14 2 N A T U R A L H I S T O p. Y 
The ftock-dove, or wood-pigeon, cenas Raii, is the lafl winter bird 
o-f pafTage which appears with us ; and is not feen till towards the end 
November : about twenty j^ears ago they abounded in the diftrid of 
Selborne ; and firings of them were feen morning and evening that 
reached a mile or more : but fince the beechen woods have been 
greatly thinned they are much decreafed in number. The ring- 
dove, palumbus Raii, fbays with us the whole year, and breeds 
feveral times through the fumnier. 
Before I received your letter of OBobcr lafl I had juft remarked 
in my journal that the trees were unufually green. This uncom- 
mon verdure lafted on late into November ; and may be accounted 
for from a late fpring, a cool and moift fummer ; but more particu- 
larly from vaft armies of chafers, or tree-beetles, which, in many 
places, reduced whole woods to a ieaflefs naked ftate. Thefe 
trees fliot again at Midfummer, and then retained their foliage till 
very late in the year. 
My mufical friend, at whofe houfe I am now vifiting, has tried 
all the owls that are his near neighbours with a pitch-pipe fet 
at concert-pitch, and finds they all hoot in B flat. He will exa- 
mine the nightingales next fpring. I am, he. &c. 
LETTER 
