228 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



the hanger. We doubt whether White felt much 

 interest in the news-letter when it reached him j no 

 topic which it touched upon could be so important as 

 a rumoured discovery of hibernating swallows in the 

 next parish. How mild, too, his ambitions — that the 

 " falco " which he sends up to the authorities to be 

 named may turn out to be a new species, — that his 

 friends may find something of interest in the basket of 

 fresh-water fishlets from Selborne's brook, which he 

 despatches by the London coach neatly packed in 

 water-weeds. With what modest, yet honest pride, 

 too, he describes his new " locustella, or grasshopper 

 lark." For those were the palmy days when even a 

 stay-at-home naturalist might aspire to add his quota 

 to the British fauna. 



It is a fine morning in November as we leave the 

 train at Liss, on the South-Western line, and make 

 enquiries as to the way to Selborne. After walking 

 for perhaps three-quarters of an hour, we approach a 

 fine, bold-looking hill, whose steep, chalky side has 

 been a landmark all the way. With the exception of 

 this precipitous south-eastern face, it is covered with 

 beech-trees, giving an example of the hanging woods, 

 or " hangers," so characteristic of the district. On 

 enquiry of a labourer, this proves to be Nore Hill, 

 " that noble chalk promontory," as White calls it, 

 " remarkable for sending forth two streams into two 

 different seas." A number of wood-pigeons, flying 



