Ill,] 
OF SELBORNE. 
7 
their grasp, thai the most daring lads were awed, and aclciiow- 
ledged the undertaking to be too hazardous. So the ravens 
built on, nest upon nest, in perfect security, till the fatal day 
arrived in which the wood was to be leveled. It was in the 
month of February, when those birds usually sit. The saw was 
applied to the butt, the wedges were inserted into the opening, 
the woods echoed to the heavy blows of the beetle or mallet, the 
tree nodded to its fall; but still the dam sat on. At last, when 
it gave way, the bird was flung from her nest ; and, tliougli her 
parental affection deserved a better fate, was whipped down by 
the twigs, which l)rought lier dead to the ground. 
LETTEE HI. 
TO THOMAS PENNJNT, ESQ. 
The fossil-shells of this district, and sorts of stone, such as liave 
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 car do (hinge) passing for a head and mouth. It is in 
reality a bivalve of the Linmean genns of Mytiliis, and the 
species of Crista Galli ; called by lAster, Bastellum ; by Ihun- 
phius, Osireum plicatum minus; by D'Argenville, Atiris 2^orci, 
s. Crista Galli; and by those who make collections, cock's comb. 
Though I applied to several such in London, I never could meet 
with an entire specimen ; nor could I ever find in books any 
engraving from a perfect one. In the superb museum at 
Leicester House, permission was given me to examine for this 
article ; and though I was disappointed as to the fossil, I was 
highly gratified with the sight of several of the shells themselves 
in high preservation. This bivalve is only known to inhabit 
the Indian Ocean, where it fixes itself to a zoophyte known 
by the name Gorgonia. The curious foldings of the suture, the 
