo (hinge) passing for a head and mouth. It is in 

 reality a bivalve of the Linnyean genus of Mytilus, and the 

 species of Crista Galli; called by Lister, Rastellum; by Rum- 

 phius, Ostreum plicatum minus; by D'Argenville, Auris porci, 

 s. Crista Galli; and by those who make collections, cock's comb. 

 Though I applied to several such in London, I never could meet 

 with an entire specimen ; nor could I ever find in books any 

 engraving from a perfect one. In the superb museum at 

 Leicester House, permission was given me to examine for this 

 article ; and though I was disappointed as to the fossil, I was 

 highly gratified with the sight of several of the shells themselves 

 in high preservation. This bivalve is only known to inhabit 

 the Indian Ocean, where it fixes itself to a zoophyte known 

 by the name Gorgonia. The curious foldings of the suture, the 



