NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 31 



LETTER XI. 



SELBORNE, September 9th, 1767. 



IT will not be without impatience that I shall wait for 

 your thoughts with regard to the falco ; as to its weight, 

 breadth, etc., I wish I had set them down at the time; but, 

 to the best of my remembrance, it weighed two pounds and 

 eight ounces, and measured, from wing to wing, thirty- 

 eight inches. Its cere and feet were yellow, and the circle 

 of its eyelids a bright yellow. As it had been killed some 

 days, and the eyes were sunk, I could make no good 

 observation on the colour of the pupils and the irides. 



The most unusual birds I ever observed in these parts 

 were a pair of hoopoes (upupa), which came several years 

 ago in the summer, and frequented an ornamental piece of 

 ground, which joins to my garden, for some weeks. They 

 used to march about in a stately manner, feeding in the 

 walks, many times in the day ; and seemed disposed to 

 breed in my outlet ; but were frighted and persecuted by 

 idle boys, who would never let them be at rest. 



Three grossbeaks (Loxia coccothraustes) appeared some 

 years ago in my fields, in the winter ; one of which I shot. 

 Since that, now and then, one is occasionally seen in the 

 same dead season. 



A crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) was killed last year in this 

 neighbourhood. 



Our streams, which are small, and rise only at the end of 

 the village, yield nothing but the bull's head or miller's 

 thumb (Gobius fluviatilis capitatus), the trout (Trutta 

 Jluviatilis), the eel (anguilla), the lampern (Lampcetra parva 

 et fluviatilis\ and the stickle-back (Pisciculus aculeatus). 



We are twenty miles from the sea. and almost as many 



