LOCKW
CASK

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

PRESENTED BY

PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID

PUBLISH]

WORKS
JBLISHED BY WM.S.ORR&CO. LONDON;

»•* Public attention is respectfully solicited to the following List of POPULAR and CHEAP
Publications in all branches of Literature and Science.

!N MONTHLY PARTS, ONE SHILLING PLAIN A, ONE SHILLING & SIXPENCE COLOURED,

THE

BRITISH CYCLOPEDIA OF NATURAL
HISTORY,

COMBINING

SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMALS, PLANTS, AND MINERALS,
WITH A POPULAR VIEW OF THEIR HABITS, ECONOMY,
AND PECULIAR STRUCTURE.

The various articles for this work have been prepared in the most careful
uianner by authors eminent in their respective branches, and contain a mass of
useful and interesting information not to be met with in any other single work.
Volumes one and two are now ready, and the third and concluding volume will
f)e completed early in 1837. Price of each volume 15*. plain, and II. Is. coloured

'•>/ One thick Svo. Volume, with upwards of
zOO Illustrations on Wood, 12s. cloth boards,

CUVIER'S ANIMAL KINGDOM,

arranged according to its organization.
Translated from the last French Edition,
and abridged for the use of Students, by H.

M'MURTRIE, M. D.

*»* In this edition the Baron's grand outline of
the animal kingdom is preserved entire, the abridg-
ment being confined to his description of species.
The work is intended as a class hook to the student
in natural history and comparative anatomy.

In 8vo. 10$. Qd. cloth,
BECHSTEIN'S CAGE -BIRDS ;

their Natural History, Management, and
the Methods of Catching them. By J. M.
BECHSTEIN, M. D.

*' The information given in this book is most valu-
able."—Court Magazine.

*' Long considered a. valuable aviary companion on
the Continent."— Athenawn.

"A good and practical book."— Herald.

"To all keepers of « Cage Birds' we earnestly re-
commend this book."— Examiner.

" 1 he perusal is every way calculated to increase
a taste for natural history."— Bath Herald.

«'A volume very useful in its line."— Literary
Gazette.

In 2 vols. 12$. cloth,
THE BRITISH NATURALIST,

being Sketches of the most interesting pro-
ductions of the British islands. By ROBERT
MUDIE.

4*. 6d. cloth lettered, and Is. 6cZ. morocco,
THE NATURAL HISTORY of
BIRDS ; their Structure, Action, Distribu-
tion, and Classification. By ROBERT MUDIB.

"Contains more information on the subject of j
bird than is to be found in a similar space in tVie '
English Language."— Glasgow Courier.

7s. 6d. cloth boards,

A CONSPECTUS OF BRITISH
BUTTERFLIES and MOTHS, with their
Caterpillars, Localities, and Times of their
appearance. By JAMES RENNIE, M. A.
Small 8vo. 5s. 6d. dotht

WHITE'S NATURAL HISTORY
and ANTIQUITIES of SELBORNE ;
Observations on various parts of Nature!
and the Naturalist's Calendar, with Notes
by EDWARD BLYTH, and numerous illus-
trative wood-cuts. With a beautiful Map of
the vicinity of SELBORNE.

Square I2mo. cloth, 3s. 6d.t

WILLIAM WISEMAN'S STO-
RIES ABOUT BIRDS. Numerous Illus-
trations.
In One thick Volume Svo. II. Is. cloth boards,

MONTAGU'S ORNITHOLOGI-
CAL DICTIONARY OF BRITISH BIRDS,
brought down to the present state of the
science. (A New Edition.)

*»* Only a very few copies left of this
edition.

WORKS PUBLISHED BY WM. S. ORR AND CO., LONDON.

Foolscap 8vo. 4s. 6d. cloth boards,

THE TAXIDERMIST'S MANUAL .

or the Art of Collecting and Preserving
Objects of Natural History, illustrated by
six Plates. By Captain THOMAS BROWN,
F. L. S.

Foolscap 8vo. 5s. boards,

THE CONCHOLOGIST'S TEXT

BOOK, embracing the Classification of Lin-
naeus and Lamarck, with a Glossary of
Technical Terms. By THOMAS BKOWN,
F. L. S.

In small 8uo. with twenty-seven Engravings and
numerous Wood-cuts, 4s. Gd. plain, and 7s.
coloured,

POPULAR BOTANY, explana-
tory of the Structure and Habits of Plants,
ith a Familiar Explanation of their Ar-
rangement. By JAMES MAIN, A. L. S.

This little work is very neatly executed, and
fully answers its title of ' Popular ; ' it is also, at the
lame time, scientific and practical. We need scarcely
add that this book is one which we can cordially re-
imend." — London Gardener's Magazine* November.

The style of the ' Popular Botany' is simple, and
such as every young student may understand and
>rofit by, which is seldom the case with works on
mtauy. It is illustrated with numerous engravings,
which would not disgrace a work of six times its
>st."— Northampton Herald.

In small 8vo- 3s. cloth,

THE KITCHEN GARDEN, its

Cultivation and Arrangement. With an
Alphabetical Calendar of Monthly Opera-
t:.ons. By G. W. JOHNSON.

Foolscap 8vo. 6s. 6d. cloth lettered,

ILLUSTRATIONS OF VEGETA-
BLE PHYSIOLOGY. By JAMES MAIN,
A. L. S. Second Edition.

"The result of fifty years' experience as a practical
man, nor has that long period been misapplied which
has produced this excellent work." — frith Farmer's
and Gardener' $ Magazine-

Foolscap Svo. 7s. 6d. cloth boards,

THE FRUITFULNESS and BAR-
RENNESS of TREES and PLANTS ex-
plained. By JOSEPH HAYWARD, ESQ., author
of the " Science of Horticulture."

Foolscap Svo. 6s. embossed roan,

BOTANY ILLUSTRATED on a
NEW PRINCIPLE. By C. F. PAKTINGTON.

3s. cloth lettered,

ASTRONOMY for the Use of

s-hoois, Families, and Private Learners.
By ROBERT MLDIE.

Hand Books.

Is. $d. sewed,

THE HAND BOOK OF GAR-

DENING, in Principle and Practice.

THE HAND BOOK OF PLAIN

BOTANY, or Linna?an Lessons for Field
and Garden Use. 2s. sewed.

THE HAND BOOK of AGRI-
CULTURE, in Principle and Practice.
Is. 3d. sewed.

" Three capital little books. In the Hand-Hook of
Plain Botany, the author walks into the fields and
plucks a primrose ; he then dissects it, analyses its
parts, scientifically describes them, and, from this
plain and simple beginning, lays the foundation of
botany on so clear and sound a basis that nothing save
a little care and attention seems to be required from
the student to master the elements of this pleasant !
study." Spectator.

9s. bd. cloth lettered,

THE EARTH ; its Physical Con-
dition, and most remarkable Phenomena.
By W. MULLINGER HIGGINS, F. G. S.

" This work has the rare merit of performing more
than is promised in the title page ; it is, in truth, a
guide to some of the most important branches in ex-
perimental philosophy, comprising in a brief space
all that has yet been discovered respecting the physi-
cal constitution of our globe."— Athenaeum-

"A deliberate and well - arranged performance,
from a competent hand."— Literary Gazette-

11 This is a work which is sure to find favour in the
eyes of the popular reader. It presents, in a con-
densed form, a judicious and valuable outline of Phy-
sical Science."— Scotsman-

We have been highly pleased with this work."
—Tait's Magazine.

" We feel ourselves authorised, by an attentive
perusal of this work, to say that it is the production
of a well-cultivated mind, fully acquainted with the
subject on which it treats." — Christian Examiner.

In small 8vo. 9s. &d. cloth lettered.

POPULAR MATHEMATICS,

being the first elements of Arithmetic,
Algebra, and Geometry, in their Relations
and Uses. By ROBERT MUDIE.

He has the rare facility of avoiding dulness, and
of rendering what, in the pages of most other persons,
has been tedious, if not repulsive, simple, easily to be
comprehended, and attractive. In this book (Popu-
».R MATHKMA.TICS) he has been peculiarly success-
.1."— Times.

" Popular Mathematics — the best of the many good
>oks he has published." — Spectator-
"Mr. Mudie has already given to the world three
highly entertaining Treatises on two most delightful
studies to which the mind of man can be directed.
These are NATURAL HISTORY and ASTRONOMY ;
and here he has added another on the noblest and by
the most useful of the sciences — MATHEMATICS.
1 Mr. Mudie, in this as in former instances, has
performed precisely the part of one who should reach
up to and bend down a branch laden with fruit, so as
to bring the latter within the reach of persons of too
low a stature to reach it at its natural elevation."—
Scotsman, Oct. 8.

THE

NATURAL HISTORY

AND ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

A

THE

NATURAL HISTORY

OF

SELBORNE,

WITH ITS

ANTIQUITIES; NATURALIST'S CALENDAR, &c.,

BY

THE REV. GILBERT WHITE, A. M,

WITH NOTES BY EDWARD BLYTH.

LONDON :
PUBLISHED BY ORR & SMITH, PATERNOSTER ROW.

MDCCCXXXVJ.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE Author of the following Letters takes the liberty, with all proper
deference, of laying before the public his idea of parochial history,
which, he thinks, ought to consist of natural productions and occur-
rences as well as antiquities. He is of opinion that if stationary men
would pay some attention to the districts on which they reside, and
would publish their thoughts respecting the objects that surround
them, from such materials might be drawn the most complete county-
histories, many of which are still wanting in several parts of this
kingdom, and in particular in the county of Southampton.

And here he seizes the first opportunity, though a late one, of re-
turning his most grateful acknowledgments to the reverend the Presi-
dent and the reverend and worthy the Fellows of Magdalen College in
the university of Oxford, for their liberal behaviour in permitting
their archives to be searched by a member of their own society, so far
as the evidences therein contained might respect the parish and priory
of Selborne. To that gentleman also, and his assistant, whose labours
and attention could only be equalled by the very kind manner in which
they were bestowed, many and great obligations are also due.

Of the authenticity of the documents above mentioned there can
be no doubt, since they consist of the identical deeds and records
that were removed to the College from the Priory at the time of its
dissolution ; and, being carefully copied on the spot, may be depended
on as genuine ; and, never having been made public before, they may
gratify the curiosity of the antiquary, as well as establish the credit
of the history.

If the writer should induce any of his readers to pay a more ready
attention to the wonders of the Creation, too frequently overlooked as

m359247

li ADVERTISEMENT.

common occurrences ; or if he should by any means, through his
researches, have lent an helping hand towards the enlargement of the
boundaries of historical and topographical knowledge ; or if he should
have thrown some small light upon ancient customs and manners, and
especially on those that were monastic ; his purpose will be fully
answered. But if he should not have been successful in any of these
Ms intentions, yet there remains this consolation behind — that these
his pursuits, by keeping the body and mind employed, have, under
Providence, contributed to much health and cheerfulness of spirits,
even to old age: and, what still adds to his happiness, have led him
to the knowledge of a circle of gentlemen whose intelligent communi-
cations, as they have afforded him much pleasing information, so,
could he flatter himself with a continuation of them, would they ever
be deemed a matter of singular satisfaction and improvement.

Such is the modest address with which the author of the following
pages ushered his interesting work into the world, and no apology
can be necessary for adding a complete edition of the work to the
many already before the public. In furnishing notes to the work, I have
been actuated by a warm desire to induce all who may honour them with
a perusal, to apply personally to the investigation of the beautiful works
of creation, every where so lavishly bestowed for our contemplation.
It was this object, on the part of the author, quite unalloyed by any
expectations of celebrity, which originally led him to the publication
of his most interesting series of letters ; and the popularity of this
unassuming volume abundantly testifies to the well-merited success
which has already (it may well be presumed) more than crowned the
most ardent hopes indulged in by this faithful historian of his native
village. I fear the annotations to the natural history portion attest
too evidently the want of sufficient leisure, and bear the impress of a
mind harassed by conflicting occupations ; but which cleaves to its
favourite pursuit in defiance of every obstacle and interruption, and
eagerly avails itself of every occasion to contribute a mite to the
stock of general information.

Having committed an error, at page 75, in asserting that the Coast
chaffer (Melolontha fallo) does not occur in Britain, I gladly seize
the opportunity which here offers to contradict the statement ; having
been since informed that this fine beetle has been met with, in con-
siderable abundance, in two or three localities along the southern
coast. This species pertains to the same generic division as the com-

ADVERTISEMENT. Ill

mon May chaffer, so extremely plentiful throughout the British
Islands.

I have been fortunate, too, in the course of subsequent researches,
in having arrived at the true solution of a problem, which has greatly
puzzled every natural historian ; and have erroneously stated, at page
192, that the extraordinary habit of the cuckoo, in invariably entrust-
ing its egg to the charge of other species of birds, " is not to be
accounted for upon any structural peculiarity." Let it here suffice,
that this depends primarily on a peculiarity of the vascular system
(first intimated to me by my esteemed friend Mr. Yarrell), and more
particularly on the comparative minuteness of those blood-vessels
which supply the generative parts ; in consequence of which — of the
small portion of blood thereto determinated — these organs, as well as
the egg, are most disproportionately small for the size of the species ;
and, what is more to the present purpose, each successive egg requires
a much longer time (I believe full two or three weeks) to attain its de-
velopment ; wherefore it is clear that under these circumstances the
species could but ill manage to incubate its own. Let it be observed,
that all the habits of this interesting bird are in accordance with the
foregoing explanation of the structural cause of its peculiarities.

In submitting the various additional observations on British Natural
History, interspersed through this volume, to the wished-for impartial
judgment of the world, it is hoped that they will at least find favour
for their originality. Should they prove to be of any assistance to
those who are engaged in studying the natural productions of our
island, my principal object in penning them will be amply recom-
pensed.

For the interesting account of Selborne in its present state, we are
indebted to the elegant pen of Mr. Mudie, whose enthusiasm in the
cause of natural science led him to visit Selborne in the autumn of
the present year. We are also indebted to Mr. Dixon, who visited
the village in 1835, for some interesting notes to the Antiquities.

EDWARD BLYTH.

Lower Tooting,
Nov. 1836.

The heart is hard in nature, and unfit

For human fellovTship, as being void

Of sympathy, that is not pleased

With sight of animals enjoying life,

Nor feels their happiness augment hig own.

SELBORNE.

THE popu aritv of Gilbert White is so general, so durable;
and so well founded, that a pilgrimage 10 his tomb in his
native village of Seiborne has become almost a necessary act of
devotion on the part of every lover of nature. The monument
which marks the resting-place of the bones of this most amiable,
fascinating, and instructive describer of the country, is very
humble ; it is a small plain stone, placed erect at the head of the
grave, of the following form, and with the following simple in-
scription : —

The mould and the sod which cover the mortal remains of this
illustrious man, have evidently been undisturbed from the
time that he was laid in the dust, as recorded on the little stone ;
and the grass upon his grave is as soft as velvet and as green as
an emerald, more finely emblematical of the gentleness yet fresh-
ness of his mind, and his ardent love of nature, than the most
sumptuous tomb which the art of the sculptor could have
executed. Within the church there is indeed a simple mural

11 SELBORNE.

slab of white marble, which has been transferred from the aisle
to the chancel, because it was rather suffering in the former
place ; but this is not more instructive as to the character of the
man than the humble little stone in the church-yard.

Gilbert White, however, needs no monument of stone or of
marble, and though he never boasted in his life after the manner
of the Roman Lyrist —

"Exegi monumentum sere perennus,"

and probably never had one wish or expectation about the matter,
no man ever left a more lasting memorial ; the popularity of his
book increases every day, and the whole parish of Selborne
stands, and will stand, monumental to his memory.

In proceeding along the Southampton road from Farnham to-
wards Alton, several very delightful views of the valley of the Alton
branch of the Wey present themselves, now the river is concealed
in luxuriant copse and ozier holt, now winding slowly along in a
clear stream between rich meadows, and then expanding into
small ponds and lakes, slumbering in the most perfect repose.
In passing along this delightful place, when one arrives within
a short distance of Alton, two hills of more lofty elevation, and
of an exceedingly rich character, appear over the southern heights
which skirt the valley of the stream, and show by the inter-
vening mass of air that some sheltered and pleasant place lies
in the interval. Another mass of air, though less extensive than
the former, breaks in between these two hills ; and, as they both
slope down abruptly at their eastern extremities, the contour of
the nearer one " cuts" finely upon the more remote, and that
again upon the sky ; so that the expression is striking, and
the character of the fore-ground throws back the hills in finely
softened aerial perspective.

To the right — that is, immediately to the southward of Alton —
the swelling fore-ground is more elevated, and the manner in
which it cuts off the nearer hill leaves one to continue the
picture in imagination, which is always a source of far greater
delight to those who have a true feeling of scenery than if the
whole were displayed at once. Of these two hills the nearer
one is Selborne Hill, rising to the west, or rather to the south-
west of the village, and sheltering it from the south-west winds,
which are the strongest in this part of England. From the road,
the " Hanger," which is the general name given in this part of the

SELBORNE.

country to a wood or copse on a steep slope, is the only portion of
Selborne Hill that is seen, except the terminating slope eastwards,
the upper part of which, the Hanger approaches but does not
altogether reach, and on the intermediate part there appears a few
scattered trees, which tell more distinctly against the sky than
one would expect from their distance. The treeless portion of
the surface is variegated with low brush-wood, and scattered grass,
and cattle runs, and winding paths ; but when seen from the road
these are indistinct, and merely take off the tameness which a
uniform surface would give to it.

The more distant hill is Nore Hill, and its character contrasts
well with that of Selborne Hill. Like that, it is wooded, but the
wood is of a different character. Selborne Hanger is one unbroken
mass of the most luxuriant foliage, in which, at a distance, no
division of parts or distinction of tree from tree can be observed.
The trees on Nore Hill, on the other hand, are clumpy, broken
into distinct masses even where thickest, and melting away into
scattered individual trees or bushes of smaller dimensions. On
a sunny evening the light must tell beautifully on those hills,
from the position in which they stand. Selborne Hill must then be
in that indescribable shade of purplish green which is shown by
the shadow upon very rich places; the eastern part and the
same side of the clumps upon Nore Hill must partake of the
gray ; and then the sun beating brightly upon the naked part
of Nore Hill westward, streaming in through the openings be-
tween, and touching a point here and a point there with mellowed
light, till the whole fades away into the subdued tint of the
eastern part, must present a chiar' oscuro at which an artist who
can feel the natural grouping of lights in a landscape would be
perfectly delighted. Such is the first, or, as we may call it, the
" Pisgah" view that the pilgrim thitherward obtains of Selborne.

After this foretaste of the anticipated beauties of Selborne,
slight though it be, one whose principal object is the further ex-
ploring of it can have little inducement to linger long at Alton ;
yet Alton is a very pretty place, pleasantly situated on a hill
sloping southward, clean, snug, and comfortable, with a fine
little stream in the bottom of the valley, and pleasant grounds on
the opposite bank. Indeed there is a grouping about the general
scenery in this part of the country which, whatever may be its
more individual character, prevents it from monotony. The fields
are open, and the woods are clustered and placed in the situations

a 2

IV SELBORNE.

where one likes best to find them, that is, where the trees thrive
best, and yet occupy those portions of the soil which from
steepness or other qualities are least available for agricultural
purposes.

The carriage road from Alton to Selborne is rather circuitous.
It is the Southampton road for about five miles to Tisted ; and
then there is a winding country road of between three and four
miles more to Selborne. The Southampton road is good, but the
country road is very bad, lying along a winding hollow from
which little or nothing can be seen ; and by this approach there
is no view of Selborne till one arrives at the village itself, and
even there one can scarcely believe that it is a village at all,
until the Playstow and the church are arrived at. Even here
the twist of the road, or street as it is termed, takes off every
thing like a view, and thus, if one wishes to receive the meanest
first impression possible of Selborne, the most certain way
of succeeding is to come to it by this the carriage road. The
old carriage road across the hills from Alton is rather worse. It
enters the village at the same point with the road from Tisted ;
and all the way from Harteley, which is at least two miles, the
traveller sees little, save a narrow stripe of the sky, and steep
banks, almost perpendicular, so near to each other that one
carriage cannot pass another except at particular points, and
presenting a mass of tangled roots interspersed with shivered
rocks. This is one of the "deep lanes" described by White as being
peculiarly characteristic of this part of the country. It is indeed
the deepest of the whole, being eighteen or twenty feet near
the Selborne end, and it continues not less than ten feet until
Selborne is fairly out of view. The other approach from the
eastward, from Woolmer Forest across the Temple farm, is also in
a deep lane, not quite so deep as the former, and not so much
tangled with brushwood ; but still deep enough to put the ob-
taining of a general view of Selborne out of the question. The
only road at all available for a carriage, from which the village or
any part of it can be seen, is that from the south, which comes
twining round the south-eastern extremity of Selborne Hill, but
from this the village is not worth looking at ; so that, though
viewed as a whole Selborne is a very beautiful place, there is no
possibility of obtaining even a tolerable first or general view of it
and at the same time enjoying the luxury of a carriage. Hence,
to understand and enjoy Selborne properly, the visitor must con-

SELBORNE.

sent to be a pedestrian across the hills, or rather swelling grounds,
from Alton, the distance being about from four to five miles.

From the nature of the soil, which is generally speaking very
tough and retentive, winter travelling along the foot-path here
must be a work of " difficulty and labour hard," as Milton ex-
presses it ; and even after a summer shower the path is greasy
withal. It is also beset with a great number of stiles, with no
steps to facilitate the crossing ; but one journeying toward Sel-
borne must not mind those little matters, and, as the foot-path is
one of ups and downs, it is never very deep, or very long in
drying after a shower. It is first up the slope from Alton, then
down again to Trunchion, and so gradually up another slope by
West Wordleham and Hartley Farm, which last slope is long but
not steep, but all the while there is no appearance of Selborne.
After the last long slope is turned, however, and the descent,
which is also gradual, is so far made, Selborne, of which the
hills have again been seen from the top of the slope, makes its
appearance in exactly the manner which one would wish in order
to have a general impression of it unbroken by details. A hedge
forms the immediate fore-ground, over which the church and
steeple, and a portion of the vicarage house, make their appear-
ance. Clumps of trees conceal the village, but display over the
vicarage a very finely wooded park of about twenty acres, w^ich

VI SELBORNE.

abuts upon the late residence of White, and forms part of what
was held, and we believe is still held, along with the lease of
the house which he occupied. The trees on this are luxuriant,
but they stand apart or in well-arranged clusters, so that they
have sufficient relief from the grassy surface. The trees near
the church conceal most of the village; but the Hanger, the
more naked part of Selborne Hill, and the Nore Hill beyond,
come very finely out. The Hanger, which consists of beeches,
as mentioned by White, exceedingly rich in their foliage, and
with the shoots so long as at a distance to bear some resemblance
to larches, lies immediately above the lawn or field already men-
tioned, and the extremity of it slants downward towards the
church. On the lower part of the hill here, and immediately over
the village, there are some larches, which contrast well with the
deeper foliage of the adjoining beeches and the deciduous trees
in the village, and also throw back the more naked part of Sel-
borne Hill. The scattered trees on the top of this hill are also
near enough for appearing pencilled on the sky, and the woods
on Nore Hill are distinct though softened. In short, there is
nothing but water wanting to render this a very pretty landscape.
A slight idea of it may be formed from the cut.

We have been somewhat minute in describing this general
view of the village of Selborne, because this is the only one
which gives a correct notion of the combined beauties of the place ;

SELBORNE. Vll

the sketch by Grimm inserted in the quarto edition of White's
Selborne, published in 1789, and copied on a reduced scale for an
edition superintended by Sir William Jardine in 1833, is calcu-
lated to give quite a wrong impression, as it makes the village
appear to stand on the brow of a hill, omits the Nore Hill al-
together, and reduces Selborne Hill absolutely to nothing.

As the above sketch brings before the reader, at one view, all
the grand features of Selborne as described by its faithful his-
torian, we shall recapitulate the leading points of it. The point
of view is from a field, we believe on the farm of Harteley.
The hedge separating the immediate foreground is one of
those bordering the deep lane along which the carriage-road
from Selborne to Harteley, or the old road from Selborne to
Alton, passes ; and, if the heights of the hedges are taken into
account, no kind of carriage can be seen passing along the lane
even by one situated within a few yards of its margin. Beyond
this lane the ground ascends into what may be called the dell of
Selborne, along which the north-western branch of the " Borne,"
or "Bourne," flows. This branch consists entirely of surface
water, without any deep-seated springs ; and consequently, as
Mr. White remarks, it becomes dry in seasons of great drought.

Beyond this concealed dell the church appears, though only in
part ; and to the reader's right of the church there is seen a small
portion of the vicarage. The trees around these completely
conceal the village, which is rather an advantage, inasmuch as
the houses are so straggling that they cannot be grouped with
pictorial effect ; and the consequence is that, in the sketch made
by Grimm, and already alluded to, Selborne appears a scene
of desolation, which is the very opposite of its real character ;
for, setting altogether aside the magical, and we may say
immortal charm, with which the sylvan wand of the most de-
lightful of enchanters has invested it, Selborne is a lovely
place. Nor ought we to omit observing that a portion of that
mantle which sat so gracefully upon Gilbert White appears to
have been caught and retained by the population generally ; for
there is not, perhaps, on the face of the earth a rustic population
more orderly in their conduct, more suave in their manners, or
better informed in their minds, than at Selborne. Some visitors
have asserted that this place is abandoned to wild nature, —
doubtless meaning thereby to imply that improvement has ,not
found its way there. Nothing can be more unfounded — more

Vlll SELBORNE.

at variance with the fact, and from actual observation we say
with confidence that the best way of securing for any rural
place the maximum of rural intelligence and rural enjoyment
would be to turn it to a Selborne.

The influence of locality upon character, though often over-
looked, is much greater than those who have not made it the
subject of direct and continued observation would be led to sup-
pose. We can easily perceive the external differences of appear-
ance which are produced by great differences of latitude and
climate ; and we can also observe how the expressions of features
and the tones of voices vary in different countries or different
districts of the same country. Those finer shades, however, in
which the moral and intellectual characters of men are influenced
by their localities, are not so open to common observation,
though in themselves of more importance than the others. Those
who are born and bred in towns are less affected by natural
causes than those who are born and bred in the country, because
their characters are altogether of a more artificial cast, and thus
justify the remark of the amiable and philosophic Cowper :

" God made the country, and man made the town."

In forming an estimate of the influence of locality, or of any other
natural circumstance, we have therefore to attend chiefly to the
difference between one rural district and another ; aud here it
will invariably be found that the finer the air, the more beautiful
the scenery, and the more nearly the whole population approxi-
mate to an equality with each other, the average character both
intellectual and moral is always the higher.

Selborne enjoys all these advantages. Its air is exceedingly
pure and healthy, its scenery beautiful and diversified, and there
is no great man resident within the parish, beneath whose
shadow the people grow up feeble and etiolated, as herbs do
under the shade of a great tree. There is no doubt that those
were the circumstances which so strongly prompted Gilbert
White to the observation and study of nature, and which made
him prefer following nature herself, in his lovely retreat at Sel-
borne, to the ambitious wars and wranglings of College Sophs
and Society's Councils. Learning, leisure, and the absence of
worldly ambition, of course enabled White to carry his pursuits
to that perfection which has so deservedly won him a name ;
but still he was indebted to Seiborne for the germ and the im-

SELBORNE IX

pulse ; and, though White has conferred more general celebrity
on Selborne than perhaps any other man ever conferred upon
any other village, yet his doing so must be considered as partak-
ing much of the nature of discharging a debt of gratitude. This
reciprocity of advantage between S.elborne and White is a subject
well worthy the attention of all who wish to promote the know-
ledge of nature, and those arts, and those amiable feelings of which
the study of nature is so sure a foundation. Gilbert White did
not possess that acuteness of critical discernment which he
might have acquired had he been formally drawn into the vortex
of science at this time, and there are many points upon which
he shows a very strong leaning towards superstitions which are
now exploded ; but still, in every thing that came fully within the
scope of his own observation, the words of White are the express
image of nature ; and, without the slightest straining after lofty
figures or sounding phrases, his " Natural History of Selborne"
is one of the most genuinely eloquent books in the English lan-
guage.

1-r mediately over the part of the vicarage which is seen, there
appears, as already hinted, a little park finely sprinkled with
pretty large and very thriving trees, tastefully arranged in small
clusters, and giving depth and breadth to the rich grassy turf
between them. This beautiful piece of ground, which extends
upwards to the foot of the Hanger, was in the occupation of
White. The garden of his late residence abuts upon it by a "haha,"
or sunk fence, alluded to by him ; but this is not perceived from
the windows or the garden, so that the house has all the appear-
ance of facing a park which e> tends to the Hanger.

The Hanger, of which a small portion only is shown in the
sketch, is one of the richest masses of foliage that can well be
imagined, and has a very considerable effect upon the air at Sel-
borne. The dry rock on which the town is situated, and the
fields of white malmy clay, would make the >ammer air at Sel-
borne intolerably hot, were it not that tl>e IK- r*er sends down
its cooling breeze, breathing freshness and t ealth over the
heated part of the surface, in the same ma Krr as the sea-breeze
fans the burning shores of tropical countries. The op,>o^te side
of the village answers in this respect to the call of the Hanger ;
for the Temple Hanger, and the hanging woods, on the lext harm
of the " Liths" as one looks to them from the vil1 <ge, fur-
nish their complement of cool air for the mitigation oi the heat

X SELBORNE.

To the left of the Hanger, there is the contour of the naked
part of Selborne Hill. A road winds round the extremity of
this ; and there are various foot-paths and zig-zags, even on the-
steepest parts, some of which are inclined at an angle of fifty
or even forty-five degrees from the horizon, and yet it is not long
since an adventurous horseman dashed down at full speed without
sustaining the slightest injury.

The two or three trees which appear against the sky are a few
stragglers of the high wood, the trees upon which are scattered
and stunted compared with those on the Hanger ; but the place
affords sweet though not rich pasturage ; and the villagers have a
cricket-ground on the summit, in one of the finest situations im-
aginable for that hearty and healthy rural exercise. Nore Hill ap-
pears to one's left, and with it the sketch terminates. There is
not a deep and abrupt valley between this and Selborne Hill, but
rather a sort of saddle, though the evening light, throwing a
shadow upon Selborne Hill and a light immediately behind it,
produces the same effect as if the one hill actually cut upon the
other. Nore Hill is fine in its outline ; and there is something
particularly natural in the wood upon it. That wood fades off
into small bushes toward the upper common, and also in great
part along the lower margin ; while the trees become larger, are
closer together, and have a bolder outline upon the abrupt slope
of the hill eastwards.

Such are the principal localities of Selborne as at first seen
from the Alton foot-path ; and, though there are many places not
visible which are in themselves highly beautiful, yet this is per-
haps the best of any as a general sketch upon which, as a tablet
of artificial memory, to fix the details of what still remains, as well
as to bring the others more clearly to the mind of the reader, or
guide the visitor in surveying to the greatest advantage this
classic ground of British natural history.

This view does not continue long ; for, though Selborne appears
to lie in a valley, it does not do so in fact, for it is rather on an ele-
vation. The grounds sloping down from the Hanger are, toward
the north at least, lower than that upon which the principal part
of the town stands, and the church and vicarage stand on the
brow of a steep acclivity, bearing some resemblance in elevation
and in form to a mud-fort of the largest dimensions. After
crossing the deep lane to Alton, the descent is rapid, so that the
back-ground soon becomes concealed ; and, were it not for Sel-

SELBORNE. XI

borne Hill with its Hanger, the church would appear to occupy
the highest ground southward of the visitor. The path at last
merges in the carriage-road, not very far from where the Alton
branch leaves the deep lane ; and onward to the church the road
is so deep and crooked, and the few houses so straggling, that
though so well seen at a distance one is actually in Selborne before
knowing it. Opposite to the Playstow, or " Pies tor," as White
calls it after the local pronunciation, the road makes a turn to the
left and again to the right ; and the second turn, which brings one
in front of the church and the Playstow, with White's late resi-

dence on the other hand though a little in advance, may be re-
garded as the " west end" of the village of Selborne. The road,
or street as we may call it, is a natural pavement here as well as in
the deep lanes ; and this character extends to great part at least
of the Playstow, which is rough, stony, and in bad order, and the
sycamore tree is stunted and has its leaves half covered with
dark spots of fungi as early as the end of August. The church,
which is described by White himself, is finely situated, but the
tower is stuccoed out of all keeping with the building. The
vicarage appears remarkably clean and snug, and there are
some good houses near the Playstow ; and the late dwelling of
the antiquary and, naturalist, though the modern wings are

Xl1 SELBORNE.

somewhat out of proportion to the central part, and the right
one is much larger than the left, is substantial in its walls and
its roof. But there is a melancholy touch of the finger of time
upon it — though how much of the pain which this excites may
arise from the feeling that there is no Gilbert White there now
it would perhaps not be easy to ascertain.

The village continues straggling along for more than half a
mile to the south-east of White's residence. The greater number
of houses are on the left-hand side proceeding in this direction,
and this is the side on which there is a sort of foot-pavement com-
posed of pieces of rag-stone set up on edge. The tough malmy
clay at the bottom of the hill comes very nearly down to the
right side of the road here ; and the black vegetable mould, so
favourable both for garden stuffs and for grass, occurs on the other
side. The best inn, " The Compasses," is situated on the left-
hand side, a little way beyond the church, and, though it accords
with the rural character of the place, it is very comfortable for so
retired a situation ; and any one who may happen to visit Sel-
borne may make sure of cleanliness and plenty, moderate charges,
and most hospitable treatment. The back apartments of the inn
overlook the very beautiful winding dell of the Liths, and there
is no point from which this dell can be seen to more advantage
than from the garden behind the inn.

Lith, " Lithe," or " Lythe," means a joint or bend, which is
very expressive of the character of this dell. It may be said to
begin at the north-west or Alton end of the village, where one
branch of the " Bourne " makes its appearance, and, winding
round north-east and south-east, passes under the steep escarp-
ment where the vicarage and church stand, turns more in a
southerly direction, and then again proceeds eastward from about
the middle of the length of the village, away in the direction of
the black heath called Woolmer Forest. Near the bending east-
ward, it receives the more perennial branch of the " Bourne,"
flowing from the well-head, which of course also runs in the hol-
low ; but the ascents there are not quite so steep. The portion
of the valley above the junction is the short Lith, and the bank
of it opposite Selborne is covered with a fine hanging wood of
larches, the lively green of which contrasts finely with the darker
tint of the beeches of Selborne Hanger against it on the other
side of the village, and also with the osier holts, hop gardens, and
deciduous trees, now forming close woods, and now detached

SELBORNE. Xlll

clumps, which give great richness to the vista that presents itself
in the long Lith. This Lith, as seen from the village, is very
rich and beautiful, but one feels an incompleteness about it,
inasmuch as it presents no prominent object to wVich all this
beauty is subservient, and thus impresses one with the melan-
choly idea of a very fine assemblage of natural beauties wasting
" their sweetness on the desert air." There is not even a bit
of water visible, though that might be easily obtained by ju-
diciously damming up the Bourne ; and ponds of moderate
dimensions in such places, if properly kept, are proved to repay
fully the ground which they occupy. There are some ponds of
considerable dimensions, and not uninteresting for their aquatic
plants and the aquatic birds that resort to them, but they are
concealed in the woods and do not tell in the scenery of the long
Lith. Further down there are some reaches of the Bourne,
which might throw a little liveliness into the picture, but they
do not come into the general view.

In former times, when the Priory was in the full bloom of its
architecture, and in the full enjoyment of that feasting and
fox-hunting for which its inhabitants were celebrated, it is im-
possible to judge how much of pictorial interest its gray towers
and turrets may have given to the scene ; but, the rich seclu-
sion of the long " lith " remains as evidence of the exquisite taste
which guided Peter de la Roche in the choice of a situation for
his priory.

The home lands of the priory now compose an extensive and
valuable farm, the farm buildings standing nearly but not exactly
on the site of the ancient edifice, though in point of beauty the
spot chosen by the monks is preferable, lying very sweetly on the
bank of the Bourne, so as to have given a beautiful exposure to the
western or great entrance of the building. Not one stone of that
building remains upon another, though many have been dug out
of the ground ; and stone coffins, bones, a few coins, and other
articles of small value have also been obtained. The stones have
been used for building purposes ; and the bones and rich mould,
quite regardless of all peril from the ghosts of the monks, have
been mingled with more modern and less holy matters, for the
carnal purpose of increasing the productiveness of the land.
Fragments of old stained glass windows, in leaden tracery, and
remarkable for the thickness of the glass, though its colours have

XIV SELBORNE.

faded and its transparency is nearly gone, are also met with.
Among the most durable remains are some paving-tiles (whether
Venetian or Dutch we are unable to say), which now form the
floor of a summer-house in the farmer's garden. They are squares
of small size, of a sort of cinnamon-brown colour, very hard and
compact, and have been marked with various rude devices in a
sort of white enamel, let into hollows in the substance, but
decayed in many places. No monument, nor any inscription of
consequence, has been met with, at least in very modern times, so
that there are few religious houses of which the memory has more
completely perished than Selborne Priory. A fine uniform grassy
turf now stretches unbroken over both monk and monument, and
the successors of the holy brothers are sleek black pigs and fine,
fat, and fair geese ! which might have done honour to the refectory
even in its proudest days. Herein there might be some matter
for meditation on the melancholy subject of mutability, but this
we leave to the discretion of the reader ; and shall only add that
whoever shall visit this phantom remain of a priory, and fatigue
himself in quest of that which is not to be seen, will find the in-
mates of the priory farm intelligent and polished ; and, if he so
list, he may refresh himself, unsolicited on his part, with as choice
a draught of October as ever brimmed in a glass. Whether the
spirit of some quondam prior, of rosy face and ample rotundity,
lingers to preside over the farmer's mash-tun, we know not, but
truly there is a spirit there which either monk or layman might
be proud to canonize.

From the Priory, he who wishes to see all about Selborne will
naturally proceed to the Temple Hill, in doing which he must
thread the mazes of a part of the Temple Hanger; the walk
round the top of the Temple Hill commands a very good
view of the surrounding country ; and it is interesting in some
parts in consequence of the extreme steepness of the bank
upon which the wood called the Temple Hanger is situated. The
prevailing wood here is oak, but the trees are not of large size,
and they are interspersed with an under-growth of hazel, bram-
bles, and various other shrubs, giving a tangled character to
the surface, quite different from the almost total absence of surface
vegetation which one meets with in Selborne Hanger, where, ex-
cept a few cryptogamous plants, there is little to be met with
deserving the name of surface vegetation.

SELBORNE. XV

It appears, indeed, that about Selborne there is a deficiency
of wild flowers ; and one might, perhaps, be prepared to expect
this from the peculiar character of the soil. The grass upon the
rich pastures contains but few daisies or other, plants with con-
spicuous flowers ; there is little wild convolvolus in the hedges ;
and the corn lands are very free from weeds. The deficiency of
plants in point of variety is made up, however, in the vigorous
growth of those which do occur, and still more by the vast mul-
titudes of birds. No wonder that White devotes many pages of
his history to the different members of the swallow tribe ; for at
the time when these birds assemble, previous to their departure
for the winter, the house-tops are literally covered, and the air is
filled with them. A more modern residence, which has been
erected, we believe, by the nephew of Mr. White, adjoining what
was White's residence, but appearing more conspicuously to-
wards the park, has the thatch drilled with nest-holes, till it is
absolutely like a honey-comb. This modern erection, by the
way, has most unaccountably fallen under the censure of an
anonymous visitor of Selborne, whose lucubrations have been
quoted in " Jesse's Gleanings," as being " cocknified," we
believe is the word, and, as such, out of keeping with the
rest of the village. This is not the case ; for the house alluded
to is a plain thatched cottage, white-washed certainly, as it
should be, as it appears among trees, and having some of its
openings very simply ornamented in a sort of half rustic and
half Gothic style ; but nothing can harmonize better with its own
situation than this cottage does, and whether it harmonizes with
the other buildings of the village or not is a matter of small im-
portance, because it is not seen from the road, or from any place
where itself is riot the principal object. This is, of course, a
matter of very trifling importance ; but, as Selborne is a place
which no one would wish to see spoiled in reality, it is scarcely
fair to hold up to the world as a deformity that which is a real
improvement of it.

One of the most remarkable circumstances about Selborne is
the absence of springs, which of course arises from the nature of
the soil. Such perennial springs as there are come out between
the chalk and the clay, as is the case with those which supply the
well-head. The clay, even when of the most malmy character,
admits little water to penetrate it, if it is of any considerable depth;

XVI SELBORNE.

and, if the malm or the rag is near the surface, it is so full of
shakes and fissures that the water descends to such ? depth
that there are no runs even in the deep lanes, except such
as are produced by showers upon the surface. In his nineteenth
letter to the Hon. Daines Barrington, Mr. White expresses him-
self a little puzzled about the different rates at which ponds dry
in different situations, the small ones on the heights being more
permanent than the large ones in the hollows. Now these small
upland ponds are on the chalk, while those lower down are on the
clay, the malm, or the sand, the latter being especially the case
with the large pond in Wolmer Forest. On the chalk near its
surface the pond has a chance of receiving some water through
the soil in those parts of the down which may be higher. On the
clay this is not the case, because a stratum of stiff clay does not
allow water to pass, but either over it or under it. There can,
therefore, be no spring in a clay pond which can afford it any
supply; and consequently, when the surface supply is cut off,
such a pond can retain water no longer than the evaporation re-
quires to carry off the store contained in it.

In the case of ponds over the malm and the sand, it is some-
what different. Neither of these would naturally form a pond
capable of retaining water ; and thus they become retentive only
by the fine particles being carried into them, and lodged there by
the rain and wind, until the hollow is lined with a water-proof
stratum, and thus becomes capable of retaining a supply. But
there can be no supply from springs in such a pond, any more
than there can be in a pond on the clay ; because, while the clay
will not allow the water to get in, the shivery rock or the sand can-
not prevent it from sinking downwards. These are the real causes
of the difference in drying up between the ponds of the high and
the low grounds about Selborne, and of course they hold in all
other places where there are similar differences in the sub-soil.

In order to complete the view of the different localities of Sel-
borne, it is necessary to take a peep from the top of Selborne
Hill, as near the margin of the Hanger as possible. This, how-
ever, is a bird's eye view, the point of observation being the highest
of the whole, and therefore the different objects have little pic-
torial relief ; and, though the details are better seen than from
almost any other point, yet there is no general impression so
striking as to be easily remembered. From the top of the hang-

SELBORNE. XV11

ing woods on the opposite side of the Liths from the village, near
the angle where the short and long Liths join, there is also a view
of many of the details ; but this also is tame, and wants relief; so
that in fact the only general view which is striking, does not show
too much, and shows it with a proper effect, is that from the Alton
foot-path, which we have attempted to represent in the wood-cut,
and which has the advantage of being a first one to a visitor
arriving by that foot-path.

GILBERT WHITE

is, however, the true interpreter of Sel borne, and remains, and
will long remain, its principal attraction ; because, though he has
now been nearly half a century under the grassy turf, his delinea-
tions are as fresh, as true to the state of things, and absolutely as
new to the visitor of the place, as though the ink in which they
were written were hardly dry. There are but few circumstances
calculated materially to change the aspect of Selborne in the
lapse of years, or even of generations. Belonging either to Mag-
dalen Hall or to proprietors who are contented to till their own
grounds and gather in their own crops, there is but little means
of change, and no great inducement to it ; so that the place and
White's natural history of it] stand almost upon a par as to
durability.

It is, perhaps, to be regretted that the biographical notices of
White are so scanty ; and yet to every one visiting his native and
favourite locality, and possessing a true knowledge and feeling of
his work, the image of White presents itself before the mind at
every spot which he has delineated with so much force and truth.
The following brief notice, given in the last edition of his Works,
is perhaps the only authentic biography of him upon record : —
" Gilbert White was the eldest son of John White, of Selborne,
Esq., and of Anne, the daughter of Thomas Holt, rector of
Streatham in Surrey. He was born in Selborne, on July 18, 1720,
and received his school education at Basingstoke, under the Rev.
Thomas Warton, vicar of that place, and father of those two
distinguished literary characters, Dr. Joseph Warton, Master of
Winchester School, and Mr. Thomas Warton, Poetry Professor
at Oxford. He was admitted at Oriel College, Oxford, in De-
cember 1739, and took his degree of Bachelor of Arts in October
1746, and was admitted one of the senior Proctors of the Uni-
versity in April, 1752. Being of an unambitious temper, and
strongly attached to the charms of rural scenery, he early fixed

SELBORNE.

his residence in his native village, where he spent the greater part
of his life in literary occupations, and especially in the study of
nature. This he followed with patient assiduity, and a mind ever
open to the lessons of piety and benevolence, which such a study
is so well calculated to afford. Though several occasions offered
of settling upon a college living, he could never persuade himself
to quit the beloved spot, which was indeed a peculiarly happy
situation for an observer. Thus his days passed tranquil and
serene, with scarcely any other vicissitudes than those of the sea-
sons, till they closed at a mature age, on June 26, 1793."

In addition to this, though there are still living in Selborne
some old men who remember Mr. White, and who speak of his
memory in terms of the highest respect, as an excellent and
amiable man, they do not appear to be very strongly impressed
with any overshadowing greatness of character which he exhibited
when he sojourned among them. They do speak, however, of his
kindness and familiarity with his fellow villagers, in his intercourse
with whom he appears to have observed the doctrine of reciprocity
with great strictness, and to have been, if possible, more warmly
attached to the human inhabitants of the village than to its
scenery, its antiquities, its plants, and its animals. White had
numerous correspondents, and he paid many visits ; but Selborne
appears always to have been the home of his affections, from which
no enticement of science, and no blandishment of more fashion-
able life, could wean him for any length of time. Yet, with all
this fondness for the simplicity of his native village, White was an
elegant scholar as well as an excellent man ; and some of his little
poems, the themes of which are all rural, though they have no
loftiness, and breathe not a whisper of the turbulent passions, are
as soft and bland as the notes of the turtle.

But, as White was both in the village and of the village, he was
familiar with his fellow- villagers ; and, though there was the same
mildness and moderation in all his habits which tells so beauti-
fully in his writings, he was no anchorite. He loved the innocent
village sports, as any one may readily see from the heartiness
with which he alludes to the Playstow in his second letter to Pen-
nant. One of his favourite villagers is understood to have been
a shoemaker, who lived over the way, a man of some intelligence
and humour, and of simple and primitive manners, but who had
no objection to an occasional glass of good ale, in a place where
water is so hard to get at, and so hard when it is gotten, as it is

SELBORNE. XIX

^in Selborne. White rather piqued himself upon the quality of his
ale, and generally employed the shoemaker in the capacity of
taster when a fresh barrel was put on tap. But some how or other
the shoemaker never could come to a decision on the first glass,
yet never failed to decide that the second one was excellent : nor
do the reports say that either the one or the other moved for a
new trial after the second glass had been decided on.

Of these little traits there are, however, very few ; and it would
seem that this delightful child of nature was so perfectly contented
with enjoying and dispensing rustic happiness that he cared no-
thing how the opinions of the fashionable world went or the gales
of ambition blew.

As an observing naturalist, White stands unrivalled for the
minute accuracy of his facts, and the clearness with which he ren-
dered them ; and, if some of his conjectures were a little visionary,
this was more owing to the state of science at the time, and his
perfect deference to the opinions of others, than to any want of
natural acumen in the historian of Selborne. In his fortieth
letter to the Hon. Daines JBarrington, and in a few other places, he
shows the soundest critical taste, and how well he understood the
difference between trifling with the nomenclature of a science and
grasping the reality. It has sometimes been started as a sort of
objection that White was not systematic ; but this would have
been defeating his object, which was to describe his native district
in its true colours ; and it would not be more absurd to twist a
systematic geography of the whole globe into a topographical
sketch of a single parish than it would have been to blend a
system of natural history with the natural history of Selborne.
White, as we have hinted, did more to the actual extending of
natural history than almost any man of his time ; and he had the
rare merit of setting an example which might be followed with
certainty and delight in every parish in the empire, if those who
have ability and leisure would light their lamps at his unquench-
able flame.

THE

NATURAL HISTORY

4

OF

SELBORNE.

LETTER I.
To THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ.

THE parish of Selborne lies in the extreme-eastern corner of the
county of Hampshire, bordering on the county of Sussex, and not
far from the county of Surrey ; is about fifty miles south-west of
London, in latitude 51, and nearly midway between the towns of
Alton and Petersfield. Being very large and extensive, it abuts
on twelve parishes, two of which are in Sussex, viz. Trotton and
Rogate. If you begin from the south and proceed westward, the
adjacent parishes are Emshot, Newton Valence, Faringdon,
Harteley Mauduit, Great Ward le ham, Kingsley, Hedleigh.
Bramshot, Trotton, Rogate, Lysse, and Greatham. The soils of
this district are almost as various and diversified as the views
and aspects. The high part to the south-west consists of a vast
hill of chalk, rising three hundred feet above the village ; and is
divided into a sheep-down, the high wood, and a long hanging
wood called the Hanger. The covert of this eminence is alto-
gether beech, the most lovely of all forest trees, whether we con-
sider its smooth rind or bark, its glossy foliage, or graceful
pendulous boughs. The down, or sheep-walk, is a pleasing park-
like spot, of about one mile by half that space, jutting out on the
verge of the hill-country, where it begins to break down into the

r

2 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

plains, and commanding a very engaging view, being an assem-
blage of hill, dale, wood-lands, heath, and water. The prospect
is bounded to the south-east and east by the vast range of moun-
tains called the Sussex Downs, by Guild-down near Guilford,
and by the downs round Dorking and Ryegate, in Surrey, to the
north-east, which altogether, with the country beyond Alton and
Farnham, form a noble and extensive outline.

At the foot of this hill, one stage or step from the uplands, lies
the village, which consists of one single straggling street, three
quarters of a mile in length, in a sheltered vale, and running pa-
rallel with the Hanger. The houses are divided from the hill by
a vein of stiff clay (good wheat-land), yet stand on a rock of white
stone, little in appearance removed from chalk, but seems so far
from being calcareous that it endures extreme heat. Yet that the
freestone still preserves somewhat that is analogous to chalk is
plain from the beeches which descend as low as those rocks ex-
tend and no further, and thrive as well on them, where the ground
is steep, as on the chalks.*

The cart-way of the village divides, in a remarkable manner,
two very incongruous soils. To the south-west is a rank clay
that requires the labour of years to render it mellow, while the
gardens to the north-east, and small enclosures behind, consist of
a warm, forward, crumbling mould, called black malm, which
seems highly saturated with vegetable and animal manure ; and
these may perhaps have been the original site of the town, while
the wood and coverts might extend down to the opposite bank.

* It is doubted by many naturalists whether the beech (fagus sylvatica) can strictly be consi-
dered a truly British tree, the older examples of it being mostly situate in places where they may
probably have been planted. It is now, however, at least most thoroughly naturalized, and in
many districts certainly assumes an indigenous aspect, 'particularly in the extensive woods
surrounding Stokenchurch, Bucks, where the young timber is manufactured on a large scale into
chairs, bedsteads, and the like, many waggon-loads of which are weekly sent up to London. It
appears to thrive most upon a chalky soil, where it will attain considerable dimensions, especially
when growing on a slope. Some very beautiful examples of it may be seen on that charming
spot, the bold chalk-escarpment of Box-hill, near Dorking, in Surrey; and several of surpassing
magnitude in Norbury-park, in the same neighbourhood, where also are some noble yews, and
many Spanish chestnuts of prodigious size, together with some gigantic oaks, and within a
short distance several remarkably fine common elms and huge aspen poplars, which last tree
attains a magnificent growth in Surrey. The interior of this county will indeed vie with any
part of England for the growth of most of our forest-trees ; but, unfortunately, the finer examples
are fast disappearing before the woodman's axe — the need, or avarice, or want of taste of one
proprietor of ten dooming to destruction that which for centuries had been the pride and
admiration of a long line of predecessors. An aged and curious remnant of a beech, now
growing in the Windsor Great Park, and figured and described by Mr. Jesse, in the second
series of his delightful " Gleanings in Natural History," measures 36 feet in circumference ;
and a very splendid and far more beautiful tree of the same species, now in the pride of its
growth, situate within a short distance of Lyudhurst, in the New-forest, Hants, is well known
and deservedly celebrated as the "queen" of that princely forest. — En.

DESCRIPTION OF SELBORNE. 3

At each end of the village, which runs from south-east to north-
west, arises a small rivulet : that at the north-west end frequently
fails, but the other is a fine perennial spring, little influenced by
drought or wet seasons, called Well-head.* This breaks out of
some high grounds joining to Nore-hill, a noble chalk promontory,
remarkable for sending forth two streams into two different seas.
The one to the south becomes a branch of the Arun, running to
Arundel, and so falling into the British Channel; the other to the
north. The Selborne stream makes one branch of the Wey; and
meeting the Black-down stream at Hedleigh, and the Alton and
Farnham stream at Tilford-bridge, swells into a considerable river,
navigable at Godalming ; from whence it passes to Guildford, and
so into the Thames at Weybridge ; and thus at the Nore into the
German Ocean.

Our wells, at an average, run to about sixty-three feet, and
when sunk to that depth seldom fail, but produce a fine limpid
water, soft to the taste, and much commended by those who
drink the pure element, but which does not lather well with soap.

To the north-west, north and east of the village, is a range of
fair enclosures, consisting of what is called a white malm, a sort
of rotten or rubble stone, which, when turned up to the frost
and rain, moulders to pieces, and becomes manure to itself.f

Still on to the north-east, and a step lower, is a kind of white
land, neither chalk nor clay, neither fit for pasture nor for the
plough, yet kindly for hops, which root deep into the freestone,
and have their poles and wood for charcoal growing just at hand.
This white soil produces the brightest hops.

As the parish still inclines down towards Wolmer-forest, at the
juncture of the clays and sand the soil becomes a wet, sandy
loam, remarkable for timber, and infamous for roads. The oaks
of Temple and Blackmoor stand high in the estimation of pur-
veyors, and have furnished much naval timber, while the trees
on the freestone grow large, but are what workmen call shakey,
and so brittle as often to fall to pieces in sawing. Beyond the
sandy loam the soil becomes a hungry lean sand, till it mingles
with the forest ; and will produce little without the assistance of
lime and turnips.

* This spring produced, September 14, 1/81, after a severe hot summer, and a preceding dry
spring and winter, nine gallons of uater in a minute, which is five hundred and forty in an hour,
and twelve thousand nine hundred and sixty, or two hundred and sixteen hogsheads, in twenty-
tour hours, or one natural day. At this time many of the wells failed, and all the ponds in the
vales were dry.

t This soil produces good wheat and clover.

B 2

4 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

LETTER II. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

Ix the court of Norton farm-house, a manor-farm to the north-
west of the village, on the white malms, stood within these
twenty years a broad-leaved elm, orwych hazel, ulmus folio latis&imo
scabro of Ray,* which, though it had lost a considerable leading
bough, in the great storm in the year 1703, equal to a moderate
tree, yet, when felled, contained eight loads of timber ; and, be-
ing too bulky for a carriage, was sawn off at seven feet above the
butt, where it measured nearly eight feet in the diameter. This
elm I mention to show to what a bulk planted elms may attain,
as this tree must certainly have been such from its situation.

In the centre of the village, and near the church, is a square
piece of ground surrounded by houses, and vulgarly called the
Plestor.f In the midst of this spot stood, in old times, a vast
oak, with a short squat body, and huge horizontal arms extend-
ing almost to the extremity of the area. This venerable tree,
surrounded with stone steps, and seats above them, was the
delight of old and young, and a place of much resort in summer
evenings, where the former sat in grave debate, while the latter
frolicked and danced before them. Long might it have stood,
had not the amazing tempest in 1703 overturned it at once, to
the infinite regret of the inhabitants and the vicar, who bestowed
several pounds in setting it in its place again : but all his care
could not avail ; the tree sprouted for a time, then withered and

* Ulmus montanus of botanists, the common elm of Scotland and the north of England,
and which is far from being of rare occurrence in the south, is a valuable timber tree, of very
different growth from the U- campestru, which latter is more generally known as the " common
elm." It is a fine and handsome species, but seldom attains the magnitude of the largest spe-
cimens of U. campestris, nor is it so stately and cumbrous in its aspect. It does not usually
present so fine a bole, the strength being more in the branches, which, in young specimens, are
often of nearly equal size with the main stem, and, being loaded with a profusion of foliage, the
sprays inconsequence become pendent and "give the idea," as is well observed in KNAPP'S
JOURNAL OF A NATURALIST, " of luxuriance with weakness, of a growth beyond strength."
Advancing in age, these boughs become in time less pensile, and project boldly into the air,
whence the species has a very pleasing effect planted in an avenue, its huge arms extending across
in every picturesque form, and finely contrasting with the rich green of its leaves, which, for the
most part, are distributed in dense umbrageous masses. The Wych elm has however on«
grand defect as an ornamental tree, being generally, in exposed situations, the very first to
intimate, by its denuded boughs, the unwelcome approach of winter — a character in which it
remarkably differs from the common species, the latter retaining its foliage for a much longer
period, and, "ere at length its season does arrive," being finely mellowed with the golden hues of
autumn. The largest example of the Wych elm on record is one that grew in the park of Sir
Walter Baggot, in Staffordshire, and which is mentioned in the second vol. of Evelyn's SYLVA, p.
189. This noble tree, after two men had been five days felling it, lay 120 feet in length, and was
17 feet diameter at the stool. As Mr. Evelyn remarks, " this was truly a goodly tree." Five
species of elm are enumerated by Sir J. E. Smith as indigenous to Britain, and at least as
many more have been introduced. They are all closely allied, and some are very difficult to
distinguish. — ED.

f Vide description in the Antiquities.

THE RAVEN TREE. 5

died. This oak I mention to show to what a bulk planted oaks
also may arrive : and planted this tree must certainly must have
been, as will appear from what will be said further concerning
this area, when we enter on the antiquities of Selborne.*

On the Blackmoor estate there is a small wood called Losel's, of a
few acres, that was lately furnished with a set of oaks of a pecu-
liar growth and great value : they were tall and taper- like firs, but
standing near together had very small heads, only a little brush
without any large limbs. About twenty years ago the bridge at the
Toy, near Hampton Court, being much decayed, some trees were
wanted for the repairs that were fifty feet long without bough, and
would measure twelve inches diameter at the little end. Twenty
such trees did a purveyor find in this little wood, with this ad-
vantage, that many of them answered the description at sixty feet.f
These trees were sold for twenty pounds a-piece.

In the centre of this grove there stood an oak, which, though
shapely and tall on the whole, bulged out into a large excrescence
about the middle of the stem. On this a pair of ravens had fixed
their residence for such a series of
years, that the oak was distinguished
by the title of the Raven-tree. Many
were the attempts of the neighbour-
ing youths to get at this eyry : the
difficulty whetted their inclinations,
and each was ambitious of surmount-
ing the arduous task. But, when ~^--^-* ^j3
they arrived at the swelling, it jutted Raven-

out so in their way, and was so far beyond their grasp, that the most
daring lads were awed, and acknowledged the undertaking to be
too hazardous. So the ravens built on, nest upon nest, in perfect
security, till the fatal day arrived in which the wood was to be le-
velled. It was in the month of February, when those birds usually
sit. The saw was applied to the butt, the wedges were inserted
into the opening, the woods echoed to the heavy blows of the
beetle or mallet, the tree nodded to its fall ; but still the dam sat on.
At last, when it gave way, the bird was flung from her nest, and,
though her parental affection deserved a better fate, was whipped
down by the twigs, which brought her dead to the ground.

* Probably the finest and most stately oak, now growing in the south-east of England, is that
in the park at Pansanger, in Hertfordshire, the seat of earl Cowper.— ED.

t An oak table of one solid plank, seventy-five feet long, and three wide in its entire length, is
mentioned in Dr. Plot's Nat. Hist- of Staffordshire, as to be seen in the hall of Dudley-
castle, in that county. The tree grew in the adjoining park.— ED.

NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

LETTER III. To T. PENNANT. ESQ.

THE fossil-shells of this district, and sorts of stone, such as have
fallen within my observation, must not be passed over in silence.
And first I must mention, as a great curiosity, a specimen that
was plowed up in the chalky fields, near the side of the Down,
and given to me for the singularity of its appearance, which, to
an incurious eye, seems like a petrified fish of about four inches
long, the cardo passing for a head and mouth. It is in reality a

bivalve of the Linnasan genus of mytilus, and the species of
crista galli; called by Lister, restellum ; by Rumphius, ostream
plicatum minus; by D'Argenville, auris porci, s. crista galli j and
by those who make collections cock's comb. Though I applied to
several such in London, I never could meet with an entire specimen ;
nor could I ever find in books any engraving from a perfect one. In
the superb museum at Leicester-house, permission was given me to
examine for this article ; and though I was disappointed as to the
fossil, I was highly gratified with the sight of several of the shells
themselves in high preservation. This bivalve is only known to
inhabit the Indian Ocean, where it fixes itself to a zoophyte,
known by the name gorgonia. The curious foldings of the sutures
the one into the other, the alternate flutings or grooves, and the
curved form of my specimen, being much easier expressed by the
pencil than by words, I have caused it to be drawn and engraved.*

* Ostrea carinata, or keeled oyster of Lamark. The author is however mistaken in the sup-
position that this identical species is yet in being, it having long since been satisfactorily shown
that no species of organism, the remains of which are imbedded in the old limestone formations,
exists at the present time; although many recent species (or those which are now living) are very
closely allied to some — even of the most ancient — of those which are exclusively fossil. No
species whatever is common to even the secondary and tertiary formations (as they are termed),

FOSSIL SHELLS — FREESTONE. 7

Cornua ammonis are very common about this village. As we
were cutting an inclining path up the Hanger, the labourers found
them frequently on that steep, just under the soil, in the chalk,
and of a considerable size. In the lane above Well-head, in the
way to Emshot, they abound in the bank, in a darkish sort of
marl, and are usually very small and soft : but in Clay's Pond, a
little further on, at the end of the pit, where the soil is dug out
for manure, I have occasionally observed them of large dimen-
sions, perhaps fourteen or sixteen inches in diameter. But as
these did not consist of firm stone, but were formed of a kind of
terra lapidosa, or hardened clay, as soon as they were exposed to
the rains and frost they mouldered away. These seemed as if
they were a very recent production. In the chalk-pit, at the north-
west end of the Hanger, large nautili are sometimes observed.

In the very thickest strata of our freestone, and at consider-
able depths, well-diggers often find large scallops or pectines,
having both shells deeply striated, and ridged and furrowed alter-
nately. They are highly impregnated with, if not wholly com-
posed of, the stone of the quarry.

LETTER IV. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

As in a former letter the freestone of this place has been only
mentioned incidentally, I shall here become more particular.

This stone is in great request for hearth-stones, and the beds
of ovens : and in lining of lime-kilns it turns to good accountj
for the workmen use sandy loam instead of mortar ; the sand of
which fluxes,* and runs by the intense heat, and so cases over
the whole face of the kiln with a strong vitrified coat like glass,
that it is well preserved from injuries of weather, and endures
thirty or forty years. When chiseled smooth, it makes elegant
fronts for houses, equal in colour and grain to the Bath stone ;
and superior in one respect, that, when seasoned, it does not
scale. Decent chimney-pieces are worked from it of much closer
and finer grain than Portland ; and rooms are floored with it, but
it proves rather too soft for this purpose. It is a freestone,
cutting in all directions, yet has something of a grain parallel

so that it can hardly be expected that any sort of animal, the exuviae of which occur in the
(secondary) chalk, can be still found in existence at the present time. — ED.

* There may probably be also in the chalk itself that is burnt for lime a proportion of sand,
for few chalks are so pure as to have none.

8 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE

with the horizon, and therefore should not be surbedded, but
laid in the same position that it grows in the quarry.* On the
ground abroad this fire-stone will not succeed for pavements,
because, probably, some degree of saltness prevailing within it,
the rain tears the slabs to pieces.'f Though this stone is too hard
to be acted on by vinegar ; yet both the white part, and even the
blue rag, ferment strongly in mineral acids. Though the white
stone will not bear wet, yet in every quarry at intervals there are
thin strata of blue rag, which resist rain and frost ; and are ex-
cellent for pitching of stables, paths, and courts, and for building
of dry walls against banks (a valuable species of fencing, much
in use in this village), and for mending of roads. This rag is
rugged and stubborn, and will not hew to a smooth face ; but is
very durable : yet, as these strata are shallow and lie deep, large
quantities cannot be procured but at considerable expense.
Among the blue rags turn up some blocks tinged with a stain of
yellow or rust-colour, which seem to be nearly as lasting as the
blue ; and every now and then balls of a friable substance, like
rust of iron, called rust-balls.

In Wolmer forest I see but one sort of stone, called by the
workmen sand, or forest-stone. This is generally of the colour
of rusty iron, and might probably be worked as iron ore, is very
hard and heavy, and of a firm compact texture, and composed
of a small roundish crystalline grit, cemented together by a brown,
terrene, ferruginous matter, will not cut without difficulty, nor
easily strike fire with steel. Being often found in broad flat
pieces, it makes good pavement for paths about houses, never
becoming slippery in frost nor rain, is excellent for dry walls,
and is sometimes used in buildings. In many parts of that waste
it lies scattered on the surface of the ground, but is dug on
Weaver's-down, a vast hill on the eastern verge of that forest,
where the pits are shallow, and the stratum thin. This stone is
imperishable.

From a notion of rendering their work the more elegant, and
giving it a finish, masons chip this stone into small fragments
about the size of the head of a large nail, and then stick the
pieces into the wet mortar along the joints of their freestone

* To surbed stone is to set it edgewise, contrary to the posture it had in the quarry, says Dr.
Plot, Oxfordsh. p. 77. But surbedding does not succeed in our dry walls ; neither do we use it
so in ovens, though h* says it is best for Teynton stone.

t " Firestone is full of salts, and has no sulphur: must be close grained, and have no inter-
stices. Nothing supports fire like salts: saltstone perishes exposed to wet and frost." Plot's
Staff, p. 152.

THE MANOR OF SELBORNE.

walls. This embellishment carries an odd appearance, and has
occasioned strangers sometimes to ask us pleasantly, " Whether
we fastened our walls together with tenpenny nails.

LETTER V. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

AMONG the singularities of this place, the two rocky hollow lanes,
the one to Alton, and the other to the forest, deserve our atten-
tion. These roads, running through the malm lands, are, by the
traffick of ages, and the fretting of water, worn down through
the first stratum of our freestone, and partly through the se-
cond, so that they look more like water-courses than roads, and
are bedded with naked rag for furlongs together. In many
places they are reduced sixteen or eighteen feet beneath the
level of the fields, and after floods, and in frosts, exhibit very
grotesque and wild appearances, from the tangled roots that are
twisted among the strata, and from the torrents rushing down
their broken sides, and especially when those cascades are frozen
into icicles hanging in all the fanciful shapes of frost-work.
These rugged gloomy scenes affright the ladies when they peep
down into them from the paths above, and make timid horse-
men shudder while they ride along them; but delight the
naturalist with their various botany, and particularly with their
curious filices with which they abound.

The manor of Selborne, were it strictly looked after, with all its
kindly aspects, and all its sloping coverts, would swarm with
game. Even now hares, partridges, and pheasants abound ; and
in old days woodcocks were as plentiful. There are few quails,

Land-rail.

because they more affect open fields than enclosures ; after har-
vest some few land-rails are seen.*

* The meadow-crake, or " land-rail" (crex pratensis), is much rarer in the south of England
than in the northern and middle districts of our island. A very few pass the winter in the

10 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

The parish of Selborne, by taking in so much of the forest, is
a vast district. Those who tread the bounds are employed part
of three days in the business, and are of opinion that the outline,
in all its curves and indentings, does not comprise less than
thirty miles.

The village stands in a sheltered spot, secured by the Hanger
from the strong westerly winds. The air is soft, but rather moist
from the effluvia of so many trees ; yet perfectly healthy and
free from agues.

The quantity of rain that falls on it is very considerable, as may
be supposed in so woody and mountainous a district. As my
experience in measuring the water is but of short date, I am not
qualified to give the mean quantity.* I only know that

Inch. Huiid.

From May 1, 1779, to the end of the year there fell 28 37 !

From Jan. 1, 1780, to Jan.
From Jan. 1, 1781, to Jan.
From Jan. 1, 1782, to Jan.
From Jan. 1, 1783, to Jan.
From Jan. 1, 1784, to Jan.
From Jan. 1, 1785, to Jan.

1781 - - - 27 32

1782 - - - 30 71

1783 - - - 50 26!

1784 - - - 33 71

1785 - - - 33 80

1786 - - - .31 55

From Jan. 1, 1786, to Jan. 1, 1787 - - - 39 57

The village of Selborne, and large hamlet of Oakhanger, with
the single farms, and many scattered houses along the verge of
the forest, contain upwards of six hundred and seventy inhabit-
ants.f We abound with poor j many of whom are sober and

south-eastern counties. I have known one to have been shot in Surrey, in January, and also an
allied species, the speckled water-crake (crex-zapornia porzana), in the following month. A few
quails (coturnix vulgaris) , also, remain throughout the winter in this country, although by far
the greater number migrate. This last-mentioned species is by no means uncommon in summer
upon the Surrey hills.— ED.

