NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 367 
of the tower and sang it at daybreak. When I was a little 
boy, my father always took me to hear this hymn sung, and 
we generally stood on Magdalen Bridge. And now comes 
another very curious custom. After the hymn has been sung, the 
choristers throw down eggs, supposed to be those of jackdaws and 
starlings, collected from the tower, upon the crowd. The people 
then begin to blow tin horns with long and loud blasts. It is 
said by some that the origin of this custom Avas to drown the 
sound of the mass being sung at the top of the tower. Dr. 
Newman, however, says that he believes this is the only 
remnant in England of a Eoman ceremony, the 1st of May 
being the day in which a festival was held in honour of a 
Eoman goddess, or possibly the Floralia, or Horal games, which 
amongst the Eomans began on the 28th of April. The celebra- 
tion of May-day by the chimney-sweeps, and others, may pos- 
sibly have had its origin from the same old Eoman custom. 
How Stonehenge was built, p. 66. — Many theories have 
been advanced as to the mechanical power which was adopted 
by Druids to handle the enormous stones wdiich built Stone- 
henge. Captain Dunbar of the Scots Greys tells me that in 
his opinion they managed it by taking advantage of a heavy 
fall of snow and severe frost. The snow was packed up 
between the uprights, filling up the space to a level with the top 
of them ; a plane with a slight incline was then formed with more 
snow, and water thrown over to form it into a solid mass ; the 
third stone was then levered or rolled up the incline to its 
position, and when the snow melted the stone woidd be left in its 
position. It is quite certain that earth was sometimes used 
instead of snow for this purpose, to form cromlechs and other 
megalithic structures ; lieat and cold water were probably used 
to split the stones to the required dimensions. 
Near Crickhowell, a few yards from the Usk, there stands in 
a gentleman's park a solitary monolith. proba]3ly the remains of 
an old Druid temple. My friend Mr. Berrington tells me the 
local tradition is that, on the eve of St. John, the stone goes down 
to the Usk and dips itself three times in the water. This is 
probably tlie last remnant of some ancient Druidical rite 
that took place on Midsummer-day symbolical of purification. 
Taming Birds, &c., p. 68. — Mr. Davy agrees with White. In 
all his long experience, he never knew of a bird which could not 
be tamed. It is very remarkable, that, as a rule, all birds seem 
to be very timid at the sight of gloves. If you feed a tame thrush 
with gloves on he will " chuck, chuck, chuck," and dash about the 
