OF SELBORNE. 
LETTER OIIL 
TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRlNnTON 
The fossil wood buried in tlie bogs of Wohner Forest 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 
Oakhanger to a carpenter of this village ; this was the butt-end 
of a small oak, about five feet long, and 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 purpose he had procured it, he told 
me that it was to be sent to his brother, a joiner, at Earnham, 
who was to make use of it in cabinet-work, by inlaying it along 
with 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 wing, and repeating often a sliort quick note. Tliis bird 
I have remarked myself, but never could make out till lately. 
I am assured now that it is the stone-curlew (Charadrius oedic- 
nem.us). Some of them pass over or near my house almost every 
evening after it is dark : from the uplands of the hill and JN'orth 
field, away down towards Dorton, where, among the streams and 
meadows, they find a greater plenty of food. Birds that fly by 
night are obliged 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 rooks are curious 
and amusing in the autumn. Just before dusk they return in 
long strings from the foraging of the day, and rendezvous by 
thousands over Selborne-down, where they wheel round in the 
air, and sport, and dive, in a playful manner, all the while exert- 
ing their voices, and making a loud cawing, which, being blended 
and softened by the distance that we at the village are below 
them, becomes a confused noise or chiding ; or rather a pleasing 
