LETTER LIX. 



HE 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 cedicmmus). Some of 

 them pass over or near my house almost every evening after it is 



