NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 7 



feet long without bough, and would measure twelve inches 

 diameter at the little end. Twenty such trees did a purveyor 

 find in this little wood, with this advantage, that many of them 

 answered the description at sixty feet. These trees were sold 

 for twenty pounds apiece. 



In the centre of this grove there stood an oak, which, though 

 shapely and tall on the whole, bulged out into a large excres- 

 cence about the middle of the stem. On this a pair of ravens 

 had fixed their residence for such a series of years, that the 

 oak was distinguished by the title of the Raven Tree. Many 

 were the attempts of the neighboring youths to get at this 

 eyry : the difficulty whetted their inclinations, and each was 

 ambitious of surmounting the arduous task. But, when they 

 arrived at the swelling, it jutted out so in their way, and was 

 so far beyond their grasp, that the most daring lads were awed, 

 and acknowledged 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 these birds usually sit. 

 The saw was applied to the butt, the wedges were inserted 

 into the opening, the woods echoed to the heavy blow of 

 the beetle or mall 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 de- 

 served a better fate, was whipped down by the twigs, which 

 brought her dead to the ground. 1 



NOTE 



1 The landrail, that shyest of birds, often sits upon its eggs on the ground 

 in the hayfield until it is slain by the scythe of the mowers. Instances in- 

 numerable of the tenacity with which birds will sit on their eggs when they 

 are nearly hatched may be cited. I once lifted a hen blackbird off her nest, 

 and she came back again when we had moved a few feet away. All birds 

 and animals are bold in the defence of their young, and it seems strange 

 that this affection should so completely vanish as it does when the young 

 are able to shift for themselves. G. C. D. 



