NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
27 
hawks ; neither could I find any like it at the curious exhibition of 
stufifed 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. 
LETTEE XL 
TO THE SAME. 
Selborne, September 9th, 1767. 
It 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 seemed disposed to breed 
in my outlet ; but were frighted and 
persecuted by idle boys, who would 
never let them be at rest. 
Three grossbeaks (loxia cocco- 
thraustes ) appeared some years ago 
in my fields, in the winter; one of 
which I shot. Since that, now and 
then, one is occasionally seen in the 
same dead season. 
A crossbill (loxia curvirostra) was killed last year in this neigh- 
bourhood. 
Our streams, which are small, and rise only at the end of the village, 
yield nothing but the bull's head or miller's thumb {gohius Jiuviatilis 
* Mr. Bennet states that the falco, proved to be the F. peregrinus, or peregrine 
falcon, and the authority given is W. Y. The yellow "circle of its eyelids" does 
not refer to the irides as we had imagined, when remarking upon this passage 
in another edition. White states he could not "make a good observation." The 
irides of the British species of falcons (and we know of no foreign exception) are 
all dark brown. Mr. Pennant states that it was a variety differing, in having the 
whole under side of the body a dirty, deep yellow. 
