12 NATURAL HISTORY 



it gav3 way, the bird was flung from her 

 nest ; and, though her parental affection 

 deserved a better fate, was whipped 

 down by the twigs, which brought her 

 dead to the ground. 



LETTER III. 



TO THE SAME 



T HE fossil shells of this district, and 

 sorts of stone, such as have fallen within 

 my observation, must not be passed over 

 in silence. And first I must mention, 

 as a great curiosity, a specimen that was 

 ploughed up in the chalky fields, near 

 the side of the Down, and given to me 

 for the singularity of its appearance, 

 which to an incurious eye, seems like a 

 petrified fish of about four inches long, 

 the cardo passing for a head and mouth. 

 It is in reality a bivalve of the Linncean 



