NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 55 



yet in general it utters its jarring note sitting on a bough; and 

 I have for many a half hour watched it as it sat with its under 

 mandible quivering, and particularly this summer. It perches 

 usually on a bare twig, with its head lower than its tail, in 

 an attitude well expressed by your draughtsman in the folio 

 " British Zoology." l This bird is most punctual in beginning 

 its song exactly at the close of day ; so exactly that I have 

 known it strike up more than once or twice just at the report 

 of the Portsmouth evening gun, which we can hear when the 

 weather is still. It appears to me past all doubt that its notes 

 are formed by organic impulse, by the powers of the parts of 

 its windpipe, formed for sound, just as cats purr. You will 

 credit me, I hope, when I assure you that, as my neighbors 

 were assembled in an hermitage on the side of a steep hill 

 where we drink tea, one of these churn-owls came and settled 

 on the cross of that little straw edifice and began to chatter, 

 and continued his note for many minutes ; and we were all 

 struck with wonder to find that the organs of that little ani- 

 mal, when put in motion, gave a sensible vibration to the 

 whole building! This bird also sometimes makes a small 

 squeak, repeated four or five times; and I have observed 

 that to happen when the cock has been pursuing the hen in 

 a toying way through the boughs of a tree. 



It would not be at all strange if your bat, which you have 

 procured, should prove a new one, since five species have 

 been found in a neighboring kingdom. The great sort that 

 I mentioned is certainly a nondescript ; I saw but one this 

 summer, and that I had no opportunity of taking. 



Your account of the Indian grass was entertaining. I am 

 no angler myself ; but inquiring of those that are, what they 

 supposed that part of their tackle to be made of ? they re- 

 plied, " Of the intestines of a silkworm." 2 



Though I must not pretend to great skill in entomology, 

 yet I cannot say that I am ignorant of that kind of knowl- 

 edge ; I may now and then perhaps be able to furnish you 

 with a little information. 



The vast rains ceased with us much about the same time as 

 with you, and since we have had delicate weather. Mr. Bar- 

 ker, who has measured the rain for more than .thirty years, 



