rossiL -WOOD. 285 



LETTEE cm. 



TO THE SAME. 



The fossil wood * buned in the bogs of "Wolmer Eorest, is 

 not yet all exhausted; for the peat-cutters now and then 

 stumble upon a log. I have just seen a piece which was sent 

 by a labourer of Oathanger to a carpenter of this village. 

 This was the butt-end of a small oak, about five feet long, 

 aild about five inches in diameter. It had apparently been 

 severed from the ground by an axe, was very ponderous, and 

 as black as ebony. "Upon asking the carpenter for what pur- 

 pose he had procured it, he told me that it was to be sent to 

 his brother, a joiner at Eaxnham, who was to make use of it 

 in cabinet work, by inlaying it along vdth whiter woods. 



Those that are much abroad on evenings after it is dark, 

 in spring and summer, frequently hear a nocturnal bird 

 passing by on the vring, and repeating often a short quick 

 note. This bird I have remarked myself, but never could 

 make it out till lately. I am assured now that it is the 

 stone-curlew (charadrius oedienemus.) Some of them pass 

 over or near my house almost every evening after it is dark, 

 from the uplands of the hiU. and Northfield, away down 

 towards Dorton ; where, among the streams and meadows, 

 they find a. greater plenty of food. Birds that fiy by night 

 are obUged to be noisy ; their notes, often repeated, become 

 signals or watch-words to keep them together, that they may 

 not stray or lose each other in the dark. 



The evening proceedings and manoeuvres of the rooks are 

 curious and amusing in the autumn.f Just before dusk,- they 



* I have a snuflF-box in my possession which once belonged to Sir Walter 

 Scott, with the following inscription on it : — " Made from oak found near 

 Gordon Castle, twenty feet below the surface of the ground." It is approach- 

 ing the appearance of agate. — Ed. 



-f* It is always pleasing to read Mr. White's notices of the habits of animals, 

 which are at the same time equally accurate and instructive, and those of the 



