304 STONE CURLEW. 



very ponderous, and as black as ebony. Upon ask- 

 ing 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 cedicnemus). Some of 

 them pass over or near my house almost every 

 evening after it is dark, from the uplands of the 

 hill and Northfield, 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 manoeuvres of 

 the 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 

 \vheel round in the air, and sport and dive in 

 a playful manner, all the while exerting 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 murmur, 

 very engaging to the imagination, and not unlike 

 the cry of a pack of hounds in hollow, echoing 

 woods, or the rushing of the wind in tall trees, 

 or the tumbling of the tide upon a pebbly shore. 