* A very intelligent gentleman assures me (and he speaks from upwards of forty years' experi-
ence) that the mean rain of any place cannot be ascertained till a person has measured it for a
very long period. "If I had only measured the rain," says he, "for the first four years, from
1740 to 1743, I should have said the mean rain at Lyndon was sixteen inches and a half for the
year; if from 1740 to 1750, eighteen inches and a half. The mean rain before 1763 was twenty
inches and a quarter, from 1763 and since twenty-five inches and a half, from 1770 to 1780
twenty-six inches. If only 1773, 1774, and 1775, had been measured, Lyndon mean rain would
have been called thirty-two inches."

f A STATE OF THE PARISH OF SELBORNE, TAKEN OCTOBER 4, 1783.

The number of tenements or families 136.

The number of inhabitants in the street is 313 | Total 676 ; nearly five inhabitants to each
In the rest of the parish ... 353 | tenement.

In the time of the Rev. Gilbert White, vicar, who died in 1727-S, the number of inhabitants wa*
computed at about 500.

MANUFACTURES.

11

industrious, and live comfortably in good stone or brick cottages,
which are glazed, and have chambers above stairs : mud buildings
we have none. Besides the employment from husbandry, the
men work in hop gardens, of which we have many, and fell and
bark timber. In the spring and summer the women weed the
corn ; and enjoy a second harvest in September by hop-picking.
Formerly, in the dead months, they availed themselves greatly by
spinning wool, for making of barragons, a genteel corded stuff,
much in vogue at that time for summer wear, and chiefly manu-
factured at Alton, a neighbouring town, by some of the people

From 1720 t
1729, both

, ot , «

years inclu. $ Females 6>°

? K73V° t Males '8>2
i±. J *-"*

Average of baptisms for 60 years.

From 1740 ) M Q 9 ) ; From 1

15,8

1749, incl. ' "- "-" '
From 1750

) M. 9,1

' 7»6

18,0

From 1770 JM10>5
1779, incl. 5 F" 9>8

Total of baptisms of Males 515 |
Females 465 I

Total of baptisms from 1720 to 1779, both inclusive (60 years) 980.
Average of burials for 60 years.

From 1720 to } ,, . a i | From 1740 ) ,» . ,, ~) I From

1729, both {Males 4,8 ( to i f 4,6 I ,

years inclu. S Females 5)1 * 1749, incl, 5 *' 3'8/ 17<

From 1730 to ) Ma]fis 4 R ) From 1750 '
1739, both

( Males 4,8

Total of burials of Males 315 I fidn

Females 325 |
Total of burials from 1/20 to 1779, both inclusive (60 years) 640.

Baptisms exceed burials by more than one third.
Baptisms of Males exceed Females by one tenth, or one in ten.

Burials of Females exceed Males by one in thirty.
It appears that a child, born and bred in this parish, has an equal chance to live above forty

years.

Twins thirteen times, many of whom dying young have lessened the chances for life.
Chances for life in men and women appear to be equal.

17fll_ TO

DECEMBER 25, 1780, IN THK PARISH OF SELBORNK.

M.

F.

Tot.

M. F. Tot.

M. F.

Tot.

M. F. Tot.

1761

8

10

18

246

3

1771 10 6

16

3

4

7

4

1762

7

8

15

10 14 24

6

1772 il 10

21

6

10

16

3

1763

8

10

18

3 4 7

5

1773 8 5

13

7

5

12

3

1764

11

9

20

10 8 IS

6

1774 6 13

19

2

8

10

1

1765

J2

6

18

9 7 16

6

1/75 20 7

27

13

8

21

6

1766

9

13

22

10 6 16

4

1776 11 10

21

4

6

10

6

1767

14

5

19

6 5 11

2

1777 8 13

21

7

3

10

4

1768

7

6

13

[2 5 7

6

1778 7 13

20

3

4

7

5

1769

9

14

23

'6 5 11

2

1779 14 8

22

5

6

11

5

1770

10

13

23

4 7 11

3

1780 8 9

17

11

4

15

3

95,

94

189 62 65 127 43 103 94

197 61

58

119 40

95 94

189 62

65

127 43

198 188

386 123

123

246 83

D

uring

this period of twenty years the births of males exceeded those of females

10.

The burials of each sex were equal.

And the births exceeded the deaths • -

140.

12 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

called Quakers : but from circumstances this trade is at an end.*
The inhabitants enjoy a good share of health and longevity; and
the parish swarms with children.

LETTER VI. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

SHOULD I omit to describe with some exactness the forest of
Wolmer, of which three-fifths perhaps lie in this parish, my ac-
count of Selborne would be very imperfect, as it is a district
abounding with many curious productions, both animal and ve-
getable, and has often afforded me much entertainment both as
a sportsman and, as a naturalist.

The royal forest of Wolmer is a tract of land of about seven
miles in length, by two and a half in breadth, running nearly
from north to south, and is abutted on, to begin to the south,
and so to proceed eastward, by the parishes of Greatham, Lysse,
Rogate, and Trotton, in the county of Sussex, by Bramshot,
Hedleigh, and Kingsley. This royalty consists entirely of sand
covered with heath and fern ; but is somewhat diversified with
hills and dales, without having one standing tree in the whole
extent. In the bottoms, where the waters stagnate, are many
bogs, which formerly abounded with subterraneous trees ; though
Dr. Plot says positively^ that " there never were any fallen trees
hidden in the mosses of the southern counties." But he was
mistaken ; for I myself have seen cottages on the verge of this
wild district, whose timbers consisted of a black hard wood,
looking like oak, which the owners assured me they procured
from the bogs by probing the soil with spits, or some such in-
struments ; but the peat is so much cut out, and the moors have
been so well examined, that none has been found of late.J

* Since the passage above was written, I am happy in being able to say "that the spinning
employment is a little revived, to the no small comfort of the industrious housewife.

t See his Hist, of Staffordshire.

t Old people have assured me that on a w nter's morning they have discovered these trees, in
the bogs, by the hoar frost, which lay longe over the space where they were concealed than on
the surrounding morass. Nor does this see
philosophy. Dr. Hales saith, " That the vi
an influence in promoting a thaw, as well
thawing state, is manifest, from this observa

m to be a fanciful notion, but consistent with true
nth of the earth, at some depth under ground, has
the change of the weather from a freezing to a
viz. Nov. 29, 1/31, a little snow having fallen in

the night, it was, by eleven the next morning, mostly melted away on the surface of the earth,
except in several places in Bushy-park, where there were drains dug and covered with earth, on
which the snow continued to lie, whether those drains were full of water or dry ; as also where
elm-pipes lay under ground: a plain proof this that those drains intercepted the warmth of the
earth from ascending from greater depths below them ; for the snow lay where the drain had

GAME BIRDS OF WOLMER FOREST. 13

Besides the oak, I have also been shown pieces of fossil-wood of
a paler colour and softer nature, which the inhabitants called
fir ; but, upon a nice examination, and trial by fire, I could dis-
cover nothing resinous in them ; and therefore rather suppose
that they were parts of a willow or alder, or some such aquatic
tree.

This lonely domain is a very agreeable haunt for many sorts of
wild fowls, which not only frequent it in the winter, but breed
there in the summer ; such as lapwings, snipes, wild-ducks, and,
as I have discovered within these few years, teals. Partridges
in vast plenty are bred in good seasons on the verge of this fo-
rest, into which they love to make excursions ; and in particular,
in the dry summer of 1740 and 1741, and some years after, they
swarmed to such a degree, that parties of unreasonable sports-
men killed twenty and sometimes thirty brace in a day

But there was a nobler species of
game in this forest, now extinct,
which I have heard old people say
abounded much before shooting fly-
ing became so common, and |that was
the heath-cock, black game, or grouse.
When I was a little boy I recollect
one coming now and then to my
father's table. The last pack re- Black Grousu-

membered was killed about thirty-five years ago; and within
these ten years one solitary grey hen was sprung by some beagles
in beating for a hare. The sportsmen cried out, " A hen phea-
sant ;" but a gentleman present, who had often seen grouse in
the north of England, assured me that it was a grey hen.*

more than four feet depth of earth over it. It continued also to lie on thatch, tiles, and the tops
of walls." See Hales's Haemastatics, p. 360. Quere, Might not such observations be reduced to
domestic use, by promoting the discovery of old obliterated drains and wells about houses ; and
in Roman stations and camps lead to the finding of pavements, baths, and graves, and other hidden
relics of curious antiquity ?

* This fine species, the tetrao tetrix or black grouse, inhabits every where Jess elevated situa-
tions than the other British species which by sportsmen are termed grouse, .being found,
though at present nowhere very plentifully, in the south of England, wherever there are heathy
wilds of sufficient extent, intermingled here and there with coppice, or brushwood, and patches of
boggy ground. They occur sparingly upon the Devonshire moors and other heathy districts in
the western counties, also, rather more abundantly, in the New-forest, Hants., and now and then
a solitary individual may be flushed on the extensive moorland range of Hounslow and Bagshot;
but their principal localities lie more to the north, upon the lower slopes of heathy and moun-
tainous regions, which are covered with a natural growth of willow, birch, and alder, and inter-
sected by morasses, clothed with coarse herbage, also the deep and wooded dells which so com-
monly occur in the valleys between the mountains. They subsist (all the poultry tribes being
nearly omnivorous) on various kinds of food, according to the season, as insects, the different

14

NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

Nor does the loss of our black game prove the only gap in the
fauna Selborniensis ; for another beautiful link in the chain of be-
ings is wanting, I mean the red deer, which towards the beginning
of this century amounted to about five hundred head, and made

Red Deer.

wild berries, and the seeds of various rushes and other plants, but chiefly on the young and
tender shoots of the heath ; and, in winter, when these are uo longer procurable, upon the buds
and tops of the birch and wild alder, and the embryo shoots of the different firs. These they can
readily obtain, as unlike the ptarmigan (lm>opus)) to which genus the red grouse of sportsmen
belongs, they are capable of perching upon trees, and always retire to roost at nigbt, like phea-
sants, on a horizontal bough. They frequently descend, too, in the vicinity of cultivation, to
peck some grain in the cornfields. The black grouse also differs from the red, and the other
members of the genus lagopusi in being a polygamous bird, as indeed are all those which now
range in teirao- The latter considerably resemble, in their manners, the common domestic poultry,
and the males of them spread the tail, and strut, and drop'their wings in the style of the turkey
and pea-fowl, a habit which is observed in no species of the ptarmigan genus, nor in any mono-
gamous kind with which I am acquainted, but which is curiously noticeable in the cow-bunting
of Wilson's "American Ornithology," the only known member of the extensive natural family to
which it belongs which' is not so. Most polygamous birds are indeed provided, at least in the
breeding season, with some kind of curious display, and this is remarkably exemplified in the
case of the ruff (machetes variabilis), the only known species of its numerous tribe which does
not pair, and also the only one which is adorned in spring with a singular mass of produced
feathers about the head and neck. The true grouse hybridize very readily in confinement with

THE RED DEER. 15

a stately appearance.* There is an old keeper, now alive, named
Adams, whose great grandfather (mentioned in a perambulation
taken in 1635), grandfather, father, and self, enjoyed the head
keepership of Wolmer forest in succession for more than a
hundred years. This person assures me, that his father has
often told him, that Queen Anne, as she was journeying on the
Portsmouth road, did not think the forest of Wolmer beneath her
royal regard. For she came out of the great road at Lippock,
which is just by, and, reposing herself on a bank smoothed for
that purpose, lying about half a mile to the east of Wolmer pond,
and still called Queen's-bank, saw with great complacency and
satisfaction the whole herd of red deer brought by the keepers
along the vale before her, consisting then of about five hundred
head. A sight this worthy the attention of the greatest sovereign !
But he further adds that, by means of the Waltham blacks, or, to
use his own expression, as soon as they began blacking, they
were reduced to about fifty head, and so continued decreasing
till the time of the late duke of Cumberland. It is now more
than thirty years ago that his highness sent down a huntsman,
and six yeomen-prickers, in scarlet jackets laced with gold,
attended by the stag-hounds, ordering them to take every deer
in this forest alive and to convey them in carts to Windsor. In
the course of the summer they caught every stag, some of which
showed extraordinary diversion; but, in the following winter,
when the hinds were also carried off, such fine chases were ex-
hibited as served the country people for matter of talk and won-

the pheasants and allied genera ; and, even in the wild state, mule specimens have several
times been met with between the male pheasant and the female black grouse. There is
reason, however, to believe that these crossings only take place in localities where the male
black grouse have been destroyed. They are interesting, as indicative of the close affinity
between the genera tetrao and phasianus, and they sufficiently attest the absurdity of classifying
these, as some have done, as the types of two separate and distinct families. The males of most
polygamous birds are very careless about the welfare of their progeny, but this is not the case
with the black grouse"; for, when his females are sitting, and while his numerous brood continue
young and helpless, he acts as sentinel and keeps watch over the safety of them all. The young
begin to throw out the mature plumage some time before they are quite full grown, and the
males then separate from the rest and associate in small flocks or packs, continuing thus
together till the influence of the vernal season prompts them to disperse over the wilds, at which
time, as might be expected, very desperate battles continually take place among them. It will
be observed that in these habits, which are common to all the genuine tetraones, and certain
allied genera, a curious and highly interesting analogy may be traced with particular groups of
ruminant mammifers, an analogy which I believe has never heretofore been remarked. — ED.

* These noble and majestic animals, the red deer or stag (cervus elephas), a species truly
indigenous to the country (as its fossil remains abundantly show), are now comparatively very
few in any part of England ; but the case is different in the mountainous regions of North
Britain, where, especially on the duke of Athol's vast estates, in the central Grampians, immense
herds of them still roam unrestrained, the splendid and appropriate ornaments of that wild and
rugged country. In the south of England they can only be considered as park animals. — ED.

16 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

der for years afterwards. I saw myself one of the yeomen-
prickers single out a stag from the herd, and must confess that
it was the most curious feat of activity I ever beheld, superior
to any thing in Mr. Astley's riding-school. The exertions made
by the horse and deer much exceeded all my expectations,
though the former greatly excelled the latter in speed. When
the devoted deer was separated from his companions, they gave
him, by their watches, law, as they called it, for twenty minutes ;
when, sounding their horns, the stop-dogs were permitted to
pursue, and a most gallant scene ensued.

LETTER VII. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

THOUGH large herds of deer do much harm to the neighbour-
hood, yet the injury to the morals of the people is of more mo-
ment than the loss of their crops. The temptation is irresistible ;
for most men are sportsmen by constitution, and there is such
an inherent spirit for hunting in human nature, as scarce any
inhibitions can restrain. Hence, towards the beginning of this
century, all this country was wild about deer-stealing. Unless
he was a hunter, as they affected to call themselves, no young
person was allowed to be possessed of manhood or gallantry.
The Waltham blacks at length committed such enormities that
government was forced to interfere with that severe and san-
guinary act called the black act,* which now comprehends more
felonies than any law that ever was framed before. And, there-
fore, a late bishop of Winchester, when urged to re-stock
Waltham-chase,'!* refused, from a motive worthy of a prelate,
replying that " It had done mischief enough already."

Our old race of deer-stealers are hardly extinct yet : it was
but a little while ago that, over their ale, they used to recount
the exploits of their youth ; such as watching the pregnant hind
to her lair, and, when the calf was dropped, paring its feet with
a penknife to the quick to prevent its escape, till it was large and
fat enough to be killed ; the shooting at one of their neighbours
with a bullet in a turnip-field by moonshine, mistaking him for a
deer ; and the losing a dog in the following extraordinary man-

* Statute 9 Geo. I. c. 22.
t This chase remains unstocked to this day ; the bishop was Dr. Hoadly.

HEATH FIRES. 17

ner : — Some fellows, suspecting that a calf new-fallen was de
posited in a certain spot of thick fern, went, with a lurcher, to
surprise it ; when the parent-hind rushed out of the brake, and,
taking a vast spring with all her feet close together, pitched upon
the neck of the dog, and broke it short in two.

Another temptation to idleness and
sporting was a number of rabbits,
which possessed all the hillocks and
dry places; but these being incon-
venient to the huntsmen, on account
of their burrows, when they came to
take away the deer, they permitted
the country-people to destroy them all.

Such forests and wastes, when their allurements to irregulari-
ties are removed, are of considerable service to neighbourhoods
that verge upon them, by furnishing them with peat and turf
for their firing, with fuel for the burning of their lime, and with
ashes for their grasses, and by maintaining their geese and their
stock of young cattle at little or no expense.

The manor farm of the parish of Greatham has an admitted
claim, I see (by an old record taken from the Tower of London),
of turning all live stock on the forest, at proper seasons, bidentibus
exceptis* The reason, I presume, why sheepf are excluded is
because, being such close grazers, they would pick out all the
finest grasses and hinder the deer from thriving. .

Though (by statute 4 and 5 Wm. and Mary, c. 23) " to burn on
any waste, between Candlemas and Midsummer, any grig, ling,
heath, and furze, goss or fern, is punishable with whipping and
confinement in the house of correction ;" yet, in this forest, about
March or April, according to the dryness of the season, such
vast heath-fires are lighted up that they often get to a masterless
head, and, catching the hedges, have sometimes been communi-
cated to the underwoods, woods, and coppices, where great
damage has ensued. The plea for these burnings is, that, when
the old coat of heath, &c., is consumed, young will sprout up,
and afford much tender browze for cattle ; but, where there is
large old furze, the fire, following the roots, consumes the very
ground ; so that for hundreds of acres nothing is to be seen but
smother and desolation, the whole circuit round looking like the

* For this privilege the owner of that]estate used to pay to the king annually seven bushels of oats.

t In the Holt, where a full stock of fallow-deer has been kept up till lately, uo sheep are
admitted to this day.

18 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

cinders of a volcano, and, the soil being quite exhausted, no
traces of vegetation are to be found for years. These conflagra-
tions, as they take place usually with a north-east or east wind,
much annoy this village with their smoke, and often alarm the
country ; and, once in particular, I remember that a gentleman,
who lives beyond Andover, coming to my house, when he got on
the downs between that town and Winchester, at twenty-five
miles distance, was surprised much with smoke and a hot smell
of fire, and concluded that Alresford was in flames, but, when
he came to that town, he then had apprehensions for the next
village, and so on to the end of his journey.

On two of the most conspicuous eminences of this forest stand
two arbours or bowers, made of the boughs of oaks; the one
called Waldon-lodge, the other Brimstone-lodge: these the
keepers renew annually on the feast of St. Barnabas, taking the
old materials for a perquisite. The farm called Blackmoor, in
this parish, is obliged to find the posts and brush-wood for the
former ; while the farms at Greatham, in rotation, furnish for the
latter ; and are all enjoined to cut and deliver the materials at
the spot. This custom I mention, because I look upon it to be
of very remote antiquity.

LETTER VIII. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

ON the verge of the forest, as it is now circumscribed, are three

Common Fox.

considerable lakes, two in Oakhanger, of which I have nothing

, LIMITS OF WOLMER FOREST. 19

particular to say, and one called Bin's, or Bean's pond, which is
worthy the attention of a naturalist or a sportsman. For, being
crowded at the upper end with willows, and with the carex
cespitosa,* it affords such a safe and pleasing shelter to wild
ducks, teals, snipes, &c., that they breed there. In the winter
this covert is also frequented by foxes, and sometimes by phea-
sants ; and the bogs produce many curious plants. [For which
consult letter XLII. to Mr. Barrington.]

By a perambulation of Wolmer-forest and the Holt, made
in 1635, and in the eleventh year of Charles the First (which
now lies before me), it appears that the limits of the former
are much circumscribed. For, to say nothing of the further
side, with which I am not so well acquainted, the bounds on
this side in old times came into Binswood, and extended to
the ditch of Ward-le-ham-park, in which stands the curious
mount called King JohnVhill, and Lodge-hill, and to the verge
of Hartley Mauduit, called Mauduit-hatch, comprehending also
Short-heath, Oakhanger, and Oakwoods, a large district, now
private property, though once belonging to the royal domain.

It is remarkable that the term purlieu is never once mentioned
in this long roll of parchment. It contains, besides the peram-
bulation, a rough estimate of the value of the timbers, which
were considerable, growing at that time in the district of the
Holt ; and enumerates the officers, superior and inferior, of those
joint forests, for the time being, and their ostensible fees and
perquisites. In those days, as at present, tl^ere were hardly any
trees in Wolmer-forest.

Within the present limits of the forest are three considerable
lakes, Hogmer, Cranmer, and Wolmer $ all of which are stocked
with carp, tench, eels, and perch : but the fish do not thrive
well, because the water is hungry and the bottoms are a naked
sand.

A circumstance respecting these ponds, though by no means
peculiar to them, I cannot pass over in silence, and that is, that
instinct by which in summer all the kine, whether oxen, cows,
calves, or heifers, retire constantly to the water during the hotter
hours, where, being more exempt from flies, and inhaling the
coolness of that element, some belly deep, and some only to mid-

* I mean that sort which, rising into tall hassocks, is called by the foresters torrets : a corrup-
tion, I suppose, of turrets.

Note, In the beginning of the summer 1/87 the royal forests of Wolmer and Holt were mea-
sured by persons sent down by government.

C 2

20 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

leg, they ruminate and solace themselves from about ten in the
morning till four in the afternoon, and then return to their feed-
ing. During this great proportion of the day they drop much
dung, in which insects nestle ; and so supply food for the fish,
which would be poorly subsisted but from this contingency.
Thus nature, who is a great economist, converts the recreation
of one animal to the support of another ! Thomson, who was a
nice observer of natural occurrences, did not let this pleasing
circumstance escape him. He says, in his Summer,

" A various group the herds and flocks compose :
on the grassy bank

Some ruminating lie, while others stand .

Half in the flood, and, often bending, sip
The circling surface."

Wolmer-pond, so called, I suppose, for eminence sake, is a vast
lake for this part of the world, containing, in its whole circum-
ference, 2646 yards, or very nearly a mile and an half. The length
of the north-west and opposite side is about 704 yards, and the
breadth of the south-west end about 456 yards. This measure-
ment, which I caused to be made with good exactness, gives an
area of about sixty-six acres, exclusive of a large irregular arm at
the north-east corner, which we did not take into the reckoning.

On the face of this expanse of waters, and perfectly secure
from fowlers, lie all day long, in the winter season, vast flocks

Widgeon.

of ducks, teals, and widgeons, of various denominations ; where
they preen and solace, and rest themselves, till towards sun-set,
when they issue forth in little parties (for in their natural state
they are all birds of the night) to feed in the brooks and mea-
dows, returning again with the dawn of j the morning. Had this
lake an arm or two more, and were it planted round with thick
covert (for now it is perfectly naked), it might make a valuable
decoy.

Yet neither its extent, nor the clearness of its water, nor the
resort of various and curious fowls, nor its picturesque groups of

WOLMER AND HOLT FOREST. 21

cattle, can render this meer so remarkable as the great quantity
of coins that were found in its bed about forty years ago. But,
as such discoveries more properly belong to the antiquities of
this place, I shall suppress all particulars for the present till I
enter professedly on my series of letters respecting the more re-
mote history of this village and district.

LETTER IX. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

BY way of supplement, I shall trouble you once more on this
subject, to inform you that Wolmer, with her sister forest Ayles
Holt, alias Alice Holt,* as it is called in old records, is held by
grant from the crown for a term of years.

The grantees that the author remembers are Brigadier General
Emanuel Scroope Howe and his lady, Ruperta (who was a na-
tural daughter of Prince Rupert by Margaret Hughes), a Mr.
Mordaunt, of the Peterborough family, who married a dowager
lady Pembroke, Henry Bilson Legge and lady, and now Lord
Stawel, their son.

The lady of General Howe lived to an advanced age, long sur^
viving her husband ; and, at her death, left behind her many
curious pieces of mechanism of her father's constructing, who
was a distinguished mechanic and artist, f as well as warrior,
and, among the rest, a very complicated clock, lately in posses-
sion of Mr. Elmer, the celebrated game-painter at Farnham, in
the county of Surrey.

Though these two forests are only parted by a narrow range
of enclosures, yet no two soils can be more different ; for the
Holt consists of a strong loam of a miry nature, carrying a good
turf, and abounding with oaks that grow to be large timber,
while Wolmer is nothing but a hungry, sandy, barren waste. J

* " In Rot. Inquisit. de statu forest, in Scaccar. 36 Ed. 3. it is called Aisholt." In the same,
" Tit Woolmer and Aisholt Hantisc. Dominus Rex habet unam capellam in haia sua Kingesle."
*' Haia, sepes, sepimentum, parcus: a Gall, haie and haye."— Spelman's Glossary.

t The invention of mezzotinto engraving is generally ascribed to Prince Rupert, though some
would rather assign it to Lieut. Col. Siegend, an officer in the service of the Landgrave of Hesse,
so early as in the year 1643, from whom, it is said, the prince derived the secret. In Elme's life
of Sir Christopher Wren, it is attributed to that eminent architect ; and the editor of " Paren-
talia," speaking on this subject with decision, states that " he [Sir Christopher] was the first
inventor of the art of engraving in mezzotinto, which was afterwards prosecuted and improved by
his royal highness Prince Rupert, in a manner somewhat different, upon the suggestion, it is said,
of the learned John Evelyn, Esq."— ED.

I A stiff', clayey soil, well drained, is of all others the most congenial and adapted to the

22

NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

The former, being all in the parish of Binsted, is about two
miles in extent from north to south, and near as much from east

constitution of the oak. If water stagnates around, they never grow to be fine timber. Botanists
admit but two species as indigenous to this country: the "Quercus robur," and " O. sessiliflora ;"
the former of which is the redoubtable " king of the forest." Of this tree— England's native bul-
wark—many most gigantic examples are upon record; the very finest of all which, known to have
grown in the country, is beyond compare that magnificent piece of timber which was dug out of
Hatficld bog, and which is noticed in the Philosophical Transactions, as quoted in Evelyn's
" Sylva." It is described to havebeen 120 feet in length, twelve in diameter at the base, ten in
the middle, and six at the smaller end, where broken off; so that the butt for sixty feet, squared
seven feet of solid timber, and four its entire length. The most celebrated giant oaks, however,
of the present day, are mostly those of a form unfit for the purposes of the timber merchant, and
which, on this account only, have been allowed to stand. The most extraordinary of these is the
noted Cowthorpe oak, situate near Wetherby, in
Yorkshire (about nine miles from York, and the
same distance from Harrowgate), upon the estate
of the Right Hon. Lady Stourton. This vegetable
wonder, and living monument of by-gone ages, cal-
culated to be about 1800 years old, has at length
become a vast sylvan ruin. According to a recent
measurement, it appears to be twenty-two yards
in circumference close to the ground, and nearly
sixteen at the height of three feet ; its principal
limb extending forty-eight feet from the bole. The
leading branch fell by a storm in 1/18, which,
being measured with accuracy, was found to con-
tain five tons and twq hundred weight of timber.
Before this accidental mutilation, its branches are
said to have extended their shade over half an acrt
of ground; thus constituting, in a single tree, al- I
most a wood of itself. Its immense arms, them-
selves in appearance full grown trees, are now sup- ;
ported by a number of strong props of timber. Dr.
Hunter, who visited it in 17/6, describes its height,
in its then " ruinous state" to have been nearly eighty-five feet ; and adds, " that throughout the
whole tree the foliage is extremely thin, so that the anatomy of its ancient branches may be
distinctly seen at the height of summer. Compared with this," he continues, "all other trees
are but as children of the forest."

Professor Burnet very justly observes, in reference to this wonderful oak, that few persons form
any thing like "a just estimate of the actual size of trees. Nay, figures themselves, to the ge-
nerality of mankind, convey but very imperfect conceptions of length, and breadth, and height,
and girt. Some more familiar representations are wanted to prove that a majestic tree, which
is only in moderate proportion as an ornament to nature in the country, is really an enormous
mass, and would be esteemed a great and glorious structure amongst the dwellings and palaces of
men." The professor then proceeds to exemplify this remark by stating that, " in Little-white
lion-street, Long-acre, the inspectors of a district visiting society found, some months ago, a
house, the internal area of which is only twelve feet by twenty-four (not half that of the Cow-
thorpe oak, which, according to his description of it, is twenty-six feet in diameter), containing
nine small rooms, in which there dwelt— i. e. eat, drank, and slept, and did all that poor mor-
tality requires — no less than eleven men, thirteen women, and sixty-nine children, making a total
of ninety-three human beings crowded into less space than is enjoyed by a single tree."

The same writer also remarks that " the chapel of St. Bartholomew's, in the hamlet of Kings-
land, between London and Hackney,which, besides desks for the clergyman and clerk, altar, &c.
has pews and seats for 120 persons, is yet nkie feet less in width, and only seventeen inches
more in length, than the ground plot of this astonishing oak."— Burnett's Am^nitates Querneae.

Many other immense trees of this species might be enumerated ; yet still, however, the very-
largest of the vegetable productions of Europe— almost incredible as are the corroborated accounts
of the oaks, yews, Spanish-chestnuts, and various other trees that are to be found in this portion
of the globe— sink into comparative insignificance with the gigantic vegetation of tropical coun-

Cowthorpe Oak.

HOLT FOREST.

23

to west, and contains within it many woodlands and lawns, and
the great lodge where the grantees resided, and a smaller lodge
called Goose-green, and is abutted on by the parishes of Kingsley,
Frinsham, Farnham, and Bentley, all of which have right of
common.

One thing is remarkable, that, though the Holt has been of
old well stocked with fallow-deer, unrestrained by any pales or
fences more than a common hedge, yet they were never seen
within the limits of Wolmer, nor were the red deer of Wolmer
ever known to haunt the thickets or glades of the Holt.

At present the deer of the Holt are much thinned and reduced
by the night hunters, who perpetually harass them in spite of the
efforts of numerous keepers, and the severe penalties that have
been put in force against them as often as they have been de-
tected and rendered liable to the lash of the law. Neither fines
nor imprisonments can deter them : so impossible is it to extin-
guish the spirit of sporting, which seems to be inherent in hu-
man nature.

General Howe turned out some
German wild boars and sows in his
forests, to the great terror of the
neighbourhood; and, at one time, a
wild bull or buffalo : but the country
rose upon them and destroyed them,

A very large fall of timber, con- wild Boar,

sisting of about one thousand oaks, has been cut this spring (viz.
1784) in the Holt forest, one fifth of which, it is said, belongs
to the grantee, Lord Stawel. He lays claim also to the lop and
top : but the poor of the parishes of Binsted and Frinsham,

tries. The stately forests of Java,
latter being (to adduce as famili
monument, and after contemplati
tion" of Europe. The huge zamai
whose enormous extent of branch
which Humboldt observes that "
we now see it," and adds that " si
ticed in its size or form." The m
by Adanson to be upwards of 5000

where the trees average a height of from 150 to 200 feet, the
a comparison as possible) about the altitude of the London
g which, Sir Stamford Raffles speaks of the " pigmy vegeta-
g ofGuayra, in South America, a beautiful species of mimosa,
covers a hemispherical top 614 feet in circumference, and of
le first conquerors found it nearly in the same state in which
ce it has been attentively observed no change has been no-
estic baobabs of Africa, exceeding 100 feet in girth, calculated
ears old, and considered by Humboldt to be the oldest organic
nse deciduous cypress, in the church-yard of Santa Maria da

Tesla, two leagues and a half west of Oaxaca, in Mexico, the trunk of which (as measured by
Mr. Exton, in 1827) is 127, English feet in circumference, and 130 feet in height, and which ap-
peared in the prime of its growth, and had not a single dead branch, being calculated by the
younger De Candolle, to be older than even the baobabs themselves. The living temple of the sa-
cred banyan, and, indeed, many that to enumerate would far exceed the limits of a note. Pro-
bably the largest tree now growing in Europe is the gigantic Spanish chestnut (castaiiea vesca) on
Mount Etna.— En-

24 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

Bentley and Kingsley, assert that it belongs to them ; and, as-
sembling in a riotous manner, have actually taken it all away.
One man, who keeps a team has carried home, for his share, forty
stacks of wood. Forty-five of these people his Lordship has served
with actions. These trees, which were very sound, and in high
perfection, were winter-cut, viz. in February and March, before
the bark would run. In old times the Holt was estimated to be
eighteen miles, computed measure, from water-carriage, viz. from
the town of Chertsey, on the Thames ; but now it is not half
the distance, since the Wey is made navigable up to the town of
Godalming in the county of Surrey,

LETTER X. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

August 4, 1767-

IT has been my misfortune never to have had any neighbours
whose studies have led them towards the pursuit of natural
knowledge ; so that, for want of a companion to quicken my in-
dustry and sharpen my attention, I have made but slender pro-
gress in a kind of information to which I have been attached
from my childhood.

As to swallows, hirundines rustica, being found in a torpid
state during the winter in the Isle of Wight, or any part of this
country, I never heard any such account worth attending to.
But a clergyman, of an inquisitive turn, assures me that, when
he was a great boy, some workmen, in pulling down the battle-
ments of a church tower early in the spring, found two or three
swifts (hirundines apodes)* among the rubbish, which were, at
first appearance, dead ; but, on being carried towards the'fire, re-
vived. He told me that, out of his great care to preserve them,
he put them in a paper bag, and hung them by the kitchen fire,
where they were suffocated.

Another intelligent person has informed me that, while he was
a schoolboy at Brighthelmstone, in Sussex, a great fragment of
the chalk-cliff fell down one stormy winter on the beach, and
that many people found swallows among the rubbish ; but, on

* Cypselus murarius of modern naturalists. — En.

MIGRATORY BIRDS. 25

my questioning him whether he saw any of those birds himself,
to my no small disappointment, he answered me in the negative;
but that others assured him they did.

Young broods of swallows began to appear this year on July
the eleventh, and young martins (hirundines urbicce} were then
fledged in their nests. Both species will breed again once. For
I see by my fauna of last year, that young broods came forth so
late as September the eighteenth. Are not these late hatchings
more in favour of hiding than migration ? Nay, some young
martins remained in their nests last year so late as September the
twenty-ninth ; and yet they totally disappeared with us by the
fifth of October.

How strange is it that the swift, which seems to live exactly
the same life with the swallow and house-martin, should leave us
before the middle of August invariably! while the latter stay
often till the middle of October ; and once I saw numbers of
house-martins on the seventh of November. The martins and
red-wing fieldfares were flying in sight together — an uncommon
assemblage of summer and winter birds.*

A little yellow bird (it is either a species of the alauda trwialis^
or rather perhaps of the motacilla trochilus) still continues to
make a sibilous shivering noise in the tops of tall woods .J The
stoparola of Ray (for which we have as yet no name in these
parts) is called, in your Zoology, the fly-catcher.§ There is one
circumstance characteristic of this bird, which seems to have es-
caped observation, and that is, it takes its stand on the top of
some stake or post, from whence it springs forth on its
prey, catching a fly in the air, and hardly ever touching the
ground, but returning still to the same stand for many times to-
gether.

I perceive there are more than one species of the motacilla tro-

* Certainly an uncommon assemblage for the time of the year, though by no means so in the
spring. For many seasons I have noticed both redwing and fieldfare thrushes in Surrey, until
about the first week in May, sometimes till even the second. Flocks of mavis, or song thrushes,
too, I have observed till about the beginning of May, which, no doubt, were foreigners, and de-
parted with the red-wings. By the time these leave us, a considerable number of our residents, of
the same species, have reared their first broods. — ED.

t A name which has been applied to the common pipit (anthus commwnw), but by which Mr.
White here intends the brake-locustelle, or " grasshopper-warbler" of the brooks (salicaria lo-
ctutella dumeticold) . For an account of which, see note to page 47. — ED.

t The bird alluded to is the sibilous pettychaps, or "wood-wren," as it is generally called (syl-
via sibilano). — ED.

§ This very common species in the south of England, the gray fly-catcher (Muscicapa grisola),
is in Kent provincially termed the " post-bird," from its habit of sitting on rails or posts. In
Surrey it is more commonly called " fly-catcher. — ED.

26

NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

chilus : Mr. Derham supposes, in Ray's Philos. Letters, that he
has discovered three, In these there is again an instance of
some very common birds that have as yet no English name.*

Mr. Stillingfleet makes a question whether the black-cap (mo-
tacilla atricapilla} be a bird of passage or not : I think there is
no doubt of it ; for, in April, in the first fine weather, they come
trooping, all at once, into these parts, but are never seen in the
winter.f They are delicate songsters.

Numbers of snipes breed every summer in some moory ground
on the verge of this parish. It is very amusing to see the cock
bird on wing at that time, and to hear his piping and humming notes.

I have had no opportunity yet of procuring any of those mice
which I mentioned to you in town. The person that brought me
the last says they are plenty in harvest, at which time I will take
care to get more ; and will endeavour to put the matter out of
doubt, whether it be a nondescript species or not.

I suspect much there may be two species of water-rats. J Ray

Water Campagnol.

Jumper Mouse.

* These three species, the sibilous pettichaps (Sylvia sibilans) the warbling pettychaps (.S. me-
odin), and the chiffchaff-pettychaps (S. Zoguoo-), all of which are common in the south of Eng-
and, are now thoroughly established and universally acknowledged to be distinct. — ED.

t There is a single instance upon record of the black-cap fauvet (Ficedul aatricapilla) » the spe-
cies to which Mr. White here refers, having been shot in Kent, in January. The circumstance,
however, of one remaining in this country throughout the winter must be of excessively rare oc-
currence, as this bird is far too musical to escape the observation of any naturalist. In confine
ment, they mostly recommence singing about February, or even earlier. — ED.

t There is but one species in Britain which is known by the name'of " water-rat," that which
is here mentioned by White, and which is extremely common about ditches, and ponds that are
fringed and covered with aquatic herbage, upon which it feeds. It is in general a most harmless
creature, but has been known to do considerable damage by burrowing into the raised banks of
canals, for which, together with the different water shrews, it is held, in Holland, in the utmost
execration. Whether this is the same with the Arvicola vulgaris of Cuvier, as has always been
considered, I am not altogether satisfied ; as that species is said to be a little larger than our
common rat, whereas ours is invariably smaller. It is subject to vary somewhat in colour, some
individuals being almost black ; but specimens may be obtained of every intermediate shade. For
an account of its hybernaculam, see Letter XXVIII. There are also two small species of Arvicola,
common enough in the south of England, which are generally confounded under the name of
" short-tailed field-mouse ;" the larger of which (A. agrestts) may be readily distinguished from
the smaller (A- riparta)> by the latter having a more mouse-like appearance, with larger ears
and a longer tail, and fur of a more rufous colour. It is also less abundant than the other.

THE FALCON. 27

says, and Linnaeus after him, that the water-rat is web-
footed behind. Now I have discovered a rat on the banks
of our little stream that is not web-footed, and yet is^ an
excellent swimmer and diver : it answers exactly to the mus am-
phibiusofLirmseus (See Syst. Nat.) which he says, " natat infos-
sis et urinatur" I should be glad to procure one " plan-
tis palmatis" Linnaeus seems to be hi a puzzle about his mus
amphibius, and to doubt whether it differs from his mus terrestris,
which, if it be, as he allows, the "mus agrestis capite grandi bra-
chyuros" of Ray, is widely different from the water-rat, both in
size, make, and manner of life.

As to the falco, which I mentioned in town, I shall take the li-
berty to send it down to you in Wales, presuming on your can-
dour, that you will excuse me if it should appear as familiar to
you as it is strange to me. Though mutilated " qualem dices
. . . antehac fuisse, tales cum sint reliquice !"

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 ; neither could I find any like it at the
curious exhibition of stuffed 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 T. PENNANT, ESQ.

Selborne, September 9, 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

Both these little animals feed almost exclusively on green herbage, and in their habits much
resemble the large species. In Surrey they are both denominated " grass-mice." The common
*' water-rat," or (more appropriately) water-campagnol, is very much preyed on by the stoat, and
other members of the weasel genus, by which it is often pursued to its very inmost retreats, and
there destroyed. I have repeatedly found its remains in the burrows of those animals. — ED.

28 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

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
hides.

The most unusual birds I ever~ ob-
served in these parts were a pah- of
hoopoes (upupa) which came several
years ago in the summer, and fre-
quented an ornamented piece of
ground, which joins to my garden,
for some weeks. They used to march
about in a stately manner, feeding in Hoopoe.

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 gross-beaks (loxia coccothraustes) 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.f

* In " Latham's General Synopsis" there is an account of a young hoopoe (Upupa, vulgaris)) in
its nestling plumage, having been shot in this country in the month of May. They have been seen
in various parts of Great Britain, from Devonshire to the North of Scotland ; but are extremely
rare, though a few probably make their appearance every season. A pair took up their abode in
a garden near my residence, but were shot down almost immediately. They hardly ever perch,
but find their subsistence almost wholly upon the ground, where they strut about with great
stateliness, and feed chiefly— if not wholly— upon insect food, which they often seek for among
the excrements of horses and cattle. Bechstein, who kept several of them in confinement, ob-
serves that, " when walking about a room, it makes a continual motion with its head, tapping
the floor with its beak, so that it seems as if walking with a stick, at the same time shaking its
crest, wings, and tail." They would appear to be remarkably docile in confinement. M. von
Schauroth, a correspondent of Bechstein, states of a pair that he kept that " they would never
touch earthworms, but were very fond of beetles and may-bugs. These they first killed, and then
beat them with the beak into a kind of oblong ball ; this done, they would throw it into the air,
and endeavour to catch and swallow it lengthwise. If it fell across the throat they were obliged
to begin again, their tongue (which is heart-shaped) being too short to turn the food into the
throat." [The same curious habit may be observed in the rollers (Corociew), and in the toucan
family (Ramphastidce") , which also have tongues of peculiar make.] The writer continues—
" Instead of bathing they roll in the sand. I took them one day into a neighbouring field, that
they might tatch insects for themselves, and had then an opportunity of remarking their innate
fear of birds of prey. No sooner did they perceive a raven, or even a pigeon, than they were on
their bellies in an instant, their wings stretched out by the side of the head, so that the large
quill-feathers touched ; they were thus surrounded by a sort of crown, formed by the feathers
of the tail and wings, the head leaning on the back, with the bill pointing upwards, in which
curious position they might easily be taken for an old rag. As soon as the bird that frightened
them had passed, they rose up immediately, uttering cries of joy. They were very fond of lying
in the sun, and showed their content by repeating, in a quivering tone, ' vec, vec, vec.' When
angry, their notes are harsh, and the male (which is known by being of a redder colour) cries
* hoop, hoop,' " whence the name of the species. This bird breeds in the holes of trees, laying
from two to four speckled eggs in a nest formed of dry cow-dung and small roots, which in
course of time becomes extremely fetid with the castings of the young. In autumn they associate
in small flocks, frequenting pasture and meadow lands ; and they migrate from Europe in Sep-
tember, making their re-appearance about April. — ED.

t The extreme shyness of the haw gross beak in summer prevents its being often seen at that
season. I know two or three localities, however, in Surrey, where they annually breed. — ED.

FISH. 29

A cross-bill (loxia curvirostra) was killed last year in this
neighbourhood.

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
(gobius fluviatilis capitatus}* the trout (trutta fluviatilis) A the eel
(anguilla), the lampern (lampatra parva et fluviatilis) ,\ and the
stickle-back (pisciculus aculeatus).

We are twenty miles from the sea, and almost as many from a
great river, and therefore see but little of sea-birds. As to wild
fowls, we have a few teams of ducks bred in the moors where the
snipes breed ; and multitudes of widgeons and teals in hard wea-
ther frequent our lakes in the forest.

Having some acquaintance with a tame brown-owl, I find
that it casts up the fur of mice, and the feathers of birds in

* Cottus gobio, the river bull-head, a small and very common brook and river fish throughout
England, and which is most abundant in small streamlets with gravelly or sandy bottoms, being
generally found among loose stones, beneath which they hide (the peculiar flattened form of the
head enabling them to thrust themselves under), and from which they issue with great rapidity
to seize the larvae of aquatic insects, &c., on which they feed. It is a very slimy fish, and has
rather an uncouth appearance, the eyes being placed close together on the top of the head, which
is very large and flat.— There are also two marine species of Cottus, extremely common upon the
British shores, but which are not usually found together — the lasher bullhead (C- bubalus) , and
the scorpion bullhead (C. scorpius) . A fourth (C. quadricornis) occurs as a straggler. Another
and very singular looking British fish, allied to these, is the pogge, or " lyrie" of the Scotch
(Aspidophorus europaus) • All jthese are exquisitely figured and desciibed in Mr. Yarrell's beau-
tiful work on British fishes, which should be in the hands of every naturalist.— ED.

t Salmo fano.— ED.

t The common brook lamprey (Petramyzon fluviatilis) - There are three ascertained British spe-
cies of this genus, all of which ascend the rivers and brooks to spawn, and which are named (but
not very significantly) P. marinus, fluviatilis, and planeri. This form is about the last of fishes, the
lowest in the scale of vertebrate animals, having merely a rudimentary vertebral column. It is
curious to see them feed. " Fastening," as a writer in the Field Naturalist's Magazine observes,
«* by means of their sucker-like mouth, to stones of considerable size, they contrive by strong
muscular exertion, accompanied by considerable dilatation of the seven small orifices on each
side of the head, to move them from their places, when, instantly letting go their hold, they
commence an investigation of the spot whence the stone was removed, feeding on any small insects
which had made their haunts beneath it." Their spawning beds are formed in a similar man-
ner. " They are not," says Sir W. Jardine, "furnished with any elongation of jaw, afforded to
most of our fresh-water fish, to form the receiving furrows in this important season, but the want
is supplied by their sucker-like mouth, by which they individually remove each stone. Their
power is immense ; stones of a very large size are transported, and a large furrow is soon formed.
The P. marinus remain in pairs, two at each spawning-place, and while there employed retain
themselves affixed to a large stone. The P. fluviatilis, and another small species which I have
not determined" (probably P. planeri), "are gregarious, acting .in concert, and forming, in
the same manner, a general spawning bed." It is hardly necessary to remark, in reference to
the size of the stones which the lampreys manage to remove with such apparent facility, that a
much less degree of muscular power suffices to lift these under water than would be required in
the lighter medium, air, in which we move. In many parts of England the different lampreys
are popularly termed " nine-eyes," from the above-mentioned seven small orifices on each side
of the head, through which, in place of gills, they breathe. The large species is in many parts
exclusively designated " lamprey," and the two smaller kinds are .commonly confounded under
the term " lampern." — ED.

30

NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

pellets, after the manner of hawks. When full, like a dog, it
hides what it cannot eat.

The young of the barn-owl are not easily
raised, as they want a constant supply of
fresh* mice : whereas the young of the
brown-owl will eat indiscriminately all that
is brought : snails, rats, kittens, puppies,
magpies, and any kind of carrion or offal.f

The house-martins have eggs still, and
squab-young. The last swift I observed was
about the twenty-first of August : it was a

Red starts, fly catchers, white throats, and reguli non cristati,\
still appear ; but I have seen no black caps lately.

I forgot to mention that I once saw, in Christ-church-college
quadrangle in Oxford, on a very sunny warm morning, a house-
martin flying about, and settling on the parapet, so late as the
twentieth of November.

Common Bat. Long Eared Bat.

At present I know only two species of bats, the common
vespertilio murinus and the vespertilio auribus.§

I was much entertained last summer with a tame bat, which

* This fact in the economy of the tawny-hooter, or brown-owl (aluco stridula) » which is not
mentioned in any of the histories of it that I have seen, I am enabled to corroborate from re-
peated observation. It always, when at liberty, buries the superfluity of a meal, scraping up the
ground with its claws ; and I have known it when hungry to return to its hoard, and avail itself
of its instinctive foresight.— ED.

t Barn-owls are easily enough raised, if taken sufficiently young. The wild adults of this
species are by no means such general feeders as the brown-owls.— ED.

t Reguli non cristati. The different " willow-wrens," as they are often called, or species of
the pettychaps-genus (sylvia, as now restricted), are here intended. It is remarkable that "the
common gray fly-catcher, one of the very latest of our migrant birds to appear in spring, is also
one of the last to depart in autumn ; the contrary being the case with the garden-fan vet, swift,
and most other species which are backward in their arrivals. The circumstance appears expli-
cable from the nature cf its food, winged insects being much more abundant at the close of
autumn than in the spring. — ED.

§ Mr. White here means the pepistrelle-bat by the term murinus, a mistake into which almost
every British naturalist has fallen. The true V. murinus is a very large species, fifteen inches in

BATS. — HAWKS. 31

would take flies out of a person's hand. If you gave it any thing
to eat, it brought its wings round before the mouth, hovering
and hiding its head in the manner of birds of prey when they
feed. The adroitness it showed in shearing off the wings of the
flies, which were always rejected, was worthy of observation, and
pleased me much. Insects seemed to be most acceptable, though
it did not refuse raw flesh when offered : so that the notion, that
bats go down chimneys and gnaw mens' bacon, seems no impro-
bable story. While I amused myself with this wonderful quad-
ruped, I saw it several times confute the vulgar opinion, that
bats when down on a flat surface cannot get on the wing again,
by rising with great ease from the floor. It ran, I observed,
with more despatch than I was aware of; but in a most ridiculous
and grotesque manner.*

Bats drink on the wing, like swallows, by sipping the surface
as they play over pools and streams. They love to frequent
waters, not only for the sake of drinking, but on account of in-
sects, which are found over them in the greatest plenty. As I
was going, some years ago, pretty late, in a boat from Richmond
to Sunbury, on a warm summer's evening, I think I saw myriads
of bats between the two places. The air swarmed with them all
along the Thames, so that hundreds were in sight at a time.

LETTER XII. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

SIR, November 4, 1767-

IT gave me no small satisfaction to hear that the falcof turned
out an uncommon one. I must confess I should have been

extent of wing, and is extremely rare in this country. No less than sixteen species may now be
obtained in this country. — ED.

* The species of which the above is related is the common bat (vespertilio mwrinws ), which, in
confinement, I have often seen eat flies in the manner here specified. At the time of penning
this letter Mr. White knew but of two species ; and the vespertilio vlecotus vulgaris (or, as he
terms it, vespertilio auribus) I have invariably found to refuse all sustenance when deprived of
liberty. The latter is by far the commonest species in Surrey. — ED.

t'This hawk proved to be the falco peregrinus. This noble bird, the peregrine falcon, one of
the most typical of birds of prey, is the species which, in the days of falconry, was in most gene-
ral request for the pursuit of herons and other large game. It is of rare occurrence in the south-
eastern counties of England, but is not uncommon upon the mountainous and rugged districts
of the north, nor along the whole range of lofty precipices which bound the west. It may occa-
sionally be seen early in the morning in the midst of London, perched upon St. Pauls, or on
Westminster Abbey ; but is never noticed in the environs, a very few minutes' flight sufficing to
transport it a distance of twenty or thirty miles.— ED.

32 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

better pleased to have heard that I had sent you a bird that
you had never seen before ; but that, I find, would be a difficult
task.

I have procured some of the mice mentioned in my former let-
ters, a young one and a female with young, both of which I have
preserved in brandy. From the colour, shape, size, and manner
of nesting, I make no doubt but that the species is nondescript.
They are much smaller, and more slender, than the mus domes-
ticus medius of Ray, and have more of the squirrel or dormouse
colour. Their belly is white, a straight line along their sides
divides the shades of their back and belly. They never enter
into houses, are carried into ricks and barns with the sheaves,
abound in harvest, and build their nests amidst the straws of the
corn above the ground, and sometimes in thistles. They breed
as many as eight at a litter, in a little round nest composed of
the blades of grass or wheat.

One of these nests I procured this autumn,
most artificially platted, and composed of the
blades of wheat ; perfectly round, and about
the size of a cricket-ball ; with the aperture
so ingeniously closed, that there was no dis-
covering to what part it belonged. It was
so compact and well filled, that it would roll
across the table without being discomposed,
though it contained eight little mice that
were naked and blind. As this nest was
perfectly full, how could the dam come at her Field Mouse and Nest.
litter respectively so as to administer a teat to each ? perhaps she
opens different places for that purpose, adjusting them again when
the business is over ; but she could not possibly be contained
herself in the ball with her young, which moreover would be
daily increasing in bulk. This wonderful procreant cradle, and
elegant instance of the efforts of instinct, was found in a wheat-
field suspended in the head of a thistle.*

A gentleman, curious in birds, wrote me word that his servant
had shot one last January, in that severe weather, which he be-
lieved would puzzle me. I called to see it this summer, not
knowing what to expect : but, the moment I took it in hand, I

* Of this pretty little animal, the harvest-mouse (mus messorius), remarkable for its slightly
prehensile tail, Mr. White was the discoverer. It is one of the smallest quadrupeds in existence ;
and, like the rest of its tribe which inhabit the open country, is in some seasons very much
more plentiful than in others. — ED.

WANDERING WAXWING. 33

pronounced it the male garrulus bohemicus, or German silk-tail,
from the five peculiar crimson tags or points which it carries at
the ends of five of the short remiges. It cannot, I suppose, with
any propriety, be called an English bird : and yet I see, by Ray's
Philosoph. Letters, that great flocks of them, feeding on haws,
appeared in this kingdom in the winter of 1685.*

The mention of haws puts me in mind that there is a total
failure of that wild fruit, so conducive to the support of many
of the winged nation. For the same severe weather, late in the
spring, which cut off all the produce of the more tender and
curious trees, destroyed also that of the more hardy and common.

* This truly beautiful bird, the wandering waxwing (bombycilla vagans), is by no means so
rare a straggler to this country as it has generally been described, a few being shot every winter
in the eastern counties. I have repeatedly met with it, in Surrey, in small country collections of
stuffed birds ; and there are few preservers of animals in these parts, but have once or twice
been entrusted with a recent specimen of it. I have myself, at different times, seen several. In-
stances are upon record of their appearing some winters inconsiderable flocks, which in general
are by no means shy, or difficult of approach, so that their manners may be observed with faci-
lity. Mr. Audubon inforths me that he lately saw a large flock near Edinburgh. We learn from
Bewick that great numbers were taken in Northumberland in the years 17S9 and 1/90, and the
Ftev. Perceval Hunter mentions a flock of them having appeared in Kent in 1828. They are very
gregarious, and strong and swift upon the wing ; and, when they alight, often crowd so closely
together that many have been brought down at a single discharge. Whenever one settles on a
tree or bush where there are berries, it calls its companions with a sort of " peep ;" and when
they first take wing, all of them utter a note resembling "zi, zi, zi." It is a bird of rather pecu-
liar make, the body being large, and heavy (in proportion to the head and neck), and very long, as
is also the tibia bone of the leg, as compared to the tarsus. It weighs rather more than two
ounces. The feet are formed for perching upon twigs, but are ill adapted for progressive move-
ment, either on the ground (where they very rarely descend) or from bough to bough. Like its
transatlantic congener, the American waxwing (B. Americana), or "cedar-bird" of Wilson's Or-
nithology, it is rather a gluttonous species, and has been known to devour in a single day, in
confinement, a quantity of food equal to its own weight. It principally subsists on berries of
various kinds, and is particularly fond of those of the mountain-ash ; the specimens I have
examined had been feeding on haws. They prey also— like other dentirostral birds — upon insects,
and in times of necessity haye been seen to eat the buds and sprouts of various trees. In con-
finement (contrary to what is usually stated) they are very hardy, requiring but little care, and
will live for a considerable number of years, feeding on whatever is given to them, and thriving
apparently on the coarsest food ; but they are very lazy and inactive in the cage, and apt to be-
come overloaded with fat. According to Bechstein, whose description of them in a captive state
is here condensed, they drink often, and are fond of sprinkling themselves with water, but
are careful not to wet their plumage much. They have rather a pleasing, but low and whistling
sort of song, which in confinement is uttered at least ten months in the year, moving the crest
up and down while singing, but scarcely moving the throat. They are impatient of warmth,
which indicates the summer habitat to be in very elevated districts, or far to the north ; but their
place and manner of nidification are as yet unknown.

I have observed that birds of this species vary much in richness of plumage, and that some of
the older individuals have the tips of all the quill-feathers beautifully edged with yellowish white.
Such specimens have generally the yellow markings of the wings and tail unusually bright, and
the wax-like appendages to the wings larger and of a more intense colour, these, however, are
not strictly speaking appendages, but modifications of the substance of the barb of the feather. Of
many dozens of these birds that I have seen, 1 have met with only two marked as above specified,
both of them males, one of which is now in my possession; and I have another male specimen, *
single feather of which (the second primary) in one wing, is thus edged at the tip. When all are
so the beauty of the bird is very considerably enhanced, — ED.

D

34 NATURAL HISTORY OT SELBORNE.

Some birds, haunting with the missel-thrushes, and feeding
on the berries of the yew-tree, which
answered to the description of the
merula torquata, or ring-ouzel, were
lately seen in this neighbourhood.
I employed some people to procure
me a specimen, but without success.
See Letter VIII.

Query — Might not Canary birds be
naturalized to this climate, provided

their eggs were put, in the spring, into the nests of some
of their congeners, as goldfinches, greenfinches, &c. ? Before
winter perhaps they might be hardened, and able to shift for
themselves.*

About ten years ago I used to spend some weeks yearly at
Sunbury, which is one of those pleasant villages lying on the
Thames, near Hampton-court. In the autumn, I could not help
being much amused with those myriads of the swallow kind
which assemble in those parts. But what struck me most was,
that, from the time they began to congregate, forsaking the
chimneys and houses, they roosted every night in the osier-beds
of the aits of that river. Now this resorting towards that element,
at that season of the year, seems to give some countenance to the
northern opinion (strange as it is) of their retiring under water.
A Swedish naturalist is so much persuaded of that fact, that he
talks, in his calendar of Flora, as familiarly of the swallow's going
under water in the beginning of September, as he would of his
poultry going to roost a little before sunset.f

An observing gentleman in London writes me word that he
saw an house-martin, on the twenty-third of last October, flying
in and out of its nest in the Borough. And I myself, on the
twenty-ninth of last October (as I was travelling through Oxford)
saw four or five swallows hovering round and settling on the roof
of the county hospital.

* I have once or twice seen Canary finches flying about loose during the summer months,
which had of course made their escape from confinement ; but they are too unsuspicious, far
too easily entrapped, to stand any chance against the snares that are always laid for them. They
an; sure to comedown instantly to the call of a bird of their own species. A canary in the vicinity
of my residence was one evening observed to fly direct to a hole in a dry bank — a warm, but rather
a singular roosting-place : it was there captured. — ED.

t The idea of a swallow being drowned seems never to have occurred to those persons who
imagine that this tribe of birds pass the winter, like frogs, at the bottom of pools. Independently of
all other considerations, their plumage would be in rather a strange condition at the time of their
emergence in the spring. They moult in winter.— ED.

FLOCKS OF CHAFFINCHES. 35

Now is it likely that these poor little birds (which perhaps had
not been hatched but a few weeks) should, at that late season of
the year, and from so midland a county, attempt a voyage to
Goree or Senegal, almost as far as the equator?*

I acquiesce entirely in your opinion that, though most of the
swallow kind may migrate, yet that some do stay behind and
hide with us, during the winter.

As to the short-winged soft-billed birds, which come trooping
in such numbers in the spring, I am at a loss even what to sus-
pect about them. I watched them narrowly this year, and saw
them abound till about Michaelmas, when they appeared no
longer. Subsist they cannot openly among us, and yet elude
the eyes of the inquisitive : and, as to their hiding, no man pre-
tends to have found any of them in a torpid state in the winter.
But with regard to their migration, what difficulties attend that
supposition ! that such feeble bad fliers (who the summer long
never flit but from hedge to hedge) should be able to traverse
vast seas and continents, in order to enjoy milder seasons amidst
the regions of Africa !

LETTER XIII. To T. PENNANT, Esa

SIB, Selborne, Jan. 22, 1/68

As in one of your former letters you expressed the more satis-
faction from my correspondence on account of my living in the
most southerly county ; so now I may return the compliment,
and expect to have my curiosity gratified by your living much
more to the north.

For many years past I have observed that towards Christmas
vast flocks of chaffinches have appeared in the fields; many
more, I used to think, than could be hatched in any one neigh-
bourhood. But, when I came to observe them more narrowly,
I was amazed to find that they seemed to me to be almost all
hens. I communicated my suspicions to some intelligent neigh-
bours, who, after taking pains about the matter, declared that
they also thought them all mostly females ; at least fifty to one.
This extraordinary occurrence brought to my mind the remark
of Linnaeus ; that " before winter all their hen chaffinches mi-

* See Adanson's voyage to Senega!.
D 2

36 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

grate through Holland into Italy." Now I want to know, from
some curious person in the north, whether there are any large
flocks of these finches with them in the winter, and of which
sex they mostly consist ? For, from such intelligence, one might
be able to judge whether our female flocks migrate from the
other end of the island, or whether they come over to us from
the continent.*

We have, in the winter, vast flocks
of the common linnets ; more, I think,
than can be bred in any one district.
These, I observe, when the spring
advances, assemble on some tree in
the sunshine, and join all in a gentle
sort of chirping, as if they were about ^_

to break up their winter quarters and com"^ Linnet,

betake themselves to their proper svimmer-homes.t It is well

* It is stated by Mr. Selby that " in Northumberland and Scotland, this separating takes
place about the month of November; and" that, "from that period till the return of spring, few
females are to be seen, and these few m distinct societies." This, however, requires a little
qualifying, as there are many of both sexes that remain throughout the winter, and do not flock,
even in the warmer parts of Scotland. In ordinary winters in the south of England, a very large
proportion of them certainly do not congregate; and, of those that do, the sexes are not invari-
ably apart, but associate together along with yellow-buntings, green gross-beaks, and sometimes
mountain-spinks, or " bramble-finches." Once or twice I have met with flocks of white-winged
spinks, or "chaffinches," consisting entirely of hens, in Kent and Surrey, which I suspect were
from the north, but such flocks are here of comparatively rare occurrence, being the exception
rather than the rule. — ED.

t " Every one," observes Sir W. Jardine, in one of his excellent notes to the 8vo. edition of
Wilson's Ornithology, " who has lived much in the country, must have often remarked the com-
mon European linnets congregating towards the close of a fine winter's evening, perched on the
summit of some bare tree, pluming themselves in the last rays of the sun, chirruping the com-
mencement of their evening song, and then bursting simultaneously into one general chorus,
again resuming their single strains, and again joining, as if happy, and rejoicing at the termina-
tion of their day's employment." No particular allusion is here made to the .approach of spring,
which agrees with my own observation. It is remarkable that the males of our different species
of linnet (sub-genus linaria), in confinement, never acquire the bright crimson and roseate tints
which (chiefly in summer) more or less distinguish all of them in a state of nature. The feathers
on the crown of the head and breast of the common species (fringilla linarin cannabina), which,
in the wild state, are in winter dark brownish red, and are then fringed with deciduous dusky
f dgings, and which in the spring gradually change to a brilliant carmine, the tips, having by
degrees disappeared, are in the cage produced of a dull sombre brown colour, a slight shine on
them just intimating where the brighter hue is situate in the wild birds ; and, although the
deciduous fringes, or tips of the feathers, do partially wear off in due time, the colour of the
feather itself undergoes not the slightest change during the whole summer. The males of the
common dwarf-linnet or" lesser redpole" (fringilla linaria pusilla] , and of the closely allied mealy
linnet, or "greater" or "stony redpole"* (fringilla linaria canescens), after moulting in tie
cage, become of a saffron tint upon the crown of the head and breast, somewhat similar to that
on the heads of the wild females ; and the bright roseate tint above the tail of the male mountain-
linnet or "twite" (fringilla linaria montana), gives place in captivity to alike hue. None of
the red-breasted linnets acquire, in the wild state, their full colours till after the second moult.— ED.

* The latter term I have invariably found to be applied by the London bird-catchers to this
»pccie*, and not to ihe common and smaller one, as it is stated in the books.

THE BUNTINGS AND WAGTAILS. 37

known, at least, that the swallows and the fieldfares do con-
gregate with a gentle twittering before they make their respective
departure.

You may depend on it that the
bunting, emberiza miliaria, does not
leave this country in the winter. In
January, 1/67, 1 saw several dozen
of them, in the midst of a severe frost,
among the bushes on the downs
near Andover. In our woodland-en-
closed district it is a rare bird.*

Wagtails, both white and yellow,f

are with us all the winter. Quails crowd to our southern coast,
and are often killed in numbers by people that go on purpose.

Mr Stillingfleet, in his tracts, says that, " if the wheatear
(vinanihe) does not quit England, it certainly shifts places ; for
about harvest they are not to be found, where there was before

* The "common" or corn-bunting (emberiza miliaria) is plentiful enough throughout the year
in Surrey, and most parts of the south of .England, frequenting the arable lands. Mr. Knapp
says of it, " I witnessed this morning a rick of barley entirely stripped of its thatching, which
the bunting had effected, by seizing the end of the straw and deliberately drawing it out, to search
for any grain that might yet remain. The sparrow and other birds will burrow in the stack and
pilfer the corn ; but the deliberate operation of unroofing the edifice appears to be peculiar to
this bunting." — ED.

t By " yellow" Mr. White here evidently intends the gray-wagtail of the books (motacilla
einerea, boarula of Linnaeus), a species partly yellow, but which in general ronly appears in the
southern counties during the winter, and of which no instance that I am aware of has been
hitherto recorded of its having been known to breed in the south of England. 1 once, however,
observed a pair of them upon Penge-common, Kent, at the end of May, that evidently had a nest
in the neighbourhood, though 1 was unsuccessful in my repeated endeavours to find it. The
«ommon field - wagtail .(motacilla-budytes flavissima) , or "yellow-wagtail" of most writers, but
which is now with propriety arranged in a separate minimum division, invariably migrates, a
fact of which (independently of their disappearance) 1 have the best possible evidence, having
noticed a small flock of them, early one morning in September, upon the sands in the isle of
Jersey, which had apparently not long alighted from a journey across the channel, and had pro-
bably taken their departure from some part of the west of EnglSnd. They re-appear ;in the
southern counties about April. An allied continental species, the blue-headed field-wagtail
(motacilla'budytes neglecta)t differing considerably in the colour of its head, but otherwise very
similar to the flavissima, has lately been detected by Mr. Doubleday, in Essex, the attention of
that gentleman having been aroused by observing a pair of them in the month of October, some
time after the common kind had left the country, from which, indeed, it would seem, that the
•motacilla-budytes neglecta departs later in the season. Both are handsome, but songless birds,
in which latter they differ from the more typical -motadllif (of which our common pied species
may be considered a characteristic example), which do sing a little. They differ also in their
habits, frequenting corn-fields and enclosures rather than the vicinity of water, and generally
abound very much where sheep are pastured. The general character of their colouring is different,
and they have the long hind claw and very much the form and manners of the typical pipits
{nnthus}, to which genus they are considerably allied. All these birds undergo two general
changes of feather in the year. The field-wagtail's summer garb is merely much brighter than
that of winter; but the summer plumage of all the typical motacilla! exhibits a black throat, and
their winter dress a white one (as in many of their plovers), besides which they otherwise more
or less differ, according to the species. — ED.

38 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

great plenty of them." This well accounts for the vast quanti-
ties that are caught about that time
on the south downs near Lewes, where
they are esteemed a delicacy. There
have been shepherds, I have been
credibly informed, that have made
many pounds in a season by catching
them in traps. And though such
multitudes are taken, I never saw (and
I am well acquainted with those parts) above two or three at a
time : for they are never gregarious. They may perhaps migrate
in general ; and, for that purpose, draw towards the coast
of Sussex in autumn: but that they do not all withdraw
I am sure ; because I see a few stragglers in many counties,
at all times of the year, especially about warrens and stone
quarries.*

I have no acquaintance, at present, among the gentlemen of
the navy : but have written to a friend, who was a sea-chaplain
in the late war, desiring him to look into his minutes, with re-
spect to birds that settled on their rigging during their voyage
up or down the channel. What Hasselquist says on that subject
is remarkable : there were little short-winged birds frequently
coming on board his ship all the way from our channel quite up
to the Levant, especially before squally weather.f

What you suggest, with regard to Spain, is highly probable.

* By far the great majority of fallow-chats or " wheatears" (saxicola cenanthe), migrate. Mr.
White is perfectly correct in saying that they never flock, though this has been by some disputed ;
many may often b* seen in autumn collected about one spot, but they never fly together. — Ea.

t In the seasons of migration, nothing is more common, in the Channel and German Ocean,
han for our various short-winged birds of passage to settle on the rigging of vessels, a fact
which no doubt must influence in some slight degree their distribution, species being thus occa-
sionally brought to our shores which otherwise would not have landed here, and others, perhap*
being carried away far to sea. I once knew as many as sixteen different kinds (in all about a
hundred and fifty individuals) to alight on a single trading smack, during its voyage to Aberdeen
and back to London, in the month of September. There were nine or ten of the tiny golden-
crowned kinglets (regulus auricapillus') , the smallest of British birds, which appeared to hate
arrived from the north-east, having probably winged their way from Norway. These were greatly
exhausted, and suffered themselves to be taken without difficulty. An astonishingly extensive
migration of the same diminutive bird is related by Mr. Selby. See his " British Ornithology," in
loco- For its size even, this species is comparatively feeble upon the wing, and can only migrate
when borne along by a favourable gale of wind. The thousands which that gentleman observed to
arrive on the Northumbrian coast, he states to have been " after a very severe gale, with thick
fog, from the north-east (but veering towards its conclusion to the east and south of east) ;" and
he adds that " many of them were so fatigued by the length of their flight, or perhaps by the
unfavourable shift of wind, as to be unable to rise again from the ground, and great numbers were
in consequence caught or destroyed. This flight," he continues, " must have been immense in
quantity, as its extent was traced through the whole length of the coasts of Northumberland and
Durham."— En

MICE'S NESTS. 39

The winters of Andalusia are so mild, that, in all likelihood, the
soft-billed birds that leave us at that season may find insects
sufficient to support them there.*

Some young man, possessed of fortune, health, and leisure,
should make an autumnal voyage into that kingdom ; and should
spend a year there, investigating the natural history of that
vast country. Mr. Willughbyf passed through that kingdom on
such an errand ; but he seems to have skirted along in a super-
ficial manner and an ill humour, being much disgusted at the
rude dissolute manners of the people.

