PONTON : NATURAL ENGINEERING. 



275 



«l)serve(i at Monndsmere. The Blackheaded Bunting so far as I have observed, 

 is not to be seen about here all the summer, but in the autumn and winter I 

 see many in this neighbourhood. I am at present unable to account for this 

 in any satisfactory way. Has it been noticed by any other reader of the 

 Naturalist ? . 



15th — I saw a Woodcock, Scolopax rusticola, in a wood near here to- 

 day. As far as my observation goes I fancy the Woodcocks were rather late 

 in arriving in this part of Hampshire this season as I did. not hear of any 

 being seen till ISTovember 26th, and on the 27th tliree were shot j I did not 

 see one myself till to-day. 



1 6th — I fancy I saw some Bramblings, Fringilla montifringilla, to-day, 

 they were perched on a hedge amongst some Chaffinches, but as they flew off 

 before I got well up to them I cannot be certain that they were not some 

 other species. 



28th — Golden PloveRj Charadrias 'pluvialis, appears. I saw a flock of 

 these birds flyover Preston Oak Hills, about 10 o'clock this morning, they 

 flew in an easterly direction. The flock was composed of about twenty or 

 thirty birds, 



Moundsmere, Micheldever, Ha7its, January \st, 1866. 



NATURAL ENGINEERING, 



By Thomas Graham Ponton, 



Before me lies a block of sandstone of about five inches square. Such 

 a piece of stone would, under ordinary circumstances, weigh about nine or ten 

 ounces, the block in question, however, weighs only five ounces and a hal£ 

 How is this % The cause is apparent ; it is riddled by large holes or burrows, 

 and it is but a small portion of a large mass of rock, and that mass of rock 

 one of a series of masses j all similarly perforated through and through in 

 every direction. 



Also before me lies a piece of wood, which has a similar deficiency in 

 weight, ancf from the same cause, it is perforated throughout. That piece of 

 wood was a portion of one of the supports of a wooden pier, and each of 

 those supports was similarly riddled with holes. Here then, there is clearly 

 some wonderful natural agency at work, destroying our piers, and under- 



