, OF SELBORNE. 101 



buy the Naturalist's Journal (with which 

 he is much delighted), I shall expect that 

 he will be very exact in his dates. It is 

 very extraordinary, as you observe, that a 

 bird so common wnth us should never 

 straggle to you. 



And here will be the properest place to 

 mention, w^hile I think of it, an anecdote 

 which the above mentioned gentleman told 

 me when I w^as last at is house; which 

 was, that in a warren joining to his outlet, 

 many daws (corvi monedulce) build every 

 year in the rabbit burrows under-ground. 

 The way he and his brothers used to take 

 their nests, while they were boys, was by 

 listening at the mouths of the holes ; and, 

 if they heard the young ones cry, they 

 twisted the nest out with a forked stick. 

 Some water-fowls fviz. the puffins) breed, 

 I know, in that manner ; but I should never 

 have suspected the daws of building in 

 holes on the flat ground. 



Another very unlikely spot is made use 

 of by daws as a place to breed in, and that 

 is Stonehenge. These birds deposit their 