I have no friend left now at Sunbury to apply to about the
swallows roosting on the aits of the Thames ; nor can I hear any
more about those birds which I suspected were merula torquata.

As to the small mice, I have further to remark, that though
they hang their nests for breeding up amidst the straws of the
standing corn, above the ground ;J yet I find that, in the winter,
they burrow deep in the earth, and make warm beds of grass :
but their grand rendezvous seems to be in corn-ricks, into which
they are carried at harvest. A neighbour housed an oat-rick
lately, under the thatch of which were assembled near an hun-
dred, most of which were taken ; and some I saw. I measured
them; and found that, from nose to tail, they were just two
inches and a quarter, and their tails just two inches long. Two
of them, in a scale, weighed down just one copper halfpenny,
which is about the third of an ounce avoirdupois : so that I sup-
pose they are the smallest quadrupeds in this island.§ A full-
grown mus medius domesticus weighs, I find, one ounce lumping

* Syria, Egypt, and the interior of the Barbary States, appear to be the general rendezvous, in
winter, of most of our European summer-birds of passage, but very few, if any, remain in Spain.
— Eb.

t See Ray's Travels, p. 466.

J The breeding nests of the harvest mouse (mus messorins) vary a good deal fti form, some of
them being round, others oval, and many of a pear shape. They are usually attached to some
growing vegetable, a bean stalk, or stem of wheat, with which they rock and waver in the wind.
Occasionally, however, they are fixed in a bush. — ED.

§ They are the smallest of our known British quadrupeds, but not the most diminutive of the
genus, a yet more minute species having been discovered in France, and named by M. F. Cuvier
M. pumilus- There is indeed great reason to suspect that additional species will yet be detected
in our own island, particularly in North Britain, whence I have information of at least two that I
cannot reconcile with any description. Our smaller mammifers have been too much neglected by
naturalists. The above-mentioned mouse (Hf. messorius), which Mr. White has the merit of
discovering, is an extremely beautiful little species, common in many districts of the south
of England, and is more allied to the house-mouse (M. domesticus) than to the common field-
mouse or "jumper-mouse," as the latter is termed in Surrey (M- sylvaticus), but is a livelier
and more active species than either, and more scansorial in its make, having longer and more
flexile toes, and a considerable muscular power in the tail, by means of which it is enabled to
obtain a firmer hold of whatever it is climbing on, by slightly coiling this organ around it, but
which does not exactly amount to what is ordinarily designated a prehensile power (as has been

40 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

weight, which is more than six times as much as the mouse
above ; and measures from nose to rump four inches and a quar-
ter, and the same in its tail. We have had a very severe frost
and deep snow this month. My thermometer was one day four-
teen degrees and an half below the freezing point, within doors.
The tender evergreens were injured pretty much. It was very
providential that the air was still, and the ground well covered
with snow, else vegetation in general must have suffered pro-
digiously. There is reason to believe that some days were more
severe than any since the year 1739-40.

I am, &c. &c,

LETTER XIV. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, March 12, 1768.

IF some curious gentleman would procure the head of a fallow-
deer, and have it dissected, he would find it furnished with two
spiracula, or breathing-places, besides the nostrils ; probably
analogous to the puncta lachrymalia in the human head. When
deer are thirsty they plunge their noses, like some horses, very
deep under water, while in the act of drinking, and continue
them in that situation for a considerable time : but, to obviate
any inconvenience, they can open two vents, one at the inner
corner of each eye, having a communication with the nose. Here
seems to be an extraordinary provision of nature worthy our
attention ; and which has not, that I know of, been noticed by
any naturalist. For it looks as if these creatures would not be
suffocated, though both their mouths and nostrils were stopped.

tated), for the little animal could by no means thus support its weight. It is rather more
nsectirorous than the other species of the genus, flies and other insects being its favourite food,
which it captures with great adroitness, springing after them to a considerable distance ; and, in

aptivity, it displays very strikingly the hoarding in
f animals, always biting out the germ or growing par
s also done by ants, and I believe all other animals th
tate, its ordinary drink is most probably the dew ; for, e
t certainly prefers to quench its thirst by sipping pend
leans its face, raising itself upon the hind feet, at wh

inct, so common among the rodent order
of each grain before storfng it away, as
have similar propensities. In the wild

en in confinement, like many small birds,
nt drops of water. After drinking it always

h time its attitudes are often particularly

raceful and elegant, being enabled to extend its body at a very considerable angle. It is aston-
shingly active, and the length of time it will continue turning the rotatory appendage in its
age, will surprise any person unaccustomed to behold it. It has but little of the disagreeable

odour of the common mouse, and will live for several years in captivity, but, unless taken when

quite young, it mostly continues shy and timorous, especially before strangers, even to its death.

With the exception of colour, and having rather smaller ears, its general aspect is very much that

of the common mouse.— ED.

FALLOW DEER. 41

This curious formation of the head may be of singular sendee

Fallow Deer.

to beasts of chase, by affording them free respiration : and no
doubt these additional nostrils are thrown open when they are
hard run.* Mr. Ray observed that, at Malta, the owners slit

* In answer to this account, Mr. Pennant sent me the following curious and pertinent reply.
" I was much surprised to find in the antelope something analogous to what you mention 'as so
remarkable in deer. This animal also has a long slit beneath each eye, which can be opened and
abut at pleasure. On holding an orange to one, the creature made as much use of those orifices
as of his nostrils, applying them to the fruit, and seeming to smeli it through them."— Note. Both
White, however, and his friend Pennant were here misled by appearances, for it turns out, upon
anatomical investigation, that there is no communication between these cavities and the nostrils,
they being rather the site of a peculiar secretion. See a paper " On the infra-orbital cavities in
Deer and Antelopes," by Dr. Jacob, read before the British Association in Dublin, in 1835, and
published in the " Edinburgh Philosophical Journal" for October, in that year, from which 1
quote the following:— "A statement respecting these infra-orbital cavities has been made by the
Rev. Gilbert White, in his « Natural History of Selborne,' which might appear to originate in
«ome error, were it not supported by the more recent testimony of Major Hamilton Smith. These
gentlemen state that, when the deer drinks, the air is forced out through these .cavities, and,
according to Major Hamilton Smith, may be felt by the hand, and affects the flame of a candle
when held to it. Notwithstanding such a positive statement by two observers of established
character for faithful description, the passage of air through these cavities cannot take place,
they are perfectly impervious towards the nostril ; but 1 have no doubt that the fact stated is
correct, the air which escapes passing, not through the infra-orbital sacs, but through the lachry-
mal passages, which ate very large, consisting of two openings capable of admitting the end of
a crow's quill, the entrance to a tortuous canal, which conducts the tears to the extremity of the
nose. Introducing a pipe into the outlet of the nasal duct, at the extremity of the nose, I ca»
without difficulty force a current of air or water through the nasal doct [Quere, lachrymal
sinus ? — Ed.] ; and it therefore appears reasonable to admit that the effect, observed by the two
gentlemen alluded to, arose from the animal forcing the air into the nostrils while the nose and
mouth were immersed in water." — ED.

42 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

up the nostrils of such asses as were hard worked: for they,
being naturally straight or small, did not admit air sufficient to
s^rve them when they travelled, or laboured, in that hot climate.
And we know that grooms, and gentlemen of the turf, think
large nostrils necessary, and a perfection, in hunters and running
horses.

Oppian, the Greek poet, by the following line, seems to have
had some notion that stags have four spiracula : —

" Terpaou/iot pives, iricrvpes irvoir)(Ti dtauAot."

" Quadrifidae nares, quadruplices ad re&pirationem canales."

Opp. Cyn. Lib. ii. 1. 181.

Writers, copying from one another, make Aristotle say thai
goats breathe at their ears ; whereas he asserts just the con-
trary : — " A\KfJLaitt)V yap OVK a\rj9r] Xfyet, ^afjievog avairveiv rag
aiyae Kara ra (ora" " Alcmseon does not advance what is true,
when he avers that goats breathe through their ears." — History
of Animals. Book I. chap. xi.

LETTER XV. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, March 30, 1768.

SOME intelligent country people have a notion that we have, in
these parts, a species of the genus
mustelinum, besides the weasel, stoat,
ferret, and polecat ; a little reddish
beast, not much bigger than a field
mouse, but much longer, which they
call a cane. This piece of intelli-
gence can be little depended on;
but further enquiry may be made.*

* That a fourth species of the subgenus putorius (subordinate to mustela)> the group to which
Mr. White here refers, exists in England, 1 have found to be a very common opinion in the
southern counties. I have repeatedly heard of it in Surrey, where it is denominated a kine, and
it has often been described to me as being -very similar to the common weasel, but much smaller,
the usual argument adduced for its distinctness being, that it has frequently been observed with
young ones. The fact is, there is considerable disparity of size between the sexes of the common
weasel, the female being much smaller than the male, so much so as to have given rise to the
above supposition. We ha*e but three species, nor does western Europe produce more : the fitch-
weasel, "polecat," or "foumart" (mustela-putorius furo) > which in its domesticated state i»
termed the "ferret," the stoat-weasel or " ermine" (mustela-putorius erminus}, and the " com-
mon," or (as it might be better termed), the dwaif-weasel (mustela-putorius milgttfii)t all of which
are plentiful throughout the country. Of the typical muslelae we have the white-breasted marten

BULLFINCHES. 43

A gentleman in this neighbourhood had two milk-white rooks
in one nest. A booby of a carter, finding them before they
were able to fly, threw them down and destroyed them, to the
regret of the owner, who would have been glad to have pre-
served such a curiosity in his rookery. I saw the birds myself
nailed against the end of a barn, and was surprised to find that
their bills, legs, feet, and claws were milk-white.

A shepherd saw, as he thought, some white larks on a down
above my house this winter : were not these the emberiza nivalis,
the snow-flake of the Brit. Zool. ? No doubt they were.*

A few years ago I saw a cock bullfinch in a cage, which had
been caught in the fields after it was come to its full colours.
In about a year it began to look dingy ; and, blackening every
succeeding year, it became coal-black at the end of four. Its

(mustela foina) , now extremely rare in the south-eastern counties, and the yellow-breasted marten
(mustela martes), which is chiefly found in Wales and Scotland, being everywhere an inhabitant
of wilder and more elevated districts than the other. — ED.

* Snow-flecks (plectrophanes nivalis of modern naturalists) are but very rarely observed south of
the metropolis, even in severe winters. They are visitants from the extreme north, lively and
interesting birds, allied to the buntings, being modifications of that form, approximating in
several particulars toward the larks, that can either run like the one or hop like the other, but
which in general use the former mode of progression, having the hind claw lengthened as in the
lark genus, though not (in the common and typical species) to such an extent. The wing is
differently formed from either, being more pointed, and not exhibiting any elongation of tht
tertiary feathers, as is more or less the case with all the members of both those genera. In the
countries where they breed, they are said to sing upon the wing like larks, though I should sus-
pect, from the diverse shape of the organs of flight, not exactly in the same^ manner. Here they
are very gregarious, frequenting the open country, and are never seen to perch — at least upon
trees, which however they do with perfect facility in confinement. They are restless, seldom
remaining long in one situation, fly rather swiftly, and like starlings in a compact body, and
" frequently before settling on the ground," as is well remarked by Mr. Selby, " they make
sudden wheels, coming almost in collision with each other, at which time a peculiar guttural
note is produced." Their call-note is pleasing (a sort of chee-urt), and is often repeated during
their flight. They are hardy and healthy birds in captivity, but do not moult well, and in the
cage are always remarkably uneasy and restless during the night, at which time their peculiar
shrill call-note is often uttered. "Their song," as Bechsteen correctly observes, "would be
rather agreeable, were it not interrupted in a peculiar manner : it is a warbling mingled with
some high noisy notes, descending slowly from shrill to deep, and a little strong and broken
whistling." They are fond of bathing, or rather of sprinkling themselves with water, but their
plumage being very close and thick, adapted to a cold climate, does not readily become wet.

44 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

chief food was hemp-seed. Such influence has food on the colour
of animals!* The pied and mottled colours of domesticated ani-
mals are supposed to be owing to high, various, and unusual
food.f

I had remarked, for years, that the root of the cuckoo-
pint (arum) was frequently scratched out of the dry
banks of hedges, and eaten in severe snowy weather.
After observing, with some exactness, myself, and
getting others to do the same, we found it was the
thrush kind that searched it out. The root of the
arum is remarkably warm and pungent.

Our flocks of female chaffinches have not yet forsaken
us. The blackbirds and thrushes are very much
thinned down by the fierce weather in January.

In the middle of February I discovered, in my tall Cuckoo-pint,
hedges, a little bird that raised my curiosity : it was of that yellow-
green colour that belongs to the salicaria kind, and, I think, was soft-
billed. It was no parus ,• and was too long and too big for the
golden-crowned wren, appearing most like the largest willow-
wren. It hung sometimes with its back downwards, but never

They are difficult to tame. Another species, the lark-heeled snow-fleck (P. lapponicd) , which
approximates still more towards the lark gsnus, has lately occurred two or three times in this
country (once in Sussex), and may be looked for among the heaps of dead larks which are
every winter exposed for sale in the markets; it is said to sing very like a linnet. — ED.

* Many species of small birds are liable to be thus affected by feeding much upon hemp-seed ;
among others, the field-lark and the wood-lark, but none perhaps so readily as the alp, or "bull-
finch" (pyrrhula vulgaris). Still it would appear that this diet is only a predisposing, not the
real cause of this change of colour, for I have known the small tropical amandavat (amandava
punctata? mi/it, fringilla amandava Linnaeus), of the bird-shops, to become wholly black when
fed entirely on Canary-seed. — En.

t The resemblance of most animals to the general hue of their indigenous locality is almost
too obvious to need exemplification. The wood-snipe is of the exact tint of the dead leaves over
which it runs, the snipe that of the marsh, and the rail that of coarse and decaying vegetation in
the ditch : " the ptarmigan," observes Mr. Mudie, and he might have added the mountain-hare
(/epiw Tnonfanws), "is lichened rock in summer, hoar frost in autumn, and snow in winter;
grouse (red ptarmigan) are brown heather, black-game are peat-bank and shingle, and partridges
are clods and withered stalks the whole year round." A provision of course intended to furnish
them with some means of eluding the piercing ken of their winged enemies. When creatures are
taken from their particular natural haunts, a disposition, in the next generation, to vary in hue
is commonly evinced more or less, according to the species ; efforts, as it were, of nature to ac-
commodate the offspring to the change ; and so remarkable is this in some species, that the
breeders of white and pied pheasants declare that albino or mottled individuals may almost
always be raised from an ordinarily coloured pair, by merely confining the latter in a room white-
washed, or splashed with whitening. Cattle have a great disposition to associate in pairs, so much
so that graziers are well aware that oxen will rarely fatten, unless stalled in winter next to their
favourite companion ; and it has been observed that a cow's first calf much more frequently re-
sembles its female companion than it does the sire, however different in colour these may be. To
follow out this subject in its various bearings, would far exceed the limits of a note, but 1 may
here further observe, in conclusion, that, were Jacob's curious experiments to be tried again at
(he present day, they would doubtless be attended with very similar results. — ED.

STONE CURLEW. 45

continuing one moment in the same place. I shot at it, but it
was so desultory that I missed my aim.*

I wonder that the stone curlew, charadrius (Kdicnemus,^ should
be mentioned by the writers as a rare
bird: it abounds in all the champaign
parts of Hampshire and Sussex, and
breeds I think all the summer, having
young ones, I know, very late in the
autumn. Already they begin clamour-
ing in the evening. They cannot, I
think, with any propriety, be called,
as they are by Mr. Ray, " circa aquas
versantes ;" for with us, by day at least, European

they haunt only the most dry, open, upland fields and sheep-walks,
far removed from water : what they may do in the night I can-
not say. Worms are their usual food, but they also eat toads
and frogs 4

I can show you some good specimens of my new mice. Lin-
naeus perhaps would call the species mus minimus.

LETTER XVI. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, April 18, 1768.

THE history of the stone curlew, charadrius (Rdicnemus, is as
follows. It lays its eggs, usually two, never more than three, on
the bare ground, without any nest, in the field; so that the
countryman, in stirring his fallows, often destroys them. The
young run immediately from the egg like partridges, &c., and
are withdrawn to some flinty field by the dam, where they

* I know of no kind that will correspond altogether with this description. It certainly was not
that lovely-plumaged species, the bearded pinnock (calamophilus biarmicus), as captain Brown
strangely imagines, in his edition of this work, for that bird has no " yellow-green colour" about
it : nor would it appear to be either of the summer warblers, the time of the year precluding this
supposition ^besides which, none of them ever hang with the back downwards. By the term
Mlicaria, Mr. White evidently intends the pettychaps, or " willow-wren" genus (sylvia, as now
limited}, and not the reedlings, or "aquatic warblers," which in modern nomenclature are
designated by that name. — ED.

t European thicknee, ccdiciiemvs Europaus- — ED.

t Likewise small mammifers, which the bustards, also, and the different poultry tribes, are
not very scrupulous about swallowing, the common fowl being quite an adept at catching mice.
Sir W. Jardine has even taken a field-mouse from the stomach of a meadow-crake, or "land-
rail" (cre.r pratensis). In the stomachs of the vdienemi I have chiefly found the remains of
various beetles — ED.

46 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

sculk among the stones, which are their best security; for
their feathers are so exactly of the colour of our grey spotted
flints, that the most exact observer, unless he catches the eye of
the young bird, may be eluded. The eggs are short and round ;
of a dirty white, spotted with dark bloody botches. Though I
might not be able, just when I pleased, to procure you a bird,
yet I could shew you them almost any day ; and any evening you
may hear them round the village, for they make a clamour which
may be heard a mile. Oedicnemus is a most apt and expressive
name for them, since their legs seem swoln like those of a gouty man.
After harvest I have shot them before the pointers in turnip-fields.*

I make no doubt but there are three
species of the willow- wrens : two I
know perfectly; but have not been
able yet to procure the third. No
two birds can differ more in their
notes, and that constantly, than those
two that I am acquainted with; for
the one has a joyous, easy, laughing
note ; the other a harsh loud chirp. The former is eveiy way
larger, and three-quarters of an inch longer, and weighs two
drams and a half ; while the latter weighs but two : so the
songster is one-fifth heavier than the chirper. The chirper (being
the first summer-bird of passage that is heard, the wryneck
sometimes excepted) begins his two notes in the middle of March,
and continues them through the spring and summer till the end
of August, as appears by my journals. The legs of the larger of
these two are flesh-coloured ; of the less, black.

The grasshopper-lark began his
sibilous note in my fields last Satur-
day. Nothing can be more amusing
than the whisper of this little bird,
which seems to be close by though at
a hundred yards distance ; and, when
close at your ear, is scarce any louder
than when a great way off. Had I
not been a little acquainted with in- Brake

* It is only the young of the year which have the upper part of the tarse so much swollen, a*
i» the case indeed with the young of all running birds. This species is very rarely found except-
ing on chalk, though I know of one instance of an immature bird having been shot on the "New
red sand-stone" stratum, in Worcestershire, which, from its youth, must evidently have been bred
in the neighbourhood. In Svrrey they occur every where upon the chalky lands ; I have hod
specimens from Banstiad downs. — ED.

GRASSHOPPER LARK. 47

sects, and known that the grasshopper kind is not yet
hatched, I should have hardly believed but that it had been a
locusta whispering in the bushes. The country people laugh
when you tell them that it is the note of a bird. It is a
most artful creature, sculking in the thickest part of a bush ;
and will sing at a yard distance, provided it be concealed. I
was obliged to get a person to go on the other side of the
hedge where it haunted ; and then it would run, creeping like
a mouse, before us for an hundred yards together, through the
bottom of the thorns ; yet it would not come into fair sight :
but in a morning early, and when undisturbed, it sings on the
top of a twig, gaping and shivering with its wings.* Mr. Ray

* This curious species, the brake-locustelle (salicaria-losusiflla dumeticola} , is known in
Surrey by the appellations " cricket-bird" and " rattlesnake-bird " both far more expressive
than the commonly received name in the books, "grasshopper-warbler." It is not rare (as has
been said) within a few miles of the metropolis ; but may generally be found amid the furze and
tangled bushes upon heaths and commons, often where the former is clipped, and stunted, and
intermingled with hassocky tufts of grass. Sometimes, too, 1 have noticed it in woods, and occa-
sionally in broad tangled hedges ; but its principal habitat is upon open and extensive furze-brakes,
where it by no means particularly affects (as some have said) the lower and more damp situations, as
1 have repeatedly found it in the dryest places. An allied species, the salicaria-locustella fluviatilist
frequents more the margins of streams and rivulets (like the true reedlings), and is common along
the reedy banks of the Danube ; and I much suspect that a third will be found to exist in the
sylvia certhiola of Temminck's Manuel, but this I have not seen. Neither of the latter are found
in Britain. They differ in many respects from the typical salicariae, or reedlings) with which they
have commonly been associated) , particularly in the structure of the feet and claws, which are
peculiar. The wings are shorter and more rounded, the tail longer, more cuneiform, and flexile,
and the rictus is without the array of bristles which in those birds is rather conspicuous. The
markings of the plumage also are of a distinct character, somewhat approximating to those of
the pipits and other ground birds, whence, indeed (the rather lengthened hind claw being also
taken into consideration), we find Mr. White and other naturalists of the last generation styling
our British bird a lark, from which genus it is widely removed. Our species has no note but the
very singular one mentioned in the text (which that of fluviatilis resembles), and which, like the
characteristic chattering song of the true reedlings, may be heard at all times of the night, but is
chiefly emitted in the morning and evening, when all is quiet around. It is a very peculiar, con-
tinuous, sibilant kind of thrill, beginning always very low, and becoming in about a minute loud
enough to be heard at a considerable distance, at which time, whenever the bird turns its head,
a sort of ventriloquizing effect is produced, as is likewise observed in the meadow crake and
various other species that utter similar rattling or croaking sounds. It is a remarkably shy and
hidling bird, at least during the breeding season, and at times is very difficult to obtain a sight
of; but in early spring, before pairing, it may be noticed at any hour of the day perched con-
spicuously on one of the highest twigs of a bush, shivering and thrilling most pertinaciously. I
have never seen one rise upon the wing, but a correspondent of the Magazine of Natural His-
tory for February, 1836, observes of several that he saw " among the furze and bramble-bushes,
on the extensive bed of shingle in the neighbourhood of Eastbourne, on the Sussex coast, in July
and August," that " they were then in moult, but uttered their usual sibilant cry. I often heard
them in the afternoon. They did not appear peculiarly shy ; on the contrary, when disturbed,
they frequently rose into the air, hovering over my head, and at the same time repeating their
cricket-like note. I might have shot a considerable number, as they often perched, several
together, on the tops of the bushes. In the last week in August, I observed one cast on shore by
the waves. This had probably been overtaken in its attempt at migration by a contrary wind
which accompanied a thunder-storm, and, unable to withstand the tempest, had yielded to its
fury." The last is interesting, as showing that they leave the country at the period when their
cry first ceases to be heard ; it having been supposed by Mr. Selby and others that they remained
for some time longer silent among the bushes. The nest is situate within the closet furze or

48 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

himself had no knowledge of this bird, but received his account
from Mr. Johnson, who apparently confounds it with the reguli
non cristati, from which it is very distinct. See Ray's Philoso-
phical Letters, p. 108.

The fly-catcher (stoparola)* has not yet appeared : it usually

Gray Fly-catcher. White-fronted Redstart.

breeds in my vine. The redstart begins to sing : its note is
short and imperfect, but is continued till about the middle of
June.f The willow-wrens (the smaller sort) are horrid pests in
a garden, destroying the pease, cherries, currants, &c. ; and are
so tame that a gun will not scare them.]:

bramble covert, and is extremely difficult to find. It differs in character from those of the true
reedlings, more resembling those of the different fauvets (ficedula) , but is of a* more compact
structure than the latter, and contains a greater portion of material. The eggs, four or five in
number, are grayish, with numerous specks of a deeper, sometimes brownish, tint. They vary
somewhat in plumage, some being rather more spotted than others, but there is no fixed dif-
ference between the sexes. The female is very hard to procure. I have noticed that the tendons
of the leg around the tibia are in this species invariably very firm and stiff, and not soft, and
flexible, and contractile when cut, as in the reedlings, and indeed as in every other insessorial bird
that I have examined. The intent of this I do not exactly comprehend. — ED.

* Muscicapa gri '

t Thei

all the notes of the fauvette. — ED.

J Mr. White is altogether wrong in what he here advances. It is quite true that the different
species of pettychaps (or "willow-wren," as he terms them) are continually seen about the fruit,
and particularly upon raspberry -bushes when the berries are ripe; but, so far from being consi-
1 " ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' rather in the light of preservers, their

BIRDS OF PASSAGE.

A List of the Summer Birds of Passage discovered in this neighbourhood, ranged some
ivhat in the order in which they appear.

Linnsei Nomina.

Motacilla trochilus [sylvia loquax] .

Jynx torquilla [tor quilla vulgar is'].

Hirundo rustica [Jiirundo garrula].

Hirundo urbica.

Hirundo riparia.

Cuculus canorus.

Motacilla hiscinia [philomela luscinia']
Motacilla atricapilla [ficedula atricapilla']
Motacilla sylvia [ficedula cinerea'].
Motacilla trochilus [sylvia melodia~\.

Hirundo apus [cypselus murarius].
Charadrius cedicnemus ? [cedicncmus Eu-

rop<Kus~\.
Turtur aldrovandi ? [columba-turtur Eu-

ropcea],
Alauda trivialis [salicaria-locustella dume-

ticola'].

Pallus crex [_crex pratensis].
Motacilla trochilus [sylvia sibilans],
Motacilla phcenicurus [erythaca-plmnicura

albifrons],
Caprimulgus Europceus [ phalcenivora Eu-

rop&a'] .
Muscicapa grisloa.

Smallest willow-wren [chiffchaff petty-
chaps],

Wryneck,

House swallow [chimney-swallow],

Martin [eave-svvallow],

Sand martin [bank-swallow],

Cuckoo,

Nightingale,

Blackcap [blackcap-fauvet],

Whitethroat [vvhitethroat-fauvet],

Middle willow -wren [warbling - petty-
chaps],

Swift,

Stone curlew [European thicknee].

Turtle dove,

Grasshopper lark [brake locustelle].

Landrail [meadow-crake],

Largest willow-wren [sibilous pettychaps],

Redstart,

Goatsucker, or fern-owl [motheater],
Flycatcher,

My countrymen talk much of a bird that makes a clatter with
its bill against a dead bough, or some old pales, calling it a jar-
bird. I procured one to be shot in the very fact ; it proved to
be the sitta europcea (the nuthatch).* Mr. Ray says that the less

consume is inconsiderable. The tits also are frugivorous birds, more particularly the blue spedes ;
but the mutflin (mecistura rosea), or long-tailed tit of most writers, now with propriety removed
from the genus p«nw, is at all seasons exclusively insectivorous. Lastly, the'common wren must
be included in the list of occasional depredators in the garden, as it occasionally, to a very small
extent, robs the currant-bushes, though few would suspect this from the make of its bill. All
the pettychaps genus subsist entirely on small insects, in the different stages of their growth,
particularly leaf insects, leaf rolling caterpillars, and spiders; and they destroy vast numbers
of aphides, often capturing the winged ones flying, in the manner of a flycatcher, a habit which
is most observable in the S. sibilans- — ED.

* This is a very interesting bird, common throughout the year in all the sylvan districts of
Britain, frequenting old trees, where it may be easily recognized by its lively manners, and its
peculiar, often-repeated, monotonous, but cheerful note (resembling the sound twit, or chviite,
emitted, at intervals, two or three times continuously, or many times without ceasing, and rather
loudly for the size of the utterer). Or it may be known by its creeping about, by successive jerks,
along or around their holes and larger branches, often with the back downwards, and occasionally
in a descending direction, being the only British bird that is capable of doing this, the woed-
pecker tribes invariably proceeding upwards, and the tree-creeper being only able to descend

50 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

spotted woodpecker does the same. This noise may be heard a
furlong or more.

Now is the only time to ascertain the short-winged summer
birds ; for, when the leaf is out, there is no making any remarks
on such a restless tribe ; and, when once the young begin to ap-
pear, it is all confusion : there is no distinction of genus, species,
or sex.*

In breeding-time snipes play over the moors, piping and hum-

obliquely backwards. Or it may be distinguished by its persevering and loud tapping, as, grasp-
ing with its large feet the base of some out-growing bough, and swinging its whole body as upon
a pivot, it strikes (in the attitude represented in the an-
nexed wood-cut) with all its weight at a nut or grain of
beech-mast, which it had previously firmly fixed in a
crevice, and -which, perhaps, it had brought from its
hoard in the hollow of a tree, returning again and again
to the same particular, conveniently-placed chink, to
effect the fracture of the envelope. The bill is stout, and
rather long, and very slightly recurved, a form peculiarly
adapted for this mode of proceeding, and by means of
which it is enabled to shell off considerable portions of the

loose bark of trees, feeding upon whatever insects there

may have been beneath. It is nearly omnivorous, but Nutbatcl

subsists chiefly on insects and oleaginous seeds. In confinement, according to Bechstein, and,
when loose in a room, its manner of breaking the husks of the hempseed and oats, which are
given it for food, is curious and remarkable. Taking as many as it can in the beak, and ranging
them in order along the cracks of the floor, so disposing them that they may be broken with
facility, it then proceeds to dispatch them one after another with the greatest ease and agility.
It displays the hoarding instinct when in captivity very remarkably, even more so than the tits ;
and, reared from the nest, becomes very tame and familiar. Some observed by Sir W. Jardine,
" when released from their cage, would run over their owner in all directions, up or down bis body
or limbs, poking their bills into seams or holes, as if in search of food upon some old and rent tree,
and uttering, during the time, a low and plaintive cry. When running up or down," continue*
Sir William, «' they rest upon the back part of the whole tarse, and make great use as a support
of what may be called the real heel, and never use the tail." They are rather social than
otherwise, at least during the winter, at which time I have known one continue calling for more
than an hour to its companion, that had been shot ; but in the pairing season they become very
pugnacious, and I have then seen them fight desperately upon the wing. When flying they are
easily recognisable by the shortness of the tail. The nest is placed in a hole, either in a tree or
building, but mostly the former; the entrance of it, if larger than convenient, being reduced in size
by a thick plastering of clay. The female sits very close, and will even suffer herself to be taken by
the hand, making a hissing noise when disturbed, as is the case with the part, or tits, to which
genus the nuthatches are somewhat allied, and which they further resemble in producing seven
or eigljt white eggs, spotted with rufous brown ; the young are very like their parents, it is an
extremely bold and active species, in the wild state more fearless than familiar, and even if shot
at, and missed, appears in general not in the least disconcerted, or perhaps merely flies chirruping
to the next tree, and resumes its occupation as before. It displays the same fearlessness when
captured and placed in a cage, losing no time in fruitless and sullen vexation, but— utterly re-
gardless of being looked at — eats voraciously of whatever food is supplied, and then proceeds
deliberately to destroy its prison, piercing the wood-work, and effecting its deliverance from a
stout cage of the ordinary make in a wonderfully short space of time. One caught in a common
brick trap was found to have fairly ground its bill to about two-thirds of the proper length, in it*
persevering endeavours to escape. It roosts with the head downwards. — ED.

* I rather wonder at this remark from so acute a naturalist as Mr. White ; for I am unaware
of a single instance, at least among the British species of the tribe here alluded to, wherein
there can be the least difficulty in distinguishing one kind from another at any period of their
existence. The warbling and chiffchaff petty chaps are the most similar, but even these may at
any age be at once told by the colour of the tarse, independently of the differences in their rela-

REPTILES. 51

ming : they always hum as they are descending. Is not their
hum ventriloquous, like that of the turkey ? Some suspect it is
made by their wings.*

This morning I saw the golden-crowned wren, whose crown
glitters like burnished gold. It often hangs like a titmouse, with
its back downwards.

Yours, &c. £c.

LETTER XVII. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, June 18, 1768.

ON Wednesday last arrived your agreeable letter of June the
10th. It gives me great satisfaction to find that you pursue these
studies still with such vigour, and are in such forwardness with
regard to reptiles and fishes.

The reptiles, few as they are, I am not acquainted with so well
as I could wish, with regard to their natural history. There is a
degree of dubiousness and obscurity attending the propagation
of this class of animals, something analagous to that of the cry p.
togamia in the sexual system of plants ; and the case is the same
with regard to some of the fishes ; as the eel, &c.f

The method in which toads procreate and bring forth seems to
be very much in the dark. Some authors say that they are
viviparous : and yet Ray classes them among his oviparous
animals ; and is silent with regard to
the manner of their bringing forth. Per-
haps they may be «W pev WOTOKOI,
c£w 5e ZUOTOKOI, as is known to be the ||
case with the viper. J

The copulation of frogs (or at least
the appearance of it ; for Swammer- Toadt

live proportions. The females and young of the two European redstarts are extremely alike, bu
of these one is excessively rare in this country, and was unknown to the author. The black red-
start can only just be considered a British bird. — ED.

* There is every reason to think this is the true cause. — ED.

t It was reserved for Mr. Yarrell to demonstrate the mode of propagation of the eels (anguilla),
and to show, in the most satisfactory manner, that they deposit their spawn like other fishes .
For a most interesting and minute detail of his investigations on the subject, see a memoir, by
that gentleman, in the form of a letter, published in the second series of Mr. Jesse's " Glean-
ings in Natural History," where this very long disputed question is at length completely set at
rest.— ED.

t Of our three species of ophidian reptiles, the common, or ringed snake (nutrix torquatus)
E 2

52 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

dam proves that the male has no penis intrans) is noto-
rious to every body : because we see them sticking upon each
others backs for a month together in the spring : and yet I
never saw, or read, of toads being observed in the same situation.
It is strange that the matter with regard to the venom of toads
has not been yet settled.* That they are not noxious to some
animals is plain : for ducks, buzzards, owls, stone curlews, and
snakes, eat them, to my knowledge, with impunity. And I well
remember the time, but was not eye-witness to the fact (though
numbers of persons were) when a quack, at this village, ate a
toad to make the country people stare ; afterwards he drank oil.

I have been informed also, from undoubted authority, that
some ladies (ladies you will say of peculiar taste) took a fancy to
a toad, which they nourished summer after summer, for many
years, till he grew to a monstrous size, with the maggots which
turn to flesh-flies. The reptile used to come forth every evening
from a hole under the garden-steps ; and was taken up, after
supper, on the table to be fed. But at last a tame raven, ken-
ning him as he put forth his head, gave him such a severe stroke
with his horny beak as put out one eye. After this accident the
creature languished for some time and died.

I need not remind a gentleman of your extensive reading of
the excellent account there is from Mr. Derham, in Ray's Wis-
dom of God in the Creation, concerning the migration of frogs

is oviparous, depositing its eggs in dung-hills and hot-beds, or in hedge-banks, where the requi-
sites of heat and a certain degree of moisture are combined. The viper, or adder (vipera vul-
garis) is ovo-viviparous ; and the brittling, " blind-worm," or «« slow-worm" (anguis fragilis) , is
the same, the eggs of both the latter being hatched within the body of the parent. Toads pro-
create in exactly the same manner as frogs, the fertilization of the ova taking place subsequent
to their extrusion from the body, as is the case with fishes. Their spawn is generally deposited
in similar situations to that of frogs, but may sometimes be found in puddles left by the rain. The
ovales are much smaller, and occur in long n,ecklace-like catenations, those of frogs being in irre-
gular masses. Several of our more eminent naturalists agree in separating from the sub-
class reptiiia, those genera which, like the frogs, toads, and salamanders, propagate by
spawn deposited in water, bringing them together as a distinct sub-class, amphibia, and restricting
the reptiles to those which are produced from eggs brought to maturity either within the body,
or by the heat of the sun, or of fermentation. All the true reptiles commence their existence
upon land, even the sea turtles resorting to the shores to breed ; while the whole of the amphibia,
on the other hand, even those which live most upon land, are bred in the water, and at least for
a period of their lives (some always) respire through the medium of gills. — ED.

* A slightly acrid secretion is said to exude from the pores of the skin of toads, sufficiently
caustic to irritate a wound ; but even this 1 am doubtful of, as the animal is usually very dry.
They are not otherwise venomous. It may be here mentioned that a second species, the natter-
jack toad (feu/o calamita), exists in many parts of England, and particularly on the heaths arouud
London. Its general aspect is very like that of the common one, but it may easily be distin-
guished by having a yellow line along the back ; its habits, also, are more active, and it does not
leap, its pace being a sort of shuffling run. A third species is suspected to exist in Ire-
land.—ED.

FROGS. 53

from their breeding ponds. In this account he at once sub-
verts that foolish opinion of their
dropping from the clouds in rain ;
showing that it is from the grateful
coolness and moisture of those show-
ers that they are tempted to set out
on their travels, which they defer
till those fall.* Frogs are as yet in
their tadpole state ; but, in a few weeks,
our lanes, paths, and fields, will swarm for a few days with
myriads of those emigrants, no larger than my little finger nail.
Swammerdam gives a most accurate account of the method and
situation in which the male impregnates the spawn of the female.
How wonderful is the economy of Providence with regard to the
limbs of so vile a reptile ! While it is an aquatic it has a fish-like
tail, and no legs : as soon as the legs sprout, the tail drops off as
useless, and the animal betakes itself to the land !

Merret, I trust, is widely mistaken when he advances^ that the
rana arborea is an English reptile ; it abounds in Germany and
Switzerland.f

It is to be remembered that the salamandra aquatica of Ray
(the water-newt or eft) will frequently bite at the angler's bait,
and is often caught on his hook. I used to take it for granted
that the salamandra aquatica was hatched, lived, and died, in
the water. But John EUis, Esq., F. R. S. (the coraUine Ellis) as-

* There are many well-authenticated instances of the actual fact, however, strange as it may
seem, of tadpoles, and small frogs, and the young fry of fishes being precipitated in considerable
number* from above, and some of them, too, in situations considerably distant from any place
where they could have been bred. Mr. Loudon records one in the Magazine of Natural History,
vol. ii., p. 103. "When at Rouen," he relates, " in September, 1828, 1 was assured by an English
family, resident there, that, during a heavy thunder shower, accompanied by violent wind, and
almost midnight darkness, an innumerable multitude of young frogs fell on and around the
house. The roof, the window-sills, and the gravel walks were covered with them. They were
very small, but perfectly formed ; all dead. The most obvious way," he continues, " of account-
ing for this phenomenon is by supposing the water and frogs of some adjacent ponds to have
been taken up by wind in a sort of whirl or tornado." The following is from a number of the
Belfast Chronicle: "As two gentlemen were sitting conversing on a causey pillar, near Bushmills,
they were very much surprised by the occurrence of a heavy shower of frogs, half formed, falling
in all directions, some of which have been preserved in spirits, and are now exhibited to the
curious by the two resident apothecaries in Bushmills." Capt. Brown relates an instance of a
shower of young herrings falling in Kinross-shire, many of which were picked up in the fields
around Loch Leven by persons of his acquaintance. Numerous other similar cases are recorded
in different numbers of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal-— ED.

t This beautiful little species is not British, though it occurs in Normandy. It pertains to
the genus hyla- Another member of the genus rana, however, or true frog, has been discovered
in Forfarshire by Mr. Don, and since near Edinburgh by Dr. Stark. It has been supposed by
some to be identical with the R. escul.entat or edible frog of the continent, a species very common
in the south of Europe. "That they are not," observes the Rev. L. Jenyns, " simple varieties of

54 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

serts, in a letter to the Royal Society, dated June the 5th, 1766,
in his account of the mud inguana, an amphibious bipes from
South Carolina, that the water-eft, or newt, is only the larva

Tadpoles.

of the land-eft, as tadpoles are of frogs. Lest I should be
suspected to misunderstand his meaning, I shall give it in
his own words. Speaking of the opercula or coverings to
the gills of the mud inguana, he proceeds to say that "the
form of these pennated coverings approach very near to what
I have some time ago ob served in the larva or aquatic state
of our English lacerta, known by the name of eft, or newt ;*
which serve them for coverings to their gills, and for fins to
swim with while in this state ; and which they lose, as well as
the fins of their tails, when they change their state and become
land animals, as I have observed, by keeping them alive for some
time myself."f

the R. temporaria" (the common kind) " is probable from the circumstance of Dr. Stark's having
observed osteological differences between them and the species just alluded to. But," he con-
tinues, " I think it remains to be shown that they are really the R. esculenta-" The edible frog is
larger than the common species, of an olive-green colour, spotted with black. It has three lon-
gitudinal streaks of yellow down the back ; under parts yellowish.— ED.

* These curious creatures, very commonly known when upon land by the term eft, and in the
water by that of newt,} do not permanently reside in either element, as I shall presently show.
They constitute the modern genus triton, and are not to be confounded with the saurian, or lizard
tribe, which in shape they resemble, but from which they essentially differ. They are not rep-
tilet, as that appellation is now judiciously limited (all of which produce upon land, and are more
or less covered with scales), but pertain to the newly-established equivalent sub-class amphibia,
propagating by spawn, which is vivified subsequently to its extrusion, and which (at least in our
native species) is deposited near the surface on aquatic herbage, in long catenated strings. They
belong to the family salamandrida:, which, together with the ranida; (comprising the frogs and
toads), is arranged in the first order, or primary division of the sub-class caducibranchia, or those
with deciduous gills, that exist for a certain period in a tadpole or larva state, and cast several suc-
cessive skins before assuming the adult appearance, breathing duringthe first stage of their exist-
ence by means of gills, and afterwards by lungs. It is stated that they do not propagate till the
third year. They are harmless, inoffensive animals, as indeed are all the members of this sub-class ;
and, although some of them may not, perhaps, come exactly up to our notions of beauty and
seemliness, there is nothing in them to merit our disgust, nor to excite our hatred and abhor-
rence, nought whatever to extenuate the senseless persecution with which they are too generally
Assailed by the vulgar. Neither these nor a single member of the lizard tribe are at all venom.
t By many the term eft is applied to the T- palustris, and newt to the T. punctatut*— ED.

NEWTS. 55

Linnaeus, in his Systema Naturae, hints at what Mr. Ellis ad-
vances more than once.

ous ; and it is a discredit to the present age of pretended general enlightenment that such a re-
mark should be deemed necessary.

There are at least three British species, two of which are well known and widely distributed ;
the third (T. vittntus') having only recently been distinguished, and, as yet, being only known to
occur near London ; the other two are extremely common, I believe, throughout the country,
being everywhere found abundantly in ditches, ponds, and other stagnant waters, from the
commencement of winter to the close of summer. In winter they lie buried in the soft mud, or
under the subaqueous masses of decaying leaves, but crawl forth from their retreats in mild
weather, when it will be seen that their membranous appendages are then fully developed, these
not being (as is at present the common opinion among naturalists) observable in the summer
months only, though they probably breed very early in mild seasons. They are sluggish and
inactive creatures, but voracious, and, as Mr. White observes, " will frequently bite at the angler's
bait, and are often caught on the hook," the smooth skinned kind being rather more lively in their
habits, and fond of swimming in the sunshine, while the T- palustris lies usually almost motion-
less upon the mud at a slight depth, and seldom rises to the surface except to breathe. After
producing, they mostly (I believe all the adults) quit the water, at which time their mem-
branous ornaments disappear, and, as is remarked by White (p. 62), "people every summer
see numbers crawling out of the pools where they are hatched, upon the dry banks," a
habit apparently necessary for their dispersion. They then move about chiefly by night, when
the dew is on the grass (the heavy dews of autumn particularly favouring their habits), or
by day in moist weather, or in shady and damp situations, retiring when the ground is dry
into holes and crevices, and not unfrequently finding their way into pits and cellars, whence
there is no outlet for them, and where, accordingly, many are obliged to pass the winter,
from being unable to regain their native element. They do not acquire their ornamental mem-
branes upon land, and such are probably incapable of propagation. I have now before me
(February)several live specimens of T. palustris and T. punctatus from a neighbouring pond, all of
which have these appendages developed, while others of the former species just brought me from
a saw-pit, exhibit no sign of them whatever. I shall subjoin rather a detailed account of the
distinctive characters of our three known species, not only to enable the reader to identify them
with facility, but also in the hope of inducing some who may be curious on the subject to
investigate those kinds which »uay occur in their vicinity, in which case I think it highly proba-
ble that some additional sorts will be discovered.

The warty newt (T< palustrit) is considerably the largest, varying, when full grown, fronc four
to six inches in length, seldom more. It has rather an uncouth and far from prepossessing ap-
pearance, with a flat head, and snout obtuse and rounded ; skin rough, and on the upper parts dark
olive, spotted with black, everywhere studded with small tubercles, which, on the sides, throat, and
under part of the legs, are white, and which, m fact, are glandular vesicles, from whence exudes a
peculiar and rather fetid secretion, which serves when upon land to keep the creature always moist
and clammy ; under parts bright orange-yellow, with irregular large spots of black, which in
general are more or less confluent. In the male, the abdomen is rather shorter, compared with
the entire length, than in the other sex; the hind feet are somewhat larger and stronger; and
the back, during the period it annually remains in the water, is ornamented with an elevated
membranous crest, commencing between the eyes, and running longitudinally down the mesial
line to near the tail, which last is also furnished with a similar but separate membrane along its
upper and under edges, causing it to appear at the base as broad as the body, both membranes,
but more particularly the dorsal, being deeply jagged and serrated. In the female there is only
a slight dorsal ridge occupying the place of the membrane in the other sex. I have said that these
appendages entirely disappear after the breeding season.

The spotted newt (T. punctatus— maculosus would be better) measures, when grown, from three
to four inches, being at once distinguishable from the last by its much smaller size, and smooth,
soft skin. The body is proportionably shorter, and the tail, relatively, rather longer, and ending
in a sharper point. The dorsal crest of the male commences at the back of the head, and is
continuous to the end of the tail, not deeply jagged, as in the last species, but uniformly fes-
tooned, or crenate, throughout its whole length ; that under the tail is smooth and even, as is
also that on the upper part of the tail in the female, which latter has hardly a trace of mem-
brane along the back. The hind toes also of the male are broadly fringed with dilated membranes.
Colours very variable, olivaceous on the upper parts, and yellowish beneath, passing into bright

56 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

Providence has been so indulgent to us as to allow of but one
venomous reptile of the serpent
kind in these kingdoms, and that
is the viper. As you propose the
good of mankind to be an object
of your publications, you will not
omit to mention common salad-oil
as a sovereign remedy against the
bite of the viper. As to the blind ViPer-

worm (anguis fragilis, so called because it snaps in sunder with
a small blow), I have found, on examination, that it is perfectly
innocuous. A neighbouring yeoman (to whom I am indebted
for some good hints) killed and opened a female viper about the
twenty-seventh of May: he found her filled with a chain of
eleven eggs, about the size of those of a blackbird ; but none of
them were advanced so far towards a state of maturity as to con-
tain any rudiments of young. Though they are oviparous, yet
they are viviparous also, hatching their young within their bellies,
and then bringing them forth. Whereas snakes lay chains of
eggs every summer in my melon beds, in spite of all that my
people can do to prevent them ; which eggs do not hatch till the
spring following, as I have often experienced.* Several intelli-
gent folks assure me that they have seen the viper open her

orange in the spring, everywhere marked with large round spots of black, of unequal sizes.
The female is considerably less spotted, and of a duller hue, the spots being everywhere very
much smaller, and sometimes quite wanting on the under parts. " When on land," as is accu-
rately remarked by Mr. Jenyns, " the skin loses its softness, becoming at the same time opaque
and somewhat corrugated ; the various membranes disappear; the toes, from being rounded, be-
come flattened ; and the colours are everywhere more obscure. In this state it is the lacerta vul-
o-aris of Sheppard and Turton (and probably of Linnaeus also), the triton vulgaris of Fleming,
the brown lizard of Pennant, and the common newt of Shaw." Very small specimens have occa-
sionally been met with upon land, which have given rise to the erroneous supposition that the
land ones are a distinct species, and probably viviparous. To account for these, Mr. Jenyns has
suggested that, in cases where their haunts have been dried up, the young animal may very pos-
sibly absorb its gills prematurely, in order that it might be enabled to accommodate itself to its
new circumstances.

The streaked newt (T. vittatus) is allied to the preceding species, and was first detected by Mr.
Gray, in ponds near London. The skin is smooth, of a pale colour, with unequal black spots,
which are smaller than in the T. punctatus ; tail of a darker hue than the back ; under parts, to-
gether with a broad streak along each side of the body and tail, whitish. Some (probably the
females) are described to be " above black, beneath white, throat black-spotted, dorsal crest
none." It is rather larger than the T. pinctahis; the male has a high, deeply-notched dorsal
crest, commencing in front of the eyes, and with a deep notch over the vent, continued into a
comparatively very low entire crest, extending the whole length of the tail. Some have the caudal
crest distinct. — ED

* The young, however, appear almost ready for exclusion before the winter. Mr. White's
term " chains of eggs" is by no means a felicitous expression, to .judge from all that I have ever
seen ; they are of the size of those of a garden merle (or blackbird), and covered with a tough
elastic skin, which, at the time of deposition, is lubricated with a wet mucus, that on drying

THE VIPER. 57

mouth and admit her helpless young down her throat on sudden
surprises, just as the female opossum does her brood into the
pouch under her belly, upon the like emergencies ; and yet the
London viper-catchers insist on it, to Mr. Harrington, that no
such thing ever happens.* The serpent kind eat, I believe, but
once in a year ; or, rather, but only just at one season of the
year. Country people talk much of a water-snake, but, I am
pretty sure, without any reason ; for the common snake (coluber
natrix) delights much to sport in the water, perhaps with a view
to procure frogs and other food.'f

I cannot well guess how you are to make out your twelve
species of reptiles, unless it be by the various species, or rather
varieties, of our lacerti, of which Ray enumerates five.J I have
not had opportunity of ascertaining these ; but remember well to

binds them, just as they happen to have fallen, in irregular, agglutinate masses, so that they are
not easily torn asunder. When newly laid, they quickly shrivel up if exposed to the air, till in a
few hours they appear not more than half full ; but, if placed in a moist situation, very speedily
. again dilate, and hatch without having experienced injury. It is hardly necessary to add that,
the eggs of all reptiles are composed of gelatin (isinglass), and not of albumen, as are those of
birds The scaly covering of this animal is, however, composed chiefly of coagulate albumen-—
ED.

* This is perfectly correct, however ; I know eye-witnesses of the fact, one of whom, on whost
word I can place strict reliance, tells me that he has himself seen as many as thirteen young
vipers thus enter the mouth of their parent, which latter he afterwards killed, and opened, for the
purpose of counting them. — En.

t There are few observers but must have often noticed this. All the true serpentidae, I believe,
readily take the water ; the 600 constrictor has been met with out at sea, as has aho our common
ringed-snake, on more than one occasion. There is an instance recorded of a viper having, seized
the artificial fly of an individual fishing in one of the Scottish lakes, on the verge of the estuary
of a river. It was finally drowned by dragging it into the current against the stream. 1 am not
aware, however, that any of the anguida (the group to which our common brittling or " slow-
worm" belongs), enter the water. — ED.

t The different British members of the sub-class amphibia have already been mentioned ; viz.,
two species of frog (rana), one of which is, however, much in need of further investigation ; two
of toad (feM/o), and perhaps a third; and three of newt (triton) , more than which probably remains
to be discovered : all these pertain to the first order, caducibranchia-

Of the sub-class rept'dia, order testudinata, two species are occasionally met with in our seas ; the
leathern spharge (sphargis coriacea] , a native of the Mediterranean, of very large size, British-
caught specimens having been adjudged to weigh SOOlbs , and measuring six feet nine inches in
length, the species being described to attain a length of eight feet ; and the imbricate turtle
(chelonia imbricata) , a native of the American seas, and of very rare occurrence in those of Europe,
measuring generally (according to Shaw's Zoology) about three, sometimes five feet in length.

Of the second order, sauria, we have but two satisfactorily ascertained species ; the common
heath-lizard (lacerta agilis), everywhere abundant upon moors and sunny banks, and sometimes
woods, rarely exceeding six inches in length, of a bluish colour when the cuticle is newly cast,
becoming gradually more brown till it is shed again, marked down the back with a black list,
and with corresponding streaks of black along the sides, accompanied with other rows of spots
more or less regular, and the male of which is orange underneath, in this presenting a curious
resemblance to some of the newts; and the sand lizard (L. stirpium), a larger and every way
more bulky species, which (though common in France) has only recently been two or three times
met with in this country, probably from the gross neglect with which the present sub-class of

58 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

have seen, formerly, several beautiful green lacerti on the sunny
sandbanks near Farnham, in Surrey ; and Ray admits there are
such in Ireland.

animals has been too generally treated by even professed naturalists. I have hardly a doubt but
that I once obtained a specimen of this lizard when at school in Surrey, but unfortunately gave
it to a person who has since sold it; as near as 1 can remember, this could not have been less
than seven or eight inches in length; it was running very rapidly upon the gravel playground.
This species may be readily told from the common one by having the third toe of the fore foot
longest, and also by having from twelve to fifteen femoral pores ; whereas in L. agilis the fore
feet have the fourth toe rather the longest, and the row of pores underneath the thigh usually
contains nine, sometimes ten, and rarely eleven, less than the minimum of L- stripium- Fora
minute account, however, of its distinctive characters, I must refer the reader to Mr. Jenyns'
valuable Manual of British Vertebrate Animals, a work which should be in the possession of every
British naturalist, and from which I quote the following, as part of the detailed description of a
native specimen: "Upper parts dark green, thickly spotted with black; a broad interrupted
fascia of dark greenish brown down the middle, containing interrupted lines of yellow spots ;
under parts light bluish green, with small black spots much less numerous than above." As in
all the genus, however, the markings are very variable, the relative size and form of the scaly
plates upon the head, and other structural characters, affording by far the best means of distin-
guishing the different species, for which reason, the naturalist should never be without specimens
of L- agilis, preserved in spirits for comparison.

The green lizard (L. mridw), above mentioned by Mr. White as occurring "on the sunny
sand-banks near Farnham/' is an extremely beautiful species, but has undoubtedly been intro-
duced into the country, many persons having at times turned some loose into their gardens.
It abounds in various parts of the south of Europe, and is common in the channel islands
(Jersey, Guernsey, &c.), whence many are annually brought to this country on account of their
beauty, a«d where I have myself seen numbers, but was never quick enough to catch one. I
have long, however, kept them in confinement, and have now before me a very beautiful live
specimen, which passes the winter in a lethargic semi-torpid state, refusing sustenance, but
occasionally lapping up a little water, particularly after being warmed, which soon enlivens it ;
in the summer it is very quick and active, and subsists on various kinds of insects, and particu-
larly spiders, of which it is very fond. This species sometimes attains a length of eighteen
inches, and is of a vivid soft green, more or less marked with light reddish, brown, and blackish
stripes ; under parts yellow. Its habits, so far as I have observed, are exactly similar to those of
L. agilis, excepting that it is decidedly less erratic. I have seen, in Jersey, as many as eight or ten
of them within the space of a few yards, lying basking in the sun, but never far from the entrance
of their holes, into whkh they instantly dart on suspicion of danger, their bright colour render-
ing them extremely conspicuous. They vary much in markings, like the other species, and the
green is more or less vivid according to the period that has elapsed since the last shedding of the
cuticle. It is not unlikely that other species yet remain to be detected in this country, when the
attention of our naturalists shall be more generally directed to the subject. Pennant speaks of a
lizard " which w»s killed near U'oscott, in the parish of Swinford, Worcestershire, in l741,which
was two feet six inches long, and four inches in girth ;" and adds that " another was killed in
Penbury, in the same county.3' It is rather singular, however, that no instance has since been
recorded of the re-occurrence of so large a species. Mr. Jenyns hints the possibility of these
being the L- ocellata of southern Europe, a species which, independently of its superior size, may-
be always known by having " the occipital plate very much developed, and at least quite as large
as either the frontal or parietal plates." L. anguiformis of Sheppard is a doubtful species, from
that gentleman having principally confined himself to noticing the colours, than which nothing
can be more variable in these reptiles; it may possibly prove the L- stirjnum, with which it at
least agrees in size, seven inches and upwards being the length assigned to it by its describer.
One specimen is mentioned to have been upwards of a foot long, " a length to which," observes
Mr. Jenyns, " I believe, the common L- agilis never attains." Another species, which may be
looked for, is the L- muralis of Latreille, very common on the continent, and apparently closely
resembling L- ag-ilu, " from which, however, it would seem to differ in having the temples
covered with very small granulated scales, resembling those of the back, in the middle of which
is one circular plate ; the number of femoral pores is also much greater, varying from eighteen to

FISH. 59

LETTER XVIII. To T. PENNANT, Esa.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, July 27, 1768.

I RECEIVED your obliging and communicative letter of June the
28th, while I was on a visit at a gentleman's house, where I had
neither books to turn to, nor leisure to sit down, to return you
an answer to many queries, which I wanted to resolve in the
best manner that I am able.

A person, by my order, has searched our brooks, but could
find no such fish as the gasterosteus pungitius: he found the
gasterosteus aculeatus in plenty.* This morning, in a basket, I
packed a little earthern pot full of wet moss, and in it some

twenty-five."— Jen. Brit- Vert- p. 295. I believe the habits of the whole genus may be very safely
inferred from those of onr common L- agilis, which are almost too well known to require descrip-
tion. They are thus concisely summed up by Mr. Jenyns : «« Fond of basking in the sunshine, and
in warm weather is extremely active. Forms a retraat under ground, in which it resides wholly
during winter. Is first seen in March, or early in April. Feeds principally on insects. Is ovivi-
parous, the young broods appearing in June or July. Tail extremely brittle, but, when broken,
gradually reproduced; the renewed part, however, according to Duges, never acquires vertebrae."
When under the full influence of sexual excitement in summer, the basal part of the tail, in the
male, is very much swollen, appearing as if the tail had been cut off and then set on again. In
this state it is the L- cedura of Sheppard, an identification first pointed out by Mr. Gray, and
acceded to by Mr. Jenyns, and which a series of intermediate specimens now before me sufficiently
demonstrates. In conclusion, let me hope that this desultory notice will at least tend to call the
attention of some readers towards the investigation of these neglected animals.

Of the third order of reptiles, ophidia, but three British species appear to exist; the brittling,
or " slow-worm" (anguii fragilis) , of the family anguidcB ; and the ringed snake (natrix torquatus);
and common viper (vipera vulgaris), of the family serpentida- A- eryx, Lin., is probably a mere
variety of the first, JV. dumfrisiensis most probably an immature variety of the second, and the
" red viper" (colubu cherseaof Linnaeus) is believed to be only a variety of the common one, which
gradually loses its red colour as it increases in size. Black individuals of the common viper some-
times occur, but these do not constitute a distinct species. — ED.

* There is considerable difference of opinion among the first naturalists as to the number of
species of these minute fishes, Mr. Yarrall admitting as many as six different fresh-water kinds
to be found in Britain, while the Rev. L. Jenyns, reduces the number to three, and indeed hesi-
tates about admitting more than two, from a consideration of the very great tendency of gas-
terosteus aculeatus to vary, and this not only in the number of bony plates along the sides, but in
general contour and relative proportions, size and shape of the different erectible spines, magni
tude of the eyes, &c. See., some curious and surprising instances of whi?h are mentioned in his
work on the British members of the class vertebrata- I am myself disposed to concur in the latter
opinion, having repeatedly noticed the most remarkable and striking diversities between speci-
mens from different localities, which agree in the number of lateral osseous plates, and other
assumed specific characters. The curious reader is however referred to Mr. Jenyns' Manual, to
Mr. Varrell's admirable publication on British fishes, and above all to the ponds and brooks in
hii neighbourhood, personal research being by far the most satisfactory means of solving diffi-
culties and disagreements of this kind. I append descriptions which may probably assist the
enquirer.

60 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

sticklebacks, male and female ; the females big with spawn : some
lamperns ; some bulls heads ; but I could procure no minnows.*
This basket will be in Fleet-street by eight this evening ; so I
hope Mazel will have them fresh and fair to-morrow morning. I
gave some directions, in a letter, to what particulars the engraver
should be attentive.

Finding, while I was on a visit, that I was within a reasonable
distance of Ambresbury, I sent a servant over to that town, and
procured several living specimens of loaches, which he brought,
safe and brisk, in a glass decanter. They were taken in the
gullies that were cut for watering the meadows. From these
fishes (which measured from two to four inches in length) I took

The common stickleback (G. aculeatus of Linnaeus), certain varieties of which (in the opinion
of Mr. Jenyns) are figured and described in Mr. Yarrell's work by the names G- trachurus, Cuv.,
semiarmatus, Cuv., leiurus, Cuv., and br achy cent r us, Cuv. ? occurs in every clear ditch and pond,
and is too well known to require much description. It has three erectible dorsal spines, more or
less serrated, and varying somewhat in length in different specimens, the second, however, being
always longest, and the third much shorter than the two others ; also a stout and serrated erect-
ible spine on each side of the abdomen, which is a modification of the ventral fin, as the others
are of the first dorsal ; sides more or less defended with horny plates, which vary very consider-
ably in number ; the sides of the tail furnished in some with a horizontal expansion of the skin
forming a keel.

G. spinulosus (Varrell and Jenyns), differs in no essential particular from the last, excepting in
being smaller, and having an additional dorsal spine, situate half-way between the second and
third of the ordinary ones. This spine is very small, and even shorter than that which precedes
the soft dorsal fin ; none of the spines are serrated. It was discovered by Dr. J»tark in some plenty
near Edinburgh, and, as Mr. Jenyns remarks, is "possibly a mere variety of the last species,
which is said to have been numerous in the same pond."

The ten-spined stickleback (G- pwng-iHus) , which Mr. White failed to discover about Selborne,
is however, an obviously distinct species, tolerably common all over the country, though nowhere
(so far as I have observed) quite so abundant as the G- aculeatus, than which it is rather mort
confined to running water. It is also of a longer make, and differs essentially in wanting the
lateral scaly plates, though it possesses the triangular one on the belly; the dorsal spines are
nine or ten in number (the latter, in all that I have ever examined), of eqnal length, and much
shorter than in the G. aculeatus, and when erect inclining alternately somewhat to the right and
left ; the ventral spines are smooth, tail mostly cariuated. Both the G- aculcatus and G< pungitiut
are found occasionally in the sea, where also is another and very long-shaped British species,
with fifteen spines, now constituting a distinct sub-genus, spinachia ; the latter only occurs in
salt water.

The sticklebacks are very lively and active .little fishes, and prey voraciously on worms, tad-
poles, and aquatic insects. They spawn in July and August, depositing but a small number of
ova; are very pugnacious, more particularly the G- aculeatus, which, in confinement, will attack
and nibble off the fins of other and much larger fishes that are kept with it in the same vessel.
An amusing account of the quarrelsome propensities of the male during the spawning season is
given in the Magazine of Natural History, all of which I can corroborate from repeated observa-
tions, premising that it is the male only that acquires the glowing colours. The very short space
of time in which the upper parts of these tiny fishes assimulate in hue to the colour of the vessel
in which they are placed is not a little curious and remarlcable. — ED.

* The minnow-roach is the lenciscus phoxinus of naturalists, a little well-known fish, much
used by anglers, about three or four inches long. It is common in rivers, more especially those
with a gravelly bottom, and keeps in shoals, subsisting on insects, worms, and aquatic plants.
Spawns early in summer, at which season the head is covered with small tubercles, and the under
parts of the male (as in the common stickleback) turn to a beautiful and rich crimson. — ED.

LOACHES. 61

; the following description : " The loach, in its general aspect, has
a pellucid appearance : its back is mottled with irregular collec-
tions of small black dots, not reaching much below the linea
lateralis, as are the black and tail fins : a black line runs from
each eye down to the nose ; its belly is of a silvery white ; the
upper jaw projects beyond the lower, and is surrounded with
six feelers, three on each side : its pectoral fins are large, its
ventral much smaller ; the fin behind its anus small ; its dorsal-
fin large, containing eight spines ; its tail, where it joins to the
tail-fin, remarkably broad, without any taperness, so as to be
characteristic of this genus : the tail-fin is broad, and square at
the end. From the breadth and muscular strength of the tail it
appears to be an active nimble fish."*

In my visit I was not very far from Hungerford, and did not
forget to make some enquiries concerning the wonderful method
of curing cancers by means of toads. Several intelligent persons,
both gentry and clergy, do, I find, give a great deal of credit to
what was asserted in the papers: and I myself dined with a
clergyman who seemed to be persuaded that what is related is
matter of fact ; but, when I came to attend to his account, I
thought I discerned circumstances which did not a little invali-
date the woman's story of the manner in which she came by her
skill. She says of herself " that, labouring under a virulent
cancer, she went to some church where there was a vast crowd :
on going into a pew, she was accosted by a strange clergyman ;

* The species above described is the bearded loach (cobitis barbaiula), a small brook-fish com-
mon throughout the country, chiefly inhabiting rivers and streamlets with a gravelly bottom,
and found only in running water, where it subsists on aquatic insects, and spawns early in April ;
its flesh, though small in quantity, being of good flavour, and by some esteemed a delicacy.
There is also another and more local British species, called the groundling loach (C. tcenia)
rather smaller and of a more compressed shape, with shorter barbules and a moveable forked
spine under each eye ; colour yellowish, inclining to orange, mottled and otherwise marked with
brown. This latter resides more in the mud than the common species, and is sometimes fouud in
ponds, agreeing more in habit with various exotic kinds, which bury themselves deep in the mud
when their haunts are dried up or frozen over, aud there continue till they are again fitted for
their reception. Of course these are very tenacious of life, as is the case with eels and all other
fishes that keep much to the bottom, all of which are besides remarkable for their extreme sus-
ceptibility to atmospheric changes, whence a beautiful continental loach (C-fossilis') is often
kept in glasses as a sort of barometer, as leeches sometimes are with us. The loach would seem
to have been a plentiful genus at a comparatively early period of the earth's history, fossil re-
mains of them (even of the species still existing), being found abundantly in various tertiary
localities, a fact at which we are the less surprised when we consider their burrowing habits ; for
it is only necessary to suppose that the return of the water to their temporarily dry haunts is
accompanied, as it often must be, particularly in hot climates where the powers of all nature are
so energetic, with a mass of gravel and stones of considerable thickness, and we at once perceivt
how they must frequently become buried in the earth to such a depth as to be equally beyond
the power of escape and the chance of decomposition. In hot climates the ponds and large
sheets of water caused by the rainy season are found to swarm with various fish, which bury
themselves deep in the ground when their haunts are drying. — ED.

62 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

who, after expressing compassion for her situation, told her that
if she would make such an application of living toads as is
mentioned she would be well." Now is it likely that this un-
known gentleman should express so much tenderness for this
single sufferer, and not feel any for the many thousands that
daily languish under this terrible disorder ? Would he not have
made use of this invaluable nostrum for his own emolument ; or,
at least, by some means of publication or other, have found a
method of making* it public for the good of mankind ? In short,
this woman (as it appears to me) having set up for a cancer-
doctress, finds it expedient to amuse the country with this dark
and mysterious relation.

The water-eft has not, that I can discern, the least appearance
of any gills ; for want of which it is continually rising to the
surface of the water to take in fresh air. I opened a big bellied
one indeed, and found it full of spawn. Not that this circum-
stance at all invalidates the assertion that they are larvae: for
the larvce of insects are full of eggs, which they exclude the
instant they enter their last state.* The water-eft is continually
climbing over the brims of the vessel, within which we keep it in
water, and wandering away: and people every summer see
numbers crawling, out of the pools where they are hatched, up
the dry banks. There are varieties of them, differing in colour;
and some have fins up their tail and back, and some have not.

LETTER XIX. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, August 17, 1768.

I HAVE now, past dispute, made out three distinct species of the
willow-wrens (motacillce) which constantly and invariably use
distinct notes. But, at the same time, I am obliged to confess
that I know nothing of your willow-lark, f In my letter of April
the 1 8th, I had told you peremptorily that I knew your willow-
lark, but had not seen it then : but, when I came to procure it,

* It will be seeu, by reference to the note to p. 54, that Mr. White here confounds the finned
state of the adult newts with the larva, a mistake in which he is very far from being singular. —
ED.

t Brit. Zool. edit. 1776, octavo, p. ^81. Note.— The sedge-reedling (salicar'ui phragmitis) is the
bird here intended.— ED.

