OF SELBORNE. 75 



The root of the arum is remarkably warm 

 and pungent. 



Our flocks of female chaffinches have 

 not yet forsaken us. The blackbirds and 

 thrushes are very much thinned down by 

 that fierce weather in January. 



In the middle of February I discovered, 

 in my tall hedges, a little bird that raised 

 my curiosity ; it was of that yellow-green 

 colour that belongs to the salicaria kind, 

 and, I think, was soft-billed. It was no 

 par us ; and was too long and too big for 

 the gloden-crowned wren, appearing most 

 like the largest willow-wren. It hung 

 sometimes with its back downwards, but 

 never continuing one moment in the same 

 place. I shot at it, but it was so desultory 

 that I missed my aim. 



I wonder that the stone curlew, chara- 

 drius oedicnemus, should be mentioned by 

 the writers as a rare bird ; it abounds in all 

 the campaign parts oi Hampshire 2ind.Sussex, 

 and breeds, I think, all the Summer, having 

 young ones, I know, very late in the Au- 

 tumn. Already they begin clamouring in 



