OF SELBORNE. 



131 



By my journal it appears that curlews 

 clamoured on to October the thirty-first ; 

 since which, I have not seen or heard any. 

 Swallows were observed on to November 

 the third. 



LETTER XXVII. 



TO THE SAME. 

 DEAR SIR; Selborne, Feb. 22, 1770. 



H EDGE-HOGS abouud in my gardens and 

 fields. The manner in which they eat the 

 roots of the plantain in my grass-walk is 

 very curious : with their upper mandible, 

 which is much longer than their lower, 

 they bore under the plant, and so eat the 

 root ofi" upwards, leaving the tuft of leaves 

 untouched. In this respect they are ser- 

 viceable, as they destroy a very troublesome 

 weed ; but they deface the walks in some 

 measure by digging little round holes. It 

 appears, by the dung that they drop upon 



K -2 