WILLOW WRENS.

63

Sibilous Pettychaps.

it proved, in all respects, a very motacilla trochilusj only that it
is a size larger than the two other, and the yellow-green of the
whole upper part of the body is more vivid, and the belly of a
clearer white. I have specimens of the three sorts now lying
before me; and can discern that there are three gradations of
sizes, and that the least has black
legs, and the other two flesh-coloured
ones. The yellowest bird is consi-
derably the largest, and has its quill-
feathers and secondary feathers tipped
with white, which the others have
not. This last haunts only the tops
of trees in high beechen woods, and
makes a sibilous grasshopper-like noise, now and then, at short
intervals, shivering a little with its wings when it sings ; and is,
I make no doubt now, the regulus non cristatus of Ray ; which
he says " cantat voce striduld locustce." Yet this great ornitho-
logist never suspected that there were three species.*

* There is considerable resemblance throughout all the members of the restricted genus syltia:
all are nearly of the same size, and the same prevailing tinge of yellowish green (though in some
of them it is very dingy) more or less pervades the whole. Of the five well-ascertained European
species, three only, those mentioned by Mr. White, are known in Britain ; the other two («.
icterina and S. nattereri) visiting only the more southern parts of the continent. They are all
closely allied, and are pretty and delicate little slender-billed birds, that pass the whole summer
in cleansing our trees from insects, and exact from us no tribute in the way of fruit in return. 1
shall subjoin the distinctive characters of our three native kinds somewhat in detail, as they are
still very commonly confused together by bird-stuffers and ordinary observers, under the one
name of " willow-wren," a term probably applied originally to the sedge-reedling.

The sibilons pettychaps (S. sibilant), or " wood-wren" of the books, is a trifle larger than the
two others, though not " considerably" so, as mentioned in the text, there being but little differ-
ence in size between it and the next species. It is the most unlike the rest of any, and may
always be at once told in the hand by its broad and well-defined clear yellow eye-streak, by the
much brighter and more delicate green of the upper parts, and by the pure silvery white of the
belly and under tail-coverts, which last, in both the other species, are slightly tinged with yellow
its attitudes are in general more crouching, and its wings are longer than in the others, these
latter reaching, when closed, more than half-way down the tail. It is a common summer visitant,
pretty generally dispersed throughout the woodland districts of our island, arriving always three
weeks or a mouth later than its congeners, and chiefly found where there are tall trees, particu-
larly oak and beech, at no time frequenting (like the others) open commons and furze-brakes.
This species, may be easily recognised (and at a considerable distance) by its singular and very
remarkable tremulous note, which is heard during the greater part of summer, this is often com-
menced while flying rather slowly from tree to tree, at which time it consists merely of a mono-
tonous repetition of the sound tzit, prolonged till the bird alights on a bough, when immediately it
is emitted gradually quicker and quicker, till it dies away in a kind of thrill, during the utterance
of which the wings are shivered in a remarkable manner. When it commences this strange song
upon a tree, the first note is not repeated so many times successively, and now and then, at
intervals, a most plaintive, melancholy cry is sent forth, which is common to both sexes. This
species has also another peculiarly mournful note (expressible by the sound tet-ip), which is
constantly reiterated when any one is near the nest, more especially when the young are newly
hatched. The nest is in all the genus of an oval shape, with a rather wide opening near the top,
that of the sibilous pettychaps being at once distinguishable from those of its congeners by being
never lined with feathers, as is invariably the case with those of both the others. The eggs are

64

NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

LETTER XX. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

Selborne, October S, 1768.

IT is, I find, in zoology as it is in botany : all nature is so full,
that that district produces the greatest variety which is the most
examined. Several birds, which are said to belong to the north
only, are, it seems, often in the south. I have discovered this
summer three species of birds with us, which writers mention as
only to be seen in the northern counties. The first that was
brought me (on the 14th of May,) was the sandpiper, tringa

six or eight in number, rather large for the size of the hird, semi-translucent white, thickly dotted
all over with dark reddish brown spots, which are sometimes confluent, and are generally thickest
at the large end ; they can never be confounded with those of the others. The young differ but
very little from their parents, and acquire their fixed colours before leaving us in the autumn,
not, as in the two other species, becoming of a uniform yellow on the under parts after moulting.
I suspect they never breed but once in the season.

The warbling pettychaps (S. melodic), "yellow," or "willow-wren" of authors, is by far the
most abundant of the genus, haunting alike every situation : the fields and the woods, gardens
and the road-side, and the brambles and furze upon open and extensive commons. It is a trifle
smaller than the last species, and of a darker and more dingy colour, inclining to olive brown ;
the eye-streak, though tolerably'well defined, is smaller,
and not so bright, and the under tail-coverts are tinged
with yellow, those of the sibilous pettychaps being of
the-purest snow white ; its legs and feet are of a yellow-
brown, forming the most obvious distinctive character
between it and the chiflchaff pettychaps, in which latter
these are of a brownish black ; its wings are shorter than
in the former species, and longer than in the latter ; and
it is more a bush bird than either, less confined to the
vicinity of trees, but where there are trees is as com-
monly found upon them. It is eminently distinguished
from the others by its charming and truly melodious
song, which, however, consists but of a simple run of
notes, uttered in a descending scale, yet is extremely sweet and musical, and at times very pleas
ingly varied, contributing in no small degree to the cheerfulness of our vernal concert. I think
nothing can be more delightful than to lisfen-to these little vocalists, upon a fine sunny morning
iu April, when, just after their arrival in the country, thousands of them are everywhere singing
upon the furzes; and " a joyous, easy, laughing note" they have, as is well expressed by Mr.
White: callous and saturnine must he be who is not enlivened by it. At the season of incubation,
or rather after the exclusion of the young, this species also has a soft and plaintive cry (resembling
/mi, or rather heiree), when the nest is approached, and so clamorously is this repeated, and at
such a distance from the object of their care, that this monotonous plaint is not unfrequently the
only sound to be heard, as we traverse the woods upon a sultry day in summer. The young at
first closely resemble their parents; but, after moulting, have the eye-streak and whole under
parts of a much brighter and uniform yellow, which fades gradually into the mature hue. The
same also takes place in the next species, the adults of both being known in Surrey by the term
"grass-wren," and the moulted young ones by the name " golden-wren," which latter appellation
s not (as some have said) applied to the golden-crowned regulus. The warbling pettychaps moults
very early, having often completed its change of feathers by the end of July, at which time it
partially resumes its song; only partially, for it sings but occasionally, and rather weakly, in
autumn. The eggs vary more than those of the other species, but are in general easily enough

Warbling Pettychaps.

SANDPIPER. 65

hypoleucus: it was a cock bird, and haunted the banks of some
ponds near the village ; and, as it had a companion, doubtless
intended to have bred near that water. Besides, the owner has
told me since, that, on recollection, he has seen some of the same
birds round his ponds in former summers.*

distinguishable ; they are semi-transparent white, more or less dotted with rufous spots, which
usually form a zone around the large end, and are sometimes accompanied with spots of a much
darker colour. Not unfrequently they are a miniature resemblance of those of the robin. A spe-
cies almost exactly resembling this, but differing slightly in the make of the bill I have seen
specimens of, from Japan.

The cbjffchaff-pettychaps (S. loquax) is the smallest of the three, and in appearance hardly
differs from the last, but may be always readily told by the dark colour of its legs and feet ; its
plumage, too, is every where half a shade darker, and the
wings are much shorter ; it also stands rather more up-
right upon the legs, with the head often sunk in the shoul-
ders, and the wings commonly held somewhat drooping. It
is everywhere a less plentiful species than the two others,
and does not extend so far to the north, being described not
to visit Scotland. Its haunts are similar to those of the
last, only it is rather more confined to woods, though not
so exclusively so as the sibilous pettychaps. I have gene-
rally found it to arrive about the same time as the S. me- ,

lodia, or perhaps a day or two earlier ; but, as a very few Chiffdiaff' Petti chaps.

occasionally remain with us through the winter, its notes are sometimes heard long before.
There have also been instances of the warbling-pettychaps staying the winter in the west of Eng-
land. The song of the present species is very different from those of the others, and consists but
of two notes (some idea of which may be gathered from the sound tsih, tsah) repeated several
times continuously in monotonous succession, and occasionally, but very rarely, mingled with
another sound which it would be useless to attempt to express on paper ; like both the other
species, it occasionally sings as it flies from tree to tree. The nest is very like that of the
warbling pettychaps, and is placed in similar situations— upon or near the ground, amid a tuft of
herbage ; that of S- ubilans is sometimes fixed against the trunk of a tree. The eggs are of the
same half-transparent white, but are marked with only a few scattered dark purplish-red spots,
and are not much subject to variation. It emits the same cry when the nest is approached as the
last species. The chiffchaff-pettychaps is the sylvia rufa of the continental naturalists, and the
sylvia hippolais of those of Britain — which confusion in its nomenclature pretty plainly evinces, on
the one hand, the misleading tendency of faulty and inappropriate names (no British naturalist
imagining for a moment that our bird could have been designated rufa), and intimates, on the
other, the insufficiency of the meagre descriptions of some authors, towards the enabling their
readers to make out the species they intend ; for had the describers of the continental «. hippolais
(now constituting a distinct sub-genus) merely mentioned the fact that it is a fine and splendid
songster, our bird would never have been supposed to be identical with it, and the latter would
not have been described by the continental writers as occurring in Britain.

All the pettychaps-genus may be easily kept in confinement upon bread and milk, and crum-
bled bread and bruised hempseed, allowing them also as much insect-food as possible. They
soon become extremely tame and familiar, but in winter are very tender and impatient of
cold.— ED.

* The common sandpiper (totanus hypoleucus), usually called «' summer snipe" in the south of
England, where, however, it is much less abundant than in the northern counties and in Scot-
land, though still not rare. It is a pretty active little bird, perpetually in motion ; " for," as
Selby says, " whether running along the shore, or perched on a stone, its tail is ever moving up
and down, and it has also the custom (in common with other species of this genus), of nodding
the head, by suddenly stretching and contracting the neck." The same author correctly adds
that " its flight is graceful, though peculiar, being performed by a rapid motion of the pinions,
succeeded by an interval of rest, the wings at the same time being considerably bent, and form-
ing an angle with the body; in this manner it skims with rapidity over the surface of the water,
not always flying in a straight line, but making occasional sweeps, uttering at the same time its

F

66 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

The next bird that I procured (on the 21st of May) was a male
red-backed butcher bird, lanius col-
lurio. My neighbour, who shot it,
says that it might easily have escaped
his notice, had not the outcries and
chattering of the white-throats and
other small birds drawn his attention
to the bush where it was : its craw
was filled with the legs and wings of
beetles.* Flusher Shrike*

shrill and peculiar whistle," which latter has given rise to its other common provincial epithet —
willy wicket. There is an excellent account of this bird in Mr. Selby's British Ornithology, ail
indispensable work iu the library of every British naturalist, though unfortunately too much dis-
torted by deceptive and misleading theory.— ED.

* I am rather surprised that Mr. White was not familiar with this species, as it abounds in
many parts of Surrey, Kent, and Sussex, where it is commonly called " Jack Baker," and is well
known to all persons who take an interest in natural history. It arrives rather late in the season,
and both sexes, I think about the same time, which is contrary to the usual habit of migratory
birds ; some seasons they are much more plentiful than others. They are found generally about
tall and thick maple or hawthorn-hedges, wherein they breed ; and may be commonly seeu
perched on one of the highest twigs, or, like fly-catchers, upon the bare branch of some tree
growing out of the hedge, or sitting upon a post or paling, always in a conspicuous situation,
where their vision can extend over a considerable range, and whence they often dart after the
larger passing insects, or upon any small quadruped or bird that lucklessly conies within the
sphere of their downward leaping flight ; or they slowly hover along the hedges, often remaining
a long time suspended over a particular spot, and then, perhaps, advancing a few yards, and
again remaining 6xed in the air, and, when at length they do settle, not unfreqitently hovering
for some time around the branch on which they are about to alight. When sitting watchfully
upon a bough they often jerk the tail, another habit in accordance with the fly-catchers, to which
they are considerably allied. They subsist chiefly on beetles and humble-bees, and render
essential service in the spring by devouring great numbers of the large female wasps, destroying
what would otherwise become the founders of colonies of these troublesome and destructive in-
sects ; I have taken four or five from the stomach of a single bird. Chaffers they seize with the
bill, and then, flying to a perch, transfer them to the foot, holding them up in one foot like a parrot
while they pick them to pieces. When satiated,' they eat only the abdomen, and impale the still
living body upon a thorn, a habit common to all the genus. They prey also occasionally on
small birds, lizards, mice, and shrews, and I have known several instances of their being taken
in the nets of bird-catchers, when endeavouring to seize upon the brace-birds- They do not (like
the L- excubitor) attack a bird upon the wing, but pounce down upon those which happen to be
on the ground, or upon a branch beneath, in the latter case bearing down their prey to the
ground, seizing it with both bill and claws, and expanding over it the wings and tail in precisely
the manner of a hawk, then dispatching it not by strangulation, but by biting and compress-
ing the head, and picking a hole in the skull. It is then carried in the beak to the horizontal
bough of a tree, where the shrike places one foot upon its victim, and never leaves it, I believe,
when undisturbed, till it is all finished. This species is almost sure to betray the site of its
nest by its perpetual clamour, constantly reiterating the sound chack when any one is near the
place, so that in populous neighbourhoods very few escape the ken of bird's-nesting boys. The
young will attack and kill another bird even before they have cast their first feathers ; but are rather
social among themselves, and with their parents, and in July and August are very apt to excite
attention by the clatter they make on the hedges, which may be heard at a considerable distance ;
they then subsist almost wholly upon winged grasshoppers, which are captured in the manner
of a fly-catcher, with a loud snap of the bill. They have no natural song, save a few unmusical
chirps, but are said occasionally to imitate the notes of other birds, which in confinement they
do with facility.

The redbacked shrike is a double moulting bird: the young are at first closely barred upon the
upper parts with a darker colour, each feather exhibiting two transverse bars. This plumage is

:

RING-OUSELS. 67

The next rare birds (which were procured for me last week)
were some ring-ousels, turdi torquati.

This week twelve months a gentleman from London, being
with us, was amusing himself with a gun, and found, he told
us, on an old yew hedge where there were berries, some birds
like blackbirds, with rings of white round their necks : a neigh-
bouring farmer also at the same time observed the same ; but,
as no specimens were procured, little notice was taken. I men-
tioned this circumstance to you in my letter of November the
4th, 1767 : (you however paid but small regard to what I said,
as I had not seen these birds myself :) but last week the afore-
said farmer, seeing a large flock, twenty or thirty of these birds,
shot two cocks and two hens : and says, on recollection, that he
remembers to have observed these birds again last spring, about
Lady-day, as it were, on their return to the north. Now per-
haps these ousels are not the ousels of the north of England,
but belong to the more northern parts of Europe ; and may re-
tire before the excessive rigour of the frosts in those parts ; and
return to breed in the spring, when the cold abates. If this be
the case, here is discovered a new bird of winter passage, con-
cerning whose migrations the writers are silent : but if these
birds should prove the ousels of the north of England, then here
is a migration disclosed within our own kingdom never before
remarked. It does not yet appear whether they retire beyond
the bounds of our island to the south ; but it is most probable
that they usually do, or else one cannot suppose that they would
have continued so long unnoticed in the southern counties.
The ousel is larger than a blackbird, and feeds on haws ; but
last autumn (when there were no haws) it fed on yew-berries :
in the spring it feeds on ivy-berries, which ripen only at that
season, in March and April.

I must not omit to tell you (as you have been so lately on
the study of reptiles) that my people, every now and then of
late, draw up with a bucket of water from my well, which is
63 feet deep, a large black warty lizard with a fin-tail and yel-

shed very soon after leaving the nest, and is replaced by another of closer texture and more
rufous hue, the upper feathers of which have each one dark bar across, the primaries not being
shed till the spring, when the birds assume the adult male and female dress, as described in
books, the latter much resembling that of the young, but without the barring. In autumn
they of course moult again, at which time 1 believe both sexes assume the plumage last described,
and the following spring I suspect that both acquire that which has been hitherto considered
exclusively characteristic of the adult male, several fertile females having to my knowledge been
killed in this dress, differing in appearance only from the male in being less bright. These
changes have escaped the notice of all our naturalists. — Ei>. .

F 2

68 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

low belly.* How they first came down at that depth, and how
they were ever to have got out thence without help, is more
than I am able to say.

My thanks are due to you for your trouble and care in the
examination of a buck's head. As far as your discoveries reach
at present, they seem much to corroborate my suspicions ; and I

hope Mr. may find reason to give his decision in my

favour ; and then, I think, we may advance this extraordinary
provision of nature as a new instance of the wisdom of God in
the creation.

As yet I have not quite done with my history of the (zdicne-
mus, or stone-curlew ; for I shall desire a gentleman in Sussex
(near whose house these birds congregate in vast flocks in the
autumn) to observe nicely when they leave him (if they do leave
him), and when they return again in the spring : I was with this
gentleman lately, and saw several single birds.

LETTER XXI. To T. PENNANT, Esa.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, Nov. 28, 1768.

WITH regard to the cedicnemus, or stone-curlew, I intend to
write very soon to my friend near Chichester, in whose neigh-
bourhood these birds seem most to abound ; and shall urge him
to take particular notice when they begin to congregate, and
afterwards to watch them most narrowly whether they do not
withdraw themselves during the dead of the winter. When I
have obtained information with respect to this circumstance, I
shall have finished my history of the stone-curlew ; which I hope
will prove to your satisfaction, as it will be, I trust, very near the
truth. This gentleman, as he occupies a large farm of his own,
and is abroad early and late, will be a very proper spy upon the
motions of these birds : and besides, as I have prevailed on him
to buy the Naturalist's Journal (with which he is much de-
lighted), I shall expect that he will be very exact in his dates. It
is very extraordinary, as you observe, that a bird so common
with us should never straggle to you.

And here will be the properest place to mention, while I think
of it, an anecdote which the above-mentioned gentleman told me
when I was last at his house, which was that, in a warren joining

* The warty newt (triton palustris) .- ED.

STONEHENGE. 69

to his outlet, many daws (corvi monedulce) build every year in the
rabbit-burrows under ground. The way he and his brother used
to take their nests, while they were boys, was by listening at the
mouths of the holes ; and, if they heard the young' ones cry, they
twisted the nests out with a forked stick. Some water-fowls
(viz., the puffins) breed, I know, in that manner ; but I should
never have suspected the daws of building in holes on the flat
ground.

Another very unlikely spot is made use of by daws as a place
to breed in, and that is Stonehenge. These birds deposit their

lehenge.

nests in the interstices between the upright and the impost
stones of that amazing work of antiquity : which circumstance
alone speaks the prodigious height of the upright stones, that
they should be tall enough to secure those nests from the
annoyance of shepherd-boys, who are always idling round that
place.

One of my neighbours last Saturday, November the 26th, saw
a martin in a sheltered bottom : the sun shone warm, and the
bird was hawking briskly after flies. I am now perfectly satis-
fied that they do not all leave this island in the winter.

You judge very right, I think, in speaking with reserve and
caution concerning the cures done by toads : for, let people ad-
vance what they will on such subjects, yet there is such a pro-
pensity in mankind towards deceiving and being deceived, that
one cannot safely relate any thing from common report, espe-
cially in print, without expressing some degree of doubt and
suspicion.

Your approbation, with regard to my new discovery of the
migration of the ring-ousel, gives me satisfaction ; and I find
you concur with me in suspecting that they are foreign birds

70 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

which visit us. You will be sure, I hope, not to omit to make
enquiry whether your ring-ousels leave your rocks in the autumn.
What puzzles me most, is the very short stay they make with
us ; for in about three weeks they are all gone. I shall be very
curious t<5 remark whether they will call on us at their return in
the spring, as they did last year.

I want to be better informed with regard to icthyology. If
fortune had settled me near the sea-side, or near some great
river, my natural propensity would soon have urged me to have
made myself acquainted with their productions : but as I have
lived mostly in inland parts, and in an upland district, my know-
ledge of fishes extends little further than to those common sorts
which our brooks and lakes produce. I am, &c.

LETTER XXII. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, Jan. 2, 1769-

As to the peculiarity of jackdaws building with us under the
ground in rabbit-burrows, you have, in part, hit upon the rea-
son ; for, in reality, there are hardly any towers or steeples in
all this country. And perhaps, Norfolk excepted, Hampshire
and Sussex are as meanly furnished with churches as almost any
counties in the kingdom. We have many livings of two or three
hundred pounds a year, whose houses of worship make little
better appearance than dovecots. When I first saw Northamp-
tonshire, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire, and the fens of
Lincolnshire, I was amazed at the number of spires which pre-
sented themselves in every point of view. As an admirer of
prospects, I have reason to lament this want in my own country ;
for such objects are very necessary ingredients in an elegant
landscape.

What you mention with respect to reclaimed toads raises my
curiosity. An ancient author, though no naturalist, has well
remarked that " every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of ser-
pents, and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed, of
mankind."*

It is a satisfaction to me to find that a green lizard has actually

* There have been many instances related of tamed toads, some of which have been known to
attain a considerable age. One is mentioned by Mr. Arscott which lived upwards of thirty-five
years. The most curious fact, however, connected with the history of this animal, is its capa-

GREEN LIZARD. 71

been procured for you in Devonshire ; because it corroborates
my discovery, which I made many years ago, of the same sort,
on a sunny sandbank near Farnham, in Surrey. I am well
acquainted with the south hams of Devonshire ; and can sup-
pose that district, from its southerly situation, to be a proper
habitation for such animals in their best colours

Since the ring-ousels of your vast mountains do certainly not
forsake them against winter, our suspicions that those which
visit this neighbourhood about Michaelmas are not English
birds, but driven from the more northern parts of Europe by the
frosts, are still more reasonable ; and it will be worth your pains

bility of enduring for apparently almost indefinite periods enclosed within a massof stoneor of grow-
ing timber, various instances of which— many resting on most respectable authority— must have
occurred within the reading of almost every person. Of course numerous experiments have been
instituted in order to throw light upon so strange a phenomenon, from which, however, little
can be satisfactorily deduced, save that — at least in ordinary cases— the ingress of some air is
necessary, or the creature very shortly ceases to exist. Mr. Jesse informs us that he knew a
gentleman who put a toad into a small flower-pot, and secured it so that no insect could pene-
trate it (which latter is, however, in all probability a mistake), and then buried it so deep in his
garden that it was secured from the influence of frost. At the end of twenty years he took it up,
and found the toad increased in bulk, and healthy. It has generally happened that, on the
creature being restored to air and light, after having been so long immured, its death has fol-
lowed almost immediately, probably in consequence of its too sudden liberation, an opinion which
is strengthened by the following very credible narration, the accuracy of which I see no reason
to question, and which was furnished me incidentally by an intelligent quarryman, of whom I
was seeking some information with regard to fossils. A toad, that had been extricated unhurt
from the interior of a block of limestone, was, he informed me, kept by his fellow workmen as a
curiosity, and placed under a tumbler glass, where it lived about three weeks, at the expiration
of which time it managed to effect its escape, thus showing that, when not too suddenly exposed
to the free air, the animal will survive its release. I am inclined to imagine, also, that the well-
known experiments of Dr. Buckland on this subject would have been more satisfactory, had the
creatures been gradually inured to close imprisonment. In ordinary cases it is probably a long
time before the entrance of the cavity into which a toad had crept becomes completely closed,
under which circumstances it may be, as indeed Dr. Buckland suggests, that, "deprived of food
and air, it might fall into that state of torpor or suspended animation to which certain animals
are subject in winter, but bow long it might continue in that state is uncertain." I do not re-
member to have heard of any but living toads being found immured. This animal can, indeed,
insinuate itself into so small an orifice as to astonish any person who has not witnessed it ; and
in retreats into which it can but just squeeze itself it very commonly retires to pass the winter.
Thus it is that it not unfrequently contrives to locate itself in cavities whence it finds itself un-
able to emerge, stalactitic incrustations or fortuitous accumulations opposing its re-passage from
the interior of a rock, while the latter, or the growth of wood around the entrance, encloses it
within the hollow of a tree. In either situation it would subsist for a time on the insects which
continually crawl into such places, while its constitution would perhaps be gradually preparing
to fall into that lethargic state above adverted to.

It must not be concealed, however, that this is merely a hypothetical supposition, though it
would seem to be the most rational mode of accounting for the phenomenon. 1 am not aware
that the animal has ever been found in other than a wakeful state.

The same sluggish tenaciousuess of life appears to be evinced also by certain other species of
amphibia, though probably not quite to the same extent. Capt. Brown relates of the triton palus-
tr'u, an animal which in its general aspect seems to hold much the same relation to the smooth-
skinned newts which the toads do to the frogs, and which, perhaps, ought to constitute a dis-
tinct minimum division, that he " once found a very large specimen of it in an old wooden
conduit at Fountain-bridge, Edinburgh, which had been stopped at both ends for upwards of
twenty years. The animal must have been at least that age, as it was not possible that it could
obtain access from the time the conduit was stopped." — ED.

72 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

to endeavour to trace from whence they come, and to enquire
why they make so very short a stay.

In your account of your error with regard to the two species
of herons, you incidentally gave me great entertainment in your
description of the heronry at Cressi-hall, which is a curiosity I
never could manage to see. Fourscore nests of such a bird on
one tree is a rarity which I would ride half as many miles to
have a sight of. Pray be sure to tell me in your next whose
seat Cressi-hall is, and near what town it lies.* I have often
thought that those vast extents of fens have never been suffi-
ciently explored. If half a dozen gentlemen, furnished with a
good strength of water-spaniels, were to beat them over for a
week, they would certainly find more species.

There is no bird, I believe, whose manners I have studied
more than that of the caprimulgus (the
goat-sucker),f as it is a wonderful and
curious creature : but I have always
found that though sometimes it may
chatter as it flies, as I know it does,
yet in general it utters its jarring note
sitting on a bough ; and I have for
many a half hour watched it as it sat
with its under mandible quivering, and

particularly this summer. It perches usually on a bare twig,
with its head lower than its tail, in an attitude well expressed by
your draughtsman in the folio British Zoology, This bird is
most punctual in beginning its song exactly at the close of day ; J
so exactly that I have known it strike up more than once or
twice just at the report of the Portsmouth evening gun, which
we can hear when the weather is still. It appears to me past all
doubt that its notes are formed by organic impulse, by the
powers of the parts of its windpipe, formed for sound, just as

* Cressi-hall is near Spalding, in Lincolnshire.

t A better name is motheater (phalcenivora europcea), the whole structure of the birds of this
genus being especially adapted for preying on nocturnal insects.— ED.

J I remember once hearing it, however, at about four o'clock in the afternoon, during bright
sunshine, but such an occurrence is very unusual. Perhaps it may be as well to remark here,
in reference to an erroneous statement in Capt. Brown's edition of this work, that our bird is
by no means identical with the whip-poor-will motheater of America (phaloenwora vocifera), a
species peculiar to that continent, and common in summer in many parts of the United States,
where it literally makes the woods resound at night with its perpetual repetition of the note
from which it has been named, pronounced in a very clear and distinct manner, the chief stress
being laid on the first and last syllables. Our bird has only the notes above mentioned by Mr.
White—the loud spinning-wheel burr, and an occasional faint squeak, which latter is only uttered
on the wing.— ED.

LIZARD. 73

cats pur. You will credit me, I hope, when I assure you that, as
my neighbours were assembled in an hermitage* on the side of a
steep hill where we drink tea, one of these churn-owls came and
settled on the cross of that little straw edifice and began to
chatter, and continued his note for many minutes : and we were
all struck with wonder to find that the organs of that little ani-
mal, when put in motion, gave a sensible vibration to the whole
building ! This bird also sometimes makes a small squeak, re-
peated four or five times ; and I have observed that to happen
when the cock has been pursuing the hen in a toying way through
the boughs of a tree.

It would not be at all strange if your bat, which you have pro-
cured, should prove a new one, since five species have been found
in a neighbouring kingdom. The great sort that I mentioned is
certainly a non-descript : I saw but one this summer, and that I
had no opportunity of taking.

Your account of the Indian-grass was entertaining. I am no
angler myself ; but enquiring of those that are, what they sup-
posed that part of their tackle to be made of ? they replied " of
the intestines of a silk-worm."

Though I must not pretend to great skill in entomology, yet
I cannot say that I am ignorant of that kind of knowledge : I
may now and then perhaps be able to furnish you with a little
information.

The vast rains ceased with us much about the same time as
with you, and since we have had delicate weather. Mr. Barker,
who has measured the rain for more than thirty years, says, in a
late letter, that more has fallen this year than in any he ever at-
tended to; though, from July 1763 to January 1764, more fell
than in any seven months of this year.

LETTER XXIII. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, February 28, 1769.

IT is not improbable that the Guernsey lizard and our green
lizards may be specifically the same ; all that I know is, that,
when some years ago many Guernsey lizards were turned loose
in Pembroke college garden, in the university of Oxford, they

* See the vignette in this book.

74 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

lived a great while, and seemed to enjoy themselves very well,
but never bred. Whether this circumstance will prove any thing
either way I shall not pretend to say.*

I return you thanks for your account of Cressi-hall ; but re-
collect, not without regret, that in June 1746 I was visiting for
a week together at Spalding, without ever being told that such
a curiosity was just at hand. Pray send me word in your next
what sort of tree it is that contains such a quantity of herons'
nests ; and whether the heronry consists of a whole grove or
wood, or only of a few trees.

It gave me satisfaction to find we accorded so well about the
caprimulgus : all I contended for was to prove that it often chat-
ters sitting as well as flying ; and therefore the noise was volun-
tary, and from organic impulse, and not from the resistance of
the air against the hollow of its mouth and throat.

If ever I saw any thing like actual migration, it was last
Michaelmas-day. I was travelling,
and out early in the morning : at first
there was a vast fog ; but, by the time
that I was got seven or eight miles
from home towards the coast, the sun
broke out into a delicate warm day.
We were then on a large heath or
common, and I could discern, as the
mist began to break away, great numbers of swallows (Jiirundines
rustic®) clustering on the stunted shrubs and bushes, as if they
had roosted there all night. As soon as the air became clear
and pleasant, they all were on the wing at once ; and, by a
placid and easy flight, proceeded on southward towards the sea :
after this I did not see any more flocks, only now and then a
straggler.

I cannot agree with those persons who assert that the swallow
kind disappear some and some gradually, as they come, for the
bulk of them seem to withdraw at once : only some stragglers
stay behind a long while, and do never, there is the greatest rea-
son to believe, leave this island. Swallows seem to lay them-
selves up, and to come forth in a warm day, as bats do continually
of a warm evening, after they have disappeared for weeks, For
a very respectable gentleman assured me that, as he was walking
with some friends under Merton-wall on a remarkably hot noon,
either in the last week in December or the first week in January,

* They are the same. — ED.

MIGRATION OF SWALLOWS. 75

he espied three or four swallows huddled together on the mould-
ing of one of the windows of that college. I have frequently
remarked that swallows are seen later at Oxford than elsewhere :
is it owing to the vast massy buildings of that place, to the many
waters round it, or to what else ?

When I used to rise in a morning last autumn, and see the
swallows and martins clustering on the chimneys and thatch of
the neighbouring cottages, I could not help being touched with
a secret delight, mixed with some degree of mortification : with
delight to observe with how much ardour and punctuality those
poor little birds obeyed the strong impulse towards migration,
or hiding, imprinted on their minds by their great Creator ; and
with some degree of mortification, when I reflected that, after all
our pains and enquiries, we are yet not quite certain 4to what re-
gions they do migrate ; and are still further embarrassed to find
that some do not actually migrate at all.

These reflections made so strong an impression on my ima-
gination, that they became productive of a composition that may
perhaps amuse you for a quarter of an hour when next I have
the honour of writing to you.

LETTER XXIV. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, May 29, 1769.

THE scarabceus fullo I know very well, having seen it in collec-
tions ; but have never been able to discover one wild in its
natural state. Mr. Banks told me he thought it might be found
on the sea-coast.*

On the thirteenth of April I went to the sheep-down, where
the ring-ousels have been observed to make their appearance at
spring and fall, in their way perhaps to the north or south ; and
was much pleased to see three birds about the usual spot. We
shot a cock and a hen ; they were plump and in high condition.
The hen had but very small rudiments of eggs within her, which
proves they are late breeders ; whereas those species of the
thrush kind that remain with us the whole year have fledged
young before that time. In their crops was nothing very distin-
guishable, but somewhat that seemed like blades of vegetables
nearly digested. In autumn they feed on haws and yew-berries,

* It is not found in this country. — ED.

76 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

and in the spring on ivy-berries. I dressed one of these birds,
and found it juicy and well-flavoured. It is remarkable that they
make but a few days' stay in their spring visit, but rest near a
fortnight at Michaelmas. These birds, from the observations of
three springs and two autumns, are most punctual in their re-
turn, and exhibit a new migration unnoticed by the writers, who
supposed they never were to be seen in any of the southern
counties.

One of my neighbours lately brought me a new salicaria,
which at first I suspected might have proved your willow-lark,*
but, on a nicer examination, it answered much better to the de-
scription of that species which you shot at Revesby, in Lincoln-
shire. My bird I describe thus : " It is a size less than the
grasshopper-lark ; the head, back, and coverts of the wings, of a
dusky brown, without those dark spots of the grasshopper-lark ;
over each eye is a milkwhite stroke ; the chin and throat are
white, and the under parts of a yellowish white ; the rump is
tawny, and the feathers of the tail sharp-pointed ; the bill is
dusky and sharp, and the legs are dusky ; the hinder claw long
and crooked." The person that shot it says that it sung so like
a reed-sparrow that he took it for one ; and that it sings all
night : but this account merits further enquiry.f For my part, I

* For this salicaria see letter August 30, 1769.

t The above-mentioned garrulous little bird is the sedge-reedling (salicaria phragmitis)> a
common summer visitant pretty generally diffused over the country, haunting watery situations,
the sedgy borders of rivers and ponds, where it subsists entirely on insects, and which it enlivens
day and night with its peculiar and characteristic chat-
tering song, consisting of a variety of repeated chirrups,
many of which closely resemble those of the sparrow
and other birds, whence the spacies has been termed by

some the English mocking-bird. Its various notes, ' ^^-^S^^l^ RV

however, are all perfectly original, the same being alike =?^^=L2d^H \J

uttered in every locality, often where the species it is
described to imitate are never found. The remark of
Mr. White's informant, that the individual he procured
" sung like a reed-sparrow/' is a mistake which a cur-
sory observer is very apt to fall into, the little songster
often chattering concealed in the thickest part of a
bush, while a monotonous or silent reed-bunting Sedge Keedling.

(emberiza schceniculus) , commonly called "reed-sparrow," sitting conspicuously on one of the
outer twigs, obtains full credit for the music— the more plausibly, from the sparrow-like tone of
many of the others chirpings. The sedge-reedling is a very lively and cheerful little bird, and
there is a briskness and a sort of artlessness about its song that renders it, at least for a time,
extremely pleasing. Sometimes it will mount singing a little way up into the air, and it fre-
quently chirrups as it flits from bush to bush ; in short, it is a most untiring songster, insomuch
that it often becomes at length quite an annoyance to some persons who live near the water.
There is a species closely allied to this in Italy and in many parts of the south of Europe, the
S- aquatica (trilineata would be better, as more exclusive), which has been known to visit as far
north as Holland. It is easily distinguishable by having a broad pale streak along the crown of
the Lead, simitar to that over each eye. The sedge-reedling nidificates in clumps of herbage

AMERICAN ANIMALS 77

suspect it is a second sort of locustella, hinted at by Dr. Derham
in Ray's Letters : see p. 108. He also procured me a grass-
hopper-lark.

The question that you put with regard to those genera of
animals that are peculiar to America, viz. how they came there,

near the ground, or in a thick bush, often amid the vigorous shoots from a low stool of willow,
constructing a deep and rather massive nest, in which are deposited six, and not unfrequently
seven eggs, of a pale colour, inclining to greenish, dotted all over with minute confluent specks
of a deeper tint, intermingled generally with some larger cinereous spots, and sometimes dashes
of dark brown, with often an obscure zone round the large end. The young have some dark
spots on the breast in their first plumage.

Another species, common in many parts of the south of England, but much more local than
the S phTagmitis, is the fen-reedliug (S. arundinaeea) , a bird un-
known to Mr. White, and wholly confined to reedy places, where
it chirrups much in the same strain as the other, its song being
however rather less varied, and containing one or two peculiar
deep notes that are not unpleasing. This bird is of an almost
uniform olive-brown, paler underneath, and the bill is larger than
in the sedge-reedling, which latter it otherwise considerably re-
sembles, all the genus (including the locustelles) having a pecu-
liar faint silky glisten on many parts of their plumage. The fen-
reedling builds rather a beautiful nest, which it binds to three or
four contiguous reed- stems, or interlaces with the upright sprigs
of willow or poplar growing near the water. Often when affixed ;
to the reeds it is blown about so as almost to touch the water, the =
bird perhaps sitting all the while ; but the nest is of course so
constructed with a very deep hollow that the eggs cannot easily

tumble out. They are usually four or five in number, of a pale and Fen Reedling.

somewhat greenish tint, with different sized spots and blotches of brown and dusky ash-colour,
which in some are pale and indistinct, and in others form a coarse zone around the large end,
where there are often markings of a darker colour. I never remember to have seen this bird
sing upon the wing.

There is a species on the continent of Europe, the marsh-reedling (S. palustriil, so closely re-
sembling the last that it can hardly be told from it, save by a slight difference in the make of
the bill, which is flatter ; yet it is curious, as showing how little the precise haunts of one spe-
cies can be inferred from those of another, that this bird (at least according to Temminck, who
speaks on the subject with much decision) is " never" — perhaps hardly ever would be more cor-
rect— seen among the reeds, though it frequents the willowy banks of streams, but is oftener
found in moist thickets near the water, where it commonly breeds among the bushes. It
abounds in many parts of the south-east of Europe, and its song is said to differ from that of the
fen-reedling. Another closely-allied species, but of a darker colour, with smaller bill and larger
tail-feathers, is the bouscarle-reedling (S. cetti) , of which, according to Temminck, several indi-
viduals have been killed in England, from which he therefore infers that its geographical range
is greater than is generally supposed. There can be little doubt, however, that Mons. Temminck
was herein misinformed, as no British naturalist has observed it. This bird is said to remain
throughout the year in Sardinia. There has been a nest found, however, with one small white
egg in it, by the Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert, in a willow-fork beside a brook, in Yorkshire,
evidently belonging to a bird of this genus, which can be reconciled with no description of that
of any of the known species, all of which lay spotted eggs : this is mentioned that country ob-
servers may be a little on the look-out for additional species. There are various other foreign
members of the genus (all found, however, in the old continent), one of which, of large size, th«
great reedling (S. turdoides), a delightful songster, allied to those last described, is not uncom
mon in Holland, but has never yet been known to visit this country, wnere its musica powers
preclude the possibility of its being overlooked.

The different reedlings are easily kept in confinement upon the food usually given to insecti-
vorous birds, and soon become very tame, but require more attention than the fauvets, from
being less general feeders. They should have plenty of chopped meat and egg, and as much in-
sect diet as possible. The most tender of the tribe is the S. turdoides. — ED

78 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

and whence ? is too puzzling for me to answer ; and yet so
obvious as often to have struck me with wonder. If one looks
into the writers on that subject little satisfaction is to be found.
Ingenious men will readily advance plausible arguments to sup-
port whatever theory they shall choose to maintain ; but then the
misfortune is, everyone's hypothesis is each as good as another's,
since they are all founded on conjecture. The late writers of
this sort, in whom may be seen all the arguments of those that
have gone before, as I remember, stock America from the western
coast of Africa and the south of Europe ; and then break down
the isthmus that bridged over the Atlantic. But this is making
use of a violent piece of machinery : it is a difficulty worthy the
interposition of a god ! " Incredulus odi."*

TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE,
THE NATURALIST'S SUMMER-EVENING WALK.

equidem credo, quia sit divinitu illus

Ingenium. VIRG. GEOUG.

WHEN day declining sheds a milder gleam,

What time the may-fly f haunts the pool, or stream;

When the still owl skims round the grassy mead,

What time the timorous hare limps forth to feed ;

Then be the time to steal adown the vale,

And listen to the vagrantj cuckoo's tale ;

To hear the clamorous§ curlew call his mate,

Or the soft quail his tender pain relate ;

To see the swallow sweep the dark'ning plain

Belated, to support her infant train ;

To mark the swift in rapid giddy ring

Dash round the steeple, unsubdu'd of wing :

Amusive birds ! — say where your hid retreat

When the frost rages and the tempests beat;

Whence your return, by such nice instinct led,

When spring, soft season, lifts her bloomy head ?

Such baffled searches mock man's prying pride,

The GOD of NATURE is your secret guide.

* The reader curious on this subject will not consult a better work than the second volume of
Lyell's Principles of Geology-— ED.

t The angler's may-fly, the ephemeta vulgata LINN, comes forth from its aurelia stote, and
emerges out of the water about six in the evening, and dies about eleven at night, determining
the date of its fly state in about five or six hours. They usually begin to appear about the 4th
of June, and continue in succession for near a fortnight. — See Swammerdam, Derham, Scopoli,
&c. — NOTB. if kept, however, from the other sex, they will survive several days. — ED.

t Vagrant cuckoo : so called because, being tied down by no incubation or attendance about
the nutrition of its young, it wanders without control. — NOTK. From long-continued and careful
observation of the habits of this species, I am inclined to a contrary opinion, and, in fact, can
not only say decisively that it has a fixed habitation, but have also reason to believe that it returns
yearly to the same spot, as is the usual custom with the feathered race. — ED.
$ (Edicnemus Europoeus-

SUMMER EVENING. 79

While deep'ning shades obscure the face of day,
To yonder bench leaf-shelter'd let us stray,
'Till blended objects fail the swimming sight,
And all the fading landscape sinks in night ;
To hear the drowsy dorr come brushing by
With buzzing wing, or the shrill cricket* cry ;
To see the feeding bat glance through the wood ;
To catch the distant falling of the flood ;
While o'er the cliff th' awaken'd churn-owl hung,
Through the still gloom protracts his chattering song ;
While high in air, and pois'd upon his wings,
Unseen, the soft enamour'd woodlarkt sings ;
These, NATURE'S works, the curious mind employ,
Inspire a soothing melancholy joy :
As fancy warms, a pleasing kind of pain
Steals o'er the cheek, and thrills the creeping vein !

Each rural sight, each soui.d, each smell, combine ;
The tinkling sheep-bell, or the breath of kine ;
The new-mown hay that scents the swelling breeze,
Or cottage-chimney smoking through the trees.

The chilling night-dews fall : away, retire ;
For see, the glow-worm lights her amorous fire !|
Thus, ere night's veil had half obscured the sky,
Th' impatient damsel hung her lamp on high :
True to the signal, by love's meteor led,
Lcander hasten'd to his Hero's bed.§

I am, &c.

LETTER XXV. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, August 30, 1769.

IT gives me satisfaction to find that my account of the ousel
migration pleases you. You put a very shrewd question when
you ask me how I know that their autumnal migration is south-
ward ? Was not candour and openness the very life of natural

* Gryllus campeslris.

t In hot summer nights woodlarks soar to a prodigious height, and hang singing in
the air.

t The light of the female glow-worm (as she often crawls up the stalk of a grass to make her-
self more conspicuous) is a signal to the male, which is a slender dusky scarabceus- — NOTB. This
is still the generally received notion respecting the light given out by this curious insect (lampyrit
noctiluca), though several circumstances would seem to point to a different conclusion. Not only,
for instance, is the phosphorescence common to both sexes, but the larva and even pupa exhibit
it, which are of course unable to propagate. I am inclined to subscribe to Waller's opinion,
who observes, " Possibly the use of this light is to be a lantern to the insect in catching its
prey, and to direct its course in the night, which is made probable by the position of it on the
under part of the tail, so that by bending the same downwards (as 1 always observe it do), it
gives a light forward upon the prey or object, the luminous rays in the mean time not being
at all incommodious to its sight, as they would have been if this torch had been carried before
it. This conjecture is also favoured by the placing of the eyes, which are on the under part of
the head, not on the top."— ED.

* See the story of Hero and Leander.

80 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

history, I should pass over this query just as a sly commentator
does over a crabbed passage in a classic ; but common ingenu-
ousness obliges me to confess, not without some degree of shame,
that I only reasoned in that case from analogy. For as all other
autumnal birds migrate from the northward to us, to partake of
our milder winters, and return to the northward again when the
rigorous cold abates, so I concluded that the ring-ousels did the
same, as well as their congeners the fieldfares ; and especially as
ring-ousels are known to haunt cold mountainous countries : but
I have good reason to suspect since that they may come to us
from the westward ; because I hear, from very good authority,
that they breed on Dartmoor ; and that they forsake that wild
district about the time that our visitors appear, and do not return
till late in the spring.

I have taken a great deal of pains about your salicaria and
mine, with a white stroke over its eye and a tawny rump. I
have surveyed it alive and dead, and have procured several spe-
cimens ; and am perfectly persuaded myself (and trust you will
soon be convinced of the same) that it is no more nor less than
the passer arundinaceus minor of Ray. This bird, by some means
or other, seems to be entirely omitted in the British Zoology ;
and one reason probably was because it is so strangely classed
in Ray, who ranges it among his picis qffines. It ought no doubt
to have gone among his aviculce caudd unicolore, and among your
slender-billed small birds of the same division. Linnaeus might
with great propriety have put it into his genus of motacilla j and
the motacilla salicaria of his fauna suecica seems to come the
nearest to it. It is no uncommon bird, haunting the sides of
ponds and rivers where there is covert, and the reeds and sedges
of moors. The country people in some places call it the sedge-
bird. It sings incessantly night and day during the breeding-
time, imitating the note of a sparrow, a swallow, a sky-lark ; and
has a strange hurrying manner in its song.* My specimens
correspond most minutely to the description of your fen salicaria
shot near Revesby. Mr. Ray has given an excellent character-
istic of it when he says, " Rostruril et pedes in hac avicula multo,
majores sunt quam pro corporis ratione." See letter May 29
1769-

I have got you the egg of an otdicnemus, or stone-curlew,
which was picked up in a fallow on the naked ground : there

* The sedge needling, described in a former note. — ED.

TAME SNAKES. 81

were two ; but the finder inadvertently crushed one with his foot
before he saw them.

When I wrote to you last year on reptiles, I wish I had not
forgot to mention the faculty that snakes have of stinking se de-
fendendo. I knew a gentleman who kept a tame snake, which
was in its person as sweet as any animal while in good humour
and unalarmed ; but as soon as a stranger, or a dog or cat, came
in, it fell to hissing, and filled the room with such nauseous
effluvia as rendered it hardly supportable. Thus the squnck, or
stonck, of Ray's Synop. Quadr. is an innocuous and sweet ani-
mal ; but, when pressed hard by dogs and men, it can eject such
a most pestilent and fetid smell and excrement, that nothing can
be more horrible.

A gentleman sent me lately a fine specimen of the lanius minor
cinerascens cum macula in scapulis alba, Raii j which is a bird
that, at the time of your publishing your two first volumes of
British Zoology, I find you had not seen. You have described it
well from Edwards's drawing.*

LETTER XXVI. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, December 8, 1769.

I WAS much gratified by your communicative letter on your
return from Scotland, where you spent, I find, some considerable
time, and gave yourself good room to examine the natural curi-
osities of that extensive kingdom, both those of the islands, as
well as those of the highlands. The usual bane of such expe-
ditions is hurry ; because men seldom allot themselves half the
time they should do : but, fixing' on a day for their return, post
from place to place, rather as if they were on a journey that re-
quired despatch, than as philosophers investigating the works of
nature. You must have made, no doubt, many discoveries, and
laid up a good fund of materials for a future edition of the Bri-
tish Zoology; and will have no reason to repent that you have
bestowed so much pains on a part of Great Britain that perhaps
was never so well examined before.

t This is the rufous shrike (lanius rufus) of modern naturalists, by some termed " woodchat."
It is an extremely rare summer visitant in this country, but has been known to breed iu Norfolk.
-Eo.

G

82 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

It has always been matter of wonder to me that fieldfares,
which are so congenerous to thrushes and blackbirds, should
never choose to breed in England : but that they should not
think even the highlands cold and northerly, and sequestered
enough, is a circumstance still more strange and wonderful.*
The ring-ousel, you find, stays in Scotland the whole year round ;
so that we have reason to conclude that those migrators that
visit us for a short space every autumn do not come from thence.

And here, I think, will be the proper place to mention that
those birds were most punctual again in their migration this
autumn ; appearing, as before, about the 30th of September : but
their flocks were larger than common, and their stay protracted
somewhat beyond the usual time. If they came to spend the
whole winter with us, as some of their congeners do, and then
left us, as they do, in spring, I should not be so much struck
with the occurrence, since it would be similar to that of the other
winter birds of passage ; but when I see them for a fortnight at
Michaelmas, and again for about a week in the middle of April,
I am seized with wonder, and long to be informed whence these
travellers come, and whither they go, since they seem to use our
hills merely as an inn or baiting place.

Your account of the greater brambling, or snow-fleck, is very
amusing ; and strange it is that such a short-winged bird should
delight in such perilous voyages over the northern ocean ! Some
country people in the winter time have every now and then told
me that they have seen two or three white larks on our downs ;
but, on considering the matter, I begin to suspect that these are
some stragglers of the birds we are talking of, which sometimes
perhaps may rove so far to the southward.

It pleases me to find that white barest are so frequent on the
Scottish mountains, and especially as you inform me that it is a
distinct species ; for the quadrupeds of Britain are so few, that
every new species is a great acquisition.

The eagle-owl, could it be proved to belong to us, is so ma-

* Mr. Bullock found a single redwings' nest in Harris, one of the Hebrides, hut the species
does not usually hreed there, nor any where within the British dominions.— ED.

t Lepus alfow of Mr. Jenyns's Manual (mantanus would perhaps be better), the L. variabilis of
Pallas being now suspected to be a different species. The hare of Ireland will also probably turn
out to be distinct, the characters of which I here subjoin, from the work just mentioned. " Head
shorter and more rounded than in the common hare ; ears shorter, not equalling the head in
length; limbs less lengthened ; fur composed of only one sort of hair, the long dark hairs, ob-
servable in the English hare, being wanting. From the shortness and inferior quality of the hair,
its fur is useless in trade."— ED.

WATER RAT. 83

jestic a bird, that it would grace our fauna much.* I never was
informed before where wild-geese are known to breed.f

You admit, I find, that I have proved your fen-salicaria to be
the lesser reed-sparrow of Ray : and I think you may be secure
that I am right ; for I took very particular pains to clear up that
matter, and had some fair specimens ; but, as they were not well
preserved, they are decayed already. You will, no doubt, insert
it in its proper place in your next edition. Your additional plates
will much improve your work.

De Buffon, I know, has described the water shrew-mouse : but
still I am pleased to find you have discovered it in Lincolnshire,
for the reason I have given in the article of the white hare.J

As a neighbour was lately plowing in a dry chalky field, far
removed from any water, he turned out a water-rat, that was
curiously laid up in an hybernaculum artificially formed of grass
and leaves. At one end of the burrow lay above a galJon of
potatoes regularly stowed, on which it was to have supported
itself for the winter. But the difficulty with me is how this
amphibius mus came to fix its winter station at such a distance
from the water. Was it determined in its choice of that place
by the mere accident of finding the potatoes which were planted

* This fine species, the European howler, or eagle-owl (otus-bubo Europeans), has been occa-
sionally met with in England, and once so far southward as in Sussex. Four specimens were
noticed not long ago on the northern coast of Ireland. — ED.

t Of three species of wild goose closely allied to the domestic breed, which regularly winter in
this country, two only, the fen-goose (anser palustru], and bean goose (A* segetum), are known to
breed within the four seas, the other (A. albifrous] retiring in summer to high latitudes. The fen-
goose used formerly to resort in considerable numbers for this purpose to the marshes of Lincoln-
shire, but of late years, owing to the gradual draining of their haunts, to increased population,
and the improved system of cultivation which now prevails, they have been completely driven
from the locality, though a few still continue through the year in the fenny districts of the north-
west of Scotland. This species is usually considered to be the parent stock of our domestic race.
Mr. Selby observes, " no disinclination to breed with each other is evinced between them, and the
offspring of wild and domesticated birds are as prolific as their mutual parents.'' This does not,
however, appear to have been written from direct personal observation, and there is much reason
to entertain a different opinion. Mr. Jenyns well remarks' that the circumstance of the domestic
goose being derived from the A-'paluslris is " highly improbable, from the well-known fact that
the common gander after attaining a certain age is invariably white." Montagu also observes
that " a specimen of the A. palustru, which was shot on the wing by a farmer in Wiltshire, and
kept alive many years, would never associate with the tame geese. In fact the origin of these last
is unknown." To this may be added that the fen-goose is never known to descend to the cal] of
the domestic bird, as is the case with the common wild duck, and with the Canada goose, as re-
marked by Wilson. The snow-goose (A- hyperboreus) of the last mentioned author seems allied
to it, though evidently distinct; this species becomes white, excepting the] quill feathers, when
three years old. — ED.

t The water-shrew (sorex fodiens) is far from being rare in many parts of the country ; 1 find
them plentiful enough in Surrey. There is also another British aquatic species, the oared-shrew
(.S. remifer}, easily known by the dark colour of its under parts, which in the others are pale or
whitish. Both species appear gray when under water, from being then every where thickly
studded with minute air bubbles.— ED.

G 2

84

NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

Common Swift.

there ; or is it the constant practice of the aquatic-rat to forsake
the neighbourhood of the water in the colder months ?

Though I delight very little in analogous
reasoning, knowing how fallacious it is with
respect to natural history ; yet, in the fol-
lowing instance, I cannot help being in-
clined to think it may conduce towards the
explanation of a difficulty that I have men-
tioned before, with respect to the invariable
early retreat of the hirundo apus, or swift,
so many weeks before its congeners; and
that not only with us, but also in Andalusia,
where they also begin to retire about the
beginning of August.

The great large bat* (which by the bye is at present a non-
descript in England, and what I have never been able yet to
procure) retires or migrates very early
in the summer : it also ranges very
high for its food, feeding in a different
region of the air; and that is the
reason I never could procure one.
Now this is exactly the case with the
swifts ; for they take their food in a
more exalted region than the other
species, and are very seldom seen

hawking for flies near the ground, or over the surface of the
water. From hence I would conclude that these hirundines, and
the larger bats, are supported by some sorts of high-flying gnats,
scarabs, or phalcenee, that are of short continuance ; and that the
short stay of these strangers is regulated by the defect of their
food.

By my journal it appears that curlewsf clamoured on to Octo-
ber the thirty-first ; since which I have not seen or heard any.
Swallows were observed on to November the third.

* The little bat appears almost every month in the year ; but I have never seen the large ones
till the end of April, nor after July. They are most common in June, but never in any plenty,
being a rare species with us. The pipistrel bat (V. pipistrella) is the species seen on the wing
at all seasons. — ED. *

t Thicknees (cedicnemus JEui'opaiw) are of course here intended, the curlew genus (numtnius
being very distinct. — ED.

HEDGE HOG. 85

LETTER XXVII. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.
DEAR SIR, Selkorne, February 22, 1770.

HEDGE-HOGS abound in my gardens and fields. The manner in
which they eat the roots of the plantain in my grass-walks is
very curious : with their upper man-
dible, which is much longer than their
lower, they bore under the plant, and
so eat the root off upwards, leaving
the tuft of leaves untouched. In this
respect they are serviceable, as they
destroy a very troublesome weed;
but they deface the walks in some Hedge-hog.

measure by digging little round holes. It appears by the dung
that they drop upon the turf, that beetles are no inconsiderable
part of their food. In June last I procured a litter of four or
five young hedge-hogs, which appeared to be about five or six
days old ; they, I find, like puppies, are born blind, and could
not see when they came to my hands. No doubt their spines are
soft and flexible at the time of their birth, or else the poor dam
would have but a bad time of it in the critical moment of par-
turition : but it is plain that they soon harden ; for these little
pigs had such stiff prickles on their backs and sides as would
easily have fetched blood, had they not been handled with cau-
tion. Their spines are quite white at this age ; and they have
little hanging ears, which I do not remember to be discernible
in the old ones. They can, in part, at this age draw their skin
down over their faces ; but are not able to contract themselves
into a ball, as they do, for the sake of defence, when full grown.
The reason, I suppose, is, because the curious muscle that enables
the creature to roll itself up in a ball was not then arrived at its
full tone and firmness. Hedge-hogs make a deep and warm
hybernaculum with leaves and moss, in which they conceal them-
selves for the winter : but I never could find that they stored in
any winter provision, as some quadrupeds certainly do.*

* Few animals are easier to tame than the common European urchin or " hedge-hog" (erinacfus
Europcnis), a species common in most parts of the country, and nocturnal, or rather crepuscular,
in its habits. Confined in a small garden, or rather enclosure, it only requires to be not tor-
mented, and to be fed occasionally from the hand, and it will soon lose its natural timidity, will
cease to contract into a ball when gently examined, and allow its manners to be closely and ad-
vantageously observed. The first night it will be fo'ihd to have formed itself a retreat, which it
mostly resorts to ever after, removing the mould till it can lie with its back level with the surface,

86 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

I have discovered an anecdote with respect to the fieldfare
(turdus pilaris), which I think is par-
ticular enough: this bird, though it
sits on trees in the day-time, and pro-
cures the greatest part of its food
from white-thorn hedges ; yea, more-
over, builds on very high trees ; as may
be seen by the fauna suecica; yet always
appears with us to roost on the ground. ' Fieldfare.

They are seen to come in flocks just before it is dark, and to
settle and nestle among the heath on our forest. And besides,
the larkers, in dragging their nets by night, frequently catch
them in the wheat-stubbles; while the bat-fowlers, who take
many red-wings in the hedges, never entangle any of this species.
Why these birds, in the matter of roosting, should differ from all
their congeners, and from themselves also with respect to their
proceedings by day, is a fact for which I am by no means able to
account.f

I have somewhat to inform you of concerning the moose-deer ;
but in general foreign animals fall seldom in my way ; my little
intelligence is confined to the narrow sphere of my own ob-
servations at home.

LETTER XXVIII. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

Selborne, March, 1770.
ON Michaelmas-day 1768, 1 managed to get a sight of the female

and theu lining its bed with a few weeds, showing a marked preference to hearts'-ease (viola tricolor)
if there be any in its way ; it also covers itself during the day with these plants, that it should not
be perceived in its habitation. This animal is quite omnivorous in its diet, and in its wild state
feeds on insects, worms, various roots, and animal matter in every state, having been known to
attack and destroy snakes, and even leverets. It preys also on frogs and toads, and will devour
fruit, and eggs, to obtain which latter it has been seen to drive a hen off her nest. It is an
equally general feeder when domesticated, and may be kept on the various refuse from the table,
besides which it will destroy the cockroaches and crickets which infest a house, and the cater-
pillars and worms in a garden, where it is accordingly rather serviceable than otherwise. The
urchin is a more docile creature than is generally imagined, and there is an instance recorded,
upon good authority, of one which had learned to perform the duty of a turnspit dog, in every
respect as well as that animal. In the wild state it becomes torpid in winter; and it produces a
variable number of young, from two to six or seven, most probably according to its age. Their
spines are at first few in number and all inclining backwards, soft, but become hard and sharp in
about twenty four hours. ED.

t Connected with this habit of the fieldfare, which every field naturalist must have observed,
a singular mode of capturing them is sometimes practised, which is occasionally very successful.
A number of persons repair to their haunts on a dark night, some with lanterns, and others with
sticks, to drive them from the furze and other bushes, and bells which they keep incessantly
ringing, which so bewilders and confuses the birds that they fly towards the lights, and suffer
themselves to be easily taken with the hand — ED.

MOOSE DEER. 87

moose belonging to the duke of Richmond, at Goodwood; but
was greatly disappointed, when I arrived at the spot, to find
that it died, after having appeared in a languishing way for some
time, on the morning before. However, understanding that it
was not stripped, I proceeded to examine this rare quadruped :
I found it in an old green-house,
slung under the belly and chin by
ropes, and in a standing posture ;
but, though it had been dead for so
short a time, it was in so putrid a
state that the stench was hardly sup-
portable. The grand distinction be-
tween this deer, and any other species
that I have ever met with, consisted Moose Deer,

in the strange length of its legs ; on which it was tilted up much
in the manner of the birds of the gralla order. I measured it,
as they do a horse, and found that, from the ground to the
wither, it was just five feet four inches ; which height answers
exactly to sixteen hands, a growth that few horses arrive at : but
then, with this length of legs, its neck was remarkably short, no
more than twelve inches ; so that, by straddling with one foot
forward and the other backward, it grazed on the plain ground,
with the greatest difficulty, between its legs : the ears were vast
and lopping, and as long as the neck ; the head was about twenty
inches long, and ass-like ; and had such a redundancy of upper
lip as I never saw before, with huge nostrils. This lip, travellers
say, is esteemed a dainty dish in North America. It is very
reasonable to suppose that this creature supports itself chiefly by
browsing of trees, and by wading after water plants ; towards
which way of livelihood the length of legs and great lip must
contribute much. I have read somewhere that it delights in
eating the nymph&a, or water-lily. From the fore-feet to the belly
behind the shoulder it measured three'feet and eight inches : the
length of the legs before and behind consisted a great deal in the
tibia, which was strangely long ; but, in my haste to get out of
the stench, I forgot to measure that joint exactly. Its scut
seemed to be about an inch long ; the colour was a grizzly black ;
the mane about four inches long ; the fore-hoofs were upright
and shapely, the hind flat and splayed. The spring before it was
only two years old, so that most probably it was not then come
to its growth. What a vast tall beast must a full grown stag be !

NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

I have been told some arrive at ten feet and a half! This poor
creature had at first a female companion of the same species,
which died the spring before. In the same garden was a young
stag, or red deer, between whom and this moose it was hoped
that there might have been a breed ; but their inequality of height
must have always been a bar to any commerce of the amorous
kind. I should have been glad to have examined the teeth,
tongue, lips, hoofs, &c., minutely ; but the putrefaction precluded
all further curiosity. This animal, the keeper told me, seemed
to enjoy itself best in the extreme frost of the former winter. In
the house they showed me the horn of a male moose, which had
no front-antlers, but only a broad palm with some snags on the
edge. The noble owner of the dead moose proposed to make a
skeleton of her bones.

Please to let me hear if my female moose corresponds with
that you saw ; and whether you think still that the American
moose and European elk are the same creature.* I am,

With the greatest esteem, &c.

LETTER XXIX. To. T. PENNANT, ESQ.

DEAR SIR, Selborne May 12, 1770.

LAST month we had such a series of cold turbulent weather,
such a constant succession of frost, and snow, and hail, and
tempest, that the regular migration or appearance of the summer
birds was much interrupted. Some did not show themselves (at
least were not heard) till weeks after their usual time ; as the
blackcap and whitethroat ; and some have not been heard yet,
as the grasshopper-lark and largest willow-wren. As to the fly-
catcher, I have not seen it ; it is indeed one of the latest, but
should appear about this time • and yet, amidst all this meteorous
strife and war of the elements, two swallows discovered them-
selves as long ago as the eleventh of April, in frost and snow ;
but they withdrew quickly, and were not visible again for many
days. House-martins, which are always more backward than
swallows, were not observed till May came in.

Among the monogamous birds several are to be found, after
pairing-time, single, and of each sex : but whether this state of

* Naturalists are still divided in opinion respecting the identity of the above animals.— ED.

MONOGAMOUS BIRDS. 89

celibacy is matter of choice or necessity, is not so easily disco-
verable. When the house-sparrows deprive my martins of their
nests, as soon as I cause one to be shot, the other, be it cock or
hen, presently procures a mate, and so for several times fol-
lowing.

I have known a dove-house infested by a pair of white owls,
which made great havock among the young pigeons : one of the
owls was shot as soon as possible ; but the survivor readily found
a mate, and the mischief went on. After some time the new pair
were both destroyed, and the annoyance ceased.*

Another instance I remember of a sportsman, whose zeal for
the increase of his game being greater than his humanity, after
pairing- time he always shot the cock-bird of every couple of
partridges upon his grounds ; supposing that the rivalry of many
males interrupted the breed : he used to say, that, though he had
widowed the same hen several times, yet he found she was still
provided with a fresh paramour, that did not take her away from
her usual haunt.

Again, I knew a lover of setting, an old sportsman, who has
often told me that soon after harvest he has frequently taken
small coveys of partridges, consisting of cock-birds alone ; these
he pleasantly used to call old bachelors.

There is a propensity belonging to common house-cats that
is very remarkable ; I mean their violent fondness for fish, which
appears to be their most favourite food : and yet nature in this
instance seems to have planted in them an appetite that, unas-
sisted, they know not how to gratify ; for of all quadrupeds cats
are the least disposed towards water ; and will not, when they
can avoid it, deign to wet a foot, much less to plunge into that
element.

* I suspect Mr. White was wrong in attributing the loss of the young pigeons to the predatory
propensities of the owls, however appearances may have favoured the supposition. The white
does not usually prey on birds at all, but is a great devourer of the rats, which sometimes cofti
great havoc in pigeon-houses ; and I do not know that a better proof can be adduced, that the
is not an enemy to the pigeon, than is afforded by the simple fact that the latter neither exhibit
fear nor hostility at the presence of the night wanderer. Indeed few predatory birds ever pre
much in the immediate vicinity of their abode, a curious circumstance, which would seem to b
pretty well understood by the birds themselves. A pair of magpies will thus never attack th
inmates of a yard near which they have constructed their nest, save in instances where the latter
has been robbed, in which case they are less particular. Mr. Waterton relates an instance
of a pair of cushat pigeons selecting for nidification the very tree on which a pair of magpies
had already built, both of which reared their young unmolested. Sir VV. Jardine also discovered
a wild duck sitting within ten paces of the eyry of a peregrine falcon, and I have myself found a
whitethroa'.'s nest in a contiguous bush to that which contained a brood of unfledged red-backed
shrikes.— ED.

90 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

Quadrupeds that prey on fish are amphibious: such is the

otter, which by nature is so well

formed for diving, that it makes

great havoc among the inhabitants

of the waters. Not supposing that

we had any of those beasts in our

shallow brooks, I was much pleased

to see a male otter brought to me,

weighing twenty-one pounds, that Otter*

had been shot on the bank of our stream below the Priory, where

the rivulet divides the parish of Selborne from Harteley-wood.

LETTER XXX. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, August 1, 1770.

THE French, I think, in general are strangely prolix in their
natural history. What Linnaeus says with respect to insects
holds good in every other branch : " Verbositas prcesentis sceculi,
calamitas artis."

Pray how do you approve of Scopoli's new work ? as I admire
his Entomologia, I long to see it.

I forgot to mention in my last letter (and had not room to
insert in the former) that the male moose, in rutting time, swims
from island to island, in the lakes and rivers of North America,
in pursuit of the females. My friend, the chaplain, saw one
killed in the water as it was on that errand in the river St.
Lawrence : it was a monstrous beast, he told me ; but he did not
take the dimensions.

When I was last in town our friend Mr. Barrington most
obligingly carried me to see many curious sights. As you were
then writing to him about horns, he carried me to see many
strange and wonderful specimens. There is, I remember, at
Lord Pembroke's, at Wilton, a horn room furnished with more
than thirty different pairs ; but I have not seen that house
lately.

Mr. Barrington showed me many astonishing collections of
stuffed and living birds from all quarters of the world. After I
had studied over the latter for a time, I remarked that every
species almost that came from distant regions, such as South
America, the coast of Guinea, &c. were thick-billed birds of the

OUSEL MIGRATION. 91

loxia and fringilla genera ; and no motacillce, or muscicapce, were
to be met with. When I came to consider, the reason was ob-
vious enough ; for the hard-billed birds subsist on seeds which
are easily carried on board ; while the soft-billed birds, which
are supported by worms and insects, or, what is a succedaneum
for them, fresh raw meat, can meet with neither in long and
tedious voyages. It is from this defect of food that our collec-
tions (curious as they are) are defective, and we are deprived of
some of the most delicate and lively genera.

I am, &c.

LETTER XXXI. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, Sept. 14, 1770.

You saw, I find, the ring-ousels again among their native crags ;
and are further assured that they continue resident in those cold
regions the whole year.* From whence then do our ring-ousels
migrate so regularly every September, and make their appear-
ance again, as if in their return, every April ? They are more
early this year than common, for some were seen at the usual
hill on the fourth of this month.

An observing Devonshire gentleman tells me that they fre-
quent some parts of £)artmoor, and breed there ; but leave those
haunts about the end of September or beginning of October, and
return again about the end of March.

Another intelligent person assures me that they breed in great
abundance all over the Peak of Derby, and are called there Tor-
ousels ; withdraw in October and November, and return in
spring. This information seems to throw some light on my new
migration.

Scopoli's new workf (which I have just procured) has its
merit in ascertaining many of the birds of the Tyrol and Car-
niola. Monographers, come from whence they may, have, I
think, fair pretence to challenge some regard and approbation
from the lovers of natural history ; for, as no man can alone in-
vestigate all the works of nature, these partial writers may, each
in their department, be more accurate in their discoveries, and

* Selby, and all the recent ornithologists, describe this species to migrate regularly in autumn.
1 am, therefore, much inclined to suspect that Mr. Pennant's informants confounded it with the
common dipper (cinclus Europ&us) • — ED,

t Annus Primus Historico-Naturalu.

