L E T T È R LïX.
TO THE SAME.
T he foil'll wood buried in the bogs of Wol/mr-forefi is not yet all
exhaufted; for the peat-cutters now and then {tumble upon a log.
I -have juft feen a piece which was fent by a labourer of Qakhangef
to a carpenter of this village; this was the but-end of a frnall
Oak, about five feet long, and about five inches in diameter. It
had apparently been fevered from the ground by an axe, was very
ponderous, and as black as ebony. Upon alking the carpenter
for what purpofe he had procured i t ; he told me that it was to be
fent to his brother., -a joiner at Farnham, who was to make ufe of
it in cabinet work, by inlaying it along with whiter woods.
Thofe that are much abroad on evenings after it is dark, in
fpring and fummer, frequently hear a nodturnal bird palling by
on the wing, and repeating often a fhort quick note. This bird
1 have remarked myfelf, but never could make out till lately.
I am affuned now that it is the Stone-curlew, (charadritts oedicnemus}.
Some of them pafs over Or near my houfe almoft every evening
after it is dark, from the uplands of the hill and North'field, away
down towards Dorton; where, among the ftreams and meadows,
they find a greater plenty of food. Birds that fly by night are
obliged to be noify ; their notes often- repeated become fignals or
watch-words to keep them together, that they may not ftray or
lofe each the other in the dark.
O F S E L B O R N E .
The evening proceedings and manoeuvres of the rooks are curious
and amufing in the autumn. Juft before dufk they return
in long firings from the foraging of the day, and rendezvous by V
thoufands over Selborne-down, where they wheel round in the air,
and fport and dive in a playful manner, all the while exerting
their voices, and making a loud cawing, which, being blended and
foftened by the diftance that we at the village are below them,
becomes a confufed noife or chiding ; or rather a pleaflng murmur,
very engaging to the imagination, and not unlike the cry of
a pack of hounds in hollow, echoing woods, or the rufhing qf the
wind in tall trees, or the tumbling of the tide upon a pebbly (hqre.
When this ceremony is over, with the laft gleam of day, they retire
for the night to the deep beechen woods of Tifted and Ropky.
We rememher a little girl vyho, as (he was going to bed, «fed to
remark on fitch an occurrence, in the true fpirit of phyfico-tteohgy,
that the roo^s were faying their prayers ; and yet this child was
much too young to be aware that the fcriptures have faid of the
Deity— that “ l\e feedeth the ravens who call upon him.’
I arn, Stc.