188 NATURAL HISTORY 



The stock-dove, or wood-pigeon, cenas Rail, is the last win- 

 ter bird of passage which appears with us ; and is not seen 

 till towards the end of November: about twenty years ago 

 they abounded in the district of Selbome ; and strings of them 

 were seen morning and evening that reached a mile or more : 

 but since the beechen woods have been greatly thinned they 

 are much decreased in number. The ring-dove, palumbus 

 Rail, stays with us the whole year, and breeds several times 

 through the summer* 



Before I received your letter of October last I had just 

 remarked in my journal that the trees were unusually green. 

 This uncommon verdure lasted on late into November ; and 

 may be accounted for from a late spring, a cool and moist 

 summer ; but more particularly from vast armies of chafers, 

 or tree beetles, which, in many places, reduced whole woods 

 to a leafless naked state. These trees shot again at Midsum- 

 mer, and then retained their foliage till very late in the year. 



My musical friend, at whose house I am now visiting, has 

 tried all the owls that are his near neighbours with a pitch- 

 pipe set at concert-pitch, and finds they all hoot in B flat. 

 He will examine the nightingales next spring. 



I am, &c. &c. 



LETTER X. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne, Aug. 1, 1771. 

 DEAR SIR, 



FROM what follows, it will appear that neither owls nor 

 cuckoos keep to one note. A friend remarks that many 

 (most) of his owls hoot in B flat : but that one went almost 

 half a note below A. The pipe he tried their notes by was a 

 common half-crown pitch-pipe, such as masters use for tuning 

 of harpsichords ; it was the common London pitch. 



A neighbour of mine, who is said to have a nice ear, re- 

 marks that the owls about this village hoot in three different 