92 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

freer from errors than more general writers ; and so by degrees
may pave the way to a universal correct natural history. Not
that Scopoli is so circumstantial and attentive to the life and
conversation of his birds as I could wish : he advances some
false facts ; as when he says of the hirundo urbica that " pullos
extra nidum non nutrit" This asser-
tion I know to be wrong from re-
peated observation this summer ; for
house-martins do feed their young
flying, though it must be acknow-
ledged not so commonly as the house-
swallow ; and the feat is done in so
quick a manner as not to be percepti-
ble to indifferent observers. He also

advances some (I was going to say) improbable facts ; as when
he says of the woodcock that "pullos rostro portat fugiens ab
hoste" But candour forbids me to say absolutely that any fact
is false, because I have never been witness to such a fact. I
have only to remark that the long unwieldy bill of the wood-
cock is perhaps the worst adapted of any among the winged cre-
ation for such a feat of natural affection.*

I am, &c.

LETTER XXXII. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, Oct. 29, 1770.

AFTER an ineffectual search in Linnaeus, Brisson, &c. I begin to
suspect that I discern my brother's hirundo hyberna in Scopoli's
newly discovered hirundo rupestris. His description of " Supra
murinat subtus albida ; rectrices macula ovali alba in latere
interno j pedes nudi, nigri ; rostrum nigrum ; remiges obscuriores
quam plumce dorsales ; rectrices remigibus concolores ; caudd
emarginatd, nee forcipatd ;" agrees very well with the bird in
question ; but when he comes to advance that it is " statura hi-

* The woodsnipe has been seen in this country to carry off its young, only not in the bill ; and
the same feat is performed by some of the plovers, in which the feet would seem still less adapted
for the purpose. There can be little doubt, too, that the motheater does the same, as the fact
has been actually witnessed by Mr. Audubon, in an allied species. I suspect that many more
woodsnipes breed in the south of England than is generally supposed, to judge from the many
young which I have at different times seen. Last summer a brood of them was reared in the im-
mediate vicinity of my residence, in a populous neighbourhood within seven miles of London. So
hidling a species might easily evade detection in the summer months. — ED.

SCOPOLl's ANNUS PRIMUS. 93

rundinis urbica" and that " definitio hirundinis riparice Linnai
huic quoque convenit," he in some measure invalidates all he has
said ; at least he shows at once that he compares them to these
species merely from memory : for I have compared the birds
themselves, and find they differ widely in every circumstance of
shape, size, and colour. However, as you will have a specimen,
I shall be glad to hear what your judgment is in the matter.

Whether my brother is forestalled in his non-descript or not,
he will have the credit of first discovering that they spend their
winters under the warm and sheltry shores of Gibraltar and
Barbary.

Scopoli's characters of his ordines and genera are clean, just,
and expressive, and much in the spirit of Linnaeus. These few
remarks are the result of my first perusal of Scopoli's Annus
Primus.

The bane of our science is the comparing one animal to the
other by memory : for want of caution in this particular Scopoli
falls into errors : he is not so full with regard to the manners of
his indigenous birds as might be wished, as you justly observe :
his Latin is easy, elegant, and expressive, and very superior to
Kramer's.*

I am pleased to see that my description of the moose corre-
sponds so well with yours. I am, &c.

LETTER XXXIII. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, Nov. 26, 1770.

I WAS much pleased to see, among the collection of birds from
Gibraltar, some of those short-winged English summer-birds of
passage, concerning whose departure we have made so much
enquiry. Now if these birds are found in Andalusia to migrate
to and from Barbary, it may easily be supposed that those that
come to us may migrate back to the continent, and spend their
winters in some of the warmer parts of Europe. This is certain,
that many soft-billed birds that come to Gibraltar appear there
only in spring and autumn, seeming to advance in pairs towards
the northward, for the sake of breeding during the summer
months ; and retiring in parties and broods towards the south at
the decline of the year : so that the rock of Gibraltar is the

* See his Elenchus vegetMlium et animal turn per Austrian* iiiferiorem, &c.

94 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE

great rendezvous, and place of observation, from whence they
take their departure each way towards Europe or Africa. It is
therefore no mean discovery, I think, to find that our small
short-winged summer birds of passage are to be seen spring and
autumn on the very skirts of Europe ; it is a presumptive proof
of their emigrations.

Scopoli seems to me to have found the hirundo melba, the
great Gibraltar swift, in Tyrol, without knowing it. For what
is his hirundo alpina but the afore-mentioned bird in other words ?
Says he " Omnia prioris" (meaning the swift ;) " sed pectus album ;
paulo major priore." I do not suppose this to be a new species.
It is true also of the melba that " nidificat in excelsis Alpium ru-
pibus" Vid. Annum Primum.*

My Sussex friend, a man of observation and good sense, but
no naturalist, to whom I applied on account of the stone-culew,
adicnemus, sends me the following account : " In looking over
my Naturalist's Journal for the month of April, I find the stone-
curlews are first mentioned on the seventeenth and eighteenth,
which date seems to me rather late. They live with us all the
spring and summer, and at the beginning of autumn prepare to
take leave by getting together in flocks. They seem to me a
bird of passage that may travel into some dry hilly country south
of us, probably Spain, because of the abundance of sheep-walks
in that country ; for they spend their summers with us in such
districts. This conjecture I hazard, as I have never met with
any one that has seen them in England in the winter. I believe
they are not fond of going near the water, but feed on earth-
worms, that are common on sheep-walks and downs. They
breed on fallows and lay-fields abounding with gray mossy
flints, which much resemble their young in colour ; among
which they skulk and conceal themselves. They make no nest,
but lay their eggs on the bare ground, producing in common but
two at a time. There is reason to think their young run soon
after they are hatched ; and that the old ones do not feed them,
but only lead them about at the time of feeding, which, for the
most part, is in the night." Thus far my friend.

In the manners of this bird you see there is something very

* This large species of swift (ci/jwliw acinus) is now admitted into the fauna of this country,
as an occasional straggler, two or three of them having been shot in different parts. 1 have my-
self seen them in Surrey, gliding in company with the common kind, but so high in the air that
1 could never succeed in obtaining a specimen. They are easily distinguishable at any height,
from their much larger size, pale colour, and conspicuous white line adown the bellv.— En.

HARVEST MITE. 95

analogous to the bustard, whom it also somewhat resembles in
aspect and make, and in the structure of its feet.

For a long time I have desired my relation to look out for
these birds in Andalusia ; and now he writes me word that, for
the first time, he saw one dead in the market on the third of
September.

When the &dicnemus flies it stretches out its legs straight be-
hind, like a heron.

I am, &c.

LETTER XXXIV. To T. PENNANT, Esa.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, March 30, 1771.

THERE is an insect with us, especially on chalky districts, which
is very troublesome and teasing all the latter end of the summer,
getting into people's skins, especially those of women and child-
ren, and raising tumours which itch intolerably. This animal
(which we call an harvest bug) is very minute, scarce discernible
to the naked eye ; of a bright scarlet colour, and of the genus of
Acarus. They are to be met with in gardens on kidney-beans,
or any legumens ; but prevail only in the hot months of summer.
Warreners, as some have assured me, are much infested by
them on chalky downs ; where these insects swarm sometimes
to so infinite a degree as to discolour their nets, and to give them
a reddish cast, while the men are so bitten as to be thrown into
fevers.*

There is a small long shining fly in these parts very trouble-
some to the housewife, by getting into the chimneys, and laying
its eggs in the bacon while it is drying ; these eggs produce
maggots called jumpers, which, harbouring in the gammons and
best parts of the hogs, eat down to the bone, and make great
waste. This fly I suspect to be a variety of the musca putris of
Linnaeus :*f* it is to be seen in the summer in farm-kitchens on
the bacon-racks and about the mantle-pieces, and on the ceilings.

The insect that infests turnips and many crops in the garden
(destroying often whole fields while in their seedling leaves) is

* Harvest mite (acarus antumnalis) > a most tormenting insect, but which is nevertheless pro-
perly a vegetable feeder. — ED.

t Supposed to be the common cheese-hopper fly (piophila com of entomologists) , the larva of which
is well known as the maggots which are found in cheese, while the perfect insect must be equally
familiar to most persons as the very small black flies which are often seen on windows.— En.

96 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

an animal that wants to be better known. The country people
here call it the turnip-fly and black dolphin ; but I know it to be
one of the coleoptera ; the " chrysomela oleracea, saltatoria, fe-
moribus posticis crassissimis." In very hot summers they
abound to an amazing degree, and, as you walk in a field or in
a garden, make a pattering like rain, by jumping on the leaves
of the turnips or cabbages.*

There is an wstrus, known in these parts to every ploughboy ;
which, because it is omitted by Linna3us, is also passed over by
late writers ; and that is the curvicauda of old Moufet, mentioned
by Derham in his Physico-theology, p. 250 : an insect worthy
of remark for depositing its eggs as it flies in so dexterous a
manner on the single hairs of the legs and flanks of grass-horses.
But then Derham is mistaken when he advances that this oestrus
is the parent of that wonderful star-tailed maggot which he men-
tions afterwards ; for more modern entomologists have discovered
that singular production to be derived from the egg of the musca
chamceleon.-^ See Geoffroy, t. 17, f- 4.

A full history of noxious insects hurtful in the field, garden,
and house, suggesting all the known and likely means of destroy-
ing them, would be allowed by the public to be a most useful
and important work. What knowledge there is of this sort lies
scattered, and wants to be collected ; great improvements would
soon follow of course. A knowledge of the properties, economy,
propagation, and in short the life and conversation of these ani-
mals, is a necessary step to lead us to some method of preventing
their depredations.

As far as I am a judge, nothing would recommend entomology
more than some neat plates that should well express the generic
distinctions of insects according to Linnaeus ; for I am well

* A species of haltica, of which the H- nemorum is the most noted, though several of this
extensive but minute genus are equally hurtful to the young turnip-plant, devouring the cotyledon
i>r seed-leaves immediately on their appearance above ground, so that, in consequence of their
ravages, the land is often obliged to be re-sown, and frequently with no better success. So ex-
tensive is the mischief sometimes caused by these tiny insects alone, according to Arthur Young,
the celebrated agriculturist, that, in the year 1//6, the loss sustained by the turnip-growers of
Devonshire amounted to full j£100,000 ; and yet, until very recently, from their minuteness and
the obscurity of their habits, but little of the economy of these insects has been understood,
though, as they are known only in the adult or beetle state upon the turnip-plant, it is obvious
that they must have undergone their previous transformations elsewhere, whence half the remedies
that have been proposed against their depredations, such as steeping; of the seed (in the supposi
tion that the eggs were thereon laid), particular modes of sowing, and the like, are clearly of no
araU, excepting in so far as they may tend to promote the growth of the plant, which is safe
from the attacks of insects of this genus from the time it has put forth its rough leaves. — ED.

t The larva of musca chamaleon, or, as it is now called, stratiomys chamalton, is wholly
aquatic. — ED.

PEACOCK.

assured that many people would study insects, could they set
out with a more adequate notion of those distinctions than can
be conveyed at first by words alone.

LETTER XXXV. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, 1771.

HAPPENING to make a visit to my neighbours peacocks, I could
not help observing that the trains of those magnificent birds ap-
pear by no means to be their tails, those long feathers growing
not from their uropygium, but all up
their backs. A range of short brown
stiff feathers, about six inches long,
fixed in the uropygium, is the real tail,
and serves as a fulcrum to prop the
train, which is long and top-heavy,
when set on end. When the train is
up, nothing appears of the bird before
but its head and neck ; but this would Peacock.

not be the case were those long feathers fixed only in the rump,
as may be seen by the turkey-cock when in a strutting attitude.
By a strong muscular vibration these birds can make the shafts
of their long feathers clatter like the swords of a sword-dancer ;
they then trample very quick with their feet, and run backwards
towards the females.*

I should tell you that I have got an uncommon calculus cego-
gropila, taken out of the stomach of a fat ox ; it is perfectly
round, and about the size of a large Seville orange ; such are, I
think, usually flat.f

* Another beautiful species of peafowl, the pavo mut

way into our ornamental poultr
the London markets. Thei
in general appearance, the Jap
formed crest (the feathers cor
diverse colour and texture of it

glos

inates more upon
ml hardy birds, and breed fr

'-yards, and specimens
but these two species

•it's, from Japan, is now fast making its
f it may occasionally be s

ng, ho w

are grad
ilky neck plumage ; i
he train, besides which

e bird bei
ing whic

i for sale

which are closely allied, and very similar
, easily distinguishable by its differently
.ted and reflected backwards) :and the
is also a trifle smaller, and the green
ts note is different. Peafowl are strong

ly if suffered to run wild in the woods, as is the case on several
estates in the south of England. Many have become truly wild on the European continent, and
are understood to pass the summer in Norway and Sweden, retiring to the German forests to
spend the winter. In many parts of India, where the common species is indigenous, it is still
excessively numerous, and, being gregarious in its habits, is a splendid ornament to the magnifi-
cent scenery of its wild haunts. — En.

t In the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, for April, 1836, some very curious concretions, both
in appearance and composition much resembling pearls, are described as having been taken from
the stomach of an ox. — ED.

H

98 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

LETTER XXXVL To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

DEAR SIR, Sept. 1771-

THE summer through I have seen but two of that large species
of bat which I call vespertilio altivolans, from its manner of feed-
ing high in the air : I procured one of them, and found it to be
a male, and made no doubt, as they accompanied together, that
the other was a female : but, happening in an evening or two to
procure the other likewise, I was somewhat disappointed, when
it appeared to be also of the same sex. This circumstance, and
the great scarcity of this sort, at least in these parts, occasions
some suspicions in my mind whether it is really a species, or
whether it may not be the male part of the more known species,
one of which may supply many females ; as is known to be the
case in sheep, and some other quadrupeds.* But this doubt can
only be cleared by a further examination, and some attention to
the sex, of more specimens : all that I know at present is, that
my two were amply furnished with the parts of generation much
resembling those of a boar.

In the ^xtent of their wings they measured fourteen inches
and a half : and four inches and a half from the nose to the tip
of the tail : their heads were large, their nostrils bilobated, their
shoulders broad and muscular ; and their whole bodies fleshy
and plump. Nothing could be more sleek arid soft than their
fur, which was of a bright chestnut colour ; their maws were full
of food, but so macerated that the quality could not be distin-
guished ; their livers, kidneys, and hearts, were large, and their
bowels covered with fat. They weighed each, when entire, full
one ounce and one drachm. Within the ear there was some-
what of a peculiar structure that I did not understand perfectly ;
but refer it to the observation of the curious anatomist.f These
creatures sent forth a very rancid and offensive smell.

* There is not much difference of size between the sexes of this hat, which is known as thi
V. noctula of systematists. Mr. Jesse in his delightful Gleanings mentions that vast numbers of
these animals were lately found under the roof of an old building in Richmond Park. " 1 had
two of them brought to me," he remarks, «' nearly similar in shape, but one very considerably
larger than the other, the latter probably the vespertileo altivolans, mentioned by Mr. White in his
Natural History of Selborne. It measured nearly fifteen inches from the tip of the wing to that
of the other, the larger ones were quite as numerous as the smaller species."— En.

t This is termed the f ragT". '* is found in all our bats, with the exception of the two species
of rhinolophus, or horse-shoe bat.— ED.

RING-OUSELS. 99

LETTER XXXVII. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, 1771.

ON the twelfth of July I had a fair opportunity of contemplating
the motions of the caprimulgus, or fern-owl, as it was playing
round a large oak that swarmed with scarabai solstitiales, or
fern-chafers. The powers of its wing were wonderful, exceeding,
if possible, the various evolutions and quick turns of the swallow
genus. But the circumstance that pleased me most was, that I
saw it distinctly, more than once, put out its short leg while on
the wing, and by a bend of the head, deliver somewhat into its
mouth. If it takes any part of its prey with its foot, as I have
now the greatest reason to suppose it does these chafers, I no
longer wonder at the use of its middle toe, which is curiously
furnished with a serrated claw.*

Swallows and martins, the bulk of them I mean, have forsaken
us sooner this year than usual ; for, on September the twenty-
second, they rendezvoused in a neighbour's walnut-tree, where
it seemed probable they had taken up their lodging for the night.
At the dawn of the day, which was foggy, they arose p]l together
in infinite numbers, occasioning such a rushing from the strokes
of their wings against the hazy air, as might be heard to a con-
siderable distance : since that no flock has appeared, only a few
stragglers.

Some swifts staid late, till the twenty-second of August — a
rare instance ! for they usually withdraw within the first week.f

On September the twenty-fourth three or four ring-ousels ap-
peared in my fields for the first time this season : how punctual
are these visitors in their autumnal and spring migrations !

* 1 have noticed this species perform the feat which is here mentioned by Mr. White, but am
inclined to attribute to it a rather different purpose, as its foot is manifestly but very ill calculated
for capturing prey. It will be observed that, on bringing the foot of a dead motheater towards
the mouth, the serrated claw is admirably adapted for detaching the hooked claws of beetles,
which must of course often hitch to the sides of the bird's mouth, and impede its swallowing o
them. To this explanation it has been objected that some members of this genus are withou
this curious appendage, whereas others which have no rictorial bristles are provided with it.
would suggest, in the former case, that the food is more exclusively lepidopterous ; and, in th
latter, that it evidently is not so much the movable and yielding vibrissae as the corners of th
mouth which require the aid of this singular and remarkable structure. The same explanatio
will equally apply to the other various birds in which the pectinated claw is observable. — Ei>.

-!• \ stray swift has been observed sometimes in September.— En.

H 2

100 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

LETTER XXXVIII. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, March 15, 1773.

BY my journal for last autumn it appears that the house-martins
bred very late, and staid very late in these parts ; for, on the first
of October, I saw young martins in their nest nearly fledged ;
and again, on the twenty-first of October, we had at the next
house a nest full of young martins just ready to fly ; and the old
ones were hawking for insects with great alertness. The next
morning the brood forsook their nest, and were flying round the
village. From this day I never saw one of the swallow kind till
November the third ; when twenty, or perhaps thirty, house-
martins were playing all day long by the side of the hanging
wood, and over my fields. Did these small weak birds, some of
which were nestlings twelve days ago, shift their quarters at
this late season of the year to the other side of the northern
tropic ? Or rather, is it not more probable that the next church,
ruin, chalk-cliff, steep covert, or perhaps sandbank, lake or pool
(as a more northern naturalist would say), may become their
hybernaculum, and afford them a ready and obvious retreat ?*

We now begin to expect our vernal migration of ring-ousels
every week. Persons worthy of credit assure me that ring-ousels
were seen at Christmas 1770 in the forest of Bere, on the
southern verge of this county. Hence we may conclude that
their migrations are only internal, and not extended to the con-
tinent southward, if they do at first come at all from the north-
ern parts of this island only, and not from the north of Europe.
Come from whence they will, it is plain, from the fearless dis-
regard that they show for men or guns, that they have been little
accustomed to places of much resort.f Navigators mention that
in the Isle of Ascension, and other such desolate districts, birds
are so little acquainted with the human form that they settle on
mens' shudders ; and have no more dread of a sailor than they
would have of a goat that was grazing. A young man at Lewes,

* On this subject naturalists have not sufficiently discriminated between torpidity and hyberna-
/ion. Swallows have been found torpid, but only in the earlier winter months ; there has been
no instance of their being thus observed in the spring, and we do not find that any make their
appearance before the usual time of their coming, however warm and fine the weather maybe-
The contrary would be of course the case if any hybernated. — ED.

t The few that I have occasionally observed in Surrey have been rather wild than otherwiie.
No other instance has been recorded of their wintering in England. — ED.

MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 101

in Sussex, assured me that about seven years ago ring-ousels
abounded so about that town in the autumn that he killed six-
teen himself in one afternoon : he added further, that some had
appeared since in every autumn ; but he could not find that any
had been observed before the season in which he shot so many.
I myself have found these birds in little parties in the autumn
cantoned all along the Sussex downs, wherever there were shrubs
and bushes, from Chichester to Lewes ; particularly in the autumn
of 1770. I am, &c.

LETTER XXXIX. To T. PENNANT, Esa.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, Nov. 9, 1773.

As you desire me to send you such observations as may occur,
I take the liberty of making the following remarks, that you
may, according as you think me right or wrong, admit or reject
what I here advance, in your intended new edition of the British
Zoology.

The osprey was shot about a year ago at Frinsham-pond, a
great lake, at about six miles from hence,
while it was sitting on the handle of a plough
and devouring a fish : it used to precipitate
itself into the water, and so take its prey by
surprise.*

A great ash-coloured butcher-bird was
shot last winter in Tisted-park, and a red-
backed butcher-bird at Selborne : they are
rarce aves in this county, f

Crows go in pairs the whole year round.

Cornish choughs abound, and breed on osprey.

Beachy-head and on all the cliffs of the Sussex coast. J

The common wild pigeon, or stock-dove, is a bird of passage
in the south of England, seldom appearing till towards the end
of November ; is usually the latest winter-bird of passage. Be-

* The only instance I have met with of its occurring in the south-east of England, though it
is by no means unfrequent in some parts of the west. In Scotland it is rather more abundant,
and is indeed quite plentiful in Sutherland and other similar districts. — ED.

t The former is certainly a rare species in this country, being only an occasional straggler in
the winter season, occurring chiefly in the eastern counties ; but the latter, as observed in a
former note, is rather plentiful in Surrey and the adjoining counties. — ED.

t This species rarely ventures far inland ; but there is an account of one having been shot on
Salisbury-plain, and I have known it to occur on Mitcham-common, Surrey. — ED.

102 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

fore our beechen woods were so much destroyed, we had myriads
of them, reaching in strings for a mile together as they went out
in a morning to feed. They leave us early in spring ; where do
they breed ?*

The people of Hampshire and Sussex call the missel-bird the
storm-cock, because it sings early in the spring in blowing
showery weather ; its song often commences with the year : with
us it builds much in orchards.

A gentleman assures me he has taken the nests of ring-ousels
on Dartmoor : they build in banks on the sides of streams.f

Titlarks not only sing sweetly as they sit on trees, but also as
they play and toy about on the wing ; and particularly while
they are descending, and sometimes as they stand on the ground. J

Adanson's testimony seems to me to be a very poor evidence
that European swallows migrate during our winter to Senegal :
he does not talk at all like an ornithologist ; and probably saw
only the swallows of that country, which I know build within
Governor O'Hara's wall against the roof. Had he known Euro-
pean swallows, would he not have mentioned the species ?

The house-swallow washes by dropping into the water as it
flies : this species appears commonly about a week before the
house-martin, and about ten or twelve days before the swift.

In 1772 there were young house-martins in their nest till Oc-
tober the twenty-third. §

The swift appears about ten or twelve days later than the
house-swallow : viz. about the twenty-fourth or twenty-sixth of
April.

Whin-chats and stone-chatters stay with us the whole year.||

* A few breed in Surrey, generally in the holes of trees, being thus mediate in their nidification
between the cushat and rock-pigeons, though, according to Selby, some construct a nest like the
cushat-pigeon. It is in summer rather a rare species in the south of England, and has rather a
disagreeable grunting note, very different from the musical coo of the cushat, and equally unlike
that of the rock or dove-cot species, of which it is not the wild stock, as some have supposed. — ED .

t Generally in steep places, where the nest is supported by a stunted bush, or projecting clump
of heather. — ED.

J The tree pipit (anthus arboreus) is here spoken of, which is the " titlark*' of the bird shops,
though in books on natural history this term has been erroneously applied to another species, the
common pipit (antfais cowmumis), or " meadow pipit" of recent authors, which is equally a bird
of the mountain, the moor, and the marsh. — ED.

§ The migrative impulse is so powerful in the swallow tribes (including the swift), that the
later unfledged young are not unfrequently deserted, and left to starve. — E».

|| This is a mistake. Mr. White may have observed a solitary individual or so of the migrant
furze-chat, or "whin-chat" (saxicola-rubetra migratorid) , during the winter, but such an occur-
rence is a very rare exception to the general rule. Of the black-headed furze-chat, or " stone-
chatter" (S.-r--rubicold), a considerable number always remain with us, but the majority mi-
grate ; and although this has been disputed by some, who try to reason on the subject, I know
it to be the fact, from their frequently settling on the rigging of vessels passing the Channel. Be-

MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 103

Some wheat-ears continue with us the winter through.

Wagtails, all sorts, remain with us all the winter.*

Bulfinches, when fed on hempseed, often become wholly
black.

We have vast flocks of female chaffinches all the winter, with
hardly any males among them.

When you say that in breeding time the cock-snipes make a
bleating noise, and I a drumming (perhaps I should have rather
said a humming), I suspect we mean the same thing. However,
while they are playing about on the wing they certainly make a
loud piping with their mouths : but whether that bleating or
humming is ventriloquous, or proceeds from the motion of
their wings, I sannot say ; but this I know, that when this noise
happens the bird is always descending, and his wings are violently
agitated.

Soon after the lapwings have done breeding they congregate,
and, leaving the moors and marshes,
betake themselves to downs and sheep-
walks.

Two years ago last spring the little
auk was found alive and unhurt, but
fluttering and unable to rise, in a lane
a few miles from Alresford, where
there is a great lake : it was kept
awhile, but died. Crested Lowin

I saw young teals taken alive in the ponds of Wolmer-forest
in the beginning of July last, along with flappers, or young wild-
ducks.

Speaking of the swift, that page says " its drink the dew ;"
whereas it should be, " it drinks on the wing ;" for all the swal-
low kind sip their water as they sweep over the face of pools or
rivers : like Virgil's bees, they drink flying ; "flumina summa
libant." In this method of drinking perhaps this genus may be
peculiar.

sides, every out-door observer must have noticed their comparative paucity in early spring, when
a fine day calls forth all the birds to the tops of the bushes, and their sudden appearance in much
greater numbers about the middle of April, a little before the arrival of their congener, which is
acknowledged to be migratory. Neither of these birds have much natural soug, but in confine-
ment they evince considerable powers of imitation, as is the case also with the redstart, which is
somewhat allied to them. All are, however, excessively tender in captivity. — ED.

* From this it seems probable that the author had observed the field-wagtail during the winter
months, which is contrary to its usual habits, as noticed at page . Since that was written, J
have learned that the blue-headed field-wagtail (motacilla-budytes neglcctd) has been several times
observed in Scotland. — ED.

104 NATURAL HISTORY OF SBLBORNE.

Of the sedge-bird be pleased to say it sings most part of the
night ; its notes are hurrying, but not unpleasing, and imitative
of several birds ; as the sparrow, swallow, sky-lark. When it
happens to be silent in the night, by throwing a stone or clod
into the bushes where it sits you immediately set it a singing ; or
in other words, though it slumbers sometimes, yet as soon as it
is awakened it reassumes its song.*

LETTER XL. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

DEAR SIR, Sdborne, Sept. 2, 1774.

BEFORE your letter arrived, and of my own accord, I had been
remarking and comparing the tails of the male and female swal-
low, and this ere any young broods appeared ; so that there was
no danger of confounding the dams with their pulli : and besides,
as they were then always in pairs, and busied in the employ of
nidification, there could be no room for mistaking the sexes nor
the individuals of different chimneys the one for the other. From
all my observations, it constantly appeared that each sex has the
long feathers in its tail that give it that forked shape ; with this
difference, that they are longer in the tail of the male than in that
of the female.f

Nightingales, when their young first come abroad, and are
helpless, make a plaintive and a jarring noise ; and also a snap-
ping or cracking, pursuing people along the hedges as they walk :
these last sounds seem intended for menace and defiance.

The grasshopper-lark chirps all night in the height of summer.
Swans turn white the second year, and breed the third.

Weasels prey on moles, as appears by their being sometimes
caught in mole-traps.

Sparrow-hawks sometimes breed in old crows' nests, and the
kestril in churches and ruins.

There are supposed to be two sorts of eels in the island of Ely.
The threads sometimes discovered in eels are perhaps their young :
the generation of eels is very dark and mysterious.^

* Sufficiently intimating, if other evidence were wanting, that the louder notes of birds are
those of challenge and defiance. I have known a whitethroat-fauvet to sing loudly and continu-
ously after it had been wounded'and brought down with the gun.— ED.

h They often vary in length in the same individual, and are comparatively very short in the
young.— ED.

t Two species of eels (anguilla) are extremely common throughout the country, a third has
been discovered in the river Avon, in Hampshire, and a fourth, the grig ee!, at it has beeu

MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 105

Hen-harriers breed on the ground, and seem never to settle
on trees.

When redstarts shake their tails they move them horizontally,
as dogs do when they fawn : the tail of a wagtail, when in motion,
bobs up and down like that of a jaded horse.*

Hedge-sparrows have a remarkable flirt with their wings in
breeding-time ; as soon as frosty mornings come they make a
very plaintive piping noise.

Many birds which become silent about Midsummer reassume
their notes again in September ; as the thrush, blackbird, wood-
lark, willow-wren, &c. ; hence August is by much the most mute
month, the spring, summer, and autumn through. Are birds
induced to sing again because the temperament of autumn re-
sembles that of spring ?

Linnaeus ranges plants geographically ; palms inhabit the tro-
pics, grasses the temperate zones, and mosses and lichens the
polar circles ; no doubt animals may be classed in the same
manner with propriety.

House-sparrows build under eaves in the spring ; as the wea-
ther becomes hotter they get out for coolness, and nest in plum-
trees and apple-trees. These birds have been known sometimes
to build in rooks' nests, and sometimes in the forks of boughs
under rooks' nests.

As my neighbour was housing a rick he observed that his
dogs devoured all the little red mice that they could catch, but

rmed, would seem to be distinct, but has not been very satisfactorily made out. The largest

nd. commonest species is the sharp-nosed eel (A- aciitirostris) , which has been known to attain a

igth of six feet three inches, but more usually averages from two to three feet. Its appearance

too well known to need description. The broad-nosed eel (A. latirostris) is also plentiful, and

once distinguishable from the last by means of the character from which it has been named;

s also smaller, and has not been known to exceed five pounds in weight, whereas the other

sometimes attains to thirty pounds. Mr. Yarrell has observed important structural distinctions

"in the size and character of the bones of the head and vertebrae, those of the present species

being nearly as large again as the same parts of the A- acutirostris in examples of the same length.''

A. mediorostris, the Hampshire species, is much smaller than either, with a head of intermediate

form, as its name imports. It is also more slender and elongated, in proportion to its depth and

thickness, than either of the preceding species, in addition to which it presents some osteo-

logical peculiarities, and is said to differ from the others in being more diurnal in its habits. It

rarely exceeds half a pound in weight, and is provincially tenned the snig eel. The grig eel is

described by Mrs. Bowditch to be the smallest of the genus, and " is caught plentifully in the

Thames, but more especially in Berkshire and Oxfordshire." Mr. Yarrell's investigations leave

little or no doubt that eels are oviparous. — ED.

* With all deference to Mr. White, he is decidedly wrong in this particular, as I have many
times had occasion to observe, both by keeping redstarts in confinement and watching them in the
wild state through a glass. They move the tail perpendicularly, but not at all in the manner of
a wagtail, the motion being rapid and of slight extent, and repeated after every movement of the
bird ; or the tail sometimes hangs and shakes as if quite loose and ready to fall off, which latter
1 have not observed in the black species (phanimra tithys), though I have the former. It is a
habit very characteristic of the genus. — ED.

106

NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

rejected the common mice ; and that his cats ate the common
mice refusing the red.

Redbreasts sing all through the spring, summer, and autumn.
The reason that they are called autumn
songsters is, because in the first two
seasons their voices are drowned and
lost in the general chorus ; in the lat-
ter their song becomes distinguishable.
Many songsters of the autumn seem
to be the young cock redbreasts of that
year : notwithstanding the prejudices
in their favour, they do much mischief
in gardens to the summer-fruits. They eat also the berries of
the ivy, the honey-suckle, and the euonymus europaus, or spindle-
tree.*

The titmouse, which early in February begins to make two
quaint notes, like the whetting of a
saw, is the marsh titmouse : the great
titmouse sings with three cheerful
joyous notes* and begins about the
same time.

Wrens sing all the winter through,
frost excepted.f

House-martins came remarkably late

this year both in Hampshire and Devonshire : is this circum-
stance for or against either hiding or migration ?

Most birds drink sipping at intervals ; but pigeons take a long
continued draught, like quadrupeds.

Notwithstanding what I have said in a former letter, no gray
crows were ever known to breed on Dartmoor ; it was my mistake.

The appearance and flying of the scarab&us solstitialis, or fern-
chafer, commence with the month of July, and cease about the
end of it. These scarabs are the constant food of caprimulgi, or
fern-owls, through that period. They abound on the chalky
downs and in some sandy districts, but not in the clays.

In the garden of the Black-bear inn in the town of Reading is
a stream or canal running under the stables and out into the

* Also, when hard pressed in winter, those of the bitter-sweet (solatium dulcamara)* which are
likewise eaten by the thrush tribe. Mr. White rather magnifies the frugivovous propensities of
the robin-redbreast, which are by no means to be compared with those of the fauvet genus, its
appetite being entirely limited to the smaller fruits, which are swallowed whole. The young
birds sing out at times even before they have cast their first feathers. — ED.

t In frosty weather, also, when the sun shines. — ED.

WHITETHROAT. 107

fields on the other side of the road : in this water are many carps,
which lie rolling about in sight, being fed by travellers, who
amuse themselves by tossing them bread : but as soon as the
weather grows at all severe these fishes are no longer seen, be-
cause they retire under the stables, where they remain till the
return of spring. Do they lie in a torpid state ? if they do not,
how are they supported ?*

The note of the white-throat, which is continually repeated,
and often attended with odd gesticu-
lations on the wing, is harsh and dis-
pleasing. These birds seem of a
pugnacious disposition ; for they sing
with an erected crest and attitudes of
rivalry and defiance; are shy and
wild in breeding-time, avoiding neigh-
bourhoods, and haunting lonely lanes
and commons ; nay even the very tops
of the Sussex-downs, where there are bushes and covert ; but in
July and August they bring their broods into gardens and
orchards, and make great havoc among the summer-fruits, f

The black-cap has in common a full, sweet, deep, loud, and
wild pipe ; yet that strain is of short continuance, and his motions
are desultory ; but when that bird sits calmly and engages in song
in earnest, he pours forth very sweet, but inward melody, and
expresses great variety of soft and gentle modulations, superior
perhaps to those of any of our warblers, the nightingale excepted.
Black-caps mostly haunt orchards and gardens; while they
warble their throats are wonderfully distended.

* They are generally understood to lie torpid. — ED.

t The above passage is by no means a flattering description of the white-throat fauvet
(ficedula cinerea), its evil qualities appearing very much in relief. Its music, in the first place,
though hurried and chattering, is I think rather pleasing than otherwise, and by some persons is
even much admired ; while, so far from being a pugnacious species, it is the reverse, and indeed
affords a striking contrast in this particular with the
white-breasted fauvet, which has been termed the " lesser
white-throat." I have even seen the latter attack the
present species in wild nature, and in confinement it is
so quarrelsome that it can hardly be kept with any other
bird, even of double its size and strength ; whereas a
number of white-throats will live in perfect amity toge-
ther in the same cage, their only contests being those of
song. The white-throat is a very sprightly and active
little bird, enlivening various localities where its pre-
sence would in summer be much missed ; and, though in

the fruit season it visits our gardens in sufficient abun- Lesser Whitethroat.

dance, it is decidedly somewhat less fructivorous than its British congeners, and confines its
depredations chiefly to the smaller fruits. — ED.

108 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

The song of the redstart is superior, though somewhat like
that of the white-throat : some birds have a few more notes than
others. Sitting very placidly on the top of a tall tree in a village,
the cock sings from morning to night: he affects neighbour-
hoods, and avoids solitude, and loves to build in orchards and
about houses ; with us he perches on the vane of a tall maypole.*

The fly-catcher is of all our summer birds the most mute and
the most familiar ; it also appears the last of any. It builds in a
vine, or a sweetbriar, against the wall of a house, or in the hole
of a wall, or on the end of a beam or plate, and often close to the
post of a door where people are going in and out all day long.
This bird does not make the least pretension to song, but uses a
little inward wailing note when it thinks its young in danger
from cats or other annoyances : it breeds but once, and retires
early, f

Selborne parish alone can and has exhibited at times more
than half the birds that are ever seen in all Sweden ; the former
has produced more than one hundred and twenty species, the
latter only two hundred and twenty-one. Let me add also that

* This is a habit very characteristic of the group to which the redstart naturally belongs, being
observable also, in a greater or less degree, in the robins, the chats, and wheatears, the Ameri-
can bluebacks (sialia), the ousels (petrocmcla) , and several other allied genera which might be
named, being most conspicuous in the saxicolce, and others that inhabit open places. Redstarts
are expert fly-catchers, and may often be seen to fallow their insect prey upon the wing. — ED.

t The grey fly-catcher breeds more than once in the season, and is remarkable for the perti-
nacity with which it returns, year after year, to the same spot, a fact which was noticed by
U'ilson in an analogous species, the pewit tyrannule (tyrannula fusea) of North America, but
which is only perhaps the more noticed, in these particular species, from their familiarity, as it
is a general rule for all migratory birds to return, both in summer and winter, to the locality they
had previously occupied, impelled probably by the same inexplicable instinct whicb guides a bee
to its hive, which draws a common pigeon homeward from one extremity of Europe to another,
and by means of which various quadrupeds have been known to return straight to their accus-
tomed haunts, over pastures and across streams they never could have traversed before, and by
a nearer and very different route from that by which they had been removed. All birds indeed
appear to have a regular summer home, which they return to every breeding season, this appa-
rently being the principal law which regulates their geographical distribution : and that numerous
species return also to their former winter habitation can likewise be proved by various recorded
facts, such as are mentioned by Bewick in his account of the European woodsnipe; while other
species, on the contrary, probably always remain unsettled through the winter, of which the wax-
wing and crossbills, and apparently most of thefringillidai, may be cited as characteristic ex-
amples, these, however, being mostly, if not entirely, birds that winter in more changeable
climates, as,they even are comparatively stationary when the weather is settled. The observa-
tions of Messrs. Herbert and Sweet show that young migratory birds of the year return to the
place of their nativity ; nay, in one instance, would even have returned to confinement after a
winter's absence, which extraordinary fact was noticed in the song pettychaps. 1 have been
credibly informed of a lame redstart that for sixteen years was noticed to take up its abode in the
same garden; and, to remove any shadow of doubt that may yet remain on the subject, may be
adduced the following anecdote, which I lately met with in a little original work on migration,
and which refers to the species by which these remarks were suggested : — " Fly-catchers,'' ob-
serves the writer, " I have known to build eight, nine, and even ten years, successively, in a little
crevice of an old wall, not far from my dwelling. Apprehending that it was the same bird which

WRYNECK — FLYCATCHERS. 109

it has shown near half the species that were ever known in Great
Britain.*

On a retrospect, I observe that my long letter carries with it a
quaint and magisterial air, and is very sententious ; but when I
recollect that you requested stricture and anecdote, I hope you
will pardon the didactic manner for the sake of the information
it may happen to contain.

LETTER XLI. To T. PENNANT, Esa.

IT is matter of curious enquiry to trace out how those species of

soft-billed birds, that continue with us the winter through, subsist

during the dead months. The imbecility of birds seems not to

be the only reason why they shun

the rigour of our winters ; for the

robust wryneck (so much resembling

the hardy race of wood-peckers)

migrates, while the feeble little

golden-crowned wren, that shadow

of a bird, braves our severest frosts

without availing himself of houses

or villages, to which most of our win- wryneck .

ter birds crowd in distressful seasons, while this keeps aloof in

annually and invariably visited the spot, curiosity prompted me to try an experiment, which left
the matter out of doubt. When an opportunity offered, I took the female, cut off the extremity
<«''the upper mandible of the bill, and with a knife made several perspicuous marks ou its claws ;
this done, I set her at liberty. The succeeding spring the
same bird returned, with the distinguishing marks 1 had
given it, which was at once satisfactory and conclusive."
The following will show the attachment of the pied fly-
catcher of authors (though this bird should range in a
separate genus) to the place it has selected for nidifica-
lion, which fact came immediately under my own ob-
servation. A pair of this species took up their abode in a
garden near my residence, where, by the way, they ar-
rived so early as in the first week in April. Their first
nest was robbed by a boy, and another was soon built in
the same situation (against the ivied trunk of an old
poplar), and four eggs laid; these were destroyed by a snake; and a third nest was actually
constructed on the top of the last, which, with three eggs in it, and the broken egg-shells of the
last adhering to the bottom, was brought to me as a curiosity, and not a little to my dissatisfac-
tion. I had it replaced, as well as could be done, in about a couple of hours after it had been
removed, hoping that after all the female would perhaps sit ; but so much persecution had at
length driven the unfortunate pair from the place, and they were not seen afterwards. This
species is very rare in th* south of England, and was unknown to Mr. White. It moults it*
clothing plumage twice in thejyear. — En.

* The number of birds ascertained to have occurred in Britain is at present about 300. E».

Pied Flycatcher.

110 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

fields and woods ; but perhaps this may be the reason why they
may often perish, and why they are almost as rare as any bird
we know.*

I have no reason to doubt but that the soft-billed birds, which
winter with us, subsist chiefly on insects in their aurelia state.
All the species of wagtails in severe weather haunt shallow
streams near their spring-heads, where they never freeze ; and, by
wading, pick out the aurelias of the genus off Phryganeee, &c.

Hedge-sparrows frequent sinks and gutters in hard weather,
where they pick up crumbs and other sweepings : and in mild
weather they procure worms,} which are stirring every month in
the year, as any one may see that will only be at the trouble of
taking a candle to a grass-plot on any mild winter's night. Red-
breasts and wrens in the winter haunt out-houses, stables, and
barns, where they find spiders and flfes that have laid themselves
up during the cold season. But the grand support of the soft-
billed birds in winter is that infinite profusion of aurelice of the
lepidoptera ordo, which is fastened to the twigs of trees and their
trunks ; to the pales and walls of gardens and buildings ; and is
found in every cranny and cleft of rock or rubbish, and even in
the ground itself.

Every species of titmouse winters with us ; they have what I
call a kind of intermediate bill between the hard and the soft,
between the Linnaean genera of fringilla and motacilla. One
species alone spends its whole time in the woods and fields, never
retreating for succour in the severest seasons to houses and
neighbourhoods ; and that is the delicate long-tailed titmouse,

* I have never found this diminutive species rare in any part of the country which 1 have
visited ; on the contrary, it has generally proved to be rather common than otherwise, when
sought for in its proper localities, being mostly very abundant about fir plantations, especially
spruce, which last-mentioned tree it generally selects for nidification, though I have also found
the nest in furze. This is always attached to the under'side of a flattened evergreen bough, which
is the reason why spruce is so preferred, and the young often betray the place of concealment by
the perpetual sibilant noise they emit when a few days old. The country naturalist will do well
to look out for an allied species, the fiery-crowned kinglet (regulns ignicapillus) , which is said to
have been once or twice met with in this country. It is rather larger than the common one, and
«asily distinguishable by its bright flame-coloured crown, and two conspicuous white streaks on
each side of the head.— ED.

t See Derham's Physico-theology, p. 235.

t The hedge dunnock (accentor modularis) feeds much on various seeds, its bill having suffi-
cient power of compression to crush a hempseed ; but, as the under mandible is without the lateral
motiou, it cannot shell them as the finches do, but crushes and then swallows them whole. Of
this genus, too, another species has lately been detected in this country, the ground dunnock (A.
alpinns), which abounds to a considerable altitude on the Alps, and is almost the only small
feathered inhabitant of those bleak regions. It is considerably larger than the common hed«r«--
dunnock, which in its general character it much resembles. Hitherto it has only occurred in
winter.— ED.

TITMICE.

Ill

which is almost as minute as the golden-crowned wren :* but the
blue titmouse, or nun (parus cceruleusj, the cole-mouse (parus

Blue Titmouse.

Cole Titmouse.

ater), the great black-headed titmouse (fringillago), and the
marsh titmouse (parus palustris), all resort, at times, to buildings ;
and in hard weather particularly. The great titmouse, driven by
stress of weather, much frequents houses, and, in deep snows, I
have seen this bird, while it hung with its back downwards (to
my no small delight and admiration), draw straws lengthwise
from out the eaves of thatched houses, in order to pull out the
flies that were concealed between them, and that in such numbers
that they quite defaced the thatch, and gave it a ragged appear-
ance. \

The blue titmouse or nun, is a great frequenter of houses, and
a general devourer. Besides insects, it is very fond of flesh ;
for it frequently picks bones on dunghills : it is a vast admirer

* This curious little bird, which Dr. Leach first separated from the genus partis, proposing for
it the appellation mecistura, and which I would designate by the vernacular term " mufflin," by
which in some parts it is provincially known, naming
it the rose-mufflin (mecistura rosea), from its predomi-
nant tint, is very distinct in its characters from the
tits, with which it has been commonly associated, and
in fact I know of no species to which it is very closely
allied. In many parts of England it is called " bottle-
tit," and is well known for the beauty and exquisite
construction of its large doomed nest, which cannot be
sufficiently admired, and which itself is a character in
which it differs from the tr.ie pari, all of which nidifi-
cate in holes. The rose-mufflin is very common

throughout the lowland districts of Britain, and feeds Rose Mufflin.

exclusively on small insects, in their different stages, which it finds about the twigs and branches
of trees, the tits being, on the contrary, remarkably omnivorous in their diet, indeed more so
than any other small birds we have ; they are in fact miniatures of the jay and other corvine
genera, which they resemble even in the habit of hiding their superfluities of food, and in making
great use of the foot to hold what they are picking to pieces, being thus enabled to pierce holes
in the hard husks of seeds, by quickly repeated sharp knocks of the bill, through which they ex-
tract the kernel. The rose-mufflin, however, has not the least notion of thus using its foot; and
indeed the form of the foot, the make of the bill, its texture of plumage, and in short all its
characters are quite distinct from the genus pants.— ED.

t I have taken grains of wheat from the stomach of this species.— ED.

112 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

of suet, and haunts butchers' shops. When a boy, I have known
twenty in a morning caught with snap mouse-traps, baited with
tallow or suet. It will also pick holes in apples left on the
ground, and be well entertained with the seeds on the head of
a sun-flower. The blue, marsh, and great titmice will, in very
severe weather, carry away barley and oat straws from the sides
of ricks.

How the wheat-ear and whin-chat support themselves in win-
ter cannot be so easily ascertained, since they spend their time
on wild heaths and warrens ; the former especially, where there
are stone quarries : most probably it is that their maintenance
arises from the aurelice of the lepidoptera ordo, which furnish
them with a plentiful table in the wilderness.

I am, &c.

LETTER XLII. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, March 9, 1775.

SOME future faunist, a man of fortune, will, I hope, extend his
visits to the kingdom of Ireland ; a new field, and a country little
known to the naturalist. He will not, it is to be wished, under-
take that tour unaccompanied by a botanist, because the moun-
tains have scarcely been sufficiently examined ; and the southerly
counties of so mild an island may possibly afford some plants
little to be expected within the British dominions.* A person of
a thinking turn of mind will draw many just remarks from the
modern improvements of that country, both in arts and agricul-
ture, where premiums obtained long before they were heard of
with us. The manners of the wild natives, their superstitions,
their prejudices, their sordid way of life, will extort from him
many useful reflections. He should also take with him an able
draughtsman ; for he must by no means pass over the noble
castles and seats, the extensive and picturesque lakes and water-
falls, and the lofty stupendous mountains, so little known, and
so engaging to the imagination when described and exhibited in
a lively manner : such a work would be well received.

As I have seen no modern map of Scotland, I cannot pretend

* Even now the natural productions of Ireland are comparatively but little understood, though
at present there are several observers diligently occupied in the investigation of them. I believe
we are soon to expect a fauna of that couiMry. — ED.

HONEY-BUZZARDS. 113

to say how accurate or particular any such may be ; but this I
know, that the best old maps of that kingdom are very defective.

The great obvious defect that I have remarked in all maps of
Scotland that have fallen in my way is, a want of a coloured line
or stroke, that shall exactly define the just limits of that district
called the Highlands. Moreover, all the great avenues to that
mountainous and romantic country want to be well distinguished.
The military, roads formed by General Wade are so great and
Roman-like an undertaking that they well merit attention. My
old map, Moll's map, takes notice of Fort William ; but could
not mention the other forts that have been erected long since :
therefore a good representation of the chain of forts should not
be omitted.

The celebrated zigzag up the Coryarich must not be passed
over. Moll takes notice of Hamilton and Drumlanrig, and such
capital houses ; but a new survey, no doubt, should represent
every seat and castle remarkable for any great event, or celebrated
for its paintings, &c. Lord Breadalbane's seat and beautiful
policy are too curious and extraordinary to be omitted.

The seat of the Earl of Eglintoun, near Glasgow, is worthy of
notice. The pine-plantations of that nobleman are very grand
and extensive indeed. I am, &c.

LETTER XLIII. To T. PENNANT, ESQ.

A PAIR of honey-buzzards, buteo apivorus, sive vespivorus Raii,
built them a large shallow nest, composed of twigs and lined
with dead beechen leaves, upon a tall slender beech near the
middle of Selborne-hanger, in the summer of 1780. In the mid-
dle of the month of June a bold boy climbed this tree, though
standing on so steep and dizzy a situation, and brought down an
egg, the only one in the nest, which had been sat on for some
time, and contained the embryo of a young bird. The egg was
smaller, and not so round as those of the common buzzard ; was
dotted at each end with small red spots, and surrounded in the
middle with a broad bloody zone.

The hen-bird was shot, and answered exactly to Mr. Ray's
description of that species ; had a black cere, short thick legs,
and a long tail. When on the wing this species may be easily
distinguished from the common buzzard by its hawk-like appear-

114 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

ance, small head, wings not so blunt, and longer tail. This spe-
cimen contained in its craw some limbs of frogs and many gray
snails without shells. The irides of the eyes of this bird were of
a beautiful bright yellow colour.*

About the tenth of July in the same summer a pair of sparrow-
hawks bred in an old crow's nest on a low beech in the same
hanger : and as their brood, which was numerous, began to grow
up, became so daring and ravenous, that they were a terror to all
the dames in the village that had chickens or ducklings under
their care. A boy climbed the tree, and found the young so
fledged that they all escaped from him ; but discovered that a
good house had been kept : the larder was well stored with pro-
visions ; for he brought down a young blackbird, jay, and house-
martin, all clean picked, and some half devoured. The old birds
had been observed to make sad havoc for some days among the
new-flown swallows and martins, which, being but lately out of
their nests, had not acquired those powers and command of wing
that enable them, when more mature, to set such enemies at
defiance.

LETTER XLIV. To T. PENNANT, Esa.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, Nov. 30, 1780.

EVERY incident that occasions a renewal of our correspondence
will ever be pleasing and agreeable to me.

As to the wild wood-pigeon, the anas, or vinago, of Ray, I am
much of your mind ; and see no reason for making it the origin
of the common house-dove : but suppose those that have advanced
that opinion may have been misled by another appellation, often
given to the cenas9 which is that of stock-dove.

Unless the stock-dove in the winter varies greatly in manners
from itself in summer, no species seems more unlikely to be do-
mesticated, and to make a house-dove. We very rarely see the
latter settle on trees at all, nor does it ever haunt the woods ; but
the former, as long as it stays with us, from November perhaps
to February, lives the same wild life with the ring-dove, palumbus
torquatus ; frequents coppices and groves, supports itself chiefly

* This elegant species, intermediate in character between the kites and buzzards, and posses-
sing otherwise some peculiarities, is now, together with a few others inhabiting the eastern conti-
nent, separated from the genus buteo, and ranged under the denomination pernis- It is of very rare
•ccurrence in this country. — ED.

WOOD-PIGEONS, 115

by mast, and delights to roost in the tallest beeches. Could it
be known in what manner stock-doves build, the doubt would
be settled with me at once, provided they construct their nests on
trees, like the ring-dove, as I much suspect they do.

You received, you say, last spring a stock-dove from Sussex ;
and are informed that they sometimes breed in that county.
But why did not your correspondent determine the place of its
nidification, whether on rocks, cliffs, or trees ? If he was not an
adroit ornithologist I should doubt the fact, because people with
us perpetually confound the stock-dove with the ring-dove.

For my own part, I readily concur with you in supposing that
house-doves are derived from the small blue rock-pigeon, for
many reasons. In the first place the wild stock-dove is mani-
festly larger than the common house-dove, against the usual rule
of domestication, which generally enlarges the breed. Again,
those two remarkable black spots on the remiges of each wing of
the stock-dove, which are so characteristic of the species, would
not, one should think, be totally lost by its being reclaimed ; but
would often break out among its descendants.* But what is
worth a hundred arguments is, the instance you give in Sir
Roger Mostyn's house-doves in Caernarvonshire ; which, though
tempted by plenty of food and gentle treatment, can never be
prevailed on to inhabit their cote for any time ; but, as soon as
they begin to breed, betake themselves to the fastnesses of
Ormshead, and deposit their young in safety amidst the inacces-
sible caverns and precipices of that stupendous promontory.

" Naturam expel las f urea . . . tamen usque recurret."

I have consulted a sportsman, now in his seventy-eighth year,
who tells me that fifty or sixty years back, when the beechen
woods were much more extensive than at present, the number of
wood-pigeons was astonishing; that he has often killed near
twenty in a day ; and that with a long wild-fowl piece he has
shot seven or eight at a time on the wing as they came wheeling
over his head : he moreover adds, which I was not aware of, that
often there were among them little parties of small blue doves,
which he calls rockiers. The food of these numberless emigrants
was beech-mast and some acorns ; and particularly barley, which

* A very good argument, as is sufficiently exemplified by the fact that the two conspicuous
black bars on the wing of the wild rock-pigeon may be observed in many individuals of all its
numerous domestic varieties. The simple circumstance of the house-pigeon never perching upon
trees is of itself demonstrative of its distinctness from the C. renew.— ED.

I 2

116 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

they collected in the stubbles. But of late years, since the vast
increase of turnips, that vegetable has furnished a great part of
their support in hard weather ; and the holes they pick in these
roots greatly damage the crop. From this food their flesh has
contracted a rancidness which occasions them to be rejected by
nicer judges of eating, who thought them before a delicate dish.
They were shot not only as they were feeding in the fields, and
especially in snowy weather, but also at the close of the evening,
by men who lay in ambush among the woods and groves to kill
them as they came in to roost.* These are the principal circum-
stances relating to this wonderful internal migration, which with
us takes place towards the end of November, and ceases early in
the spring. Last winter we had in Selborne high wood about a
hundred of these doves ; but in former times the flocks were so
vast not only with us but all the district round, that on mornings
and evenings they traversed the air, like rooks, in strings, reach-
ing for a mile together. When they thus rendezvoused here by
thousands, if they happened to be suddenly roused from their
roost-trees on an evening,

" Their rising all at once was like the sound
Of thunder heard remote."

It will by no means be foreign to the present purpose to add,
that I had a relation in this neighbourhood who made it a prac-
tice, for a time, whenever he could procure the eggs of a ring-
dove, to place them under a pair of doves that were sitting in
his own pigeon-house ; hoping thereby, if he could bring about
a coalition, to enlarge his breed, and teach his own doves to beat
out into the woods and to support themselves by mast ; the plan
was plausible, but something always interrupted the success ; for
though the birds were usually hatched, and sometimes grew to
half their size, yet none ever arrived at maturity. I myself have
seen these foundlings in their nest displaying a strange ferocity
' of nature, so as scarcely to bear to be looked at, and snapping
with their bills by way of menace. In short, they always died,
perhaps for want of proper sustenance : but the owner thought
that by their fierce and wild demeanour they frighted their foster-
mothers, and so were starved.f

* Some old sportsmen say that the main part of these flocks used to withdraw as soon as the
heavy Christmas frosts were over.

t As in places where the cushat-pigeon (or •' ring-dove") is not disturbed, it has a decided
tendency to become rather tame during the breeding season, there can be little doubt that, by
rational management, it might be rendered almost domestic, though it would be manifestly .piitc
useless to expect it to breed in a dove-cot. They often become extremely tame, if reared froin

LIST OF BIRDS OF PASSAGE. 117

Virgil, as a familiar occurrence, by way of simile, describes a
dove haunting the cavern of a rock in such engaging numbers,
that I cannot refrain from quoting the passage : and John Dryden
has rendered it so happily in our language, that without further
excuse I shall add his translation also.

" Quails spelunca subit6 commota Columba,

" Cui domus, et dulces latebroso in pumice nidi,

" Fertur in arva volans, plausumque exterrita pennis

" Dat tecto intentem— mox aere lapsa quieto,

" Radit iter liquidum, celeres neque commovet alas."

" As when a dove her rocky hold forsakes,

" Rous'd, in a fright her sounding wings she shakes ;

" The cavern rings with clattering ; out she flies,

" And leaves her callow care, and cleaves the skies.

" At first she flutters ; but at length she springs

" To smoother flight, and shoots upon her wings."

LETTER I. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, June 30, 1769-

WHEN I was in town last month I partly engaged that I would
sometime do myself the honour to write to you on the subject of
natural history, and I am the more ready to fulfil my promise,
because I see you are a gentleman of great candour, and one
that will make allowances ; especially where the writer professes
to be an out-door naturalist, one that takes his observations from
the subject itself, and not from the writings of others.

The following is a List of the Summer Birds of Passage which I have discovered in this
neigJibourhood, ranged somewhat in the order which they appear.*

RA1I NOMINA. USUALLY APPEARS ABOUT

1. Wryneck, Jynx, sive iorquilla : The middle of March : harsh note. '

2. Smallest \\i\lo\v-\vrenjiegulus non cristatus : March 23 : chirps till September.

the nest, but, if suffered to fly loose, are very apt to disappear in the spring, and even to join the
wild flocks in winter. Were several of them, however, to be brought up together, in a place im-
mediately contiguous to a small fir plantation, I suspect they would show no desire to quit the
locality, more particularly if accustomed to be regularly fed. — ED.

* The periods of the arrival of our numerous summer birds of passage depend primarily on
the state of the moon (for they all migrate by night), an'}, secondarily, on that of the weather,
or rather wind; while the instinctive impulse to migrate would seem to be induced by physiolo-
gical"causes, the same which afterwards bring about the desire to associate in pairs. Not that
this seasonal impulse is itself to be explained upon any known principle, for young birds reared
from the nest evince it as forcibly in confinement as in the wild state ; and there are certain phe-
nomena connected with migration, as the annual return of birds (both in summer and winter) to
their former haunts, which must for ever baffle the ingenuity of man to account for. We can at
the most only assimilate this with the principle that impels a pigeon towards its home, and
which, it may be, guides also the footsteps of a somnambulist. Still there are various and diverse
agencie* which tend somewhat to modify the operation of the migratorv instinct, by accelerating

118 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

KAII NOMINA. USUALLY APPEARS ABOUT

8. Swallow, Hirundo rustica : April 13.

4. Martin, Hirundo domestica : Ditto.

or retarding the period of its coming on, which are very worthy the attention of the naturalist. I
have already hinted the proximate cause which appears to induce migration in the spring: in sup-*
port of which opinion it will be found that those species which winter in our own island, and linger
here till very late in the season, as redwing and especially fieldfare thrushes, and certain fringil-
lidee, have hardly any internal sexual development till a week or so before they leave us ; while, on
the other hand, our various summer visitants are always in perfect breeding condition at the time
of their first arrival iu their summer haunts. The most allied species often differ remarkably as
to the time in which they are first excited by the genial influence of the season, so much so that ^
this frequently amounts to a specific character ; and it appears to be a very general rule for those
species which inhabit in summer far to the north to be very late in being thus constitutionally
affected, as may be exemplified by a comparison of our resident thrushes with those which
only winter with us, and is as strikingly shown in the case of the closely allied chaffinch and
bramblefiach of authors, the former of which assumes its breeding aspect early in March, whereas
the latter, which is not known to breed within the British isles, does not exhibit this change
until about six weeks afterwards, as I have ascertained by examining numerous specimens late
in April. We have next to consider the influence of the moon and of the wind, temperature
being, at least in spring, a consideration of very trivial import, for we do not find that the
warmest weather in early spring hastens much the departure of the redwings and fieldfares, and
summer has of course long set in in the regions to which our spring visitants retire before most
of them commence returning to their breeding haunts. It is only after moonlight nights that
small migratory land-birds are observed to settle on the rigging of ships, and most abundantly
when the moon is near the full, in perfect accordance with which it may be remarked that birds
of passage, when confined in a cage, remain comparatively quiet so long as they continue in the
dark, but no sooner is a light introduced into the room where they are kept than the very pecu-
liar migrative restlessness is sure to be exhibited, and this although plentifully supplied with
the food to which they have been always accustomed— sufficiently intimating that deficiency of
sustenance is not, as many suppose, an element in the mystery of migration. The London bird-
catchers even refer to the almanack to ascertain the time when the nightingales will be over, cal-
culating on their arrival a day or two before full moon in April ; but the state of the weather
must also be to a certain extent taken into consideration, as migratory birds arrive usually with a
favourable gale, which materially assists'their flight. The prevalence, however, of southerly breezes
during the spring months, and of gales from the opposite direction in autumn, so accordant to
the necessities of birds of passage, must be numbered among the endless examples, every where
so obvious to the student of natural history, of the admirable manner in which all the parts of
the one grand and universal system act so beautifully together, each conducing to the benefit of
the whole, though appearing perhaps comparatively isolated on a superficial view. In autumn,
the migrative impulse is often developed without any apparent cause ; for certain species, as the
swift and the adult cuckoo, leave us for a warm region during the heats of summer, the lattar
during its annual moult, and both when their food would seem to be most abundant. In those
birds, however, which remain with us till late in autumn, decrease of temperature tends
perceptibly to bring it on, as on the first frosty night all the inmates of an aviary will become
restless, though perfectly quiet the night preceding ; and the extreme susceptibility they after-
wards show to thermometrical changes is not a little remarkable, the impulse being always more
or less exhibited during the winter months, according to the degree of temperature. I shall now
conclude with giving a list of the summer birds of passage, ranged somewhat in the order in
which they arrive in Surrey, the period of full moon being supposed to occur about the middle of
the mouth. About the third week in March will appear, if the weather prove favourable, a few
avant- couriers of the

Dark-footed or chiff-chaff pettychaps, Sylvia loquax,

Fallow-chat, Saxicola cenanthe,

Bank-swallow, Hirundo riparta,

and perhaps also of the

Blackcap-fauvet, Ficedula atricapilla,

Tree pipit, Anthus arboreust

Wryneck, Torquilla vulgarist

' and

Song pettychaps, Sylvia 1luiodiat

BIRDS OF PASSAGE.

119

KAII NOMINA.

5. Sand-martin, Hirundo riparia :

6. Black cap, Atricapilla :
T. Nightingale, Luscinia :

. 8. Cuckoo, Cuculus :

9. Middle willow-wren, Regulus non cristatus :

10. White-throat,

11. Red-start,

12. Stone-curlew,

13. Turtle-dove,

U. Grasshopper-la*.
15. Swift,

Ficedula affinis :
Ruticilla :

(Edicnemus:
Turtur.

USUALLY APPEARS ABOUT

April 13.

Ditto : a sweet wild note.

Beginning of April.

Middle of April.

Ditto : a sweet plaintive note.

{ *£$££?* '» SingS °'

Hirundo apus: About April 27.

P^r arundinaceus mi- {

nnr: \ birds.

Ortyigvmetra :

16. Less reed-sparrow,

17. Land-rail,

18. Largest willow- wren, Regulus non cristatus :

19. Goatsucker, or fern- > rnnvim,llmi«

owl, ^Capnmulgus:

A loud harsh note, crex, crex.
f Cantat voce stridula locustae ;
\ end of April, on the tops of
t high beeches.
S Beginning of May ; chatters by
£ night with a singular noise.

5 May 12. A very mute bird:
This is the latest summer
bird of passage.

some of all of which will certainty make their appearance if full moon happen towards the clos«
of the month. As the nights become light in April, will arrive, besides the great majority of the
species already enumerated, the earlier individuals of the

Chimney-swallow,

Meadow-crake,

Common field-wagtail,

Plaintive stoparel (pied flycatcher, auct.),

White-fronted redstart,

Locustelle,

Cuckoo,
and, as the moon approaches to last quarter, the

Migrant furze-chat,

Nightingale,

Eave-swaTlow,

Common sandpiper,

Fen-reedling,

Whitethroat-fauvet,

Sedge-reedling,
and sometimes the

White-breasted fauvet,
then, after the lapse of a few days, will arrive, early i

Hirundo garrula,
Crex pratensis,
Molacilla-budytes flavi$sima,
Stoparola luctuosa,
Phaenicura albifrons
Locustella dmmeticola,
Cuculus c

Saxicola-rubetrd migratoriai
Philomela lustinia,
Hirundo urbica,
Totanus hypoleiicut,
Salicaria arundinacectt
Ficedula cinerea,
Sulicaria phragmitist

Ficedula garrula,
n May, the

Garden-fauvet,

Grove, or shaking pettychaps,

Flusher shrike,

Gray flycatcher,

Turtle-dove,

Common swift,
and still later, many not till the middle of June, the

European motheater, Pholaniivora Europea,

which is always the last of the summer birds of passage. Of course exceptions to this order will
sometimes occur ; but these are as near the average periods as can be given. 1 have seen the nest
of the white-breasted fauvet, with four eggs in it, so early as on the twenty-third of April. — ED.

Ficedula hortensis,
Sylvia sibilans,
Lanius colluris,
Muscicapa grisolai
Columba-turtur Europeea,
Cypsdus murariust

120

NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

This assemblage of curious and amusing birds belongs to ten
several genera of the Linneean system ; and are all of the order of
passer es, save thejynx and cuculus, which are pica, and the chara-
drius (cedicnemus) and rallus (ortygometra), which are grallce.

These birds, as they stand numerically, belong to the follow-
ing Linnaean genera : —

1, Jynx: 13. Cohiniba:

2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 1 1 , 1 6, la Motacilla : 17. Rallus :

3, 4, 5, 1 5. Hirundo : 19. Caprimulgus :
8. Cuculus : 14. Alauda :

12. Charadrius: 20. Mmcicapa.

Most soft-billed birds live on insects, and not on grain and
seeds ; and therefore at the end of summer they retire : but the
following soft-billed birds, though insect-eaters, stay with us the
year round : —

Redbreast,
Wren,

Hedge-sparrow,

White-wagtail,
Yellow-wagtail,
Gray-wagtail,

Wheat-ear,

Whin-chat,
Stone- chatter,

RAII NOMINA.

Rubecula :
Passer troglodytes :

Curruca :

Motacilla alba :
Motacilla flava :
Motacilla cinerea :

ffinanthe :

(Enanthe secunda.
(Enanthe tertia.

Golden-crowned wren, Regulus cristatm.

c These frequent houses ; and haunt out-

{ buildings in the winter : eat spiders.

c Haunt sinks for crumbs and other

c sweepings.

f These frequent shallow rivulets near

J the spring heads, where they never

J freeze : eat the aurelise of Phryganea.

£ The smallest birds that walk.

C Some of these are to be seen with us the

t winter through.

(This is the smallest British bird : haunts
the tops of tail trees ; stays the win-
ter through.

A List of the Winter Birds of Passage round this neighbourhood, ranged somewhat in the
order in which they appear.

1. Ring-ousel,

RAII NOMINA.

Merula torquata :

2. Redwing,

Turdus iliacus:

3. Fieldfare,

Turdus pilaris :

4. Royston-crow,
5. Woodcock,
6. Snipe,
7. Jack-snipe,

Comix cinerea :
Scolopax ;
Gallinago minor :
Gallinago minima :

8. Wood-pigeon,

(Enas :

9. Wild-swan,
10. Wild-goose.

Cygnm ferus :
Anser ferns :

f This is a new migration, which I have
3 lately discovered about Michaelmas
J week, and again about the fourteenth
£ of March.

About old Michaelmas.
^Though a percher by day, roosts on the
/ ground.

Most frequent on downs.

Appears about old Michaelmas.

Some snipes constantly breed with us.

£ Seldom appears till late: not in such
£ plenty as formerly.
On some large waters

BIRDS OF PASSAGE. 121

RAII NOMINA.

1 1. Wild-duck, Anas torquata minor : -^

12. Pochard, Anas fera fusca : I

I!'. l-STta-d. I*""*" U our ,akes and streams.

with us in > Querquedula : \

Wolmer-forest ) X

15. Crossbill, Loxia : ( These are only wanderers that appear

16. Grosbeak, Coccothraustes ;••* ^ occasionally, and are not observant

17. Silk-tail, Garrulus bohemicus : ( of any regular migration.

These birds, as they stand numerically, belong to the following
Linnaean genera: —

1, 2, 3, Turdm .- 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,

4, Corvus : Anas : \

5,6,7, Scolopax: 15,16, Loxia:

8, Columba: 17. Ampelis.

Birds that sing in the night are but few.

Nightingale, t Luscinia: "In shadiest covert hid." — MILTON.

Woodlark, Alauda arborea : Suspended in mid air.

