OF SELBORNE. 193 



doves ; but in former times the flocks were 

 so vast not only with us but all the district 

 round, that on mornings and evenings they 

 traversed the air, like rooks, in strings, 

 reaching for a mile together. When they 

 thus rendezvoused here by thousands, if 

 they happened to be suddenly roused from 

 their roost- trees on an evening, 



" Their rising all at once was like the sound 

 *' Of thunder heard remote." ■ 



It will by no means be foreign to the 

 present purpose to add, that I liad a rela- 

 tion in this neighbourhood who made it a 

 practice, for a time, whenever he could 

 procure the eggs of a ring-dove, to place 

 them under a pair of doves that were sit- 

 ting in his own pigeon-house ; hoping 

 thereby, if he could bring about a coali- 

 tion, to enlarge his breed, and teach his 

 own doves to beat out into the woods and 

 to support themselves by mast : the plan 

 was plausible, but something always inter- 

 rupted the success ; for though the birds 



VOL. I. o 



