OF SELBOBNE. 37 
It haunted a marshy piece of ground in quest of wild 
ducks and snipes ; but, when it was shot, had just knocked 
down a rook, which it was tearing in pieces. I cannot 
make it answer to any of our English hawks j neither could 
I find any like it at the curious exhibition of stufied birds 
in Spring Gardens. I found it nailed up at the end of a 
barn, which is the countryman's museum.^ 
The parish I live in is a very abrupt, uneven country^ full 
of hills and woods, and therefore full of birds. 
LETTER XL 
TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 
Selborne, September 9, 1767. 
T will not be without impatience that I shall 
wait for your thoughts with regard to the 
Falco. As to its weight, breadth, &c., I 
wish I had set them down at the time : but 
to the best of my remembrance, it weighed 
two pounds and eight ounces, and measured, from wing to 
wing, thirty-eight inches. Its cere and feet were yellow, 
and the circle of its eyelids a bright yellow. As it had 
been killed some days, and the eyes were sunk, I could 
make no good observation on the colour of the pupils and 
the irides."^ 
The most unusual birds I ever observed in these parts 
were a pair of hoopoes (Upupa) , which came several years 
ago in the summer, and frequented an ornamented piece of 
ground, which joins to my garden, for some weeks. They 
used to march about in a stately manner, feeding in the 
walks, many times in the day ; and seem disposed to breed 
* The species proved to be the Peregrine, Falco peregrinus of 
naturalists. — ^Ed. 
2 The irides of all the true Falcons are brown. — Ed. 