Less reed-sparrow, Passer arundinaceus minor : Among reeds and willows. t

I should now proceed to such birds as continue to sing after
Midsummer, but, as they are rather numerous, they would exceed
the bounds of this paper : besides, as this is now the season for
remarking on that subject, I am willing to repeat my observa-
tions on some birds concerning the continuation of whose song
I seem at present to have some doubt.

I am, &c.

LETTER II. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, Nov. 2, 17&9

WHEN I did myself the honour to write to you about the end of
last June on the subject of natural history, I sent you a list of
the summer-birds of passage which I have observed in this
neighbourhood ; and also a list of the winter-birds of passage :
I mentioned besides those soft-billed birds that stay with us the
winter through in the south of England, and those that are re-
markable for singing in the night.

According to my proposal, I shall now proceed to such birds
(singing birds strictly so called) as continue in full song till after
Midsummer; and shall range them somewhat in the order in
which they first begin to open as the spring advances.

* The grosbeak is a resident species, though of rare occurrence. — ED.

t Sedge- reedling (salicaria pkragmitis) . There are several other birds which sing occasionally
by night, though not habitually. I have «ecn the skylark rise singing when nearly dark.- ED.

122

NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

RAH NOMIXA.

C In January, and continues to sing

1. Wood-lark,

Alauda arbor ea :

-J through all the summer and

£ autumn.

2. Song-thrush,

Turdus simpticiter dictus

f In February and on to August, re-
*' \ assume their song in autumn.

3. Wren,

Passer troglodytes :

All the year, hard frost excepted.

4. Redbreast,

Rubecula :

Ditto.

5. Hedge-sparrow,

Curruca :

Early in February to July the 10th.

6, Yellowhammer,

Emberiza flava :

5 Early in February, and on through
J July to August the 21st

7. Skylark,

Alauda vulgaris :

In February, and on to October.

8. Swallow,

Hirundo domestica :

From April to September.

9. Black-cap,

Atricapilla :

Beginning of April to July 13th.*

10. Titlark,t

Alauda pratorum :

From middle of April to July the 16th.

C Sometimes in February and March,

11. Blackbird,

Merula vulgaris :

-J and so on to July the twenty -

( third ; re assumes in autumn.

12. White-throat,

Ficeduke affinis :

In April, and on to July 23.

13. Goldfinch,

Car due Us :

April, and through to September 16.

M. Greenfinch,

Chloris :

On to July and August 2.

15. Less reed-spar-
row,

c Passer arundinaceus
\ minor :

\ May, on to beginning of July.

16. Common linnet, Linaria vulgaris :

f Breeds and whistles on till August ;
I reassumes its note when they be-
< gin to congregate in October, and
(^ again early before the flock se-

parate.

Birds that cease to be in full song, and are usually silent at or
before Midsummer : —

17. Middle willow- 3

wren,

18. Redstart,

19. Chaffinch,

20. Nightingale,

Regulus non cristatus :
Ruticilla :
Fringilla :
Luscinia :

Middle of June : begins in April.

Ditto : begins in May.J

t Beginning of June : sings first in

\ February.
Middle of June : sings first in April.

Birds that sing for a short time, and very early in the spring :-

2 1 . Missel- bird ,§ Turdus viscivorus :

22. Great titmouse,
or ox-eye, '

> P . .„

\Frmgillago:

, January the 2d, 1770, in February.
' " ' ' \ Sussex

; song is
ndy wet
.nging bird
we have.

fin February, March, April: reasumes
1 for a short time in September.

* Becoming gradually less frequent for about six weeks before it entirely ceases.— ED.

t It is clear that Mr. White never discriminated between the " titlark" and " pipitlark" of the
bird-shops, the tree-pipit (anthus arfcoreus), and common-pipit (A. commutm), of modern nomen-
clators : the former is a very sweet songster, and a bird of passage, arriving in the southern
counties early in April ; the latter a resident species, and a mean songster, more wagtail-like in
its habits, and easily distinguishable by its long and comparatively straight hind claw, which in
the latter is shorter and more curved. Various other differences will appear on comparison.— ED.

t Or rather, 1 should say, early in April.— ED.

§ The missel-thrush may be heard occasionally till the end of June, and constantly during the
months of April and May. — ED.

BIRDS OF PASSAGE.

123

Birds that have somewhat of a note or song, and yet are
hardly to be called singing birds : —

KAII NOMINA.

23. Golden-crowned
wren,

\ Regulus cristatus :* •<

Its note as minute as its person; f re-
nts the tops of high oaks and firs :
smallest British bird.

r Haunts great woods: two harsh sharp
24. Marsh titmouse, Farus palustns : | noteg 6

Regulus non cristatus .-Sings in March, and on to September.

f Cantat voce striduld locustce ; from end

wren,

26. Largest ditto,

27. Grasshopper-

lark,

28. Martin,

29. Bullfinch,

30. Bunting,

All singing birds, and those that have any pretensions to song,
not only in Britain, but perhaps the world through, come under
the Linncean ordo of passer es.

The above-mentioned birds, as they stand numerically, belong
to the following Linncean genera : —

\ of April to August.
Alauda minima, wee r Chirps all night, from the middle of
locustce : \ April to the end of July.

Hirundo agrestis: {*%$£5*** ^ ^ *** "

Pyrrhula^

Emberiza alba : From the end of January to July.

1,7,10,27. Alauda:

2,11,21. Turdus:

3,4,5,9,12,15, \Motacilla-

6, 30. Emberiza

Birds that sing as

8, 28,
13, 16, 19.

22, 24,
14, 29.

Hirundo.
Fringilla,

Parus.
Loxia.

Skylark,

Alauda vulgaris :

Titlark,

Alauda pratorum :

Woodlark,

Alauda arborea :

Blackbird,

Merula :

White-throat,

Ficedulce affinis :

Swallow,
Wren,

Hirundo domestica :
Passer troglodytes :

they fly are but few.

Rising, suspended, and falling.

{In its descent ; also sitting on trees, and
walking on the ground.
(•Suspended; in hot summer nights all
\ night long.
Sometimes from bush to bush.

{Uses when singing on the wing odd jerks
and gesticulations.
In soft sunny weather.
Sometimes from bush to bush.J

* This species has rather a pleasing though short song, but which possesses hardly any variety :
there is, however, a deal of sprightliness about it, and it can hardly be considered weak for the
size of the utterer. The tree-creeper has a note somewhat similar.— ED.

f A low and very peculiar chattering warble, which must always be at once recognised by those
who have ever heard it. Both sexes sing alike ; but the note must be considered singular rather
than musical.— ED.

t To this list may be added various species which more or less habitually sing on the wing.
All the pipit genus (anthui) sing principally when flying; the fallow-chat, black-headed furze-
chat, furzeling (melhophilus) , and, it is said, the locustelle, when hovering in the air; the sedge-
reedling as it mounts to a small height, or as it flits from bush to bush ; the missel-thrush as it
crosses a field, but not very commonly ; the redstart, all the pettychaps genus, and, though very
rarely, the robin, as they fly from tree to tree; and the tree-creeper, and the whole fauvet genus,
while doing the same, commencing a few seconds before they settle, and repeating the strain con-
tinuously after they have alighted: the cuckoo, also, occasionally repeats its well-known note
while upon the wing. — ED.

124 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

Birds that breed most early in these parts : —

RAII NOMINA.

Raven, Corvtts: Hatches in February and March.

Song-thrush, Turdus : In March.

Blackbird, Merula : In March.

Rook, Comix frugihga : Builds the beginning of March.

Woodlark, Alauda arborea : Hatches in April.

Ring-dove, Palumbus torquatas : Lays the beginning of April.*

All birds that continue in full song till after Midsummer
appear to me to breed more than once.

Most kinds of birds seem to me to be wild and shy somewhat
in proportion to their bulk ; I mean in this island, where they
are much pursued and annoyed : but in Ascension Island, and
many other desolate places, mariners have found fowls so unac-
quainted with a human figure, that they would stand still to be
taken ; as is the case with boobies, &c. As an example of what
is advanced, I remark that the golden-crested wren (the smallest
British bird) will stand unconcerned till you come within three
or four yards of it, while the bustard (otis), the largest British
land fowl, does not care to admit a person within so many furlongs.

I am, &c.

LETTER III. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, Jan. 15, 1770.

IT was no small matter of satisfaction to me to find that you
were not displeased with my little methodus of birds. If there
was any merit in the sketch, it must be owing to its punctuality.
For many months I carried a list in my pocket of the birds that
were to be remarked, and, as I rode or walked about my busi-
ness, I noted each day the continuance or omission of each bird's
song ; so that I am as sure of the certainty of my facts as a man
can be of any transaction whatsoever.

I shall now proceed to answer the several queries which you
put in your two obliging letters, in the best manner that I am
able. Perhaps Eastwick, and its environs, where you heard so
very few birds, is not a woodland country, and therefore not
stocked with such songsters. If you will cast your eye on my

* The robin should certainly have been included here, as it occasionally nidificates even in
mid-winter, and not unfrequently at the clove of the month of January, when the weather i»
mild.— ED.

AMERICAN ANIMALS. 125

last letter, you will find that many species continued to warble
after the beginning of July.

The titlark and yellowhammer breed late, the latter very late ;
and therefore it is no wonder that they protract their song : for
I lay it down as a maxim in ornithology, that as long as there is
any incubation going on there is music. As to the redbreast
and wren, it is well known to the most incurious observer that
they whistle the year round, hard frost excepted; especially the
latter.

It was not in my power to procure you a black-cap, or a less
reed-sparrow, or sedge-bird, alive. As the first is undoubtedly,
and the last, as far as I can yet see, a summer bird of passage,
they would require more nice and curious management in a cage
than I should be able to give them :* they are both distinguished
songsters. The note of the former has such a wild sweetness
that it always brings to my mind those lines in a song in " As
You Like It."

" And tune his merry note
Unto the wild bird's throat." SHAKSPKAKE.

The latter has a surprising variety of notes resembling the
song of several other birds; but then it has also a hurrying

* I have never experienced much difficulty in keeping any of our insectivorous birds in confine-
ment, although at different times I have possessed, with very few exceptions, the whole of them.
The nightingale, redstart, furze-chats, and common wren are about the most delicate, or rather
these require the most nutritious food ; after them may be mentioned the fallow-chat, the reed-
lings, the swallows, the pettychaps genus, the wagtails, and the rose-mufflin ; and amongst the
most hardy may be reckoned the pipits (more particularly the A. arboreus), the different fauvets,
the furzelin, the hedge-dunnock, aifd the robin, all which last-mentioned birds may be very
easily maintained in confinement at a small expense. Generally speaking, our summer visitants
are not more tender of cold weather than a Canary bird, our little residents, the wren and kinglet,
requiring greater care ra winter; next to these maybe mentioned the different pettychaps ; while
decidedly the most hardy of cold of any are the blackcap-fauvet and the tree-pipit, several of both
which 1 have known to have been kept through a moderate winter in a very cold room without a
fire, which destroyed a variety of other migrant birds. A very good general food which all these
birds, excepting the nightingale, will readily eat, and which requires but little trouble to prepare,
and will keep good for nearly a month, may be made by adding to about half a pound of the
" German paste" of the bird-shops three or four ounces of crushed hempseed and four or five
stale buns, crumbled, but not too small. Some chopped egg may also occasionally be given, and
a little meat, either dressed or raw, and there should be always some bread and milk in the cage.
Boiled vegetables, too, and in short whatever else is brought to table that is not salted, may occa-
sionally be supplied; for they will subsist on almost every description of human food, and thrive
most when their diet is a little diversified. The fauvet genus may be kept during the fruit season
almost wholly upon fruit, and at all times of the year grocers' currants are with them a favourite
food. Insects should of course be given whenever practicable. A nightingale should always have
access to two food pans, one of bread and milk, which it soon learns to eat when hungry, and
becomes extremely fond of, the other of raw beef and egg, the former scraped, so as to obtain the
substance of it, leaving the fibres, and then chopped up with the egg, which should be boiled hard :
the latter food alone, without the bread and milk, is too stimulating, but is probably the most
nutritious that could be given. Excepting in very cold weather, these birds should always have
a pan of water to bathe in. — ED.

126 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

manner, not at all to its advantage : it is notwithstanding a
delicate polyglot.

It is new to me that titlarks in cages sing in the night ; per-
haps only caged birds do so. I once knew a tame redbreast in
a cage that always sang as long as candles were in the room ;
but in their wild state no one supposes they sing in the night.*

I should be almost ready to doubt the fact, that there are to
be seen much fewer birds in July than in any former month,
notwithstanding so many young are hatched daily. Sure I am
that it is far otherwise with respect to the swallow tribe, which
increases prodigiously as the summer advances : and I saw, at
the time mentioned, many hundreds of young wagtails on tKe
banks of the Cherwell, which almost covered the meadows. If
the matter appears as you say in the other species, may it not
be owing to the dams being engaged in incubation, while the
young are concealed by the leaves ?

Many times have I had the curiosity to open the stomachs of
woodcocks and snipes ; but nothing ever occurred that helped to
explain to me what their subsistence might be : all that I could
ever find was a soft mucus, among which lay many pellucid
small gravels. f I am, &c.

LETTER IV. To. THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.
DEAR SIR, Selborne Feb. 19, 1770.

YOUR observation that "the cuckoo does not deposit its egg
indiscriminately in the nest of the first bird that comes in its way,
but probably looks out a nurse in
some degree congenerous, with whom
to intrust its young," is perfectly
new to me ; and struck me so forci-
bly, that I naturally fell into a train
of thought that led me to consider
whether the fact was so, and what
reason there was for it. When I
came to recollect and inquire, I could

* The tree-pipit, or "titlark," does not usually sing by night even in confinement, though it oc-
casionally chirps a little when excited by the migratory impulse. I have kept one for several years,
which still continues stout and healthy, and is a vigorous songster. ED.

t The food of these birds is of course earth worms, which dissolve very rapidly in the stomach,
and which I have myself kept them upon in captivity. The quantity they consume is very con-
siderable. ED.

CUCKOO. 127

not find that any cuckoo had ever been seen in these parts, ex-
cept in the nest of the wagtail, the hedge-sparrow, the titlark, the
white-throat, and the red-breast, all soft-billed insectivorous birds.
The excellent Mr. Willughby mentions the nests of the palumbus
(ring-dove), and of ihefringilla (chaffinch), birds that subsist on
acorns and grains, and such hard food : but then he does not
mention them as of his own knowledge ; but says afterwards that
he saw himself a wagtail feeding a cuckoo. It appears hardly
possible that a soft-billed bird should subsist on the same food
with the hard-billed : for the former have thin membranaceous
stomachs suited to their soft food ; while the latter, the granivo-
rous tribe, have strong muscular gizzards, which, like mills,
grind, by the help ]pf small gravels and pebbles, what is swal-
lowed.* This proceeding of the cuckoo, of dropping its eggs as it
were by chance, is such a monstrous outrage on maternal affec-
tion, one of the first great dictates of nature ; and such a violence
on instinct ; that, had it only been related of a bird in the Brazils,

* Having paid very particular attention to the economy of this interesting species, and taken
much pains to investigate its peculiarities, 1 am enabled to state decidedly that the egg is not
invariably deposited in the nests of insectivorous birds, but occasionally in those of species which
are exclusively granivorous. I have ascertained, either from direct observation, or from the testi-
mony of respectable eye-witnesses, the fact of its occurring in the nests of the following numerous
species, namely, the blackbird, song-thrush, skylark, green grosbeak, chaffinch, hedge-dunnock,
different pipits and wagtails, yellow and reed-bunting, and sedge-reedling; and there are instances
recorded of its having been found also in those of the red-backed shrike, linnet, fen-reedling,
song pettychaps and locustelle. The most remarkable, however, of all these are undoubtedly the
linnet and green grosbeak, which (like the canary) rear their own young exclusively upon mace-
rated vegetable diet ejected from their own craws, all the other species (including the chaffinch),
subsisting partly, and bringing up their offspring wholly, upon insects. That birds should thus
instinctively know what diet the young cuckoo requires, when different from that they would
have given their own offspring, is indeed a most extraordinary fact ; but the following highly in-
teresting anecdote, related in the Field Naturalist's Magazine, for January, 1834, sufficiently
proves that it is actually the case :— " A cuckoo," observes the writer, " was found, just feathered,
in the nest of a hedge-dunnock. It was immediately taken from thence and placed in a cage
containing a hen canary. The birds agreed perfectly well ; but, what is most singular, when the
proper food of the cuckoo (young caterpillars, &c.), was placed in the cage, the canary fed its
young charge with that, although she herself kept to the hempseed, &c., to which she had been
accustomed." The cuckoo is by no means a rare species, and each female bird would seem to lay
annually at least six or eight eggs, yet neither the eggs nor young are ever found in any sort of
proportion to the number of old birds. The cause of this appears to be that the cuckoo's egg is
almost invariably, excepting in two or three particular species, ejected by the rightful owners of
the nest in which it has been deposited. I have at least found this to be the case repeatedly, in
experiments that I have tried with larks' eggs, which somewhat resemble those of the cuckoo. 1
have many times placed one of these along with other eggs, have removed the latter and placed it
alone in the nest, and have put them singly into newly finished nests, before any other eggs had
been deposited in them, but have continually met with the same result, the surreptitious eggs having
been turned out by the rightful owners. This, therefore, must be undoubtedly the main cause
of the extreme scarcity of the cuckoo's egg. In at least five instances out of six it is found
either in the pied-wagtail's nest, or in that of the common or the shore-pipit, and somewhat less
frequently in that of the hedge-dunnock, which latter species, I know, will sometimes eject an
alien egg from its nest. To return to the text, it may be observed that all our small insectivorous
birds have the stomach far more muscular than would be supposed from Mr. White's remark
on the subject.— ED.

128 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

or Peru, it would never have merited our belief. But yet, should
it further appear that this simple bird, when divested of that
natural (rropyrj that seems to raise the kind in general above
themselves, and inspire them with extraordinary degrees of
cunning and address, may be still endued with a more enlarged
faculty of discerning what species are suitable and congenerous
nursing-mothers for its disregarded eggs and young, and may
deposit them only under their care, this would be adding wonder
to wonder, and instancing, in a fresh manner, that the methods
of Providence are not subjected to any mode or rule, but astonish
us in new lights, and in various and changeable appearances.

What was said by a very ancient and sublime writer concern-
ing the defect of natural affection in the ostrich, may be well
applied to the bird we are talking of: —

" She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were
not hers :

" Because GOD hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he
imparted to her understanding."*

Query. Does each female cuckoo lay but one egg in a season,
or does she drop several in different nests according as opportu-
nity offers ?f

I am, &c.

LETTER V. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, April 12, 1770.

I HEARD many birds of several species sing last .year after Mid-
summer ; enough to prove that the summer solstice is not the
period that puts a stop to the music of the woods. The yellow-
hammer no doubt persists with more steadiness than any other ;
but the woodlark, the wren, the redbreast, the swallow, the
white-throat, the goldfinch, the common linnet, are all undoubted
instances of the truth of what I advanced.

* Job xxxix. 16, 17.

t Strangely enough this question has never heen very satisfactorily determined, although it
might easily be done by dissecting 9 sufficient number of females during the spring and summer
months. On two or three females, dissected by Col. Montagu at the time they first began to lay,
only four or five eggs that could be laid successively could be discovered ; but he had reason to
believe a second lot of eggs in progress. A young cnckoo of the preceding year, which I examined
on the twenty-second of May, contained in the ovary three largely-developed eggs, which would
have been laid perhaps on the three following days ; there were a multitude of smaller ones, some
of them enlarged to the size of a mustard-seed, but these presenting no vascular appearance
would not probably have been laid that same season. I'M

EGG OF THE CUCKOO. 12Q

If this severe season does not interrupt the regularity of the
summer migrations, the blackcap will be here in two or three
days. I wish it was in my power to procure you one of those
songsters ; but I am no birdcatcher ; and so little used to birds
in a cage, that I fear if I had one it would soon die for want of
skill in feeding.

Was your reed-sparrow, which you kept in a cage, the thick-
billed reed-sparrow of the Zoology, p. 320 ; or was it the less
reed-sparrow of Ray, the sedge-bird of Mr. Pennant's last publi-
cation, p. 16?

As to the matter of long-billed birds growing fatter in mode-
rate frosts, I have no doubt within myself what should be the
reason. The thriving at those times appears to me to arise alto-
gether from the gentle check which the cold throws upon insen-
sible perspiration. The case is just the same with blackbirds,
&c. ; and farmers and warreners observe, the first, that their
hogs fat more kindly at such times, and the latter that their rab-
bits are never in such good case as in a gentle frost. But when
frosts are severe, and of long continuance, the case is soon
altered ; for then a want of food soon overbalances the repletion
occasioned by a checked perspiration. I have observed, more-
over, that some human constitutions are more inclined to plump-
ness in winter than in summer.

Redwinged Thrush. Song Thn

When birds come to suffer by severe frost, I find that the first
that fail and die are the redwing-fieldfares, and then the song-
thrushes.

You wonder, with good reason, that the hedge-sparrows, &c.,
can be induced at all to sit on the egg of the cuckoo without
being scandalized at the vast disproportionate size of the suppo-
sititious egg ; but the brute creation, I suppose, have very little
idea of size, colour, or number. For the common hen, I know,
when the fury of incubation is on her, will sit on a single shape-
less stone instead of _a nest full^ of eggs that have been with-
K

130 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

drawn : and, moreover, a hen-turkey, in the same circumstances,
would sit on in the empty nest till she perished with hunger.

I think the matter might easily be determined whether a
cuckoo lays one or two eggs, or more, in a season, by opening a
female during the laying-time. If more than one was come down
out of the ovary, and advanced to a good size, doubtless then she
would that spring lay more than one. I will endeavour to get a
hen, and to examine.

Your supposition that there may be some natural obstruction
in singing birds while they are mute, and that when this is re-
moved the song recommences, is new and bold ; I wish you could
discover some good grounds for this suspicion.

I was glad you were pleased with my specimen of the capri-
mulguSy or fern-owl ; you were, I find, acquainted with the bird
before.

When we meet, I shall be glad to have some conversation with
you concerning the proposal you make of my drawing up an ac-
count of the animals in this neighbourhood. Your partiality
towards my small abilities persuades you, I fear, that I am able
to do more than is in my power : for it is no small undertaking
for a man unsupported and alone to begin a natural history from
his own autopsia 1 Though there is endless room for observation
in the field of nature, which is boundless, yet investigation
(where a man endeavours to be sure of his facts) can make but
slow progress ; and all that one could collect in many years would
go into a very narrow compass.

Some extracts from your ingenious " Investigations of the
difference between the present temperature of the air in Italy,"
&c. have fallen in my way ; and gave me great satisfaction : they
have removed the objections that always arose in my mind when-
ever I came to the passages which you quote. Surely the judicious
Virgil, when writing a didactic poem for the region of Italy,
could never think of describing freezing rivers, unless such se-
verity of weather pretty frequently occurred !

P.S. Swallows appear amidst snows and frost.

LETTER VI. To THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, May 21, 1770.

THE severity and turbulence of last month so interrupted the
regular progress of summer migration that some of the birds do

SEX OF BIRDS. 131

but just begin to show themselves, and others are apparently
thinner than usual ; as the whitethroat, the blackcap, the red-
start, the flycatcher. I well remember that after the very severe
spring in the year 1739-40 summer birds of passage were very
scarce. They come probably hither with a south-east wind, or
when it blows between those points ; but in that unfavourable
year the winds blowed the whole spring and summer through
from the opposite quarters. And yet amidst all these disadvan-
tages two swallows, as I mentioned in my last, appeared this year
as early as the eleventh of April amidst frost and snow ; but they
withdrew again for a time.

I am not pleased to find that some people seem so little satis-
fied with Scopoli's new publication ;* there is room to expect
great things from the hands of that man, who is a good naturalist :
and one would think that a history of the birds of so distant and
southern a region as Carniola would be new and interesting. I
could wish to see that work, and hope to get it sent down. Dr.
Scopoli is physician to the wretches that work in the quicksilver
mines of that district.

When you talked of keeping a reed-sparrow, and giving it
seeds, I could not help wondering ; because the reed-sparrow
which I mentioned to you (passer arundinaceus minor Raii) is a
soft-billed bird ; and most probably migrates hence before win-
ter ; whereas the bird you kept (passer torquatus Raii} abides all
the year, and is a thick-billed bird. I question whether the lat-
ter be much of a songster ; but in this matter I want to be better
informed. The former has a variety of hurrying notes, and sings
all night. Some part of the song of the former, I suspect, is
attributed to the latter. We have plenty of the soft-billed sort ;
which Mr. Pennant had entirely left out of his British Zoology,
till I reminded him of his omission. See British Zoology last
published, p. I6.f

I have somewhat to advance on the different manners in
which different birds fly and walk ; but as this is a subject that
I have not enough considered, and is of such a nature as not to
be contained in a small space, I shall say nothing further about
it at present. J

No doubt the reason why the sex of birds in their first plum-
age is so difficult to be distinguished is, as you say, " because

* This work he calls his Annus Primus Historico Naturalis-
t See letter xxv. to I\Jr. Pennant,
t See letter xlii to Mr. Barrington,

K 2

y f ^

132 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE,

they are not to pair and discharge their parental functions till the
ensuing spring." As colours seem to be the chief external sex-
ual distinction in many birds, these colours do not take place till
sexual attachments begin to obtain. And the case is the same
in quadrupeds ; among whom, in their younger days, the sexes
differ but little : but, as they advance to maturity, horns and
shaggy manes, beards and brawny necks, &c. &c. strongly dis-
criminate the male from the female. We may instance still fur-
ther in our own species, where a beard and stronger features are
usually characteristic of the male sex : but this sexual diversity
does not take place in earlier life ; for a beautiful youth shall
be so like a beautiful girl that the difference shall not be dis-
cernible ;

" Q^iejn si,puellarum insereres choro,
Mird sagaces falleret h<5spites
Discrimen obscurum, solutis
C r t Urns, ambiguoque vultu. " HOR.

LETTER VII. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Ringmer, near Lewes, Oct. 8, 1770.

I AM glad to hear that Kuckalm is to furnish you with the birds
of Jamaica ; a sight of the hirundines of that hot and distant island
would be a great entertainment to me.

The Anni of Scopoli are now in my possession : and I have
read the Annus Primus with satisfaction : for though some parts
of this work are exceptionable, and he may advance some mis-
taken observations, yet the ornithology of so distant a country
as Carniola is very curious. Men that undertake only one dis-
trict are much more 'Ukely to advance natural knowledge than
those that grasp at more than they can possibly be acquainted
with : every kingdom, every province, should have its own mo-
nographer.

The reason perhaps why he mentions nothing of Ray's Orni-
thology may be the extreme poverty and distance of his country,
into which the works of our great naturalist may have never yet
found their way. You have doubts, I know, whether this Orni-
thology is genuine, and really the work of Scopoli : as to myself,
I think I discover strong tokens of authenticity ; the style cor-
responds with that of his Entomology : and his characters of his

FOOD OF CUCKOOS. 133

Ordines and Genera are many of them new, expressive, and mas-
terly. He has ventured to alte^r some of the Linnsean genera
with sufficient show of reason.

It might perhaps be mere accident that you saw so many
swifts and no swallows at Staines ; because, in my long observa-
tion of those birds, I never could discover the least degree of
rivalry or hostility between the species.

Ray remarks that birds of the gallincB order, as cocks and
hens, partridges, and pheasants, &c. are pulveratrices, such as
dust themselves, using that method of cleansing their feathers,
and ridding themselves of their vermin. As far as I can observe,
many birds that dust themselves never wash : and I once thought
that those birds that wash themselves would never dust ; but
here I find myself mistaken ; for common house-sparrows are
great pulveratrices, being frequently seen grovelling and wallow-
ing in dusty roads ; and yet they are great-washers. Does not
the skylark dust ?*

Query. Might not Mahomet and his followers take one me-
thod of purification from these pulveratrices? because I find from
travellers of credit that if a strict mussulman is journeying in a
sandy desert where no water is to be found, at stated hours he
strips off his clothes, and most scrupulously rubs his body over
with sand or dust.

A countryman told me he had found a young fern-owl in the
nest of a small bird on the ground ; and that it was fed by the
little bird. I went to see this extraordinary phenomenon, and
found that it was a young cuckoo hatched in the nest of a tit-
lark : it was become vastly too big for its nest, appearing

• in tenui re

and was very fierce and pugnacious, pursuing my finger, as I
teazed it, for many feet from the nest, and sparring and buffet-
ting with its wings like a game-cock. The dupe of a dam ap-
peared at a distance, hovering about with meat in its mouth, and
expressing the greatest solicitude.

In July I saw several cuckoos skimming o^jp a large pond ;
and found, after some observation, that they were feeding on the
libellulce, or dragon-flies ; some of which they caught as they set-
tled on the weeds, and some as they were on the wing. Notwith-

* It does so, and never bathes ; and the same holds with its congener the wood-lark ; whereas
all the pipit genus (anthui) are very partial to bathing.— ED.

...

- 1 ,4 *•"; ^ :>

134 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

standing what Linnaeus says, I cannot be induced to believe that
they are birds of prey.*

This district affords some birds that are hardly ever heard of
at Selborne. In the first place considerable flocks of cross-beaks
(loxicB curvirostrce) have appeared this summer in the pine-groves
belonging to this house ; the water-ousel is said to haunt the
mouth of the Lewes river, near Newhaven ; and the Cornish
chough builds, I know, all along the chalky cliffs of the Sussex
shore.

I was greatly pleased to see little parties of ring-ousels (my
newly discovered migraters) scattered, at intervals, all along the
Sussex downs from Chichester to Lewes. Let them come from
whence they will, it looks very suspicious that they are cantoned
along the coast in order to pass the channel when severe weather
advances. They visit us again in April, as it should seem, in
their return ; and are not to be found in the dead of winter.
It is remarkable that they are very tame, and seem to have no
manner of apprehensions of danger from a person with a gun.
There are bustards on the wide downs
near Brighthelmstone. No doubt you
are acquainted with the Sussex downs :
the prospects and rides round Lewes are
most lovely !

As I rode along near the coast I kept a
very sharp look out in the lanes and woods,
hoping I might, at this time of the year,
have discovered some of the summer
short- winged birds of passage crowding
towards the coast in order for their de- common Bustard,

parture : but it was very extraordinary that I never saw a redstart,
whitethroat, blackcap, uncrested wren, flycatcher, &c. And I re-
member to have made the same remark in former years, as I
usually come to this place annually about this time. The birds
most common along the coast at present are the stonechatters,
whinchats, buntings, linnets, some few wheatears, titlarks, &c.
Swallows and house-martins abound yet, induced to prolong their
stay by this soft, still, dry season.

A land tortoise, which has been kept for thirty years in a little

* They certainly devour eggs and, 1 believe, callow nestlings ; but this is the extent of their
predatory propensity. They feed, likewise, on worms and molluscous animals, and will devour
cherries and the other smaller fruits, but caterpillars form their main subsistence ; and in
spring they are often of essential service in clearing the fruit-trees. — ED.

CO Mfr) tf/V
TORTOISE. 135

walled court belonging to the house where I now am visiting,
retires under ground about the middle of November, and comes
forth again about the middle of April. When it first appears in
the spring it discovers very little incli-
nation towards food ; but in the height
of summer grows voracious : and then
as the summer declines its appetite de-
clines ; so that for the last six weeks
in autumn it hardly eats at all.* Milky
plants, such as lettuces, dandelions,
sowthistles, are its favourite dish. Tortoise.

In a neighbouring village one was kept till by tradition it was
supposed to be a hundred years old. An instance of vast lon-
gevity in such a poor reptile !

* The habits of this curious creature seem to have attracted a great deal off Mr. White's atten-
tion. He was in the habit of having it weighed frequently, immersing it in water, and trying
all manner of experiments upon it. On one occasion it made its escape, and was missing for
some time, but was afterwards found in a field, and brought back to the garden where for many
winters it had buried itself. The reader will peruse with {pleasure the following supposititious
letter from this animal to a Miss Mulso, for which we are indebted to Mr. Jesse's Gleanings.
The letter was found among Mr. White's MSS., and in his own handwriting.

MOST RESPECTED LADY, YOUR letter gave me great satisfaction, being the first that ever I
was honoured with. It is my wish to answer you in your own way, but 1 could never make a
verse in my life, so you must be content with plain prose.

Having seen but little of this great world, conversed but little, and read less, 1 feel myself
much at a loss how to entertain so intelligent a correspondent. Unless you will let me write about
myself, my answer will be very short. Know, then, that I am an American, and was born in
the year 1734, in the province of Virginia, in the midst of a savannah that lay between a large
tobacco plantation and a creek of the sea. Here I spent my youthful days among my relations
with much satisfaction, and saw around me many venerable kinsmen, who attained to great ages
without any interruption from distempers. Longevity is so general among our species that a
funeral is quite s. rare occurrence. I can just remember the death of my great-great-grandfather,
who departed this life in the 160th year of his age. Happy should I have been in the enjoyment
of my native climate and the society of my friends had not a sea-boy, who was wandering about
to see what he could pick up, surprised me as I was sunning myself under a bank, and, whipping
me into hU wallet, carried me aboard his ship. The circumstances of our voyage w re not
worthy of recital ; 1 only remember that the rippling of the water against the sides of ou vessel
as we sailed along was a very lulling and composing sound, which served to sooth my s mbers
as I lay in the hold. We had a short voyage, and came to anchor on the coast of Eng nd, in
the harbour of Chichester. In that city my kidnapper sold me for half-a-crown to a ountry
gentleman who came up to attend an election. I was immediately packed in a basket, and arried,
slung by the servant's side, to their place of abode. As they rode very hard for forty mi s, and
as I had never been on horseback before, I found myself somewhat giddy with my air jaunt.
My purchaser, who was a great humourist, after showing me to some of his neighbours, and
giving me the name of Timothy, took little further notice of me, so 1 fell under the care of his
lady, a benevolent woman, whose humane atteution extended to the meanest of her retainers.
With this gentlewoman I remained almost forty years, living in a little walled-in court in the
front of her house, and enjoying much quiet, and as much satisfaction as 1 could expect without
society, which I often languished after. At last the good old lady died at a very advanced age,
such as even a tortoise would call a great age, and 1 then became the property of her nephew.
This man, my present master, dug me out of my winter retreat, and, packing me in a deal box,
jumbled me eighty miles in a post-chaise to my present abode. I was sore shaken by this expe-
dition, which was the worst journey I ever experienced. In my present situation I enjoy many
advantages, such as the range of an extensive garden affording a variety of sun and shade, and

NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

LETTER VIII. To THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, Dec. 20, 1770.

THE birds that I took for aberdamnes were reed-sparrows (pas-
seres torquati)*

There are doubtless many home internal migrations within

abounding in lettuces, poppies, kiduey-beans, and many other salubrious and delectable herbs
and plants, and especially with a great choice of delicate gooseberries ! But still at times I miss
iny good old mistress, whose grave and regular deportment suited best with my disposition ; for
you must know that my present master is what men call a Naturalist, and much visited by people
of that turn, who often put him on whimsical experiments, such as feeling my pulse, putting me
in a tub of water to try if I can swim, &c., and twice in the year I am carried to the grocer's to
be weighed, that it may be seen how much I am wasted during the months of my abstinence, and
how much I gain by feasting during summer. Upon these occasions I am placed in the scale on
my back, where I sprawl about to the great diversion of the shopkeeper's children. These matters
displease me, but there is another that hurts my pride — I mean the contempt shown for my un-
derstanding which these " lords of the creation" are very apt to discover, thinking that nobody
knows any thing but themselves. 1 heard my master say that he expected I should some day
tumble drwn the ha, ha, whereas I would have him know that I can discover a precipice from the
plain ground as well as himself. Sometimes my master repeats, with much seeming triumph,
the following lines, which occasion a loud laugh :—

" Timotheus, placed on high
Amidst the tuneful quire,
With plying fingers touched the lyre."

For my part I see no wit in the application, nor know whence the verses are quoted ; perhaps
from some prophet of his own, who, if he penned them for the sake of ridiculing tortoises,
bestowed his pains, I think, to poor purpose. These are some of my grievances ; but they
sit very light on me in comparison of what remains behind. Know then, tender-hearted lady,
that my great misfortune, and what I have never divulged to any one before, is the want of
society with my own kind. This reflection is always uppermost in my mind, but comes upon
me with irresistible force every spring. It was in the month of May last that I resolved to elope
from my place of confinement ; for my fancy had represented to me that probably many agreeable
tortoises of both sexes might inhabit the heights of Baker's Hill, or the extensive plains of the
neighbouring meadow, both of which I could discern from the terrace. One sunny morning 1
watched my opportunity, found the wicket open, eluded the vigilance of the gardener, and es-
caped into the saint-foin, which begun to be in bloom, and thence to the beans. 1 was missing
eight days, wandering in this wilderness of sweets, and exploring the meadow at times. But my
pains were all to no purpose ; I could find no society such as I sought for. I began to grow
hungry, and to wish myself at home. I therefore carse forth in sight, and surrendered myself
up to Thomas, who had been inconsolable in my absence. Thus, madam, have 1 given you a
faithful account of my satisfactions and sorrows, the latter of which are mostly uppermost. You
are a lady, I understand, of much sensibility ; let me, therefore, make my case your own in the
following manner, and then you will judge of my feelings : — Suppose you were to be kidnapped
away to-morrow, in the bloom of your life, to a land of tortoises, and were never to see again a
human face for fifty years ! ! ! Think on this, dear lady, and pity

Your sorrowful reptile,

TIMOTHY.

The unfortunate Timothy is made most honourable mention of in many of Mr. White's unpub-
lished papers, as quoted in Mr. Jesse's work. For some further particulars, see Letter 1. — ED.
* The aberdavine siskin (carduelis spiniis), which has usually been described as a most irregu-
lar winter visitant, I have always found to be the contrary. Great numbers af these pretty little
birds are annually taken by the London bird-catchers. They arrive in these parts about Sep-
tember, a few sometimes in nestling plumage (which resembles that of the hen), and conti-
nue with us till late in April, or sometimes May, departing in their'beautiful summer garb, all
the edgings to their feathers having disappeared. Their song resembles that of the goldfinch
(carduelis elegans) , but is sharper, and not so pleasing, always terminating with a lengthened
harsh note which is peculiar.— ED.

WOODCOCKS, MIGRATORY. 137

this kingdom that want to be better understood : witness those
vast flocks of hen chaffinches that appear with us in the winter
without hardly any cocks among them. Now was there a due
proportion of each sex, it should seem
very improbable that any one district
should produce such nunjbers of these
little birds; and much more when
only one half of the species appears :
therefore we may conclude that the
frinaillcs ccelebes, for some good pur-
poses, have a peculiar migration of
their own in which the sexes part. Nor

should it seem so wonderful that the intercourse of sexes in this
species of birds should be interrupted in winter ; since in many
animals, and particularly in bucks and does, the sexes herd se-
parately, except at the season when commerce is necessary for
the continuance of the breed. For this matter of the chaffinches
see Fauna Suecica, p. 85, and Sy sterna Naturce, p. 318. I see
every winter vast flights of hen chaffinches, but none of cocks

Your method of accounting for the periodical motions of the
British singing birds, or birds of flight, is a very probable one ;
since the matter of food is a great regulator of the actions and
proceedings of the brute creation : there is but one that can be
set in competition with it, and that is love. But I cannot quite
acquiesce with you in one circumstance when you advance that,
" when they have thus feasted, they again separate into small
parties of five or six, and get the best fare they can within a cer-
tain district, having no inducement to go in quest of fresh-turned
earth/' Now if you mean that the business of congregating is
quite at an end from the conclusion of wheat-sowing to the sea-
son of barley and oats, it is not the case with us ; for larks and
chaffinches, and particularly linnets, flock and congregate as
much in the very dead of winter as when the husbandman is busy
with his ploughs and harrows.

Sure there can be no doubt but that woodcocks and fieldfares
leave us in the spring, in order to cross the seas, and to retire to
some districts more suitable to the purpose of breeding. That
the former pair before they retire, and that the hens are forward
with egg, I myself, when I was a sportsman, have often expe-
rienced. It cannot indeed be denied but that now and then we
hear of a woodcock's nest, or young birds, discovered in some

138 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

part or other of this island : but then they are always mentioned
as rarities, and somewhat out of the common course of things :*
but as to redwings and fieldfares, no sportsman or naturalist has
ever yet, that I could hear, pretended to have found the nest or
young of those species in any part of these kingdoms. And I
the more admire at this instance as extraordinary, since, to all
appearance, the same food in summer as well as in winter might
support them here which maintains their congeners, the black-
birds and thrushes, did they choose to stay the summer through.
From hence it appears that it is not food alone which determines
some species of birds with regard to their stay or departure.
Fieldfares and redwings disappear sooner or later according as
the warm weather comes on earlier or later. For I well remem-
ber, after that dreadful winter 1739-40, that cold north-east
winds continued to blow on through April and May, and that
these kinds of birds (what few remained of them) did not depart
as usual, but were seen lingering about till the beginning of
June.

The best authority that we can have for the nidification of the
birds above mentioned in any district is the testimony of faunists
that have written professedly the natural history of particular
countries. Now, as to the fieldfare, Linna?us, in his Fauna
Suecica, says of it that " maximis in arboribus nidificat :" and of
the redwing he says, in the same place, that " nidificat in mediis
arbusculiSy sive sepibus : ova sex cceruleo-viridia maculis nigris
variis." Hence we may be assured that fieldfares and redwings
breed in Sweden. Scopoli says, in his Annus Primus, of the
woodcock, that " nupta ad nos venit circa cequinoctium vernale "
meaning in Tyrol, of which he is a native. And afterwards he
adds " nidificat in paludibus alpinis : ova ponit 3 — 5." It does
not appear from Kramer that woodcocks breed at all in Austria :
but he says " Avis hcec septentrionalium provinciarum astivo tern-
pore incola est ; ubi plerumque nidificat. Appropinquante hyeme
australiores provincias petit : hinc circa plenilunium mensis Octo-
bris plerumque Austriam transmigrat. Tune rursus circa plenilu-

* Admitting without hesitation that by far the great majority of woodcocks migrate, I am still
of opinion that many more breed in this country, even in the southern districts, than is com-
monly supposed. So hidling a bird as the woodcock may readily escape detection in the summer
mouths. 1 have at different times seen a considerable number of young ones ; and last year there
was a brood close to my residence, within seven miles of London. This year, also, I obtained
one in Surrey so early as on the twentieth of April, nearly half grown, notwithstanding the ex-
treme backwardness of the season, and although the old birds, together with snipes of both the
common species, were still not rare in the London markets. — En.

MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 139

nium potissimum mensis Martii per Austrian, matrimonio juncta
ad septentrionales provincias redit." For the whole passage
(which I have abridged) see Elenchus, &c. p. 351. This seems
to be a full proof of the migration of woodcocks ; though little
is proved concerning the place of breeding.

P. S. There fell in the county of Rutland, in three weeks of
this present very wet weather, seven inches and a half of rain,
which is more than has fallen in any three weeks for these thirty
years past in that part of the world. A mean quantity in that
county for one year is twenty inches and a half.

LETTER IX. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.
DEAR SIR, Fyfield, near Andover, Feb. 12, 1771.

You are, I know, no great friend to migration ; and the well
attested accounts from various parts of the kingdom seem to
justify you in your suspicions, that at least many of the swallow
kind do not leave us in the winter, but lay themselves up like
insects and bats, in a torpid state, and slumber away the more
uncomfortable months till the return of the sun and fine weather
awakens them.*

But then we must not, I think, deny migration in general :
because migration certainly does subsist in some places, as my
brother in Andalusia has fully informed me. Of the motions of
these birds he has ocular demonstration, for many weeks toge-
ther, both spring and fall : during which periods myriads of the
swallow kind traverse the Straits from north to south, and from
south to north, according to the season. And these vast migra-
tions consist not only of hirundines, but of bee-birds, f hoopoes,
oro pendolos, or golden thrushes, &c. &c. and also of many of
our soft-billed summer-birds of passage ; and moreover of birds
which never leave us, such as all the various sorts of hawks and
kites. Old Belon, two hundred years ago, gives a curious ac-
count of the incredible armies of hawks and kites which he saw
in the spring-time traversing the Thracian Bosphorus from Asia
to Europe. Besides the above mentioned, he remarks that the
procession is swelled by whole troops of eagles and vultures.

* See note to page .— ED.

t The bee-eater (merops vulgaris) » a most beautiful bird, but extremely rare visitant to the
British islands, is here intended. Two or three of our summer birds are confused in some parts
of the country under the name of "bee-bird." — ED.

140 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

Now it is no wonder that birds residing in Africa should re-
treat before the sun as it advances, and retire to milder regions,
and especially birds of prey, whose blood being heated with hot
animal food, are more impatient of a sultry climate : but then I
cannot help wondering why kites and hawks, and such hardy
birds as are known to defy all the severity of England, and even
of Sweden and all north Europe, should want to migrate from
the south of Europe, and be dissatisfied with the winters of An-
dalusia.

It does not appear to me that much stress may be laid on the
difficulty and hazard that birds must run in their migrations, by
reason of vast oceans, cross winds, &c. ; because, if we reflect, a
bird may travel from England to the equator without launching
out and exposing itself to boundless seas, and that by crossing
the water at Dover, and again at Gibraltar. And I with the more
confidence advance this obvious remark, because my brother has
always found that some of his birds, and particularly the swallow
kind, are very sparing of their pains in crossing the Mediterra-
nean : for when arrived at Gibraltar, they do not

" Rang'd in figure wedge their way,

And set forth

Their airy caravan high over seas

Flying, and over lands with mutual wing

Easing their flight ;" MILTON.

but scout and hurry along in little detached parties of six or
seven in a company ; and sweeping low, just over the surface of
the land and water, direct their course to the opposite continent
at the narrowest passage they can find. They usually slope
across the bay to the south-west, and so pass over opposite to
Tangier, which, it seems, is the narrowest space.*

In former letters we have considered whether it was probable
that woodcocks in moon-shiny nights cross the German ocean
from Scandinavia. As a proof that birds of less speed may pass
that sea, considerable as it is, I shall relate the following inci-
dent, which, though mentioned to have happened so many years
ago, was strictly matter of fact : — As some people were shooting
in the parish of Trotton, in the county of Sussex, they killed a

* Jt appears probable that many swallows of different species arrive in these islands directly
from the northern coast of Spain. See an account (by Mr. Couch, of Polperro, an observant
naturalist), in the fourth volume of the Magazine of Natural History, of a great number being
seen to land upon the coast of Cornwall, the extreme fatigue of which can only be accounted for
on the supposition that they had performed so long a journey. These were several times noticed
to alight flat upon the sea, and, after floating a few minutes, to arise again, evidently re-
freshed.—ED.

MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 141

duck in that dreadful winter 1708-9, with a silver collar about its
neck,* on which were engraven the arms of the king of Den-
mark. This anecdote the rector of Trotton at that time has often
told to a near relation of mine ; and, to the best of my remem-
brance, the collar was in the possession of the rector.

At present I do not know any body near the sea- side that
will take the trouble to remark at what time of the moon wood-
cocks first come : if I lived near the sea myself I would soon
tell you more of the matter. One thing I used to observe when
I was a sportsman, that there were times in which woodcocks
were so sluggish and sleepy that they would drop again when
flushed just before the spaniels, nay just at the muzzle of a gun
that had been fired at them : whether this strange laziness was the
effect of a recent fatiguing journey I shall not presume to say.

Nightingales not only never reach Northumberland and Scot-
land, but also, as I have been always told, Devonshire and Corn-
wall. In those last two counties we cannot attribute the failure
of them to the want of warmth : the defect in the west is rather
a presumptive argument that these birds come over to us from
the continent at the narrowest passage, and do not stroll so far
westward.f

Let me hear from your own observation whether skylarks do
not dust. I think they do : and if they do, whether they wash also.

The alauda pratensis of Ray was the poor dupe that was educat-
ing the booby of a cuckoo mentioned in my letter of October
last.

Your letter came too late for me to procure a ring-ousel for
Mr. Tunstal during their autumnal visit : but I will endeavour
to get him one when they call on us again in April. I am glad
that you and that gentleman saw my Andalusian birds ; I hope
they answered your expectation. Royston, or gray crows, are
winter birds that come much about the same time with the wood-
cock : they, like the fieldfare and redwing, have no apparent
reason for migration ; for as they fare in the winter like their

* 1 have read a like anecdote of a swan.

t The nightingale, 1 think, appears to migrate almost due north and south, deviating but a
very little indeed either to the right or left. There are none in Brittany, nor in the channel
islands (Jersey, Guernsey, &c.) ; and the most westward of them probably cross the channel at
Cape la Hogue, arriving on the coast of Dorsetshire, and thence apparently proceeding north-
ward, rather than dispersing towards the west, so that they are only known as accidental strag-
glers beyond at most the third degree of western longitude, a line which cuts off the counties of
Devonshire and Cornwall, together with all Wales and Ireland, and by far the greater portion of
Scotland, in which last mentioned kingdom the species has once or twice occurred to the east
ward only of this meridian. — ED.

142 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

congeners, so might they in all appearance in the summer.* Was
not Tenant, when a boy, mistaken ? did he not find a missel-
thrush's nest, and take it for the nest of a fieldfare ?

The stock-dove, or wood-pigeon, anas Raii, is the last winter
bird of passage which appears with us, and is not seen till to-
wards the end of November : about
twenty years ago they abounded in
the district of Selborne ; and strings
of them were seen morning and eve-
ning that reached a mile or more :
but since the beechen woods have
been greatly thinned they are much
decreased in number. The ring-dove,
palumbus Raii, stays with us the whole year, and breeds several
times through the summer.

Before I received your letter of October last I had just re-
marked in my journal that the trees were unusually green. This
uncommon verdure lasted on late into November ; and may be
accounted for from a late spring, a cool and moist summer ; but
more particularly from vast armies of chafers, or tree-beetles,
which, in many places, reduced whole woods to a leafless naked
state. These trees shot again at Midsummer, and then retained
their foliage till very late in the year,

My musical friend, at whose house I am now visiting, has
tried all the owls that are his near neighbours with a pitch-pipe
set at concert-pitch, and finds they all hoot in B flat. He will
examine the nightingales next spring.

I am, &c. &c.

LETTER X. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, Aug. 1, 1771.

FROM what follows, it will appear that neither owls nor cuckoos
keep to one note. A friend remarks that many (most) of his
owls hoot in B flat ; but that one went almost half a note below
A. The pipe he tried their notes by was a common half-crown
pitch-pipe, such as masters use for tuning of harpsichords ; it
was the common London pitch.

A neighbour of mine, who is said to have a nice ear, remarks

* It should be remembered that the breeding place is the proper home of a species, and that
it is a general habit in the feathered race to return annually to the same breeding-place. Were
a not for this, northern regions would be almost deserted by them throughout the year.— KJ>.

NOTES OF BIRDS. 143

that the owls about this village hoot in three different keys, in
G flat, or F sharp, in B flat and A flat. He heard two hooting
to each other, the one in A flat, and the other in B flat. Query :
Do these different notes proceed from different species, or only
from various individuals ? The same person finds upon trial that
the note of the cuckoo (of which we have but one species) varies
in different individuals ; for, about Selborne wood, he found they
were mostly in D : he heard two sing together, the one in D, the
other in D sharp, who made a disagreeable concert : he after-
wards heard one in D sharp, and about Wolmer-forest some in
C. As to nightingales, he says that their notes are so short, and
their transitions so rapid, that he cannot well ascertain their key.
Perhaps in a cage, and in a room, their notes may be more dis-
tinguishable. This person has tried to settle the notes of a swift,
and of several other small birds, but cannot bring them to any
criterion.

As I have often remarked that redwings are some of the first
birds that suffer with us in severe weather, it is no wonder at
all that they retreat from Scandinavian winters : and much more
the ordo of grallee, who all, to a bird, forsake the northern parts
of Europe at the approach of winter. " Grallee tanquam conjuratce
unanimiter in fug am se conjiciunt ; ne earum unicam quidem inter
nos habitantem invenire possimus ; ut enim testate in australibus
degere nequeunt ob defectum lumbricorum, terramque siccam • it a
nee infrigidis ob eandem causam" says Ekmarck the Swede, in
his ingenious little treatise called Migrationes Avium, which by
all means you ought to read while your thoughts run on the
subject of migration. See Amcenitates Academicce, vol. 4, p. 565.
Birds may be so circumstanced as to be obliged to migrate
in one country and not in another :* but the grallee (which pro-
cure their food from marshes and boggy grounds) must in win-
ter forsake the more northerly parts of Europe, or perish for
want of food.

I am glad j ou are making enquiries from Linnaeus concerning
the woodcock : it is expected of him that he should be able to
account for the motions and manner of life of the animals of his
own fauna.

Faunists, as you observe, are too apt to acquiesce in bare de-

* Thus the robin, and the blackbird, and the song thrush, migrate regularly in Germany, but
not iu Britain, our winters being considerable milder. In fact we receive accessions of all three
in autumn from the Scandinavian peninsula ; principally, however, of the two latter, though I
have known instances of the robin also alighting on vessels in the German Ocean. — ED.

144 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

scriptions, and a few synonyms : the reason is plain ; because all
that may be done at home in a man's study, but the investigation
of the life and conversation of animals, is a concern of much more
trouble and difficulty, and is not to be attained but by the active
and inquisitive, and by those who reside much in the country.

Foreign systematics are, I observe, much too vague in their
specific differences ; which are almost universally constituted by
one or two particular marks, the rest of the description running
in general terms. But our countryman, the excellent Mr. Ray,
is the only describer that conveys some precise idea in every
term or word, maintaining his superiority over his followers and
imitators in spite of the advantage of fresh discoveries and
modern information.

At this distance of years it is not in my power to recollect at
what periods woodcocks used to be sluggish or alert when I was
a sportsman : but, upon my mentioning this circumstance to a
friend, he thinks he has observed them to be remarkably listless
against snowy foul weather : if this should be the case, then the
inaptitude for flying arises only from an eagerness for food ; as
sheep are observed to be very intent on grazing against stormy
wet evenings. I am, &c &c.

LETTER XI. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, Feb. 8, 1772.

WHEN I ride about in the winter, and see such prodigious flocks
of various kinds of birds, I cannot help admiring at these congre-
gations, and wishing that it was in my power to account for those
appearances almost peculiar to the season. The two great motives
which regulate the proceedings of the brute creation are love and
hunger ; the former incites animals to perpetuate their kind, the
latter induces them to preserve individuals ; whether either of
these should seem to be the ruling passion in the matter of con-
gregating is to be considered. As to love, that is out of the
question at a time of the year when that soft passion is not in-
dulged; besides, during the amorous season, such a jealousy
prevails between the male birds that they can hardly bear to be
together in the same hedge or field. Most of the singing and
elation of spirits of that time seem to me to be the effect of ri-
valry and emulation : and it is to this spirit of jealousy that I

ROOK. 145

chiefly attribute the equal dispersion of birds in the spring over
the face of the country.

Now as to the business of food : as these animals are actuated
by instinct to hunt for necessary food, they should not, one
would suppose, crowd together in pursuit of sustenance at a
time when it is most likely to fail ; yet such associations do take
place in hard weather chiefly, and thicken as the severity in-
creases. As some kind of self-interest and self-defence is no
doubt the motive for the proceeding, may it not arise from the
helplessness of their state in such rigorous seasons : as men
crowd together, when under great calamities, though they know
not why? Perhaps approximation may dispel some degree of
cold ; and a crowd may make each individual appear safer from
the ravages of birds of prey and other dangers.

If I admire when I see how much congenerous birds love to
congregate, I am the more struck when I see incongruous ones
in such strict amity. If we do not
much wonder to see a flock of rooks
usually attended by a train of daws,
yet it is strange that the former should
so frequently have a flight of starlings
for their satellites. Is it because rooks
have a more discerning scent than
their attendants, and can lead them to
spots more productive of food ? Anatomists say that rooks, by
reason of two large nerves which run down between the eyes into
the upper mandible, have a more delicate feeling in their beaks
than other round-billed birds, and can grope for their meat when
out of sight. Perhaps then their associates attend them on the
motive of interest, as greyhounds wait on the motions of their
finders ; and as lions are said to do on the yelpings of jackals.
Lapwings and starlings sometimes associate.

LETTER XII. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, March 9, 1772.

As a gentleman and myself were walking on the fourth of last
November round the sea-banks at Newhaven, near the mouth of
the Lewes river, in pursuit of natural knowledge, we were sur-
prised to see three house-swallows gliding very swiftly by us.

L

146 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

That morning was rather chilly, with the wind at north-west ;
but the tenour of the weather for some time before had been
delicate, and the noons remarkably warm. From this incident,
and from repeated accounts which I meet wrth, I am more and
more induced to believe that many of the swallow kind do not
depart from this island; but lay themselves up in holes and
caverns; and do, insect-like and bat-like, come forth at mild
times, and then retire again to their latebrce. Nor make I the
least doubt but that, if I lived at Newhaven, Seaford, Brighthelm-
stone, or any of those towns near the chalk-cliffs of the Sussex
coast, by proper observations, I should see swallows stirring at
periods of the winter, when the noons were soft and inviting,
and the sun warm and invigorating. And I am the more of this
opinion from what I have remarked during some of our late
springs, that though some swallows did make their appearance
about the usual time, viz. the thirteenth or fourteenth of April,
yet meeting with a harsh reception, and blustering cold north-
east winds, they immediately withdrew, absconding for several
days, till the weather gave them better encouragement.*

LETTER XIII. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.
DEAR SIR, April 12, 1772.

WHILE I was in Sussex last autumn my residence was at the
village near Lewes, from whence I had formerly the pleasure of
writing to you. On the first of November I remarked that the
old tortoise, formerly mentioned, began first to dig the ground
in order to the forming its hybernaculum, which it had fixed on
just beside a great tuft of hepaticas. It scrapes out the ground
with its fore feet, and throws it up over its back with its hind ;
but the motion of its legs is ridiculously slow, little exceeding
the hour-hand of a clock ; and suitable to the composure of an
animal said to be a whole month in performing one feat of copu-
lation. Nothing can be more assiduous than this creature night
and day in scooping the earth, and forcing its great body into
the cavity ; but, as the noons of that season proved unusually

* There are numerous instances of swallows becoming torpid, but none of their strictly hyber-
nating, none of their being aroused from a dormant state by unusually warm weather in early
spring, which latter fact cannot be too much impressed on those who still advocate the theory of
the hybernation of a portion of these birds. Let it be remembered that the adults of one species
the chimney swallow), and the young of all, moult during the winter months. — ED.

TORTOISE. 147

warm and sunny, it was continually interrupted, and called forth
by the heat in the middle of the day ; and though I continued
there till the thirteenth of November, yet the work remained
unfinished. Harsher weather, and frosty mornings, would have
quickened its operations. No part of its behaviour ever struck
me more than the extreme timidity it always expresses with
regard to rain ; for though it has a shell that would secure it
against the wheel of a loaded cart, yet does it discover as much
solicitude about rain as a lady dressed in all her best attire, shuf-
fling away on the first sprinklings, and running its head up in a
corner. If attended to, it becomes an excellent weather-glass ;
for as sure as it walks elate, and as it were on tiptoe, feeding
with great earnestness in a morning, so sure will it rain before
night. It i& totally a diurnal animal, and never pretends to stir
after it becomes dark. The tortoise, like other reptiles, has an
arbitrary stomach as well as lungs ; and can refrain from eating
as well as breathing for a great part of the year. When first
awakened it eats nothing; nor again in the autumn before it
retires : through the height of the summer it feeds voraciously,
devouring all the food that comes in its way. I was much taken
with its sagacity in discerning those that do it kind offices ; for,
as soon as the good old lady comes in sight who has waited on
it for more than thirty years, it hobbles towards its benefactress
with awkward alacrity ; but remains inattentive to strangers.
Thus not only " the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his
master's crib,"* but the most abject reptile and torpid of beings
distinguishes the hand that feeds it, and is touched with the
feelings of gratitude ! I am, &c. &c.

P.S. In about three days after I left Sussex the tortoise retired
into the ground under the hepatica.

LETTER XIV. To THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, March 26, 1773.

THE more I reflect on the <rropy?/ of animals, the more I am asto-
nished at its effects. Nor is the violence of this affection more
wonderful than the shortness of its duration. Thus every hen
is in her turn the virago of the yard, in proportion to the help-
lessness of her brood ; and will fly in the face of a dog or a sow

* Isaiah i. 3.

L 2

148 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

in defence of those chickens, which in a few weeks she will drive
before her with relentless cruelty.

This affection sublimes the passions, quickens the invention,
and sharpens the sagacity of the brute creation. Thus a hen,
just become a mother, is no longer that placid bird she used to
be, but with feathers standing an end, wings hovering, and
clocking note, she runs about like one possessed. Dams will
throw themselves in the way of the greatest danger in order to
avert it from their progeny. Thus a partridge will tumble along
before a sportsman in order to draw away the dogs from her
helpless covey. In the time of nidification the most feeble birds
will assault the most rapacious. All the hirundines of a village
are up in arms at the sight of a hawk, whom they will perse-
cute till he leaves that district. A very exact observer has often
remarked that a pair of ravens nesting in the rock of Gibraltar
would suffer no vulture or eagle to rest near their station, but
would drive them from the hill with an amazing fury : even the
blue thrush at the season of breeding would dart out from the
clefts of the rocks to chase away the kestril, or the sparrow-
hawk. If you stand near the nest of a bird that has young, she
will not be induced to betray them by an inadvertent fondness,
but will wait about at a distance with meat in her mouth for an
hour together.

Should I further corroborate what I have advanced above by
some anecdotes which I probably may have mentioned before in
conversation, yet you will, I trust, pardon the repetition for the
sake of the illustration.

The flycatcher of the zoology (the stoparola of Ray), builds
every year in the vines that grow on the walls of my house. A
pair of these little birds had one year inadvertently placed their
nest on a naked bough, perhaps in a shady time, not being aware
of the inconvenience that followed. But a hot sunny season
coming on before the brood was half fledged, the reflection of
the wall became insupportable, and must inevitably have de-
stroyed the tender young, had not affection suggested an expe-
dient, and prompted the parent-birds to hover over the nest all
the hotter hours, while with wings expanded, and mouths gaping
for breath, they screened off the heat from their suffering off-
spring.*

* A similar instance is mentioned in the third series of Mr Jesse's "Gleanings in Natural
History." A beautiful foreign finch, that had paired in confinement with a domestic Canary,
used in this manner often to shelter his mate from the sultry rays of the sun.— ED.

SAGACITY OP THE WILLOW-WREN. 149

A further instance I once saw of notable sagacity in a willow-
wren, which had built in a bank in my fields. This bird a friend
and myself had observed as she sat in her nest ; but were parti-
cularly careful not to disturb her, though we saw she eyed us
with some degree of jealousy. Some days after as we passed
that way we were desirous of remarking how this brood went
on ; but no nest could be found, till I happened to take up a
large bundle of long green moss, as it were, carelessly thrown
over the nest, in order to dodge the eye of any impertinent
intruder.

A still more remarkable mixture of sagacity and instinct oc-
curred to me one day as my people were pulling off the lining of
a hotbed, in order to add some fresh dung. From out of the
side of this bed leaped an animal with great agility that made a
most grotesque figure ; nor was it without great difficulty that it
could be taken ; when it proved to be a large white-bellied field-
mouse with three or four young clinging to her teats by their
mouths and feet. It was amazing that the desultory and rapid
motions of this dam should not oblige her litter to quit their
hold, especially when it appeared that they were so young as to
be both naked and blind !*

To these instances of tender attachment, many more of which
might be daily discovered by those that are studious of nature,
may be opposed that rage of affection, that monstrous perversion
of the 0Topy»;, which induces some females of the brute creation
to devour their young because their owners have handled them
too freely, or removed them from place to place! Swine, and
sometimes the more gentle race of dogs and cats, are guilty of
this horrid and preposterous murder.f When I hear now and
then of an abandoned mother that destroys her offspring, I am
not so much amazed ; since reason perverted, and the bad pas-
sions let loose, are capable of any enormity : but why the parental
feelings of brutes, that usually flow in one most uniform tenour,
should sometimes be so extravagantly diverted, I leave to abler
philosophers than myself to determine. I am, &c.

* 1 have observed the same in its congener the water-campagnol (arvicola aquatica), only that
the young were in this instance so large that I was very much surprised to find them still de-
pendent on their parent, the motions of which they somewhat obstructed. Bats fly about with
the young attached to their teats, and often when the latter have attained a considerable size.

—ED.

t The same is commonly observed in rabbits, and in the white mice often kept by boys.— ED.

150 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

LETTER XV. To THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, July 8, 1773.

SOME young men went down lately to a pond on the verge of
Wolmer-forest to hunt flappers, or young wild-ducks, many of
which they caught, and among the rest, some very minute yet
well-fledged wild-fowls alive, which upon examination I found
to be teals. I did not know till then that teals ever bred in the
south of England, and was much pleased with the discovery :
this I look upon as a great stroke in natural history.

We have had, ever since I can remember, a pair of white owls
that constantly breed under the eaves of this church. As I have
paid good attention to the manner of life of these birds during
their season of breeding, which lasts the summer through,* the
following remarks may not perhaps be unacceptable : — About an
hour before sunset (for then the mice begin to run) they sally
forth in quest of prey, and hunt all round the hedges of meadows
and small enclosures for them, which seem to be their only food.
In this irregular country we can stand on an eminence and see
them beat the fields over like a setting-dog, and often drop down
in the grass or corn. I have minuted these birds with my watch
for an hour together, and have found that they return to their
nest, the one or the other of them, about once in five minutes ;
reflecting at the same time on the adroitness that every animal
is possessed of as far as regards the well being of itself and off-
spring. But a piece of address, which they show when they re-
turn loaded, should not, I think, be passed over in silence. — As
they take their prey with their claws, so they carry it in their
claws to their ne»st : but, as the feet are necessary in their ascent
under the tiles, they constantly perch first on the roof of the
chancel, and shift the mouse from their claws to their bill, that
the feet may be at liberty to take hold of the plate on the wall as
they are rising under the eaves.

White owls seem not (but in this I am not positive) to hoot
at all : all that clamorous hooting appears to me to come from
the wood kinds. The white owl does indeed snore and hiss in a

* And not unfrequently the winter also, the breeding period of these birds much resembling
that of the domestic pigeon. Indeed, few birds evince so great an aptitude for domestication as
the white owl, and none are more eminently serviceable to man as destroyers of mice, and even
rats, while they are perfectly harmless towards poultry.— ED.

OWLS. 151

tremendous manner ; and these menaces well answer the inten-
tion of intimidating : for I have known a whole village up in
arms on such an occasion, imagining the church-yard to be fall
of goblins and spectres. White owls also often scream horribly
as they fly along ; from this screaming probably arose the com-
mon people's imaginary species of screech-owl, which they super-
stitiously think attends the windows of dying persons. The
plumage of the remiges of the wings of every species of owl that
I have yet examined is remarkably soft and pliant. Perhaps it
may be necessary that the wings of these birds should not make
much resistance or rushing, that they may be enabled to steal
through the air unheard upon a nimble and watchful quarry.

While I am talking of owls, it may not be improper to mention
what I was told by a gentleman of the county of Wilts, As they
were grubbing a vast hollow pollard-ash that had been the
mansion of owls for centuries, he discovered at the bottom a mass
of matter that at first he could not account for. After some exa-
mination, he found that it was a congeries of the bones of mice
(and perhaps of birds and bats) that had been heaping together
for ages, being cast up in pellets out of the crops of many gene-
rations of inhabitants. For owls cast up the bones, fur, and
feathers of what they devour, after the manner of hawks.* He
believes, he told me, that there were bushels of this kind of
substance.

When brown owls hoot their throats swell as big as a hen's
egg. I have known an owl of this species live a full year with-
out any water. Perhaps the case may be the same with all birds
of prey. When owls fly they stretch out their legs behind them
as a balance to their large heavy heads : for as most nocturnal
birds have large eyes and ears they must have large heads to
contain them. Large eyes I presume are necessary to collect
every ray of light, and large concave ears to command the smallest
degree of sound or noise. I am, &c.

The hirundines are a most inoffensive, harmless, entertaining,
social, and useful tribe of birds : they touch no fruit in our gar-
dens ; delight, all except one species, in attaching themselves to

* This is a habit common to many more of the feathered race than is generally supposed. I
have taken a hard pellet, just ready to be ejected, from the stomach of a cuckoo, consisting of
the hairy skins of caterpillars, and about the size of a sparrow's egg ; and all birds that feed much
on beetles, as the motheater, the shrikes, chats, and even the nightingale, the robin, and the red-
start, will thus occasionally t:ast up the indigestible refuse of whatever they had been feeding
on.— ED.

152 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

our houses ; amuse us with their migrations, songs, and marvel-
lous agility ; and clear our outlets from the annoyances of gnats
and other troublesome insects. Some districts in the South Seas,
near Guaiaquil,* are desolated, it seems, by the infinite swarms of
venomous mosquitoes, which fill the air, and render those coasts
insupportable. It would be worth enquiring whether any species
of hirundines is found in those regions. Whoever contemplates
the myriads of insects that sport in the sun-beams of a summer
evening in this country, will soon be convinced to what a degree
our atmosphere would be choked with them were it not for the
friendly interposition of the swallow tribe.

