Pree vAU DUB OIN* B UEC ETN 33 
Birds of the year are found with the parents until full grown. In 
June the families become scattered but until the last of October, Wood- 
cock can be flushed from the coverts where they have bred. Near Chi- 
cago, Woodcock may be found year after year in the same breeding areas. 
Often these become restricted. “Trees are cut down, streets laid and dwell- 
ings built. “Next year” we say, “will see the last of them.’ But, some- 
how, always, a pair or two persists. In favored parts of the Dunes we 
believe their generations are secure for years to come. 
A Visit to Selbourne 
By C. W. G. Errric 
What nature lover or naturalist, be he professional or amateur, on 
reading Gilbert White’s “Natural History of Selbourne,” could suppress 
the wish rising in him that he might be permitted at some time in his 
life to visit this delectable place? When, therefore, the writer during the 
past Summer visited England, he made sure to include Selbourne in his 
itinerary. Accordingly, after he had looked over Winchester and its an- 
cient cathedral, containing among many others the grave of Izaak Walton, 
he made his way to Alton, and thence by bus to Selbourne, since it is not 
on any railway. It was June 11th. 
When entering the towns and villages of England, it seems to one 
from this side of the Atlantic, where things are all rather new, as though 
time had suddenly been turned back several centuries. So it is in Selbourne. 
There is the ancient Norman church of which White was rector; before 
the church stands the gigantic Yew, probably the largest in the world, with 
a circumference of twenty-seven feet, nine inches. Beside and behind is 
the cemetery with White’s grave, marked only by two small stones at the 
head and toot. Next to the graveyard is the pasture, then the wooded 
ravine, and hill, as in White’s time. On the other side are the few streets 
of the village, lined by houses in and out of which the good rector White 
passed. And beyond that, is Selbourne’s chief glory, the Hanger, also as 
it was at his time. Around the houses and in the gardens are a profusion 
of flowers, many of gigantic, luxuriant growth, flowering shrubs of many 
kinds, evergreens and other trees in great abundance. 
No wonder this is a paradise for birds. Nowhere else, North or South, 
East or West, have I ever heard such a chorus of bird songs. “The num- 
ber and variety of songs and whistles and call-notes was bewildering. 
