cm.] 



OF SELBORNE. 



273 



LETTER CIII. 

 TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINQTON. 



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 butt-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 oedic- 

 nemus). 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 watch- words to keep them together, that they may not 

 stray or lose each other in the dark. 



The evening proceedings and manoauvres of 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 exert- 

 ing 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 

 VOL. I. N N 