Many species of birds have their particular lice ; but the hi-
rundines alone seem to be annoyed with dipterous insects, which
infest every species, and are so large, in proportion to themselves,
that they must be extremely irksome and injurious to them.
These are the hippoboscce hirundinis, with narrow subulated wings,
abounding in every nest ; and are hatched by the warmth of the
bird's own body during incubation, and crawl about under its
feather s.f

A species of them is familiar to horsemen in the south of Eng-
land under the name of forest-fly ; and to some of side-fly, from
its running sideways like a crab. It creeps under the tails, and
about the groins, of horses, which, at their first coming out of
the north, are rendered half frantic by the tickling sensation ;
while our own breed little regards them.

The curious Reaumur discovered the large eggs, or rather pupce,
of these flies as big as the flies themselves, which he hatched in
his own bosom. Any person that will take the trouble to examine
the old nests of either species of swallows may find in them the
black shining cases of the pupa of these insects : but for other
particulars, too long for this place, we refer the reader to FHis-
toire d'Insectes of that admirable entomologist. Tom. iv. pi. 11.

LETTER XVI. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, Nov. 20, 1773.

IN obedience to your injunctions I sit down to give you some
account of the house-martin, or martlet ; and, if my monography

* See Ulloa's Travels.

t The H. urfrica is, 1 think, the most annoyed by them. — E0.

HOUSE-MARTIN. 153

of this little domestic and familiar bird should happen to meet
with your approbation, I may probably soon extend my enquiries
to the rest of the British hirundines — the swallow, the swift, and
the bank-martin.

A few house-martins begin to appear about the sixteenth of
April ; usually some few days later than the swallow. For some
time after they appear the hirundines in general pay no attention
to the business of nidification, but play and sport about either to
recruit from the fatigue of their journey, if they do migrate at all,
or else that their blood may recover its true tone and texture
after it has been so long benumbed by the severities of winter.
About the middle of May, if the weather be fine, the martin
begins to think in earnest of providing a mansion for its family-
The crust or shell of this nest seems to be formed of such dirt
or loam as comes most readily to hand, and is tempered and
wrought together with little bits of broken straws, to render it
tough and tenacious. As this bird often builds against a per-
pendicular wall without any projecting ledge under, it requires
its utmost efforts to get the first foundation firmly fixed, so that
it may safely carry the superstructure. On this occasion the
bird not only clings with its claws, but partly supports itself by
strongly inclining its tail against the wall, making that a ful-
crum ; and thus steadied it works and plasters the materials into
the face of the brick or stone. But then, that this work may
not, while it is soft and green, pull itself down by its own weight,
the provident architect has prudence and forbearance enough
not to advance her work too fast ; but by building only in the
morning, and by dedicating the rest of the day to food and
amusement, gives it sufficient time to dry and harden. About
half an inch seems to be a sufficient layer for a day. Thus careful
workmen when they build mud-walls (informed at first perhaps
by this little bird) raise but a moderate layer at a time, and then
desist ; lest the work should become top-heavy, and so be ruined
by its own weight. By this method in about ten or twelve days
is formed an hemispheric nest with a small aperture towards the
top, strong, compact, and warm ; and perfectly fitted for all the
purposes for which it was intended. But then nothing is more
common than for the house-sparrow, as soon as the shell is
finished, to seize on it as its own, to eject the owner, and to
line it after its own manner.*

* Upon which occurrence, instances have been known, and attested on the most unexception-

154 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

After so much labour is bestowed in erecting a mansion, as
nature seldom works in vain, martins will breed on for several
years together in the same nest, where it happens to be well
sheltered and secure from the injuries of weather. The shell or
crust of the nest is a sort of rustic-work full of knobs and pro-
tuberances on the outside : nor is the inside of those that I have
examined smoothed with any exactness at all ; but is rendered
soft and warm, and fit for incubation, by a lining of small straws,
grasses, and feathers ; and sometimes by a bed of moss interwoven
with wool. In this nest they tread, or engender, frequently
during the time of building ; and the hen lays from three to five
white eggs.

At first when the young are hatched, and are in a naked and
helpless condition, the parent birds, with tender assiduity, carry
out what comes away from their young. Was it not for this
affectionate cleanliness the nestlings would soon be burnt up,
and destroyed in so deep and hollow a nest, by their own caustic
excrement. In the quadruped creation the same neat precaution
is made use of; particularly among dogs and cats, where the
dams lick away what proceeds from their young. But in birds
there seems to be a particular provision, that the dung of nest-
lings is enveloped in a tough kind of jelly, and therefore is the
easier conveyed off without soiling or daubing.* Yet, as nature
is cleanly in all her ways, the young perform this office for them-
selves in a little time by thrusting their tails out at the aperture
of their nest. As the young of small birds presently arrive at
their rjXucia, or full growth, they soon become impatient of con-
finement, and sit all day with their heads out at the orifice,
where the dams, by clinging to the nest, supply them with food
from morning to night. For a time the young are fed on the
wing by their parents ; but the feat is done by so quick and al-
most imperceptible a slight, that a person must have attended
very exactly to their motions before he would be able to perceive
it. As soon as the young are able to shift for themselves the
dams immediately turn their thoughts to the business of a second
brood : while the first flight, shaken off and rejected by their

able authority, of eave swallows (or " martins") congregating to the assistance of the injured
pair, and immuring the sitting sparrow in its usurped abode. Generally speaking, however, the
sparrow contrives to maintain possession comparatively unmolested. — ED.

* This envelope appears to be somehow occasioned by the still quiet life which is led. by nest-
lings. An adult haw-grosbeak, which I kept for some time in confinement, having broken his
leg, which prevented him from getting about, his routings were in consequence encased like
those of a young bird. — En.

SWALLOWS' NESTING PLACES. 155

nurses, congregate in great flocks, and are the birds that are
seen clustering and hovering on sunny mornings and evenings
round towers and steeples, and on the roofs of churches and
houses. These congregatings usually begin to take place about
the first week in August ; and therefore we may conclude that
by that time the first flight is pretty well over. The young of
this species do not quit their abodes all together ; but the more
forward birds get abroad some days before the rest. These ap-
proaching the eaves of buildings, and playing about before them,
make people think that several old ones attend one nest. They
are often capricious in fixing on a nesting-place, beginning many
edifices, and leaving them unfinished ; but when once a nest is
completed in a sheltered place, it serves for several seasons.
Those which breed in a ready finished house get the start in
hatching of those that build new by ten days or a fortnight.
These industrious artificers are at their labours in the long days
before four in the morning : when they fix their materials they
plaster them on with their chins, moving their heads with a quick
vibratory motion. They dip and wash as they fly sometimes in
very hot weather, but not so frequently as swallows. It has been
observed that martins usually build to a north-east or north-west
aspect, that the heat of the sun may not crack and destroy their
nests : but instances are also remembered where they bred for
many years in vast abundance in a hot stifled inn-yard, against a
wall facing to the south.

Birds in general are wise in their choice of situation : but in
this neighbourhood every summer is seen a strong proof to the
contrary at a house without eaves in an exposed district, where
some martins build year by year in the corners of the windows.
But, as the corners of these windows (which face to the south-
east and south-west) are too shallow, the nests are washed down
every hard rain ; and yet these birds drudge on to no purpose
from summer to summer, without changing their aspect or house.
It is a piteous sight to see them labouring when half their nest
is washed away and bringing dirt — "generis lapsi sarcire ruinas"
Thus is instinct a most wonderful unequal faculty ; in some in-
stances so much above reason, in other respects so far below it !
Martins love to frequent towns, especially if there are great lakes
and rivers at hand ; nay they even affect the close air of London.
And I have not only seen them nesting in the Borough, but even
in the Strand and Fleet-street ; but then it was obvious from the

156 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

dinginess of their aspect that their feathers partook of the filth
of that sooty atmosphere. Martins are by far the least agile of
the four species ; their wings and tails are short, and therefore
they are not capable of such surprising turns and quick and
glancing evolutions as the swallow. Accordingly they make use
of a placid easy motion in a middle region of the air, seldom
mounting to any great height, and never sweeping long together
over the surface of the ground or water. They do not wander
far for food, but affect sheltered districts, over some lake, or
under some hanging wood, or in some hollow vale, especially in
windy weather. They breed the latest of all the swallow kind :
in 1772 they had nestlings on to October the twenty-first, and
are never without unfledged young as late as Michaelmas.

As the summer declines the congregating flocks increase in
numbers daily by the constant accession of the second broods ;
till at last they swarm in myriads upon myriads round the vil-
lages on the Thames, darkening the face of the sky as they fre-
quent the aits of that river, where they roost. They retire, the
bulk of them I mean, in vast flocks together about the beginning
of October : but have appeared of late years in a considerable
flight in this neighbourhood, for one day or two, as late as No-
vember the third and sixth, after they were supposed to have
been gone for more than a fortnight. They therefore withdraw
with us the latest of any species. Unless these birds are very
short-lived indeed, or unless they do not return to the district
where they are bred, they must undergo vast devastations some
how, and somewhere ; for the birds that return yearly bear no
manner of proportion to the birds that retire.

House-martins are distinguished from their congeners by
having their legs covered with soft downy feathers down to their
toes. They are no songsters ; but twitter in a pretty inward
soft manner in their nests. During the time of breeding they
are often greatly molested with fleas.* I am, &c.

* In the wilder districts of Scotland, there are several localities where eave swallows build
abundantly, and in large communities, against the perpendicular or overhanging precipices of
rocks, obviously their natural site for nidification. The young differ from their parents in being
browner in their general tint, with less gloss on the upper feathers ; the tertiaries are tipped with
white ; the tail somewhat less forked ; and the under parts are brownish about the breast, as in
the bank-swallow. The adults moult before retiring to a warm region, but the young, do not
commence their change of plumage while in this 'country. The latter undergo a total moult
during their absence, including the primary feathers of the wings and tail, as the latter is rather
more forked when they return in spring, and the farmer a trifle longer. — ED.

SUSSEX DOWNS. 157

LETTER XVII. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Ringmer, near Lewes, Dec. 9, 1773.

I RECEIVED your last favour just as I was setting out for this
place; and am pleased to find that my monography met with
your approbation. My remarks are the result of many years'
observation ; and are, I trust, true in the whole : though I do
not pretend to say that they are perfectly void of mistake, or that
a more nice observer might not make many additions, since
subjects of this kind are inexhaustible.

If you think my letter worthy the notice of your respectable
society, you are at liberty to lay it before them ; and they will
consider it, I hope, as it was intended, as a humble attempt to
promote a more minute enquiry into natural history; into the
life and conversation of animals. Perhaps hereafter I may be
induced to take the house-swallow under consideration ; and from
that proceed to the rest of the British hirundines.

Though I have now travelled the Sussex-downs upwards of
thirty years, yet I still investigate that chain of majestic moun-
tains with fresh admiration year by year ; and think I see new
beauties every time I traverse it. This range, which runs from
Chichester eastward as far as East-bourn, is about sixty miles in
length, and is called the South-downs, properly speaking, only
round Lewes. As you pass along you command a noble view of
the wild, or weald, on one hand, and the broad downs and sea
on the other. Mr. Ray used to visit a family* just at the foot
of these hills, and was so ravished with the prospect from
Plumpton-plain near Lewes, that he mentions those scapes in his
" Wisdom of God in the Works of the Creation" with the utmost
satisfaction, and thinks them equal to any thing he had seen in
the finest parts of Europe.

For my own part, I think there is somewhat peculiarly sweet
and amusing in the shapely figured aspect of chalk-hills in pre-
ference to those of stone, which are rugged, broken, abrupt, and
shapeless.

Perhaps I may be singular in my opinion, and not so happy as
to convey to you the same idea ; but I never contemplate these
mountains without thinking I perceive somewhat analogous to

* Mr. Courthope, of Dauny.

158 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

growth in their gentle swellings and smooth fungus-like pro-
tuberances, their fluted sides, and regular hollows and slopes,
that carry at once the air of vegetative dilation and expansion.

Or was there ever a time when these immense masses

of calcareous matter were thrown into fermentation by some
adventitious moisture ; were raised and leavened into such shapes
by some plastic power ; and so made to swell and heave their
broad backs into the sky so much above the less-animated clay
of the wild below ?

By what I can guess from the admeasurements of the hills
that have been taken round my house, I should suppose that
these hills surmount the wild at an average at about the rate of
five hundred feet.

One thing is very remarkable as to the sheep : from the
westward till you get to the river Adur all the flocks have horns,
and smooth white faces, and white legs ; and a hornless sheep
is rarely to be seen : but as soon as you pass that river eastward,
and mount Beeding-hill, all the flocks at once become hornless,
or, as they call them, poll-sheep ; and have moreover black faces
with a white tuft of wool on their foreheads, and speckled and
spotted legs : so that you would think that the flocks of Laban
were pasturing on one side of the stream, and the variegated
breed of his son-in-law Jacob were cantoned along on the other
And this diversity holds good respectively on each side from
the valley of Bramber and Beeding to the eastward, and west-
ward all the whole length of the downs. If you talk with the
sfoepherds on this subject, they tell you that the case has been
so from time immemorial : and smile at your simplicity if you
ask them whether the situation of these two different breeds
might not be reversed. However, an intelligent friend of mine
near Chichester is determined to try the experiment ; and has this
autumn, at the hazard of being laughed at, introduced a parcel
of black-faced hornless rams among his horned western ewes.
The black-faced poll-sheep have the shortest legs and the finest
wool.

As I had hardly ever before travelled these dov/ns at so late
a season of the year, I was determined to keep as sharp a look-
out as possible so near the southern coast, with respect to the
summer short- winged birds of passage. We make great enquiries
concerning the withdrawing of the swallow kind, without ex-
amining enough into the causes why this tribe is never to be

WHEATEAR. 159

seen in winter ; for, entre nous> the disappearing of the latter is
more marvellous than that of the former, and much more unac-
countable. The hirundines, if they please, are certainly capable
of migration; and yet no doubt are often found in a torpid
state: but redstarts, nightingales, whitethroats, blackcaps, &c.
&c., are very ill provided for long flights ; have never been once
found, as I ever heard of, in a torpid state, and yet can never
be supposed, in such troops, from year to year to dodge and
elude the eyes of the curious and inquisitive, which from day to
day discern the other small birds that are known to abide our
winters. But, notwithstanding all my care, I saw nothing like
a summer bird of passage : and, what
is more strange, not one wheatear,
though they abound so in the autumn
as to be a considerable perquisite to
the shepherds that take them; arid
though many are to be seen to my
knowledge all the winter through in
many parts of the south of England.
The most intelligent shepherds tell me that some few of these
birds appear on the downs in March, and then withdraw to breed
probably in warrens and stone-quarries : now and then a nest is
ploughed up in a fallow on the downs under a furrow, but it is
thought a rarity. At the time of wheat-harvest they begin to be
taken in great numbers ; are sent for sale in vast quantities to
Brighthelmstone and Tunbridge ; and appear at the tables of all
the gentry that entertain with any degree of elegance. About
Michaelmas they retire and are seen no more till March. Though
these birds are, when in season, in great plenty on the south
downs round Lewes, yet at East-Bourn, which is the eastern ex-
tremity of those downs, they abound much more. One thing is
very remarkable — that though in the height of the season so many
hundreds of dozens are taken, yet they never are seen to flock ;
and it is a rare thing to see more than three or four at a time : so
that there must be a perpetual flitting and constant progressive
succession. It does not appear that any wheatears are taken to
the westward of Houghton-bridge, which stands on the river
Arun.

I did not fail to look particularly after my new migration of
ring-ousels ; and to take notice whether they continued on the
downs to this season of the year ; as I had formerly remarked

160 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

them in the month of October all the way from Chichester to
Lewes wherever there were any shrubs and covert : but not one
bird of this sort came within my observation. I only saw a few
larks and whinchats, some rooks, and several kites and buzzards.

About midsummer a flight of crossbills comes to the pine-
groves about this house, but never make any long stay.*

The old tortoise, that I have mentioned in a former letter,
still continues in this garden ; and retired under ground about
the twentieth of November, and came out again for one day on
the thirtieth : it lies now buried in a wet swampy border under
a wall facing to the south, and is enveloped at present in mud
and mire !

* From the above passage it would seem that, at least in this instance, there was some regu-
larity in the appearance of this curious bird, though, generally speaking, it is decidedly a most
uncertain visitant. Great numbers of them were dispersed over the south of England last year
(1835), and I had then an opportunity of making myself personally acquainted with their habits.
1 obtained one, about the latter end of June, alive and in its nestling plumage, which consider-
ably resembles that of the hen siskin and redpole linnets, to which birds the crossbills are in
fact much more nearly allied than is generally supposed, though larger, and of a stouter make,
than either. It was of a greenish colour, longitudinally streaked with a darker tint, precisely as
in those birds, and exhibiting even the same paler line along the centre of the back, and a similar
black spot under the chin. This plumage is changed early in autumn, and is replaced, in the
male, by a garb of considerable beauty, bright glowing red upon the crown, rump, and tbe whole
under parts, and reddish dusky on the remainder, the former increasing in intensity as the
season advances ; the female is a good deal of the colour of a hen greenfinch. After breeding
(which takes place extremely early in the season), the tints of the male fade very considerably,
so that the old males, when they first appear in our latitudes early in summer, are of a dull
orange or saffron hue, which has commonly but erroneously been considered the fixed colour of
the mature cock bird ; it is exchanged when they moult for the same bright red that is assumed
by the young. In confinement, however, a dull orange colour, here and there stained a little
with dingy red, is all they assume, whence probably may have originated the mistake already
adverted to; this tends also, in some degree, to intimate their affinity with the redpole linnets.
The notes of the crossbill have much of the carduelis character, more particularly its call-note,
which is uttered with the same peculiar swing of the body ; its ordinary chirp is a loud and sharp
ehipp, sometimes repeated two or three times successively, and its proper song is unmusical and
squeaking, though it often warbles or records to itself in a more pleasing strain. There is some-
thing very sagacious in its aspect, and in captivity it is an extremely lively, active' species, fond of
picking every thing to pieces that comes in its way, and making all possible use of its powerful
bill, the structure of which, though considered by Buffon as a deformity, a " freak of nature," is
one of the most admirable contrivances, one of the most beautified adaptations of means to end,
to be found throughout the whole range of animated nature: the uses of this organ, however,
have in recent publications been so often well described as to render it quite necessary to repeat
them here. In a captive state, it is much in the habit of running over the wires of its cage,
employing the bill as a prehensile instrument, in the manner of a parrot; though it is true that
the siskins and redpoles do the same, notwithstanding that they are less able to hold. All these
birds, too, agree in making great use of the foot, whilst picking their food ; and there are a variety
of minor accordances among them, sufficiently obvious to those who have studied them alive,
which cannot be so well expressed on paper. Four species of crossbills exist, of which the Ame-
rican has usually been considered identical with our own, but it is much smaller, and differs in
the relative proportion of parts. Another North American species, the loxia leucoptera, with a
wing like that of a chaffinch, has onoe occurred in Ireland, and also in Germany ; and the fourth
species, the parrot crossbill (f.. psittacina], is numbered among the rarest occasional visitants to
this country ; it is remarkable for tne size and power of its strong bill, which has a very parrot-
like appearance. One was killed last autumn in the New Forest. — ED.

THE SWALLOW. l6l

Here is a large rookery round this house, the inhabitants of
which seem to get their livelihood very easily ; for they spend
the greatest part of the day on their nest-trees when the weather
is mild. These rooks retire every evening all the winter from
this rookery, where they only call by the way, as they are going
to roost in deep woods : at the dawn of day they always revisit
their nest-trees, and are preceded a few minutes by a flight of
daws, that act, as it were, as their harbingers.

I am, &c.

LETTER XVIII. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, Jan. 29, 1774.

THE house-swallow, or chimney-swallow, is undoubtedly the first
comer of all the British hirundines ;* and appears in general on
or about the thirteenth of April, as I have remarked from many
years' observation. Not but now and then a straggler is seen
much earlier : and, in particular, when I was a boy I observed
a swallow for a whole day together on a sunny warm Shrove
Tuesday ; which day could not fall out later than the middle of
March, and often happened early in February.

It is worth remarking that these birds are seen first about
lakes and mill-ponds ; and it is also very particular, that if these
early visitors happen to find frost and snow, as was the case of
the two dreadful springs of 1770 and 1771, they immediately
withdraw for a time. A circumstance this much more in favour
of hiding than migration ; since it is much more probable that a
bird should retire to its hybernaculum just at hand than return
for a week or two only to warmer latitudes.

The swallow, though called the chimney- swallow, by no means
builds altogether in chimneys, but often within barns and out-
houses against the rafters ; and so she did in Virgil's time :

" AntS

Garrula quam tignis nidos suspendat hirundo."

In Sweden she builds in barns, and is called ladu swala, the
barn-swallow. Besides, in the warmer parts of Europe there are
no chimneys to houses except they are English-built : in these

* I think the bank-swallow usually precedes it, which species often arrives towards the latter
end of March.— ED.

162 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

countries she constructs her nest in porches, and gate-ways, and
galleries, and open halls.

Here and there a bird may affect some odd, peculiar place ; as
we have known a swallow build down the shaft of an old well,
through which chalk had been formerly drawn up for the purpose
of manure : but in general with us this hirundo breeds in chim-
neys ; and loves to haunt those stacks where there is a constant
fire, no doubt for the sake of warmth. Not that it can subsist
in the immediate shaft where there is a fire ; but prefers one
adjoining to that of the kitchen, and disregards the perpetual
smoke of that funnel, as I have often observed with some degree
of wonder.*

Five or six or more feet down the chimney does this little
bird begin to form her nest about the middle of May, which
consists, like that of the house-martin, of a crust or shell com-
posed of dirt or mud, mixed with short pieces of straw to render
it tough and permanent ; with this difference, that whereas the
shell of the martin is nearly hemispheric, that of the swallow is
open at the top, and like half a deep dish : this nest is lined witk
fine grasses, and feathers which are often collected as they float
in the air.

Wonderful is the address which this adroit bird shows all day
long in ascending and descending with security through so
narrow a pass. When hovering over the mouth of the funnel,
the vibrations of her wings acting on the confined air occasion
a rumbling like thunder. It is not improbable that the dam
submits to this inconvenient situation so low in the shaft, in
order to secure her broods from rapacious birds, and particularly
from owls, which frequently fall down chimneys, perhaps in at-
tempting to get at these nestlings.

The swallow lays from four to six white eggs, dotted with red
specks ; and brings out her first brood about the last week in
June, or the first week in July. The progressive method by
which the young are introduced into life is very amusing : first,
they emerge from the shaft with difficulty enough, and often fall
down into the rooms below : for a day or so they are fed on the
chimney-top, and then are conducted to the dead leafless bough
of some tree, where, sitting in a row, they are attended with
great assiduity, and may then be called perchers. In a day or
two more they become flyers, but are still unable to take their

* 1 have known one instance of this species building in the hole of a tree, about thirty feet
from the ground. — En.

HISTORY OF THE SWALLOW. 163

own food ; therefore they play about near the place where the
dams are hawking for flies ; and, when a mouthful is collected,
at a certain signal given, the dam and the nestling advance,
rising towards each other, and meeting at an angle ; the young
one all the while uttering such a little quick note of gratitude
and complacency, that a person must have paid very little re-
gard to the wonders of Nature that has not often remarked this
feat.

The dam betakes herself immediately to the business of a
second brood as soon as she is disengaged from her first ; which
at once associates with the first broods of house-martins ; and
with them congregates, clustering on sunny roofs, towers, and
trees. This hirundo brings out her second brood towards the
middle and end of August.

All the summer long is the swallow a most instructive pattern
of unwearied industry and affection ; for, from morning to night,
while there is a family to be supported, she spends the whole
day in skimming close to the ground, and exerting the most sud-
den turns and quick evolutions. Avenues, and long walks under
hedges, and pasture-fields, and mown meadows where cattle
graze, are her delight, especially if there are trees interspersed ;
because in such spots insects most abound. When a fly is taken
a smart snap from her bill is heard, resembling the noise at the
shutting of a watch-case ; but the motion of the mandibles are
too quick for the eye.

The swallow, probably the male bird, is the excubitor to house-
martins, and other little birds, announcing the approach of birds
of prey. For as soon as a hawk appears, with a shrill alarming
note he calls all the swallows and martins about him ; who pur-
sue in a body, and buffet and strike their enemy till they have
driven him from the village, darting down from above on his
back, and rising in a perpendicular line in perfect security. This
bird also will sound the alarm, and strike at cats when they climb
on the roofs of houses, or otherwise approach the nests. Each
species of hirundo drinks as it flies along, sipping the surface
of the water ; but the swallow alone, in general, washes on the
wing, by dropping into a pool for many times together : in
very hot weather house-martins and bank-martins dip and wash
little.

The swallow is a delicate songster, and in soft sunny weather
sings both perching and flying ; on trees in a kind of concert,

164 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

and on chimney tops : is also a bold flyer, ranging to distant
downs and commons even in windy weather, which the other
species seem much to dislike ; nay, even frequenting exposed
sea-port towns, and making little excursions over the salt water.
Horsemen on wide downs are often closely attended by a little
party of swallows for miles together, which plays before and
behind them, sweeping around, and collecting all the sculking
insects that are roused by the trampling of the horses* feet : when
the wind blows hard, without this expedient, they are often forced
to settle to pick up their lurking prey.

This species feeds much on little coleoptera, as well as on
gnats and flies ; and often settles on dug ground, or paths, for
gravels to grind and digest its food. Before they depart, for
some weeks, to a bird, they forsake houses and chimneys, and
roost in trees ; and usually withdraw about the beginning of Oc-
tober ; though some few stragglers may appear on at times till
the first week in November.

Some few pairs haunt the new and open streets of London
next the fields, but do not enter, like the house-martin, the close
and crowded parts of the city.

Both male and female are distinguished from their congeners
by the length and forkedness of their tails. They are undoubt-
edly the most nimble of all the species : and when the male
pursues the female in amorous chase, they then go beyond their
usual speed, and exert a rapidity almost too quick for the eye to
follow.*

After this circumstantial detail of the life and discerning
<rropyj? of the swallow, I shall add, for your further amusement,
an anecdote or two not much in favour of her sagacity : —

A certain swallow built for two years together on the handles
of a pair of garden-shears, that were stuck up against the boards
in an out-house, and therefore must have her nest spoiled when-
ever that implement was wanted : and, what is stranger still,
another bird of the same species built its nest on the wings and
body of an owl that happened by accident to hang dead and dry
from the rafter of a barn. This owl, with the nest on its wings,

* This species differs from its congeners in invariably moulting abroad, both adults and young :
the latter are distinguishable by the inferior gloss of the upper parts, by the paleness of the fore-
head and throat as compared to the adults, and by the comparative shortness of the exterior
tail-feathers. These are of course shed during their absence, as they return with the tail much
more furcate ; but whether the wing-primaries are also changed cannot be inferred from compa-
rison, though there can be little doubt of the fact from analogy with the eave and bank-swallow*,
—En,

MARTIN — SWALLOW. 165

and with eggs in the nest, was brought as a curiosity worthy the
most elegant private museum in Great Britain. The owner,
struck with the oddity of the sight, furnished the bringer with
a large shell, or conch, desiring him to fix it just where the owl
hung : the person did as he was ordered, and the following year
a pair, probably the same pair, built their nest in the conch, and
laid their eggs.

The owl and the conch make a strange grotesque appearance,
and are not the least curious specimens in that wonderful collec-
tion of art and nature.*

Thus is instinct in animals, taken the least out of its way, an
undistinguishing, limited faculty ; and blind to every circumstance
that does not immediately respect self-preservation, or lead at
once to the propagation or support of their species.

I am, with all respect, &c. &c.

LETTER XIX. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, Feb. 14, 1774.

I RECEIVED your favour of the eighth, and am pleased to find
that you read my little history of the swallow with your usual
candour : nor was I the less pleased to find that you made objec-
tions where you saw reason.

As to the quotations, it is difficult to say precisely which spe-
cies of hirundo Virgil might intend in the lines in question, since
the ancients did not attend to specific differences like modern
naturalists : yet somewhat may be gathered, enough to incline
me to suppose that in the two passages quoted the poet had his
eye on the swallow.

In the first place the epithet garrula suits the swallow well,
who is a great songster ; and not the martin, which is rather a
mute bird, and when it sings is so inward as scarce to be heard.
Besides, if tigrmm in that place signifies a rafter rather than a
beam, as it seems to me to do, then I think it must be the swal-
low that is alluded to, and not the martin ; since the former does
frequently build within the roof against the rafters ; while the
latter always, as far as I have been able to observe, builds with-
out the roof against eaves and cornices.

As to the simile, too much stress must not be laid on it : yet

* Sir Ashton Lever's Musaeum.

166 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

the epithet nigra speaks plainly in favour of the swallow, whose
back and wings are very black ;* while the rump of the martin is
milk-white, its back and wings blue, and all its under part white
as snow. Nor can the clumsy motions (comparatively clumsy)
of the martin well represent the sudden and artful evolutions
and quick turns which Juturna gave to her brother's chariot,
so as to elude the eager pursuit of the enraged ^Eneas. The
verb sonat also seems to imply a bird that is somewhat loqua-
cious.

" A'tgra velut magnas domini cum divitis redes
Pervolat, et peiinis aha atria lustrat hirundo,
Pabula parva legens, nidisque loquacibus escas :
Et mine porticibus vacuis, nunc humida circum
Stagna sonat."

We have had a very wet autumn and winter, so as to raise the
springs to a pitch beyond any thing since 1764 ; which was a re-
markable year for floods and high waters. The land-springs,
which we call lavants, break out much on the downs of Sussex,
Hampshire, and Wiltshire. The country people say when the
lavants rise corn will always be dear ; meaning that when the
earth is so glutted with water as to send forth springs on the
downs and uplands, that the corn-vales must be drowned ; and
so it has proved for these ten or eleven years past. For land-
springs have never obtained more since the memory of man than
during that period ; nor has there been known a greater scarcity
of all sorts of grain, considering the great improvements of mo-
dern husbandry. Such a run of wet seasons a century or two
ago would, I am persuaded, have occasioned a famine. There-
fore pamphlets and newspaper letters, that talk of combinations,
tend to inflame and mislead ; since we must not expect plenty till
Providence sends us more favourable seasons.

The wheat of last year, all round this district, and in the county
of Rutland, and elsewhere, yields remarkably bad : and our
wheat on the ground, by the continual late sudden vicissitudes
from fierce frost to pouring rains, looks poorly ; and the turnips
rot very fast.

I am, &c.

* It has, however, a very beautiful and rich blue gloss, superior to that of the other. There is
a species of swallow — unknown in Britain — inhabiting the districts bordering on the Mediter-
ranean, the rock swallow (H- rupertrw), which combines the characters of the three British
species. It evidently, however, is not the kind alluded to by the poet.— ED.

HISTORY OF THE MARTIN. 167

LETTER XX. To THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, February 26, 1774.

THE sand-martin, or bank-martin,fis by much the least of any
of the British hirundines ; and, as far as we have ever seen, the
smallest known hirundo : though Brisson asserts that there is
one much smaller, and that is the hirundo esculenta.*

But it is much to be regretted that it is scarce possible for
any observer to be so full and exact as he could wish in reciting
the circumstances attending the life and conversation of this little
bird, since it is / era naturd, at least in this part of the kingdom,
disclaiming all domestic attachments, and haunting wild heaths
and commons where there are large lakes ; while the other spe-
cies, especially the swallow and house-martin, are remarkably
gentle and domesticated, and never seem to think themselves safe
but under the protection of man.f

Here are in this parish, in the sand-pits and banks of the lakes
of Wolmer-forest, several colonies of these birds ; and yet they
are never seen in the village ; nor do they at all frequent the cot-
tages that are scattered about in that wild district. The only in-
stance I ever remember where this species haunts any building is
at the town of Bishop's Waltham, in this county, where many
sand-martins nestle and breed in the scaffold-holes of the back-
wall of William of Wykeham's stables : but then this wall stands
in a very sequestered and retired enclosure, and faces upon a
large and beautiful lake. And indeed this species seems so to
delight in large waters, that no instance occurs of their abound-
ing, but near vast pools or rivers : and in particular it has been
remarked that they swarm in the banks of the Thames in some
places below London-bridge. J

* There are several exotic species smaller than either. — ED.

f The bank-swallow frequents villages and neighbourhoods quite as familiarly as the other
species, where tliere are contiguous high banks or pits at all congenial to its habits, as in various
places I have had many opportunities of witnessing. — ED.

J Perhaps, generally speaking, this species keeps more to the immediate vicinity of water than
the others, but it sometimes plays far and wide over the champaign country. Over the small
river Wandle, in Surrey, I have occasionally seen them in such multitudes as almost to confuse
the sight, whilst the constant snapping of their bills, as they seized the small gnats and other
minute insects, maintained an almost continuous crackling sound. On these occasions, they
often whisk by almost within arm's reach, so that it can be easily noticed that the common
opinion of swallows flying with the bill open is erroneous. And it is beautiful to observe how
"admirably each preservts its own course, when vacillating and sailing in such close multitudes,
darting by in every possible direction, yet each keeping itself quite clear of all the rest. — ED.

168 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

It is curious to observe with what different degrees of archi-
tectonic skill Providence has endowed birds of the same genus,
and so nearly correspondent in their general mode of life 1 for
while the swallow and the house-martin discover the greatest
address in raising and securely fixing crusts or shells of loam as
cunabula for their young, the bank-martin terebrates a round
and regular hole in the sand or earth, which is serpentine, hori-
zontal, and about two feet deep. At the inner end of this bur-
row does this bird deposit, in a good degree of safety, her rude
nest, consisting of fine grasses and feathers, usually goose-fea-
thers, very inartificially laid together.

Perseverance will accomplish any thing : though at first one
would be disinclined to believe that this weak bird, with her soft
and tender bill and claws, should ever be able to bore the stub-
born sand-bank without entirely disabling herself ; yet with these
feeble instruments have I seen a pair of them make great dis-
patch : and could remark how much they had scooped that day
by the fresh sand which ran down the bank, and was of a dif-
ferent colour from that which lay loose and bleached in the sun.

In what space of time these little artists are able to mine and
finish these cavities I have never been able to discover, for
reasons given above ; but it would be a matter worthy of obser-
vation, where it falls in the way of any naturalist to make his
remarks. This I have often taken notice of, that several holes
of different depths are left unfinished at the end of summer. To
imagine that these beginnings were intentionally made in order
to be in the greater forwardness for next spring, is allowing per-
haps too much foresight and rerum prudentia to a simple bird.
May not the cause of these latebrce being left unfinished arise
from their meeting in those places with strata too harsh, hard,
and solid, for their purpose, which they relinquish, and go to a
fresh spot that works more freely ? Or may they not in other
places fall in with a soil as much too loose and mouldering, liable
to flounder, and threatening to overwhelm them and their labours ?
One thing is remarkable — that, after some years, the old holes
are forsaken and new ones bored ; perhaps because the old habi-
tations grow foul and fetid from long use, or because they may
so abound with fleas as to become untenantable. This species
of swallow moreover is strangely annoyed with fleas : and we
have seen fleas, bed-fleas (pulex irritans), swarming at the mouths
of these holes, like bees on the stools of their hives.

HISTORY OF THE MARTIN. 169

The following circumstance should by no means be omitted —
that these birds do not make use of their caverns by way of
hybernacula, as might be expected ; since banks so perforated
have been dug out with care in the winter, when nothing was
found but empty nests.

The sand-martin arrives much about the same time with the
swallow, and lays, as she does, from four to six white eggs. But
as this species is cryptogame, carrying on the business of nidifi-
cation, incubation, and the support of its young in the dark, it
would not be so easy to ascertain the time of breeding, were it
not for the coming forth of the broods, which appear much about
the time, or rather somewhat earlier than those of the swallow.
The nestlings are supported in common like those of their con-
geners, with gnats and other small insects ; and sometimes they
are fed with libellulce (dragon-flies) almost as long as themselves.
In the last week in June we have seen a row of these sitting on
a rail near a great pool as perchers ; and so young and helpless,
as easily to be taken by hand : but whether the dams ever feed
them on the wing, as swallows and house-martins do, we have
never yet been able to determine ; nor do we know whether they
pursue and attack birds of prey.*

When they happen to breed near hedges and enclosures, they
are dispossessed of their breeding-holes by the house-sparrow,
which is on the same account a fell adversary to house-martins.

These hirundines are no songsters, but rather mute, making
only a little harsh noise when a person approaches their nests. f
They seem not to be of a sociable turn, never with us congre-
gating with their congeners in. the autumn. Undoubtedly they
breed a second time, like the house-martin and swallow ; and
withdraw about Michaelmas.

Though in some particular districts they may happen to
abound, yet in the whole, in the south of England at least, is this
much the rarest species. For there are few towns or large vil-
lages but what abound with house-martins ; few churches,
towers, or steeples, but what are haunted by some swifts ; scarce
a hamlet or single cottage-chimney that has not its swallow;
while the bank-martins, scattered here and there, live a seques-
tered life among some abrupt sand-hills, and in the banks of
some few rivers.

* They do so quite as briskly as the other species.— ED.

t They have also a faint weak chirp, occasionally repeated as they fly.— ED.

170 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

These birds have a peculiar manner of flying ; flitting about
with odd jerks, and vacillations, not unlike the motions of a
butterfly. Doubtless the flight of all hirundines is influenced by,
and adapted to, the peculiar sort of insects which furnish their
food. Hence it would be worth enquiry to examine what parti-
cular genus of insects affords the principal food of each respec-
tive species of swallow.

Notwithstanding what has been advanced above, some few
sand-martins, I see, haunt the skirts of London, frequenting the
dirty pools in Saint George's Fields, and about Whitechapel.
The question is where these build, since there are no banks or
bold shores in that neighbourhood : perhaps they nestle in the
scaffold holes of some old or new deserted building. They dip
and wash as they fly sometimes, like the house-martin and swal-
low.

Sand-martins differ from their congeners, in the diminutiveness
of their size, and in their colour, which is what is usually called
a mouse-colour. Near. Valencia, in Spain, they are taken, says
Willughby, and sold in the markets for the table ; and are called
by the country people, probably from their desultory jerking
manner of flight, Papilion de Montagna*

LETTER XXI. To. THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, Sept. 28, 1774.

As the swift or black martin is the largest of the British hirun-
dinesy so is it undoubtedly the latest comer. For I remember
but one instance of its appearing before the last week in April :
and in some of our late frosty, harsh springs, it has not been
seen till the beginning of May. This species usually arrives in
pairs.f

The swift, like the sand-martin, is very defective in architec-
ture, making no crust, or shell, for its nest ; but forming it of
dry grasses and feathers, very rudely and inartificially put toge-

* The male and female of this species of swallow are exactly similar, and can be distinguished
only by dissection. The young have the wing-primaries somewhat shorter, and the tail less
forked. The upper plumage is more or less mottled with a pale tint, particularly about the rump
and upper tail-coverts; and the tail itself is also margined in the same manner, as are also the
wing-coverts, and especially the tertiaries ; altogether imparting a pretty mottled appearance to
the bird. This plumage is wholly changed iu winter. — ED.

t And very generally after a tempest. — ED.

HISTORY OF THE SWIFT. 171

ther. With all my attention to these birds, I have never been
able once to discover one in the act of collecting or carrying in
materials : so that I have suspected (since their nests are exactly
the same) that they sometimes usurp upon the house-sparrows,
and expel them, as sparrows do the house and sand-martin ; well
remembering that I have seen them squabbling together at the
entrance of their holes ; and the sparrows up in arms, and much
disconcerted at these intruders. And yet I am assured, by a nice
observer in such matters, that they do collect feathers for their
nests in Andalusia ; and that he has shot them with such mate-
rials in their mouths.*

Swifts, like sand-martins, carry on the business of nidification
quite in the dark, in crannies of castles, and towers, and steeples,
and upon the tops of the walls of churches under the roof ; and
therefore cannot be so narrowly watched as those species that
build more openly : but, from what I could ever observe, they
begin nesting about the middle of May ; and I have remarked,
from eggs taken, that they have sat hard by the ninth of June.
In general they haunt tall buildings, churches, and steeples, and
breed only in such : yet in this village some pairs frequent the
lowest and meanest cottages, and educate their young under those
thatched roofs. We remember but one instance where they
breed out of buildings ; and that is in the sides of a deep chalk-
pit near the town of Odiham, in this county, where we have seen
many pairs entering the crevices, and skimming and squeaking
round the precipices.

As I have regarded these amusive birds with no small atten-
tion, if I should advance something new and peculiar with re-

* It is difficult to know exactly what to say in this instance, -where my own observation is
directly contradictory to what is advanced by Mr. White. It certainly is possible that the swift
may sometimes usurp the domicile of a house-sparrow ; but that it should not afterwards arrange
the nest after its own fashion, and that its eggs should be laid on the comparatively unfinished
structure of the sparrow, is at variance with all that I have seen of its economy. That Mr.
White never observed the swift collecting building materials may be at once accounted for by
the fact that, like the eave-swallow, it often returns to its former nest for many seasons in sue*
cession ; but that it ordinarily collects its own materials, and that it forms of them a very firm
" crust, or shell," are most undoubted facts, the latter of which is sufficiently exemplified in a
number of specimens now lying before me. These are composed, for the most part, of small soft
pieces of hay and straw, more or less intermingled with vegetable pappus and downy feathers, all
of which might have been obtained while on the wing in windy weather. One of them has a frag-
ment of newspaper, and another a small birchen twig, worked up into the structure; and all of them
are very firmly cemented with large quantities of a viscous substance, either secreted by the inter-
nal glands of the bird, as is the common opinion, or at all events elaborated from some gelatinous
vegetable substance, as is known to be the case with the nests of the hirundo esculenta. The swift
is very tenacious of the place it has once selected for nidification, and, if deprived of its nest, will
construct another in the course of a few days, every bit as solid and substantial as that which
had been taken away. — ED.

NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

spect to them, and different from all other birds, I might perhaps
be credited ; especially as my assertion is the result of many
years' exact observation. The fact that I would advance is, that
swifts tread, or copulate, on the wing : and I would wish any
nice observer, that is startled at this supposition, to use his own
eyes, and I think he will soon be convinced. In another class
of animals, viz. the insect, nothing is so common as to see the
different species of many genera in conjunction as they fly. The
swift is almost continually on the wing ; and as it never settles
on the ground, on trees, or roofs, would seldom find opportunity
for amorous rites, was it not enabled to indulge them in the air.
If any person would watch these birds of a fine morning in May,
as they are sailing round at a great height from the ground, he
would see, every now and then, one drop on the back of another,
and both of them sink down together for many fathoms with a
loud piercing shriek. This I take to be the juncture when the
business of generation is carrying on.

As the swift eats, drinks, collects materials for its nest, and,
as it seems, propagates on the wing ; it appears to live more in
the air than any other bird, and to perform all functions there
save those of sleeping and incubation.

This hirundo differs widely from its congeners in laying in-
variably but two eggs at a time,* which are milk-white, long,
and peaked at the small end ; whereas the other species lay at
each brood from four to six. It is a most alert bird, rising very
early, and retiring to roost very late ; and is on the wing in the
height of summer at least sixteen hours. In the longest days it
does not withdraw to rest till a quarter before nine in the even-
ing, being the latest of all day birds. Just before they retire
whole groups of them assemble high in the air, and squeak, and
shoot about with wonderful rapidity. But this bird is never so
much alive as in sultry thundry weather, when it expresses great
alacrity, and calls forth all its powers. In hot mornings several,
getting together in little parties, dash round the steeples and
churches, squeaking as they go in a very clamorous manner :
these, by nice observers, are supposed to be males serenading
their sitting hens ; and not without reason, since they seldom

• * This is a mistake ; three and even four eggs are not uncommon. But, if their first produce
be taken away, I believe that two eggs are the maximum which are laid afterwards. Of seven
nests, all of them containing eggs, which were removed by a correspondent of Loudon's Maga-
zine, two of them contained only a pair, four had three, and one had as many as four eggs in
it. On examining the same situation five weeks afterwards, eight new nests had been constructed,
each of them containing ouly a pair of either eggs or young.— ED.

HISTORY OF THE SWIFT. 1/3

squeak till they come close to the walls or eaves, and since those
within utter at the same time a little inward note of com-
placency.

When the hen has sat hard all day, she rushes forth just as it
is almost dark, and stretches and relieves her weary limbs, and
snatches a scanty meal for a few minutes, and then returns to her
duty of incubation. Swifts, when wantonly and cruelly shot
while they have young, discover a little lump of insects in their
mouths, which they pouch and^ hold under their tongue.
In general they feed in a much higher district than the other
species ; a proof that gnats and other insects do also abound to
a considerable height in the air : they also range to vast distances ;
since loco-motion is no labour to them, who are endowed with
such wonderful powers of wing. Their powers seem to be in
proportion to their levers ; and their wings are longer in pro-
portion than those of almost any other bird. When they mute,
or ease themselves in flight, they raise their wings, and make
them meet over their backs.

At some certain times in the summer I had remarked that
swifts were hawking very low for hours together over pools and
streams ; and could not help enquiring into the object of their
pursuit that induced them to descend so much below their usual
range. After some trouble, I found that they were taking
phryganea, ephemera, and libellulce (cadew-flies, may-flies, and
dragon-flies) that were just emerged out of their aurelia state.
I then no longer wondered that they should be so willing to
stoop for a prey that afforded them such plentiful and succulent
nourishment.

They bring out their young about the middle or latter end of
July : but as these never become perchers, nor, that ever I could
discern, are fed on the wing by their dams, the, coming forth of
the young is not so notorious as in the other species.

On the thirtieth of last June I untiled the eaves of a house
where many pairs build, and found in each nest only two squab,
naked pulli: on the eighth of July I repeated the same enquiry,
and found they had made very little progress towards a fledged
state, but were still naked and^helpless. From whence we may
conclude that birds whose way of life keeps them perpetually
on the wing would not be able to quit their nest till the end of
the month. Swallows and martins, that have numerous families
are continually feeding them every two or three minutes ; whik

174 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

swifts, that have but two young to maintain, are much at their
leisure, and do not attend on their nests for hours together.

Sometimes they pursue and strike at hawks that come in their
way ; but not with that vehemence and fury that swallows express
on the same occasion. They are out all day long in wet days,
feeding about, and disregarding still rain : from whence two
things may be gathered ; first, that many insects abide high in
the air, even in rain ; and next, that the feathers of these birds
must be well preened to resist so much wet. Windy, and parti-
cularly windy weather with heavy showers, they dislike ; and on
such days withdraw, and are scarce ever seen.

There is a circumstance respecting the colour of swifts, which
seems not to be unworthy our attention. When they arrive in
the spring they are all over of a glossy, dark soot-colour, except
their chins, which are white ; but, by being all day long in the
sun and air, they become quite weather-beaten and bleached
before they depart, and yet they return glossy again in the spring.
Now, if they pursue the sun into lower latitudes, as some suppose,
in order to enjoy a perpetual summer, why do they not return
bleached? Do they not rather perhaps retire to rest for a
season, and at that juncture moult and change their feathers,
since all other birds are known to moult soon after the season
of breeding ?*

Swifts are very anomalous in many particulars, dissenting
from all their congeners not only in the. number of then* young,
but in breeding but once in a summer ; whereas all the other
British hirundines breed invariably twice. It is past all doubt
that swifts can breed but once, since they withdraw in a short
time after the flight of their young, and some time before their
congeners bring out their second broods. We may here remark,
that, as swifts breed but once in a summer, and only two at a
time, and the other hirundines twice, the latter, who lay from
four to six eggs, increase at an average five times as fast as the
former.

But in nothing are swifts more singular than in their early
retreat. They retire, as to the main body of them, by the tenth
of August, and sometimes a few days sooner : and every strag-

* Swifts invariably moult during their absence ; and 1 am greatly inclined to suspect that the
young undergo no change whatever until the second autumn, as is the case with the whole falcon-
family, certain of the owls, and the bee-eater and king-fisher tribes, all of which require a long*
time to elaborate their first or nestling plumage, and many of which (1 believe all the falcon-
race) do not propagate till they are two years old.— ED.

HISTORY OF THE SWIFT. 175

gler invariably withdraws by the twentieth, while their conge-
ners, all of them, stay till the beginning of October ; many of
them all through that month, and some occasionally to the be-
ginning of November.* This early retreat is mysterious and won-
derful, since that time is often the sweetest season in the year.
But, what is more extraordinary, they begin to retire still earlier
in the most southerly parts of Andalusia, where they can be no
ways influenced by any defect of heat ; or, as one might suppose,
defect of food. Are they regulated in their motions with us by
a failure of food, or by a propensity to moulting, or by a disposi-
tion to rest after so rapid a life, or by what ? This is one of
those incidents in natural history that not only baffles our
searches, but almost eludes our guesses 1

These hirundines never perch on trees or roofs, and so never
congregate with their congeners. They are fearless while haunt-
ing their nesting places, and are not to be scared with a gun ;
and are often beaten down with poles and cudgels as they stoop
to go under the eaves. Swifts are much infested with those
pests to the genus called Uppoboscce hirundinis; and often wriggle
and scratch themselves, in their flight, to get rid of that clinging
annoyance.

Swifts are no songsters, and have only one harsh screaming
note ; yet there are ears to which it is not displeasing, from an
agreeable association of ideas, since that note never occurs but in
the most lovely summer weather.

They never settle on the ground but through accident ; and
when down can hardly rise, on account of the shortness of their
legs and the length of their wings ; neither can they walk, but
only crawl; but they have a strong grasp with their feet, by
which they cling to walls. Their bodies being flat they can
enter a very narrow crevice ; and where they cannot pass on their
bellies they will turn up edgewise.

The particular formation of the foot discriminates the swift
from all the British hirundines ; and indeed from all other known
birds, the hirundo melba, or great white-bellied swift of Gibraltar,

* A correspondent of the Magazine of Natural History relates one instance of a swift being
noticed in Perthshire so late as Nov. 8 ; and I have known them once or twice to occur in Sep-
tember. So powerful is the migrative impulse in these birds that it is not a very rare occurrence
for them to leave a young brood of half-fledged nestlings to perish — a fact which has also been
noticed in others of the swallow tribe. A remarkable instance, however, to the contrary is stated
in the periodical already mentioned, in which a single swallow was observed to stay for some time
after the departure of its fellows, to attend upon a full grown nestling, the foot of which had been
inextricably entangled iu the nest. — ED.

176 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

excepted ; for it is so disposed as to carry " omnes quatuor diyitos
anticos" all its four toes forward ; besides the least toe, which
should be the back-toe, consists of one bone alone, and the other
three only of two apiece. A construction most rare and pecu-
liar, but nicely adapted to the purposes in which their feet are
employed. This, and some peculiarities Attending the nostrils
and under mandible, have induced a discerning naturalist* to
suppose that this species might constitute a genus per se.f

In London a party of swifts frequents the Tower, playing and
feeding over the river just below the bridge : others haunt some
of the churches of the Borough next the fields; but do not
venture, like the house-martin, into the close crowded part of the
town.

The Swedes have bestowed a very pertinent name on this
swallow, calling it ring swala, from the perpetual rings or circles
that it takes round the scene of its nidification.

Swifts feed on coleoptera, or small beetles with hard cases over
their wings, as well as on the softer insects; but it does not
appear how they can procure gravel to grind their food, as swal-
lows do, since they never settle on the ground. Young ones,
over-run with hippoboscee,l are sometimes found, under their
nests, fallen to the ground ; the number of vermin rendering their
abode insupportable any longer. They frequent in this village
several abject cottages: yet a succession still haunts the same
unlikely roofs : a good proof this that the same birds return to
the same spots. As they must stoop very low to get up under
these humble eaves, cats lie in wait, and sometimes catch them
on the wing.

On the fifth of July, 1775, I again untiled part of a roof over

* John Antony Scopoli, of Carniola, M.D.

t The genus cypselus, or swift, is now universally accepted, though at the same time few natu-
ralists seem to be aware of the extent to which it differs from hirundo- It is in the skeleton that
this diversity is most apparent. The plumage is quite of a different character, and the amazingly
thick skin of the swift affords another point of contrast. But it is in the structure and confor-
mation of the sternum (that important bone to which the immense pectoral muscles are attached,
and upon which, as birds of powerful flight, their whole frame may be said to be especially
organized) that the distinctions between these genera are the most remarkable. The vast develop-
ment of the sternal ridge in the swift has no counterpart in any of the swallows, which
have the sternum much broader and more after the fashion of the dentirostral races ; that of the
swifts somewhat resembling those of the true falcons, while the moth-eater again presents an
approximation to the more powerfully winged owls. In each, however, the development being
greatest in the fissirostral races. The skull is also very different in the swift and swallow genera,
in the former being much wider in the gape, and approaching in form to the crania of the
moth-eater genus. — ED.

t These insects, which so annoy all the swallow tribes, are now known as the craterina, hirnn-
dinit of systematists. Hatched in the nest by the vital warmth of the birds, they live afterwards
by sucking their blood.— ED.

SWIFTS. 177

the nest of a swift. The dam sat in the nest ; but so strongly
was she affected by natural aropyr) for her brood, which she sup-
posed to be in danger, that, regardless of her own safety, she
would not stir, but lay sullenly by them, permitting herself to be
taken in hand. The squab young we brought down and placed
on the grass-plot, where they tumbled about, and were as help-
less as a new-born child. While we contemplated their naked
bodies, their unwieldy disproportioned abdomina, and their
heads, too heavy for their necks to support, we could not but
wonder when we reflected that these shiftless beings in a little
more than a fortnight would be able to dash through the air
almost with the inconceivable swiftness of a meteor; and perhaps,
in their emigration, must traverse vast continents and oceans as
distant as the equator. So soon does nature advance small birds
to their //XtKia, or state of perfection; while the progressive
growth of men and large quadrupeds is slow and tedious !

I am, &c.

LETTER XXII. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, Sept. 13, 1774.

BY means of a straight cottage-chimney I had an opportunity
this summer of remarking, at my leisure, how swallows ascend
and descend through the shaft; but my pleasure, in contem-
plating the address with which this feat was performed to a con-
siderable depth in the chimney, was somewhat interrupted by
apprehensions lest my eyes might undergo the same fate with
those of Tobit.*

Perhaps it may be some amusement to you to hear at what
times the different species of hirundines arrived this spring in
three very distant counties of this kingdom. With us the swal-
low was seen first on April the 4th, the swift on April the 24th,
the bank-martin on April the 12th, and the house-martin not
till April the 30th. At South Zele, Devonshire, swallows did not
arrive till April the 25th ; swifts, in plenty, on May the 1st; and
house-martins not till the middle of May. At Blackburn, in
Lancashire, swifts were seen April the 28th, swallows April the
29th, house-martins May the 1st. Do these different dates, in
such distant districts, prove any thing for or against migration r

* Tobit ii. 10.

. N

178 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

A farmer, near Weyhill, fallows his land with two teams of
asses ; one of which works till noon, and the other in the after-
noon. When these animals have done their work, they are
penned all night, like sheep, on the fallow. In the winter they
are confined and foddered in a yard, and make plenty of dung.

Linnaeus says that hawks "paciscuntur inducias cum ambus,
quamdiu cuculus cuculat :" but it appears to me that, during that
period, many little birds are taken and destroyed by birds of
prey, as may be seen by their feathers left in lanes and under
hedges.

The missel-thrush is, while breeding, fierce and pugnacious,
driving such birds as approach its nest, with great fury, to a
distance. The Welch call it pen y llwyn, the head or master of
the coppice. He suffers no magpie, jay, or blackbird, to enter
the garden where he haunts ; and is, for the time, a good guard
to the new- sown legumens. In general he is very successful in
the defence of his family : but once I observed in my garden,
that several magpies came determined to storm the nest of a
missel -thrush: the dams defended their mansion with great
vigour, and fought resolutely pro aris etfocisj but numbers at
last prevailed, they tore the nest to pieces, and swallowed the
young alive.

In the season of nidification the wildest birds are compara-
tively tame. Thus the ring-dove breeds in my fields, though
they are continually frequented ; and the missel-thrush, though
most shy and wild in the autumn and winter, builds in my
garden close to a walk where people are passing all day long.

Wall-fruit abounds with me this year ; but my grapes, that
used to be forward and good, are at present backward beyond all
precedent : and this is not the worst of the story ; for the same
ungenial weather, the same black cold solstice, has injured the
more necessary fruits of the earth, and discoloured and blighted
our wheat. The crop of hops promises to be very large.

Frequent returns of deafness incommode me sadly, and half
disqualify me for a naturalist ; for, when those fits are upon me,
I lose all the pleasing notices and little intimations arising from
rural sounds ; and May is to me as silent and mute with respect
to the notes of birds, &c., as August. My eyesight is, thank God,
quick and good ; but with respect to the other sense, I am, at
times, disabled :

*' And Wisdom at one entrance quite shut out."

BIRDS OF PASSAGE. 179

LETTER XXIII. To THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, June 8, 1775.

ON September the 21st, 1741, being then on a visit, and intent
on field-diversions, I rose before daybreak : when I came into
the enclosures, I found the stubbles and clover-grounds matted
all over with a thick coat of cobweb, in the meshes of which a
copious and heavy dew hung so plentifully that the whole face
of the country seemed, as it were, covered with two or three
setting-nets drawn one over another. When the dogs attempted
to hunt, their eyes were so blinded and hoodwinked that they
could not proceed, but were obliged to he down and scrape the
incumbrances from their faces with their fore-feet, so that, find-
ing my sport interrupted, I returned home musing in my mind
on the oddness of the occurrence.

As the morning advanced the sun became bright and warm,
and the day turned out one of those most lovely ones which no
season but the autumn produces; cloudless, calm, serene, and
worthy of the South of France itself.

About nine an appearance very unusual began to demand
our attention, a shower of cobwebs falling from very elevated
regions, and continuing, without any interruption, till the close
of the day. These webs were not single filmy threads, floating
in the air in all directions, but perfect flakes or rags ; some near
an inch broad, and five or six long, which fell with a degree of
velocity that showed they were considerably heavier than the
atmosphere.

On every side as the observer turned his eyes might he behold
a continual succession of fresh flakes falling into his sight, and
twinkling like stars as they turned their sides towards the sun.

How far this wonderful shower extended would be difficult
to say ; but we know that it reached Bradley, Selborne, and
Alresford, three places which lie in a sort of a triangle, the
shortest of whose sides is about eight miles in extent.

At the second of those places there was a gentleman (for whose
veracity and intelligent turn we have the greatest veneration)
who observed it the moment he got abroad ; but concluded that,
as soon as he came upon the hill above his house, where he took
his morning rides, he should be higher than this meteor, which
N 2

180 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

he imagined might have been blown, like Thistle-down, from the
common above : but, to his great astonishment, when he rode to
the most elevated part of the down, 300 feet above his fields, he
found the webs in appearance still as much above him as before ;
still descending into sight in a constant succession, and twinkling
in the sun, so as to draw the attention of the most incurious.

Neither before nor after was any such fall observed ; but on
this day the flakes hung in the trees and hedges so thick, that a
diligent person sent out might have gathered baskets full.

The remark that I shall make on these cobweb-like appear-
ances, called gossamer, is, that, strange and superstitious as the
notions about them were formerly, nobody in these days doubts
but that they are the real production of small spiders, which
swarm in the fields in fine weather in autumn, and have a power
of shooting out webs from their tails so as to render themselves
buoyant, and lighter than air. But why these apterous insects
should that day take such a wonderful aerial excursion, and why
their webs should at once become so gross and material as to be
considerably more weighty than air, and to descend with preci-
pitation, is a matter beyond my skill. If I might be allowed to
hazard a supposition, I should imagine that those filmy threads,
when first shot, might be entangled in the rising dew, and so
drawn up, spiders and all, by a brisk evaporation into the regions
where clouds are formed : and if the spiders have a power of
coiling and thickening their webs in the air, as Dr. Lister says
they have, [see his Letters to Mr. Ray] then, when they were
become heavier than the air, they must fall.

Every day in fine weather, in autumn chiefly, do I see those
spiders shooting out their webs and mounting aloft : they will
go off from your finger if you will take them into your hand.*
Last summer one alighted on my book as I was reading in the
parlour ; and, running to the top of the page, and shooting out
a web, took its departure from thence. But what I most won-
dered at was, that it went off with considerable velocity in a place
where no air was stirring ; and I am sure that I did not assist it
with my breath. f So that these little crawlers seem to have,
while mounting, some loco-motive power without the use of
wings, and to move in the air faster than the air itself.

* The commonest species of spider that spins gossamer, is the aranea obtectrix of systeinatists.
-En.

t Mr. White must have heen deceived in this instance, for it will be found that the gossamer
spider endeavours in vain to float its web whei placed under a glass receiver.— ED.

CONGREGATING. 181

LETTER XXIV. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, Aug. 15, 1775.

THERE is a wonderful spirit of sociality in the brute creation,
independent of sexual attachment : the congregating of grega-
rious birds in the winter is a remarkable instance.

Many horses, though quiet with company, will not stay one
minute in a field by themselves : the strongest fences cannot
restrain them. My neighbour's horse will not only not stay by
himself abroad, but he will not bear to be left alone in a strange
stable without discovering the utmost impatience, and endea-
vouring to break the rack and rnanger with his fore feet. He
has been known to leap out at a stable-window, through which
dung was thrown, after company ; and yet in other respects is
remarkably quiet. Oxen and cows will not fatten by them-
selves : but will neglect the finest pasture that is not recom-
mended by society. It would be needless to instance in sheep,
which constantly flock together.

But this propensity seems not to be confined to animals of
the same species; for we know a doe, still alive, that was brought
up from a little fawn with a dairy of cows ; with them it goes
a-field, and with them it returns to the yard. The dogs of the
house take no notice of this deer, being used to her ; but, if
strange dogs come by, a chase ensues ; while the master smiles
to see his favourite securely leading her pursuers over hedge, or
gate, or stile, till she returns to the cows, who, with fierce low-
ings and menacing horns, drive the assailants quite out of the
pasture.

Even great disparity of kind and size does not always prevent
social advances and mutual fellowship. For a very intelligent
and observant person has assured me that, in the former part of
his life, keeping but one horse, he happened also on a time to
have but one solitary hen. These two incongruous animals spent
much of their time together in a lonely orchard, where they saw
no creature but each other. By degrees an apparent regard
began to take place between these two sequestered individuals.
The fowl would approach the quadruped with notes of com-
placency, rubbing herself gently against his legs : while the horse
would look down with satisfaction, and move with the greatest

182 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

caution and circumspection, lest he should trample on his dimi-
nutive companion. Thus, by mutual good offices, each seemed
to console the vacant hours of the other : so that Milton, when
he puts the following sentiment in the mouth of Adam, seems to
be somewhat mistaken :

" Much less can bird with beast, or fish with fowl,
So well converse, nor with the ox the ape."

LETTER XXV. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, Oct. 2, 1775.

WE have two gangs or hordes of gypsies which infest the south
and west of England, and come round in their circuit two or
three times in the year. One of these tribes calls itself by the
noble name of Stanley, of which I have nothing particular to
say ; but the other is distinguished by an appellative somewhat
remarkable — As far as their harsh gibberish can be understood,
they seem to say that the name of their clan is Curleople ; now
the termination of this word is apparently Grecian : and as Me-
zeray and the gravest historians all agree that these vagrants did
certainly migrate from Egypt and the East, two or three cen-
turies ago, and so spread by degrees over Europe, may not this
family-name, a little corrupted, be the very name they brought
with them from the Levant ? It would be matter of some
curiosity, could one meet with an intelligent person among them,
to enquire whether, in their jargon, they still retain any Greek
words : the Greek radicals will appear in hand, foot, head, water,
earth, &c. It is possible that amidst their cant and corrupted
dialect many mutilated remains of their native language might
still be discovered.

With regard to those peculiar people, the gypsies, one thing
is very remarkable, and especially as they came from warmer
climates : and that is, that while other beggars lodge in barns,
stables, and cow-houses, these sturdy savages seem to pride
themselves in braving the severities of winter, and in living sub
dio the whole year round. Last September was as wet a month
as ever was known ; and yet during those deluges did a young
gypsy-girl lie-in in the midst of one of our hop-gardens, on the
cold ground, with nothing over her but a piece of a blanket ex-
tended on a few hazel-rods bent hoop fashion, and stuck into

MANUFACTURE OF RUSH CANDLES. 183

the earth at each end, in circumstances too trying for a cow in
the same condition : yet within this garden there was a large
hop-kiln, into the chambers of which she might have retired, had
she thought shelter an object worthy her attention,

Europe itself, it seems, cannot set bounds to the rovings of
these vagabonds ; for Mr. Bell, in his return from Peking, met a
gang of these people on the confines of Tartary, who were
endeavouring to penetrate those deserts and try their fortune in
China.*

Gypsies are called in French, Bohemians ; in Italian and
modern Greek, Zingani.f

I am, &c.

LETTER XXVI. To THE HON DAINES BARRINGTON.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, Nov. 1, 1775.

" Hie - - - - tsedae pingues, hie plurimus ignis
Semper, et assidua postes fuligine nigri."

I SHALL make no apology for troubling you with the detail of a
very simple piece of domestic economy, being satisfied that you
think nothing beneath your attention that tends to 'utility : the
matter alluded to is the use of rushes instead of candles, which
I am well aware prevails in many districts besides this ; but as
I know there are countries also where it does not obtain, and as
I have considered the subject with some degree of exactness, I
shall proceed in my humble story, and leave you to judge of the
expediency.

The proper species of rush for this purpose seems to be the
juncus conylomeratus, or common soft rush, which is to be found
in most moist pastures, by the sides of streams, and under
hedges. These rushes are in best condition in the height of
summer ; but may be gathered, so as to serve the purpose well,
quite on to autumn. It would be needless to add that the
largest and longest are best. Decayed labourers, women, and
children, make it their business to procure and prepare them.
As soon as they are cut they must be flung into water, and kept
there ; for otherwise they will dry and shrink, and the peel will

* See Bell's Travels in China.

t There is very little doubt that the true gypsies are of Mongolian origin, though in the
course of time they have become much mingled with Europeans. An excellent essay on the sub-
ject will be found in a late number of" Jameson's Edinburgh Philosophical Journal."— ED.

184 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

not run. At first a person would find it no easy matter to divest
a rush of its peel or rind, so as to leave one regular, narrow,
even rib from top to bottom that may support the pith : but this,
like other feats, soon becomes familiar even to children; and we
have seen an old woman, stone-blind, performing this business
with great despatch, arid seldom failing to strip them with the
nicest regularity. When these junci are thus far prepared, they
must lie out on the grass to be bleached, and take the dew for
some nights, and afterwards be dried in the sun.

Some address is required in dipping these rushes in the scald-
ing fat or grease ; but this knack also is to be obtained by prac-
tice. The careful wife of an industrious Hampshire labourer
obtains all her fat for nothing ; for she saves the scummings of
her bacon-pot for this use ; and, if the grease abounds with salt,
she causes the salt to precipitate to the bottom, by setting the
scummings in a warm oven. Where hogs are not much in use,
and especially by the sea-side, the coarser animal-oils will come
very cheap. A pound of common grease may be procured for
four pence ; and about six pounds of grease will dip a pound of
rushes ; and one pound of rushes may be bought for one shilling :
so that a pound of rushes, medicated and ready for use, will cost
three shillings. If men that keep bees will mix a little wax with
the grease, it will give it a consistency, and render it more cleanly,
and make the rushes burn longer : mutton-suet would have the
same effect.

A good rush, which measured in length two feet four inches
and a half, being minuted, burnt only three minutes short of an
hour : and a rush still of greater length has been known to burn
one hour and a quarter.

These rushes give a good clear light. Watch-lights (coated
with tallow), it is true, shed a dismal one, " darkness visible ;"
but then the wicks of those have two ribs of the rind, or peel, to
support the pith, while the wick of the dipped rush has but one.
The two ribs are intended to impede the progress of the flame,
and make the candle last.

In a pound of dry rushes, avoirdupois, which I caused to be
weighed and numbered, we found upwards of one thousand six
hundred individuals. Now suppose each of these burns, one
with another, only half an hour, then a poor man will purchase
eight hundred hours of light, a time exceeding thirty-three entire
days, for three shillings. According to this account each rush,

RUSH LIGHTS. 185

before dipping, costs ^ of a farthing, and ^ afterwards. Thus
a poor family will enjoy 5| hours of comfortable light for a
farthing. An experienced old housekeeper assures me that one
pound and a half of rushes completely supplies his family the
year round, since working people burn no candle in the long days,
because they rise and go to bed by daylight.

Little farmers use rushes much in the short days, both morn-
ing and evening, in the dairy and kitchen ; but the very poor,
who are always the worst economists, and therefore must con-
tinue very poor, buy a halfpenny candle every evening, which,
in their blowing open rooms, does not burn much more than two
hours. Thus have they only two hours' light for their money
instead of eleven.

While on the subject of rural economy, it may not be improper
to mention a pretty implement of housewifery that we have seen
no where else ; that is, little neat besoms which our foresters
make from the stalk of the polytricum commune, or great golden
maiden-hair, which they call silk-wood, and find plenty in the
bogs. When this moss is well combed and dressed, and divested
of its outer skin, it becomes of a beautiful bright chesnut colour ;
and, being soft and pliant, is very proper for the dusting of beds,
curtains, carpets, hangings, &c. If these besoms were known to
the brushmakers in town, it is probable they might come much
in use for the purpose above mentioned.*

I am, &c.

LETTER XXVII. To THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, Dec. 12, 1775.

WE had in this village more than twenty years ago an idiot-boy,
whom I well remember, who, from a child, showed a strong pro-
pensity to bees ; they were his food, his amusement, his sole
object. And as people of this cast have seldom more than one
point in view, so this lad exerted all his few faculties on this one
pursuit. In the winter he dosed away his time, within his father's
house, by the fire-side, in a kind of torpid state, seldom depart-
ing from the chimney-corner ; but in the summer he was all
alert, and in quest of his game in the fields, and on sunny banks.
Honey-bees, humble-bees, arid wasps, were his prey wherever he

* A besom of this sort is to be seen in Sir Ashton Lever's Museum.

186 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

found them : he had no apprehensions from their stings, but
would seize them nudis manibuSy and at once disarm them of
their weapons, and suck their bodies for the sake of their honey-
bags. Sometimes he would fill his bosom between his shirt and
his skin with a number of these captives ; and sometimes would
confine them in bottles. He was a very merops apiaster, or bee-
bird ; and very injurious to men that kept bees ; for he would
slide into their bee-gardens, and, sitting down before the stools,
would rap with his finger on the hives, and so take the bees as
they came out. He has been known to overturn hives for the
sake of honey, of which he was passionately fond. Where
metheglin was making he would linger round the tubs and ves-
sels, begging a draught of what he called bee-wine. As he ran
about he used to make a humming noise with his lips, re-
sembling the buzzing of bees. This lad was lean and sallow,
and of a cadaverous complexion ; and, except in his favourite
pursuit, in which he was wonderfully adroit, discovered no man-
ner of understanding. Had his capacity been better, and directed
to the same object, he had perhaps abated much of our wonder
at the feats of a more modern exhibiter of bees ; and we may
justly say of him now,

" Thou,

Had thy presiding star propitious shone,
Should'at Wildman be ."

When a tall youth he was removed from hence to a distant
village, where he died, as I understand, before he arrived at
manhood. I am, &c.

LETTER XXVIII. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, Jan. 8, 1776.

IT is the hardest thing in the world to shake off superstitious
prejudices : they are sucked in as it were with our mother's
milk ; and, growing up with us at a time when they take the
fastest hold and make the most lasting impressions, become so
interwoven into our very constitutions, that the strongest good
sense is required to disengage ourselves from them. No wonder
therefore that the lower people retain them their whole lives
through, since their minds are not invigorated by a liberal edu-
cation, and therefore not enabled to make any efforts adequate
to the occasion.

POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 187

Such a preamble seems to be necessary before we enter on
the superstitions of this district, lest we should be suspected of
exaggeration in a recital of practices too gross for this enlight-
ened age.

But the people of Tring, in Hertfordshire, would do well to
remember, that no longer ago than the year 1751, and within
twenty miles of the capital, they seized on two superannuated
wretches, crazed with age, and overwhelmed with infirmities, on
a suspicion of witchcraft ; and, by trying experiments, drowned
them in a horse-pond.

In a farm-yard near the middle of this village stands, at this
day, a row of pollard-ashes, which, by the seams and long cica-
trices down their sides, manifestly show that, in former times,
they have been cleft asunder. These trees, when young and
flexible, were severed and held open by wedges, while ruptured
children, stripped naked, were pushed through the apertures,
under a persuasion that, by such a process, the poor babes would
be cured of their infirmity. As soon as the operation was over,
the tree, in the suffering part, was plastered with loam, and care-
fully swathed up. If the parts coalesced and soldered together,
as usually fell out, where the feat was performed with any
adroitness at all, the party was cured ; but, where the cleft con-
tinued to gape, the operation, it was supposed, would prove in-
effectual. Having occasion to enlarge my garden not long since,
I cut down two or three such trees, one of which did not grow
together.

We have several persons now living in the village, who, in
their childhood, were supposed to be healed by this superstitious
ceremony, derived down perhaps from our Saxon ancestors, who
practised it before their conversion to Christianity.

At the south corner of the Plestor, or area, near the church,
there stood, about twenty years ago, a very old grotesque hollow
pollard-ash, which for ages had been looked on with no small
veneration as a shrew-ash. Now a shrew-ash is an ash whose
twigs or branches, when gently applied to the limbs of cattle,
will immediately relieve the pains which a beast suffers from
the running of a shrew-mouse over the part affected : for it is
supposed that a shrew-mouse is of so baneful and deleterious a
nature, that wherever it creeps over a beast, be it horse, cow, or
sheep, the suffering animal is afflicted with cruel anguish, and
threatened with the loss of the use of the limb. Against this

188 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

accident, to which they were continually liable, our provident
forefathers always kept a s'hrew-ash at hand, which, when once
medicated, would maintain its virtue for ever. A shrew-ash was
made thus :* — Into the body of the tree a deep hole was bored
with an auger, and a poor devoted shrewrinouse was thrust in
alive, and plugged in, no doubt, with several quaint incantations
long since forgotten. As the ceremonies necessary -for such a
consecration are no longer understood, all succession is at an
end, and no such tree is known to subsist in the manor, or
hundred.

As to that on the Plestor

" The late vicar stubb'd and burnt it,"

when he was way-warden, regardless of the remonstrances of the
by-standers, who interceded in vain for its preservation, urging
its power and efficacy, and alleging that it had been

" Religione patrum multos servata per annos."

I am, &c.

LETTER XXIX. To THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, Feb. 7, 1776.

IN heavy fogs, on elevated situations especially, trees are perfect
alembics : and no one that has not attended to such matters can
imagine how much water one tree will distil in a night's time,
by condensing the vapour, which trickles down the twigs and
boughs, so as to make the ground below quite in a float. In
Newton-lane, in October 1775, on a misty day, a particular oak
in leaf dropped so fast that the cart-way stood in puddles and
the ruts ran with water, though the ground in general was
dusty.

In some of our smaller islands in the West-Indies, if I mistake
not, there are no springs or rivers ; but the people are supplied
with that necessary element, water, merely by the dripping of
some large tall trees, which, standing in the bosom of a moun-
tain, keep their heads constantly enveloped with fogs and clouds,
from which they dispense their kindly never-ceasing moisture ;
and so render those districts habitable by condensation alone.

Trees in leaf have such a vast proportion more of surface than

.* For a similar practice, see Plot's Staffordshire.

PERENNIAL PONDS. 189

those that are naked, that, in theory, their condensations should
greatly exceed those that are stripped of their leaves ; but, as the
former imbibe also a great quantity of moisture, it is difficult to
say which drip most : but this I know, that deciduous trees that
are entwined with much ivy seem to distil the greatest quantity.
Ivy-leaves are smooth, and thick, and cold, and therefore con-
dense very fast ; and besides ever-greens imbibe very little.
These facts may furnish the intelligent with hints concerning
what sorts of trees they should plant round small ponds that they
would wish to be perennial ; and show them how advantageous
some trees are in preference to others.

Trees perspire profusely, condense largely, and check evapora-
tion so much, that woods are always moist : no wonder therefore
that they contribute much to pools and streams.

That trees are great promoters of lakes and rivers appears
from a well-known fact in North-America ; for, since the woods
and forests have been grubbed and cleared, all bodies of water
are much diminished ; so that some streams, that were very
considerable a century ago, will not now drive a common mill.*
Besides, most woodlands, forests, and chases, with us abound
with pools and morasses ; no doubt for the reason given above.

To a thinking mind few phenomena are more strange than the
state of little ponds on the summits of chalk-hills, many of which
are never dry in the most trying droughts of summer. On
chalk-hills, I say, because in many rocky and gravelly soils
springs usually break out pretty high on the sides of elevated
grounds and mountains ; but no person acquainted with chalky
districts will allow that they ever saw springs in such a soil but
in valleys and bottoms, since the waters of so pervious a stratum
as chalk all lie on one dead level, as well-diggers have assured
me again and again.

Now we have many such little round ponds in this district ;
and one in particular on our sheep-down, three hundred feet
above my house ; which, though never above three feet deep in
the middle, and not more than thirty feet in diameter, and con-
taining perhaps not more than two or three hundred hogsheads
of water, yet never is known to fail, though it affords drink for
three hundred or four hundred sheep, and for at least twenty
head of large cattle beside. This pond, it is true, is over- hung
with two moderate beeches, that, doubtless, at tunes afford it

* Vide Kalnr's Travels to North-America.

190 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

much supply ; but then we have others as small, that, without
the aid of trees, and in spite of evaporation from sun and wind,
and perpetual consumption by cattle, yet constantly maintain a
moderate share of water, without overflowing in the wettest
seasons, as they would do if supplied by springs. By my jour-
nal of May 1775, it appears that "the small and even considera-
ble ponds in the vales are now dried up, while the small ponds
on the very tops of hills are but little affected." Can this dif-
ference be accounted for from evaporation alone, which certainly
is more prevalent in bottoms ? or rather have not those elevated
pools some unnoticed recruits, which in the night time counter-
balance the waste of the day ; without which the cattle alone
must soon exhaust them ? And here it will be necessary to enter
more minutely into the cause. Dr. Hales, in his Vegetable
Statics, advances, from experiment, that " the moister the earth
is the more dew falls on it in a night : and more than a double
quantity of dew falls on a surface of water than there does on
an equal surface of moist earth." Hence we see that water, by
its coolness, is enabled to assimilate to itself a large quantity
of moisture nightly by condensation; and that the air, when
loaded with fogs and vapours, and even with copious dews, can
alone advance a considerable and never-failing resource. Per-
sons that are much abroad, and travel early and late ; such as
shepherds, fishermen, &c. can tell what prodigious fogs prevail
in the night on elevated downs, even in the hottest parts of
summer ; and how much the surfaces of things are drenched by
those swimming vapours, though, to the senses, all the while,
little moisture seems to fall.

I am, &c.

LETTER XXX. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, April 3, 1776.

MONSIEUR HERISSANT, a French anatomist, seems persuaded
that he has discovered the reason why cuckoos do not hatch
their own eggs ; the impediment, he supposes, arises from the
internal structure of their parts, which incapacitates them for
incubation. According to this gentleman, the crop, or craw, of
a cuckoo does not lie before the sternum at the bottom of the
neck, as in the gallin<e, columba, &c. but immediately behind it,

POOD OF CUCKOOS. 191

on and over the bowels, so as to make a large protuberance in
the belly.*

Induced by this assertion, we procured a cuckoo ; and, cut-
ting open the breast-bone, and exposing the intestines to sight,
found the crop lying as mentioned above. This stomach was
large and round, and stuffed hard like a pincushion with food,
which, upon nice examination, we found to consist of various
insects ; such as small scarabs, spiders, and dragon flies ; the last
of which we have seen cuckoos catching on the wing as they
were just emerging out of the aurelia state. Among this farrago
also were to be seen maggots, and many seeds, which belonged
either to gooseberries, currants, cranberries, or some such fruit ;
so that these birds apparently subsist on insects and fruits : nor
was there the least appearance of bones, feathers, or fur to support
the idle notion of their being birds of prey.f

The sternum in this bird seemed to us to be remarkably short,
between which and the anus lay the crop, or craw, and imme-
diately behind that the bowels against the back-bone.

It must be allowed, as this anatomist observes, that the crop
placed just upon the bowels must, especially when full, be in a
very uneasy situation during the business of incubation ; yet the
test will be to examine whether birds that are actually known
to sit for certain are not formed in a similar manner. This en-
quiry I proposed to myself to make with a fern-owl, or goat-
sucker, as soon as opportunity offered : because, if their forma-
tion proves the same, the reason for incapacity in the cuckoo will
be allowed to have been taken up somewhat hastily.

Not long after a fern-owl was procured, which, from its habit
and shape, we suspected might resemble the cuckoo in its internal
construction. Nor were our suspicions ill-grounded ; for, upon
the dissection, the crop, or craw, also lay behind the sternum,
immediately on the viscera, between them and the skin of the
belly. It was bulky, and stuffed hard with large phalcena, moths
of several sorts, and their eggs, which no doubt had been forced
out of those insects by the action of swallowing.

Now as it appears that this bird, which is so well known to
practise incubation, is formed in a similar manner with cuckoos,

* Histoire de I'Academie Royale, 1752.

t There is a notion prevalent that the stomach of the European cuckoo is internally coated
with smalt pads, the use of which, it has been stated, is to defend this organ against the irri-
tating effects of those of caterpillars. Nothing of the kind exists, as I have often had occasion tv>
observe, upon dissection. — ED.

192 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

Monsieur Herissant's conjecture, that cuckoos are incapable of
incubation from the disposition of their intestines, seems to fall
to the ground : and we are still at a loss for the cause of that
strange and singular peculiarity in the instance of the cuculus
canorus.*

We found the case to be the same with the ring-tail hawk, in
respect to formation; and, as far as I can recollect, with the
swift ; and probably it is so with many more sorts of birds that
are not granivorous.

I am, &c.

LETTER XXXI. To THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, Apicil 29, 1776.

ON August the 4th, 1775, we surprised a large viper, which
seemed very heavy and bloated, as it lay in the grass basking
in the sun. When we came to cut it up, we found that the ab-
domen was crowded with young, fifteen in number ; the shortest
of which measured full seven inches, and were about the size of
full-grown earth-worms. This little fry issued into the world
with the true viper-spirit about them, showing great alertness
as soon as disengaged from the belly of the dam : they twisted
and wriggled about, and set themselves up, and gaped very wide
when touched with a stick, showing manifest tokens of menace
and defiance, though as yet they had no manner of fangs that we
could find, even with the help of our glasses.

To a thinking mind nothing is more wonderful than that early
instinct which impresses young animals with the notion of the
situation of their natural weapons, and of using them properly
in their own defence, even before those weapons subsist or are
formed. Thus a young cock will spar at his adversary before his
spurs are grown ; and a calf or a lamb will push with their heads
before their horns are sprouted. In the same manner did these
young adders attempt to bite before their fangs were in being, f

* This most singular habit of the cuckoo is not to be accounted for upon any structural pecu-
liarities, as there are genera closely allied to it which incubate their own eggs ; while on the
other hand the same habit is observable in a bird of a very different family, the "cow-bunting"
of Wilson, one of the starling tribe. All proiferred explanations must therefore fall at once to
the ground, if not applicable alike to both. — ED.

t A still more extraordinary instinct is that which guards an animal against the weapons or
mode of attack, of an antagonist. This may be noticed in a thousand instances, but in none
more strikingly than in the manner a rat defends itself from a ferret, being perfectly aware that

EFFECTS OF EMASCULATION.

193

The dam however was furnished with very formidable ones,
which we lifted up (for they fold down when not used) and cut
them off with the point of our scissars.

There was little room to suppose that this brood had ever been
in the open air before ; and that they were taken in for refuge,
at the mouth of the dam, when she perceived that danger was
approaching ; because then probably we should have found them
somewhere in the neck, and not in the abdomen.

LETTER XXXII. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

CASTRATION has a strange effect : it emasculates both man,
beast, and bird, and brings them to a near resemblance of the
other fitex. Thus eunuchs have smooth unmuscular arms, thighs,
and legs ; and broad hips, and beardless chins, and squeaking
voices. Gelt-stags and bucks have hornless heads, like hinds
and does. Thus wethers have small horns, like ewes ; and oxen
large bent horns, and hoarse voices when they low, like cows :
for bulls have short straight horns ; and though they mutter and
grumble in a deep tremendous tone, yet they low in a shrill high
key. Capons have small combs and gills, and look pallid about
the head, like pullets ; they also walk without any parade, and

Barrow-hogs have also small tusks

hover chickens like hens,
like sows.*

its enemy's chief aim is at the back of its neck. On the same principle, we observe thrushes and
the other larger dentirostral birds, which feed readily on bees and wasps, invariably compress the
veuom out of the abdomen of the insect before swallowing it. — ED.

* An emasculate lion in the Surrey Zoological Gardens is thus as maneless as an ordinary
female.— ED.

O

194 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

Thus far it is plain that the deprivation of masculine vigour
puts a stop to the growth of those parts or appendages that are
looked upon as its insignia. But the ingenious Mr. Lisle, in his
book on husbandry, carries it much further ; for he says that the
loss of those insignia alone has sometimes a strange effect on the
ability itself : he had a boar so fierce and venereous, that, to pre-
vent mischief, orders were given for his tusks to be broken off.
No sooner had the beast suffered this injury than his powers
forsook him, and he neglected those females to whom before he
was passionately attached, and from whom no fences could
restrain him.

LETTER XXXIII To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON

THE natural term of a hog's life is little known, and the reason
is plain — because it is neither profitable nor convenient to keep
that turbulent animal to the full extent of its time : however, my
neighbour, a man of substance, who had no occasion to study
every little advantage to a nicety, kept a half bred Bantam-sow,
who was as thick as she was long, and whose belly swept on the
ground, till she was advanced to her seventeenth year ; at which
period she showed some tokens of age by the decay of her teeth
and the decline of her fertility.

For about ten years this prolific mother produced two litters
in the year of about ten at a time, and once above twenty at a
utter ; but, as there were near double the number of pigs to that
of teats, many died. From long experience in the world this
female was grown very sagacious and artful ; when she found
occasion to converse with a boar she used to open all the inter-
vening gates, and march, by herself, up to a distant farm where
one was kept ; and when her purpose was served would return
by the same means. At the age of about fifteen her litters began
to be reduced to four or five ; and such a litter she exhibited
when in her fatting-pen. She proved, when fat, good bacon,
juicy, and tender ; the rind, or sward, was remarkably thin. At
a moderate computation she was allowed to have been the fruit-
ful parent of three hundred pigs : a prodigious instance of fe-
cundity in so large a quadruped ! She was killed in spring 1775.

I am, &c.

ATTACHMENT OF ANIMALS. 195

LETTER XXXIV. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, May 9, 1776.

" adraorunt ubera tigres."

WE have remarked in a former letter how much incongruous
animals, in a lonely state, may be attached to each other from a
spirit of sociality ; in this it may riot be amiss to recount a dif-
ferent motive which has been known to create as strange a
fondness.

My friend had a little helpless leveret brought to him, which
the servants fed with milk in a spoon, and about the same time
his cat kittened and the young were dispatched and buried.
The hare was soon lost, and supposed to be gone the way of
most fondlings, to be killed by some dog or cat. However, in
about a fortnight, as the master was sitting in his garden in the
dusk of the evening, he observed his cat, with tail erect, trotting
towards him, and calling with little short inward notes of com-
placency, such as they use towards their kittens, and something
gamboling after, which proved to be the leveret that the cat had
supported with her milk, and continued to support with great
affection.*

Thus was a graminivorous animal nurtured by a carnivorous
and predaceous one !

Why so cruel and sanguinary a beast as a cat, of the ferocious
genus of Feles, the murium leo, as Linnaeus calls it, should be
affected with any tenderness towards an animal which is its
natural prey, is not so easy to determine.

This strange affection probably was occasioned by that desi-
derium, those tender maternal feelings, which the loss of her
kittens had awakened in her breast; and by the complacency
and ease she derived to herself from the procuring her teats to
be drawn, which were too much distended with milk, till, from
habit, she became as much delighted with this foundling as if it
had been her real offspring.

This incident is no bad solution of that strange circumstance

* Endless instances of similar occurrences are upon record, and J have myself seen a female
cat suckle a puppy. The parental feelings of small birds operate very strongly when in a state of
confinement ; I have continually witnessed birds in an aviary wishing- to feed each other, and
some of them will readily attend to any nestlings that are entrusted to their charge. Thus a
tree-pipit in my possession brought up a brood of ten young bottletits. Those species, however,
which are of a predatory, or at least omnivorous turn, are apt to be much less charitable. Th«
tits are of this character, and I have known a coletit (parus ater) very deliberately seize, and begin
to eat, one of a nest of kinglets which had been confided to its protection. — ED.

o 2

196 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

which grave historians as well as the poets assert, of exposed
children being sometimes nurtured by female wild beasts that
probably had lost their young. For it is not one whit more
marvellous that Romulus and Remus, in their infant state, should
be nursed by a she-wolf, than that a poor little sucking leveret
should be fostered and cherished by a bloody grimalkin.

" viridi foetam Mavortis in antro

Procubuisse lupam; geminos huic ubera circum
Ludere pendentes pueros, et lambere matrem
Impavidos : illam tereti cervice reflexam
Mulcere alteraos .et corpora fiugere lingua."

LETTER XXXV. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, May 20, 1777.

LANDS that are subject to frequent inundations are always poor;
and probably the reason may be because the worms are drowned.
The most insignificant insects and reptiles are of much more
consequence, and have much more influence in the economy of
nature, than the incurious are aware of; and are mighty in their
effect, from their minuteness, which renders them less an object
of attention; and from their numbers and fecundity. Earth-
worms, though in appearance a small and despicable link in the
chain of nature, yet, if lost, would make a lamentable chasm.
For, to say nothing of half the birds, and some quadrupeds which
are almost entirely supported by them, worms seem to be the
great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely
without them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and
rendering it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by draw-
ing straws and stalks of leaves and twigs into it ; and, most of
all, by throwing up such infinite numbers of lumps of earth
called worm-casts, which, being their excrement, is a fine manure
for grain and grass. Worms probably provide new soil for hills
and slopes where the rain washes the earth away; and they
affect slopes, probably to avoid being flooded. Gardeners and
farmers express their detestation of worms ; the former because
they render their walks unsightly, and make them much work :
and the latter because, as they think, worms eat their green corn.
But these men would find that the earth without worms would
soon become cold, hard-bound, and void of fermentation ; and
consequently steril : and besides, in favour of worms, it should
be hinted that green corn, plants, and flowers, are not so much

HOUSE-MARTINS. 197

injured by them as by many species of coleoptera (scarabs), and
tipulcK (long-legs), in their larva, or grub-state ; and by unnoticed
myriads of small shell-less snails, called slugs, which silently and
imperceptibly make amazing havoc in the field and garden.*

These hints we think proper to throw out in order to set, the
inquisitive and discerning to work.

A good monography of worms would afford much entertain-
ment and information at the same time, and would open a large
and new field in natural history. Worms work most in the
spring; but by no means lie torpid in the dead months ; are out
every mild night in the winter, as any person may be convinced
that will take the pains to examine his grass-plots with a candle ;
are hermaphrodites, and much addicted to venery, and conse-
quently very prolific. I am, &c.

LETTER XXXVI. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON

DEAR SIR, Selborne, Nov. 22, 1777.

You cannot but remember that the twenty-sixth and twenty-
seventh of last March were very hot days ; so sultry that every
body complained and were restless under those sensations to
which they had not been reconciled by gradual approaches.

This sudden summer-like heat was attended by many summer
coincidences ; for on those two days the thermometer rose to
sixty-six in the shade ; many species of insects revived and came
forth; some bees swarmed in this neighbourhood; the old
tortoise, near Lewes in Sussex, awakened and came forth out of
its dormitory ; and, what is most to my present purpose, many
house-swallows appeared and were very alert in many places, and
particularly at Cobham, in Surrey.

But as that short warm period was succeeded as well as pre-
ceded by harsh severe weather, with frequent frosts and ice, and
cutting winds, the insects withdrew, the tortoise retired again
into the ground, and the swallows were seen no more until the
tenth of April, when, the rigour of the spring abating, a softer
season began to prevail.

Again ; it appears by my journals for many years past, that

* Farmer Young, of Norton-farm, says that this spring (1777) about four acres of his wheat in
one field was entirely destroyed by slugs, which swarmed on .the blades of corn, and devoured it
as fast as it sprang

198 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

house-martins retire, to a bird, about the beginning of October ;
so that a person not very observant of such matters would con-
clude that they had taken their last farewell : but then it may
be seen in my diaries also that considerable flocks have disco-
vered themselves again in the first week of November, and often
on the fourth day of that month only for one day ; and that not
as if they were in actual migration, but playing about at their
leisure and feeding calmly, as if no enterprize of moment at all
agitated their spirits. And this was the case in the beginning
of this very month ; for, on the fourth of November, more than
twenty house-martins, which, in appearance, had all departed
about the seventh of October, were seen again, for that one morn-
ing only, sporting between my fields and the Hanger, and feast-
ing on insects which swarmed in that sheltered district. The
preceding day was wet and blustering, but the fourth was dark
and mild, and soft, the wind at south-west, and the thermometer
at 58 1 ; a pitch not common at that season of the year. More-
over, it may not be amiss to add in this place, that whenever
the thermometer is above 50 the bat comes flitting out in every
autumnal and winter-month.

From all these circumstances laid together, it is obvious that
torpid insects, reptiles, and quadrupeds, are awakened from their
profoundest slumbers by a little untimely warmth ; and there-
fore that nothing so much promotes this death-like stupor as a
defect of heat. And further, it is reasonable to suppose that
two whole species, or at least many individuals of those two
species, of British hirundines, do never leave this island at aD,
but partake of the same benumbed state : for we cannot suppose
that, after a month's absence, house-martins can return from
southern regions to appear for one morning in November, or that
house-swallows should leave the districts of Africa to enjoy, in
March, the transient summer of a couple of days.*

I am, &c.

LETTER XXXVII. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, Jan. 8, 1778.

THERE was in this village several years ago a miserable pauper,

* The former had of course arrived from some more northern part of the kingdom, and the
latter had in all likelihood (.Tossed the ocean with the same southerly hreezes which had brought
the summer weather As in all probability these last were not Selborne birds, they most likely
continued their course to the homes they had left the previous autumn.— ED.

RARE OCCURRENCE OF LEPROSY. 199

who, from his birth, was afflicted with a leprosy, as far as we
are aware of a singular kind, since it affected only the palms of
his hands and the soles of his feet. This scaly eruption usually
broke out twice in the year, at the spring and fall; and, by
peeling away, left the skin so thin and tender that neither his
hands nor feet were able to perform their functions ; so that the
poor object was half his time on crutches, incapable of employ,
and languishing in a tiresome state of indolence and inactivity.
His habit was lean, lank, and cadaverous. In this sad plight he
dragged on a miserable existence, a burden to himself and his
parish, which was obliged to support him till he was relieved by
death at more than thirty years of age.

The good women, who love to account for every defect in
children by the doctrine of longing, said that his mother felt a
violent propensity for oysters, which she was unable to gratify ;
and that the black rough scurf on his hands and feet were the
shells of that fish. We knew his parents, neither of which were
lepers ; his father in particular lived to be far advanced in years.

In all ages the leprosy has made dreadful havoc among man-
kind. The Israelites seem to have been greatly afflicted with it
from the most remote times ; as appears from the peculiar and
repeated injunctions given them in the Levitical law.* Nor was
the rancour of this foul disorder much abated in the last period
of their commonwealth, as may be seen in many passages of the
New Testament.

Some centuries ago this horrible distemper prevailed all Europe
over ; and our forefathers were by no means exempt, as appears
by the large provision made for objects labouring under this
calamity. There was an hospital for female lepers in the diocese
of Lincoln, a noble one near Durham, three in London and
Southwark, and perhaps many more in or near our great towns
and cities. Moreover, some crowned heads, and other wealthy
and charitable personages, bequeathed large legacies to such poor
people as languished under this hopeless infirmity.

It must therefore, in these days, be, to a humane and thinking
person, a matter of equal wonder and satisfaction, when he con-
templates how nearly this pest is eradicated, and observes that a
leper now is a rare sight. He will, moreover, when engaged in
such a train of thought, naturally enquire for the reason. This
happy change perhaps may have originated and been continued

* See Leviticus, chap. xiii. and xiv.

200 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

from the much smaller quantity of salted meat and fish now
eaten in these kingdoms ; from the use of linen next the skin ;
from the plenty of better bread ; and from the profusion of fruits,
roots, legumes, and greens, so common in every family. Three
or four centuries ago, before there were any enclosures, sown-
grasses, field-turnips, or field-carrots, or hay, all the cattle which
had grown fat in summer, and were not killed for winter use, were
turned out soon after Michaelmas to shift as they could through
the dead months ; so that no fresh meat could be had in winter
or spring. Hence the marvellous account of the vast stores of
salted flesh found in the larder of the eldest Spencer* in the days
of Edward the Second, even so late in the spring as the third of
May. It was from magazines like these that the turbulent
barons supported in idleness their riotous swarms of retainers
ready for any disorder or mischief. But agriculture is now
arrived at such a pitch of perfection, that our best and fattest
meats are killed in the winter ; and no man need eat salted flesh,
unless he prefers it, that has money to buy fresh.

One cause of this distemper might be, no doubt, the quantity
of wretched fresh and salt fish consumed by the commonalty at
all seasons as well as in lent ; which our poor now would hardly
be persuaded to touch.

The use of linen changes, shirts or shifts, in the room of
sordid and filthy woollen, long worn next the skin, is a matter of
neatness comparatively modern ; but must prove a great means
of preventing cutaneous ails. At this very time woollen instead
of linen prevails among the poorer Welch, who are subject to
foul eruptions.

The plenty of good wheaten bread that now is found among
all ranks of people in the south, instead of that miserable sort
which used in old days to be made of barley or beans, may con-
tribute not a little to the sweetening their blood and correcting
their juices ; for the inhabitants of mountainous districts, to this
day, are still liable to the itch and other cutaneous disorders,
from a wretchedness and poverty of diet.

As to the produce of a garden, every middle-aged person of
observation may perceive, within his own memory, both in town
and country, how vastly the consumption of vegetables is in-
creased. Green-stalls in cities now support multitudes in a
comfortable state, while gardeners get fortunes. Every decent

* Viz. Six hundred bacons, eighty carcasses nf beef, and six hundred muttons.

PROGRESS OF GARDENING. 201

labourer also has his garden, which is half his support, as well
as his delight ; and common farmers provide plenty of beans,
peas, and greens, for their hinds to eat with their bacon ; and
those few that do not are despised for their sordid parsimony,
and looked upon as regardless of the welfare of their dependents.
Potatoes have prevailed in this little district, by means of pre-
miums, within these twenty years only ; and are much esteemed
here now by the poor, who would scarce have ventured to taste
them in the last reign.

Our Saxon ancestors certainly had some sort of cabbage, be-
cause they call the month of February sprout-cale ; but, long
after their days, the cultivation of gardens was little attended to.
The religious, being men of leisure, and keeping up a constant
correspondence with Italy, were the first people among us that
had gardens and fruit-trees in any perfection, within the walls
of their abbeys and priories.* The barons neglected every
pursuit that did not lead to war or tend to the pleasure of the
chase.

It was not till gentlemen took up the study of horticulture
themselves that the knowledge of gardening made such hasty
advances. Lord Cobham, Lord Ila, and Mr. Waller of Beacons-
field, were some of the first people of rank that promoted the
elegant science of ornamenting without despising the superin-
tendence of the kitchen quarters and fruit-walls.

A remark made by the excellent Mr. Ray in his Tour of
Europe at once surprises us, and corroborates what has been
advanced above ; for we find him observing, so late as his days,
that "the Italians use several herbs for sallets, which are not
yet or have not been but lately used in England, viz. selleri (ce-
lery) which is nothing else but the sweet smallage ; the young
shoots whereof, with a little of the head of the root cut off, they
eat raw with oil and pepper." And further he adds, " curled
endive blanched is much used beyond seas ; and, for a raw sallet,
seemed to excel lettuce itself." Now this journey was under-
taken no longer ago than in the year 1663.

I am, &c.

k "In monasteries the lamp of knowledge continued to burn, however dimly. In them men
of business were formed for the state : the art of writing was cultivated by the monks ; they were
the only proficients in mechanics, gardening, and architecture."— See Dalrymple's Annals of
Scotland.

202 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

LETTER XXXVIII. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

" FortS puer, comitum seductus ab agmine fido,
Dixerat, ecquis adest ? et, adest, responderat echo.
Hie stupet ; utque aciem partes divisit in omnes ;
Voce, veni, clamat magna. Vocat ilia vocantem."

DEAR SIR, Selborne, Feb. 12, 1778.

IN a district so diversified as this, so full of hollow vales and
hanging woods, it is no wonder that echoes should abound.
Many we have discovered that return the cry of a pack of dogs,
the notes of a hunting-horn, a tunable ring of bells, or the me-
lody of birds, very agreeably : but we were still at a loss for a
polysyllabical, articulate echo, till a young gentleman, who had
parted from his company in a summer evening walk, ajad was
calling after them, stumbled upon a very curious one in a spot
where it might least be expected. At first he was much sur-
prised, and could not be persuaded but that he was mocked by
some boy ; but, repeating his trials in several languages, and
finding his respondent to be a very adroit polyglot, he then dis-
cerned the deception.

This echo in an evening, before rural noises cease, would re-
peat ten syllables most articulately and distinctly, especially if
quick dactyls were chosen. The last syllables of

" Tityre, tu patulae recubans — "

were as audibly and intelligibly returned as the first : and there
is no doubt, could trial have been made, but that at midnight,
when the air is very elastic, and a dead stillness prevails, one or
two syllables more might have been obtained ; but the distance
rendered so late an experiment very inconvenient.

Quick dactyls, we observed, succeeded best ; for when we
came to try its powers in slow, heavy, embarrassed spondees of
the same number of syllables,

" Monstrum horrendum,informe, ingens — "

we could perceive a return but of four or five.

All echoes have some one place to which they are returned
stronger and more distinct than to any other ; and that is always
the place that lies at right angles with the object of repercussion,
and is not too near, nor too far off. Buildings, or naked rocks,

ECHOES. 203

re-echo much more articulately than hanging woods or vales ;
because in the latter the voice is as it were entangled, and em-
barrassed in the covert, and weakened in the rebound.

The true object of this echo, as we found by various experi-
ments, is the stone-built, tiled hop-kiln in Gally-lane, which
measures in front forty feet, and from the ground to the eaves
twelve feet. The true centrum phonicum, or just distance, is one
particular spot in the KingVfield, in the path to Nore-hill, on
the very brink of the steep balk above the hollow cart-way. In
this case there is no choice of distance ; but the path, by mere
contingency, happens to be the lucky, the identical spot, because
the ground rises or falls so immediately, if the speaker either
retires or advances, that his mouth would at once be above or
below the object.

We measured this polysyllabical echo with great exactness,
and found the distance to fall very short of Dr. Plot's rule for
distinct articulation : for the Doctor, in his history of Oxford-
shire, allows 120 feet for the return of each syllable distinctly :
hence this echo, which gives ten distinct syllables, ought to mea-
sure 400 yards, or 120 feet to each syllable; whereas our dis-
tance is only 258 yards, or near 75 feet, to each syllable. Thus
our measure falls short of the Doctor's, as five to eight : but then
it must be acknowledged that this candid philosopher was con-
vinced afterwards, that some latitude must be admitted of in the
distance of echoes according to time and place.

When experiments of this sort are making, it should always
be remembered that weather and the time of day have a vast
influence on an echo ; for a dull, heavy, moist air deadens and
clogs the sound ; and hot sunshine renders the air thin and weak,
and deprives it of all its springiness ; and a ruffling wind quite
defeats the whole. In a still, clear, dewy evening the air is most
elastic ; and perhaps the later the hour the more so.

Echo has always been so amusing to the imagination, that
the poets have personified her ; and in their hands she has been
the occasion of many a beautiful fiction. Nor need the gravest
man be ashamed to appear taken with such a phenomenon, since
it may become the subject of philosophical or mathematical
enquiries.

One should have imagined that echoes, if not entertaining,
must at least have been harmless and inoffensive ; yet Virgil ad-
vances a strange notion, that they are injurious to bees. After

204 NATURAL HISTORY OP SELBORNE.

enumerating some probable and reasonable annoyances, such as
prudent owners would wish far removed from their bee-gardens,
he adds

" aut ubi concava pulsu

Saxa sonant, vocisque offensa resultat imago."

This wild and fanciful assertion will hardly be admitted by
the philosophers of these days ; especially as they all now seem
agreed that insects are not furnished with any organs of hearing
at all. But if it should be urged, that though they cannot hear
yet perhaps they may feel the repercussion of sounds, I grant it
is possible they may. Yet that these impressions are distasteful
or hurtful, I deny, because bees, in good summers, thrive well
in my outlet, where the echoes are very strong : for this village
is another Anathoth, a place of responses or echoes. Besides, it
does not appear from experiment that bees are in any way capa-
ble of being affected by sounds : for I have often tried my own
with a large speaking-trumpet held close to their hives, and with
such an exertion of voice as would have hailed a ship at the dis-
tance of a mile, and still these insects pursued their various em-
ployments undisturbed, and without showing the least sensibility
or resentment.

Some time since its discovery, this echo is become totally
silent, though the object, or hop-kiln, remains : nor is there any
mystery in this defect ; for the field between is planted as a hop-
garden, and the voice of the speaker is totally absorbed and lost
among the poles and entangled foliage of the hops. And when
the poles are removed in autumn the disappointment is the same ;
because a tall quick-set hedge, nurtured up for the purpose of
shelter to the hop-ground, entirely interrupts the impulse and
repercussion of the voice : so that till these obstructions are re-
moved no more of its garrulity can be expected.

Should any gentleman of fortune think an echo in his park or
outlet a pleasing incident, he might build one at little or no ex-
pense. For whenever he had occasion for a new barn, stable,
dog-kennel, or the like structure, it would be only needful to
erect this building on the gentle declivity of a hill, with a like
rising opposite to it, at a few hundred yards distance ; and per-
haps success might be the easier ensured could some canal, lake,
or stream, intervene. From a seat at the centrum phonicum he
and his friends might amuse themselves sometimes of an evening
with the prattle of this loquacious nymph ; of whose complacency

SWIFTS. 205

and decent reserve more may be said than xian with truth of
every individual of her sex ; since she is

" quae nee reticere loquenti,

Nee prior ipsa loqui didicit resonabilis echo."*

I am, &c.

P.S. The classic reader will, I trust, pardon the following
lovely quotation, so finely describing echoes, and so poetically
accounting for their causes from popular superstition :

" Quae bend quom videas, rationem reddere possis
Tute tibi atque aliis, quo pacto per loca sola
Saxa pareis formas verborum ex ordine reddant,
Palanteis coraites quom monteis inter opacos
Quaerimus, et magna disperses voce ciemus.
Sex etiam, aut septem loca vidi reddere voces
Unam quom jaceres ; ita colles collibus ipsis
Verba repulsantes iterabant dicta referre.
Haec loca «apripedes Satyros, Nymphasque tenere
Finitimi fingunt, et Faunos esse loquuntur ;
Quorum noctiv ago strepitu, ludoquejocanti
Adfirmant volgo taciturna silentia rumpi,
Chordarumque sonos fieri, dulceisque querelas,
Tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum ;
Et genus agricolum lat£ sentiscere, quom Pan
Pinea semiferi capitis velamina quassans,
Unco saepe labro calamos percurrit hianteis,
Fistula silvestrem ne cesset fundere musam."

LUCRETIUS, Lib. iv. 1. 576.

LETTER XXXIX. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON,
DEAR SIR, Selborne, May 13, 1778.

AMONG the many singularities attending those amusing birds
the swifts, I am now confirmed in the opinion that we have every
year the same number of pairs invariably ; at least the result of
my enquiry has been exactly the same for a long time past. The
swallows and martins are so numerous, and so widely distributed
over the village, that it is hardly possible to recount them ; while
the swifts, though they do not all build in the church, yet so fre-
quently haunt it, and play and rendezvous round it, that they are
easily enumerated. The number that I constantly find are eight
pairs ; about half of which reside in the church, and the rest build

* One of the finest echoes I ever remember to have heard was at sea, near the town of St.
Pierre, in Guernsey. The reverberation of the report of the evening gun from rock to rock wa»
grand in the extreme, and after dying away, as might be imagined, was again repeated from
some rocks at a distance, with the same thundering continuous roll that was heard before. — ED.

206 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

in some of the lowest and meanest thatched cottages. Now as
these eight pairs, allowance being made for accidents, breed
yearly eight pairs more, what becomes annually of this increase ;
and what determines every spring which pairs shall visit us, and
reoccupy their ancient haunts ?

Ever since I have attended to the subject of ornithology, I
have always supposed that that sudden reverse of affection, that
strange avruTTopyrj, which immediately succeeds in the feathered
kind to the most passionate fondness, is the occasion of an equal
dispersion of birds over the face of the earth. Without this
provision one favourite district would be crowded with inhabitants,
while others would be destitute and forsaken. But the parent
birds seem to maintain a jealous superiority, and to oblige the
young to seek for new abodes : and the rivalry of the males, in
many kinds, prevents their crowding the one on the other. Whe-
ther the swallows and house-martins return in the same exact
number annually is not easy to say, for reasons given above : but
it is apparent, as I have remarked before in my Monographies,
that the numbers returning bear no manner of proportion to the
numbers retiring.

LETTER XL. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.
DEAR SIR, Selborne, June 2, 1778.

THE standing objection to botany has always been, that it is a
pursuit which amuses the fancy and exercises the memory, with-
out improving the mind or advancing any real knowledge : and,
where the science is carried no further than a mere systematic
classification, the charge is but too true. But the botanist that
is desirous of wiping off this aspersion should be by no means
content with a list of names ; he should study plants philo-
sophically, should investigate the laws of vegetation, should
examine the powers and virtues of efficacious herbs, should pro-
mote their cultivation ; and graft the gardener, the planter, and
the husbandman, on the phytoiogist. Not that system is by any
means to be thrown aside ; without system the field of Nature
would be a pathless wilderness : but system should be subser-
vient to, not the main object of, pursuit.

Vegetation is highly worthy of our attention ; and in itself is

BOTANY. 207

of the utmost consequence to mankind, and productive of many
of the greatest comforts and elegancies of life. To plants we
owe timber, bread, beer, honey, wine, oil, linen, cotton, &c., what
not only strengthens our hearts, and exhilarates our spirits, but
what secures us from inclemencies of weather and adorns our
persons. Man, in his true state of nature, seems to be subsisted
by spontaneous vegetation : -in middle climes, where grasses pre-
vail, he mixes some animal food with the produce of the field and
garden : and it is towards the polar extremes only that, like his
kindred bears and wolves, he gorges himself with flesh alone,
and is driven, to what hunger has never been known to compel
the very beasts, to prey on his own species,.*

The productions of vegetation have had a vast influence on the
commerce of nations, and have been the great promoters of navi-
gation, as may be seen in the articles of sugar, tea, tobacco,
opium, ginseng, betel, paper, &c. As every climate has its pe-
culiar produce, our natural wants bring on a mutual intercourse ;
so that by means of trade each distant part is supplied with the
growth of every latitude. But, without the knowledge of plants
and their culture, we must have been content with our hips and
haws, without enjoying the delicate fruits of India and the salu-
tiferous drugs of Peru.

Instead of examining the minute distinctions of every various
species of each obscure genus, the botanist should endeavour to
make himself acquainted with those that are useful. You shall
see a man readily ascertain every herb of the field, yet hardly
know wheat from barley, or at least one sort of wheat or barley
from another.

But of all sorts of vegetation the grasses seem to be most
neglected ; neither the farmer nor the grazier seem to distinguish
the annual from the perennial, the hardy from the tender, nor the
succulent and nutritive from the dry and juiceless.

The study of grasses would be of great consequence to a
northerly, and grazing kingdom. The botanist that could im-
prove the swerd of the district where he lived would be a useful
member of society : to raise a thick turf on a naked soil would
be worth volumes of systematic knowledge ; and he would be
the best commonwealth's man that could occasion the growth of
" two blades of grass where one alone was seen before. "f

I am, &c.

* See the late Voyages to the South Seas.

t This letter hag, with good reason, been often recommended to the attentive perusal of tin.
philosophical botanist. — ED.

208 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

LETTER XLI. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON
DEAR SIR, Selborne, July 3, 1778.

IN a district so diversified with such a variety of hill and dale,
aspects, and soils, it is no wonder that great choice of plants
should be found. Chalks, clays, sands, sheep-walks and downs,
bogs, heaths, woodlands, and champaign fields, cannot but fur-
nish an ample Flora. The deep rocky lanes abound with Jilices,
and the pastures and moist woods with fungi. If in any branch
of botany we may seem to be wanting, it must be in the large
aquatic plants, which are not to be expected on a spot far removed
from rivers, and lying up amidst the hill country at the spring
heads. To enumerate all the plants that have been discovered
within our limits would be a needless work ; but a short list of
the more rare, and the spots where they are to be found, may.be
neither unacceptable nor unentertaining : —

Helleborus fatidus, stinking hellebore, bear's foot, or setter-
wort, all over the High-wood and Coney- croft-hanger : this con-
tinues a great branching plant the winter through, blossoming
about January, and is very ornamental in shady walks and
shrubberies. The good women give the leaves powdered to
children troubled with worms ; but it is a violent remedy, and
•ought to be administered with caution.

Helleborus viridis, green hellebore, — in the deep stony lane on
the left hand just before the turning to Norton-farm, and at the
top of Middle Dorton under the hedge : this plant dies down to
the ground early in autumn, and springs again about February,
flowering almost as soon as it appears above ground.

Vaccinium oxycoccos, creeping bilberries, or cranberries, — in
the bogs of Bin's-pond ;

Vaccinium myrtillus, whortle, or bilberries,— on the dry hil-
locks of Wolmer-forest ;

Drosera rotundifolia, round-leaved sundew ^ In the bogs of

longifolia, long-leaved ditto S Bin's pond.

Comarum palustre, purple comarum, or marsh cinque foil, — in
the bogs of Bin's pond ;

Hypericum androscemum, Tutsan, St. John's Wort, — in the
stony, hollow lanes ;

Vinca minor, less periwinkle, — in Selborne-hanger and Shrub-
wood;

PLANTS— PERIODS OF BLOSSOMING. 209

Monotropa hypopithys, yellow monotropa, or bird's nest, — in
Selborne-hanger under the shady beeches, to whose roots it seems
to be parasitical, — at the north-west end of the Hanger ;

Chlora perfoliata, Blackstonia perfoliata, Hudsoni, perfoliated
yellow- wort, — on the banks in the King's-field;

Paris quadrifolia, herb Paris, true-love, or one-berry, — in the
Church-litten-coppice ;

Chrysosplenium oppositifolium, opposite golden saxifrage, — in
the dark and rocky hollow lanes ;

Gentiana amarella, autumnal gentian, or fellwort, — on the Zig-
zag and Hanger ;

Lathrcea squammaria, tooth-wort, — in the Church-litten-cop-
pice under some hazels near the foot-bridge, in Trimming's gar-
den hedge, and on the dry wall opposite Grange-yard ;

Dipsacus pilosus, small teasel, — in the Short and Long Lith.

Lathyrus sylvestris, narrow-leaved, or wild lathyrus, — in the
bushes at the foot of the Short Lith, near the path ;

Ophrys spiralis, ladies' traces, — in the Long Lith, and towards
the south corner of the common ;

Ophrys nidus avis, birds' nest ophrys, — in the Long Lith under
the shady beeches among the dead leaves ; in Great Dorton
among the bushes, and on the Hanger plentifully ;

Serapias latifolia, helleborine, — in the High-wood under the
shady beeches ;

Daphne laureola, spurge-laurel, — in Selborne Hanger and the
High-wood.

Daphne mezereum, the mezereon, — in Selborne Hanger among
the shrubs at the south-east end above the cottages.

Lycoperdon tuber, truffles, — in the Hanger and High-wood.

Sambucus ebulus, dwarf elder, wallwort, or danewort, — among
the rubbish and ruined foundations of the Priory.

Of all the propensities of plants none seem more strange than
their different periods of blossoming. Some produce their flowers
in the winter, or very first dawnings of spring ; many when the
spring is established ; some at midsummer, and some not till
autumn. When we see the helleborus fcetidus and helleborus niger
blowing at Christmas, the helleborus hy emails in January, and the
helleborus viridis as soon as ever it emerges out of the ground,
we do not wonder, because they are kindred plants that we ex-
pect should keep pace the one with the other. But other conge-
nerous vegetables differ so widely in their time of flowering, that

210 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

we cannot but admire. I shall only instance at present in the
crocus sativus, the vernal, and the autumnal crocus, which have
such an affinity, that the best botanists only make them varieties
of the same genus, of which there is only one species ; not being
able to discern any difference in the corolla, or in the internal
structure.* Yet the vernal crocus expands its flowers by the
beginning of March at furthest, and often in very rigorous wea-
ther ; and cannot be retarded but by some violence offered : —
while the autumnal (the saffron) defies the influence of the spring
and summer, and will not blow till most plants begin to fade and
run to seed. This circumstance is one of the wonders of the
creation, little noticed, because a common occurrence : yet ought
not to be overlooked on account of its being familiar, since it
would be as difficult to be explained as the most stupendous phe-
nomenon in nature.

Say, what impels, amidst surrounding snow
Congeal'd, the crocus* flamy bud to glow '
Say, what retards, amidst the summer's blaze,
Th' autumnal bulb, till pale, declining days ?
The GOD of SEASONS, 'whose pervading power
Controls the sun, or sheds the fleecy shower.
He bids each flower his quick'ning word obey ;
Or to each lingering bloom enjoins delay.

* The croctts verniti and C. sativus are now, I believe, universally acknowledged as distinct spe-
cies, of which few botanists entertain a doubt. Almost as familiar an instance may be cited
in the ulex vulgarii and U. nana, two allied species of furze, both of which are very abundant on
the heaths around London : the former of them flowering chiefly in April and May, the latter
never until the autumn. Plants in general are not much subject to variation in wild nature, but
some remarkable exceptions obtain in the one genus primula. The wild auricula, for example,
assumes two very different aspects in its indigenous localities, which have usually been accepted
as distinct species : but a more extraordinary variety occurs in the common primula vulgaris* it
having been ascertained that the primrose, the covrslip, and the oxlip, together with all the nu-
merous cultivated polyanthuses, are simply varieties of the same original stock. In addition to
the proofs adduced of this startling fact by Professor Henslow and the Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert,
I may mention that, a season or two ago, being much struck with the beautiful appearance of a
bank of various coloured primroses, in front of the porter's lodge, atBeddington Park, in Surrey,
1 was informed by the inmate of the lodge that they had all been raised from the carefully col-
lected seed of some very choice polyanthuses, which he showed me in his back garden, and which
had been sown in the hope and expectation of raising some good plants, of the kind last men-
tioned. Indeed, it is not very unusual for cultivated polyanthuses to throw forth a few flowers
from the root, in addition to those borne on a general stem ; and there is a common variety,
with flowers of the true primrose colour and character, growing, as in the ordinary polyan-
thuses, upon a raised stalk — ED.

PECULIARITIES OF BIRDS. 21]

LETTER XLII. To THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON

" Omnibus animalibus reliquis certus et uniusmodi, et in suo cuique genere inces-
sus est : aves solae vario nieatu feruntur, et in terra, et in aere."

PLIN. Hist. Nat. lib. x. ^ap. 38.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, Aug. 7, 1778.

A GOOD ornithologist should be able to distinguish birds by their
air as well as by their colours and shape ; on the ground as well
as on the wing, and in the bush as well as in the hand. For,
though it must not be said that every species of birds has a man-
ner peculiar to itself, yet there is somewhat in most genera at
least, that at first sight discriminates them, and enables a judicious
observer to pronounce upon them with some certainty. Put a
bird in motion

" Et vera incessu patuit "

Thus kites and buzzards sail round in circles with wings ex-
panded and motionless ; and it is from their gliding manner that
the former are still called in the north of England gleads, from
the Saxon verb glidan to glide. The kestrel, or wind-hover, has
a peculiar mode of hanging in the air in one place, his wings all
the while being briskly agitated. Hen-
harriers fly low over heaths or fields
of corn, and beat the ground regularly
like a pointer or setting-dog. Owls
move in a buoyant manner, as if lighter
than the air ; they seem to want bal-
last. There is a peculiarity belonging
to ravens that must draw the attention
even of the most incurious — they
spend all their leisure time in striking and cuffing each other on
the wing in a kind of playful skirmish ; and, when they move
from one place to another, frequently turn on their backs with a
loud croak, and seem to be falling to the ground. When this odd
gesture betides them, they are scratching themselves with one
foot, and thus lose the centre of gravity. Rooks sometimes dive
and tumble in a frolicsome manner : crows and daws swagger in
their walk ; wood-peckers fly volatu undoso, opening and closing
their wings at every stroke, and so are always rising or falling in

P 2

212 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

curves.* All of this genus use their tails, which incline down-
ward, as a support while they run up trees.
Parrots, like all other hooked-clawed birds,
walk awkwardly, and make use of their bill
as a third foot, climbing and descending
with ridiculous caution. All the gallinae
parade and walk gracefully, and run nimbly ;
but fly with difficulty, with an impetuous
whirring, and in a straight line. Magpies
and jays flutter with powerless wings, and
make no despatch ; herons seem encumbered
with too much sail for their light bodies; spotted Pie woodpecker.
but these vast hollow wings are necessary in carrying burdens,
such as large fishes, and the like ; pigeons, and particularly the
sort called smiters, have a way of clashing their wings the one
against the other over their backs with a loud snap ; another va-
riety called tumblers turn themselves over in the air. Some birds
have movements peculiar to the season of love : thus ring-doves,
though strong and rapid at other times, yet in the spring hang
about on the wing in a toying and playful manner ; thus the
cock-snipe, while breeding, forgetting his former flight, fans the
air like the wind-hover ; and the green-finch in particular exhibits
such languishing .and faultering gestures as to appear like a
wounded and dying bird ; the king-fisher darts along like an
arrow ; fern-owls, or goat-suckers, glance in the dusk over the
tops of trees like a meteor ; starlings as it
were swim along, while missel-thrushes use
a wild and desultory flight ; swallows sweep
over the surface of the ground and water,
and distinguish themselves by rapid turns
and quick evolutions ; swifts dash round in
circles ; and the bank-martin moves with fre-
quent vacillations like a butterfly. Most of
the small birds fly by jerks, rising and falling
as they advance. Most small birds hop ; but
wagtails and larks walk, moving their legs
alternately. f Skylarks rise and fall perpendicularly as they sing ;

* Notwithstanding this general character of flight, which is also applicable to the little tree-
creeper, there is sufficient individual diversity between the style of flying of our different species
of woodpecker ; the smallest is considerably the most swift, having proportionably longer wings
than the others, while the angle at which it ordinarily extends the wing reminds one, as it
passes overhead, forcibly of the chimney-swallow. — ED.

f There i» considereble difference between the ambulatory progression of the tree-pipit (or tit-

PECULIARITIES OF BIRDS. 113

woodlarks hang poised in the air ; and titlarks rise and fall in
large curves, singing in their descent. The white-throat uses
odd jerks and gesticulations over the tops of hedges and bushes.
All the duck kind waddle ; divers and auks walk as if fettered,
and stand erect on their tails : these are the compedes of Linnseus.
Geese and cranes, and most wild fowls, move in figured nights,
often changing their position. The secondary remiges of Tringae,
wild ducks, and some others, are very long, and give their wings,
when in motion, a hooked appearance. Dab-chicks, moor-hens,
and coots, fly erect, with their legs hanging down, and hardly
make any despatch ; the reason is plain, their wings are placed
too forward out of the true centre of gravity ; as the legs of auks
and divers are situated too backward.

LETTER XLIII. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, Sept. 9, 1778.

FROM the motion of birds, the transition is natural enough to
their notes and language, of which I shall say something. Not
that I would pretend to understand their language like the vizier,
who, by the recital of a conversation which passed between two
owls, reclaimed a sultan,* before delighting in conquest and
devastation ; but I would be thought only to mean that many of
the winged tribes have various sounds and voices adapted to
express their various passions, wants, and feelings ; such as anger,
fear, love, hatred, hunger, and the like. All species are not

lark, as Mr. White terms it) and the other species of anthus, all of which again strikingly differ
from the larks, which advance by short quick steps, and with the tarsal joint much bent. The
tree-pipit walks slowly, with somewhat of the gait of a gallinaceous bird ; the common and shore
pipits running in the manner of a wagtail. Among walking, or rather running birds, must also
be included the blue-throated fantail, or blue-throated redstart, as Mr. Selby and others erro-
neously term it, a species which invariably advances with an alternate motion of the feet, and
runs very rapidly, whereas all the redstarts hop. The fantail is a bird of beautiful plumage,
which as yet has only been once met with in the British Isles, on a wild Northumbrian moor— a
locality which no redstart would have frequented. It is intermediate in its general character
between the redstarts and water-wagtails, which latter it more resembles in habit, much fre-
quenting, according to Bechstein, the vicinity of water. A living specimen that 1 once bad an
opportunity of watching for a considerable time, in the aviary of Professor Rennic, was much in
the habit of widely spreading the tail, at intervals, as it ran about. It was very tame, and would
readily take insect food from the hand. This species has rather a pleasing song, some of its
notes a little resembling those of the wagtail. It is, however, a single moulting bird, allied to
the redstarts, to the chats, and to certain ousels (petrocincla) . A congener to it has lately been
detected in the Himmalaya mountains. — ED.
* See Spectator, Vol. Vll., No. 512.

214 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

equally eloquent; some are copious and fluent as it were in their
utterance, while others are confined to a few important sounds :
no bird, like the fish kind, is quite mute, though some are rather
silent.* The language of birds is very ancient, and, like other
ancient modes of speech, very elliptical : little is said, but much
is meant and understood.

The notes of the eagle-kind are shrill and piercing ; and about
the season of nidification much diversified, as I have been often
assured by a curious observer of Nature, who long resided at
Gibraltar, where eagles abound. The notes of our hawks much
resemble those of the king of birds. Owls have very expressive
notes ; they hoot in a fine vocal sound, much resembling the vox
humana, and reducible by a pitch-pipe to a musical key. This
note seems to express complacency and rivalry among the males :
they use also a quick call and a horrible scream ; and can snore
and hiss when they mean to menace. Ravens, besides their loud
croak, can exert a deep and solemn note that makes the woods
to echo ; the amorous sound of a crow is strange and ridiculous ;
rooks, in the breeding season, attempt sometimes in the gaiety
of their hearts to sing, but with no great success ; the parrot-
kind have many modulations of voice, as appears by their aptitude
to learn human sounds ; doves coo in an amorous and mournful
manner, and are emblems of despairing lovers ; the woodpecker
sets up a sort of loud and hearty laugh ; the fern-owl, or goat-
sucker, from the dusk till day-break, serenades his mate with the
clattering of castanets. All the tuneful passeres express their
complacency by sweet modulations, and a variety of melody.
The swallow, as has been observed in a former letter, by a shrill
alarm bespeaks the attention of the other hirundines, and bids
them be aware that the hawk is at hand. Aquatic and gregarious
birds, especially the nocturnal, that shift their quarters in the
dark, are very noisy and loquacious ; as cranes, wild-geese, wild-
ducks, and the like : their perpetual clamour prevents them from
dispersing and losing their companions.

In so extensive a subject, sketches and outlines are as much
as can be expected ; for it would be endless to instance in all the
infinite variety of the feathered nation. We shall therefore con-
fine the remainder of this letter to the few domestic fowls of our
yards, which are most known, and therefore best understood.

* Several fishes are known to utter sounds : the gurnets, for instance, all of which have a
peculiar gruut, or other cry, when taken out' of the water.— ED.

DOMESTIC FOWLS. 215

And first the peacock, with his gorgeous train, demands our
attention ; but, like most of the gaudy birds, his notes are
grating and shocking to the ear : the yelling of cats, and the bray-
ing of an ass, are not more disgustful. The voice of the goose
is trumpet-like, and clanking; and one saved the Capitol of
Rome, as grave historians assert : the hiss also of the gander is
formidable and full of menace, and "protective of his young."
Among ducks the sexual distinction of voice is remarkable ; for,
while the quack of the female is loud and sonorous, the voice of
the drake is inward and harsh, and feeble, and scarce discernible.
The cock turkey struts and gobbles to his mistress in a most un-
couth manner ; he hath also a pert and petulant note when he
attacks his adversary. When a hen turkey leads forth her young
brood she keeps a watchful eye : and if a bird of prey appear,
though ever so high in the air, the careful mother announces
the enemy with a little inward moan, and watches him with a
steady and attentive look ; but, if he approach, her note becomes
earnest and alarming, and her outcries are redoubled.

No inhabitants of a yard seem possessed of such a variety of
expression and so copious a language as common poultry. Take
a chicken of four or five days old, and hold it up to a window
where there are flies, and it will immediately seize its prey, with
little twitterings of complacency ; but if you tender it a wasp or
a bee, at once its note becomes harsh, and expressive of dis-
approbation and a sense of danger. When a pullet is ready to
lay she intimates the event by a joyous and easy soft note. Of
all the occurrences of their life that of laying seems to be the
most important ; for no sooner has a hen disburdened herself,
than she rushes forth with a clamorous kind of joy, which the
cock and the rest of his mistresses immediately adopt. The
tumult is not confined to the family concerned, but catches from
yard to yard, and spreads to every homestead within hearing,
till at last the whole village is in an uproar. As soon as a hen
becomes a mother, her new relation demands a new language ;
she then runs clocking and screaming about, and seems agitated
as if possessed. The father of the flock has also a considerable
vocabulary ; if he finds food, he calls a favourite concubine to
partake ; and if a bird of prey passes over, with a warning voice
he bids his family beware. The gallant chanticleer has, at com-
mand, his amorous phrases and his terms of defiance. But the
sound by which he is best known is his crowing : by this he has

216 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

been distinguished in all ages as the countryman's clock or
larum, as the watchman that proclaims the divisions of the night.
Thus the poet elegantly stiles him :

-the crested cock whose clarion sounds

The silent hours."

A neighbouring gentleman one summer had lost most of his
chickens by a sparrow-hawk, that came gliding down between
a faggot pile and the end of his house to the place where the
coops stood. The owner, inwardly vexed to see his flock thus
diminishing, hung a setting net adroitly between the pile and
the house, into which the caitif dashed, and was entangled.
Resentment suggested the law of retaliation ; he therefore clipped
the hawk's wings, cut off his talons, and, fixing a cork on his
bill, threw him down among the brood-hens. Imagination cannot
paint the scene that ensued ; the expressions that fear, rage, and
revenge, inspired, were new, or at least such as had been unno-
ticed before : the exasperated matrons upbraided, they execrated,
they insulted, they triumphed. In a word, they never desisted
from buffeting their adversary till they had torn him in a hundred
pieces.

LETTER XLIV. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

Selborne.

-monstrent

Quid tantum Oceano properent se tingere soles
Hyberni; vel quae tardis mora noctibus obstet."

GENTLEMEN who have outlets might contrive to make orna-
ment subservient to utility ; a pleasing eye-trap might also con-
tribute to promote science : an obelisk in a garden or park might
be both an embellishment and an heliotrope.

Any person that is curious, and enjoys the advantage of a
good horizon, might, with little trouble, make two heliotropes ;
the one for the winter, the other for the summer solstice : and
these two erections might be constructed with very little ex-
pense ^ for two pieces of timber frame -work, about ten or twelve
feet high, and four feet broad at the base, and close lined with
plank, would answer the purpose.

The erection for the former should, if possible, be placed

OBELISKS. 217

within sight of some window in the common sitting parlour;
because men, at that dead season of the year, are usually within
doors at the close of the day ; while that for the latter might be
fixed for any given spot in the garden or outlet : whence the
owner might contemplate, in a fine summer's evening, the
utmost extent that the sun makes to the northward at the season
of the longest days. Now nothing would be necessary but to
place these two objects with so much exactness, that the westerly
limb of the sun, at setting, might but just clear the winter helio-
trope to the west of it on the shortest day ; and that the whole
disc of the sun, at the longest day, might exactly at setting also
clear the summer heliotrope to the north of it.

By this simple expedient it would soon appear that there is
no such thing, strictly speaking, as a solstice; for, from the
shortest day, the owner would, every clear evening, see the disc
advancing, at its setting, to the westward of the object; and,
from the longest day, observe the sun retiring backwards every
evening at its setting, towards the object westward, till, in a
few nights, it would set quite behind it, and so by degrees to
the west of it : for when the sun comes near the summer solstice,
the whole disc of it would at first set behind the object ; after a
time the northern limb would first appear, and so every night
gradually more, till at length the whole diameter would set
northward of it for about three nights ; but on the middle night
of the three, sensibly more remote than the former or following.
When beginning its recess from the summer tropic, it would
continue more and more to be hidden every night, till at length
it would descend quite behind the object again ; and so nightly
more and more to the westward.

LETTER XLV. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

Selborne.

-Mugire videbis

Sub pedibus terrain, et descendere montibus ornos."

WHEN I was a boy I used to read, with astonishment and im-
plicit assent, accounts in Baker's Chronicle of walking hills and
travelling mountains. John Philips, in his Cyder, alludes to the
credit that was given to such stories with a delicate but quaint
vein of humour peculiar to the author of the Splendid Shilling.

218 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

" I nor advise, nor reprehend the choice
Of Marcley Hill ; the apple no where finds
A kinder mould : yet 'tis unsafe to trust
Deceitful ground : who knows but that once more
This mount may journey, and his present site
Forsaken, to thy neighbour's bounds transfer
Thy goodly plants, affording matter strange
For law debates !"

But, when I came to consider better, I began to suspect that
though our hills may never have journeyed far, yet that the ends
of many of them have slipped and fallen away at distant periods,
leaving the cliffs bare and abrupt. This seems to have been the
case with Nore and Whetham Hills; and especially with the
ridge between Harteley Park and Wardleham, where the ground
has slid into vast swellings and furrows ; and lies still in such
romantic confusion as cannot be accounted for from any other
cause. A strange event, that happened not long since, justifies
our suspicions ; which, though it befell not within the limits of
this parish, yet as it was within the hundred of Selborne, and as
the circumstances were singular, may fairly claim a place in a
work of this nature.

The months of January and February, in the year 1774, were
remarkable for great melting snows and vast gluts of rain, so
that by the end of the latter month the land-springs, or lavants,
began to prevail, and to be near as high as in the memorable
winter of 1764. The beginning of March also went on in the
same tenour ; when, in the night between the 8th and 9th of that
month, a considerable part of the great woody hanger at Hawk-
ley was torn from its place, and fell down, leaving a high free-
stone cliff naked and bare, and resembling the steep side of a
chalk-pit. It appears that this huge fragment, being perhaps
sapped and undermined by waters, foundered, and was ingulfed,
going down in a perpendicular direction ; for a gate which stood
in the field, on the top of the hill, after sinking with its posts
for thirty or forty feet, remained in so true and upright a posi-
tion as to open and shut with great exactness, just as in its first
situation. Several oaks also are still standing, and in a state of
vegetation, after taking the same desperate leap. That great
part of this prodigious mass was absorbed in some gulf below,
is plain also from the inclining ground at the bottom of the hill,
which is free and unincumbered ; but would have been buried
in heaps of rubbish had the fragment parted and fallen forward.
About a hundred yards from the foot of this hanging coppice

CATASTROPHE AT HARTELEY PARK. 219

stood a cottage by the side of a lane; and two hundred yards
lower, on the other side of the lane, was a farm-house, in which
lived a labourer and his family ; and, just by, a stout new barn
The cottage was inhabited by an old woman and her son and
his wife. These people in the evening, which was very dark
and tempestuous, observed that the brick floors of their kitchens
began to heave and part ; and that the walls seemed to open,
and the roofs to crack : but they all agree that no tremour of the
ground, indicating an earthquake, was ever felt ; only that the
wind continued to make a most tremendous roaring in the woods
and hangers. The miserable inhabitants, not daring to go to
bed, remained in the utmost solicitude and confusion, expecting
every moment to be buried under the ruins of their shattered
edifices. When day-light came they were at leisure to contem-
plate the devastations of the night : they then found that a deep
rift, or chasm, had opened under their houses, and torn them, as
it were, in two ; and that one end of the barn had suffered in a
similar manner ; that a pond near the cottage had undergone a
strange reverse, becoming deep at the shallow end, and so vice
versa; that many large oaks were removed out of their perpen-
dicular, some thrown down, and some fallen into the heads of
neighbouring trees ; and that a gate was thrust forward, with its
hedge, full six feet, so as to require a new track to be made to it.
From the foot of the cliff the general course of the ground, which
is pasture, inclines in a moderate descent for half a mile, and is
interspersed with some hillocks, which were rifted, in every
direction, as well towards the great woody hanger, as from it. In
the first pasture the deep clefts began : and running across the
lane, and under the buildings, made such vast shelves that the
road was impassable for some time ; and so over to an arable
field on the other side, which was strangely torn and disordered
The second pasture field, being more soft and springy, was pro-
truded forward without many fissures in the turf, which was
raised in long ridges resembling graves, lying at right angles to
the motion. At the bottom of this enclosure the soil and turf
rose many feet against the bodies of some oaks that obstructed
their further course and terminated this awful commotion.

The perpendicular height of the precipice, in general, is twenty-
three yards ; the length of the lapse, or slip, as seen from the
fields below, one hundred and eighty-one; and a partial fall,
concealed in the coppice, extends seventy yards more : so that

220 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

the total length of this fragment that fell was two hundred and
fifty-one yards. About fifty acres of land suffered from this
violent convulsion ; two houses were entirely destroyed ; one end
of a new barn was left in ruins, the walls being cracked through
the very stones that composed them; a hanging coppice was
changed to a naked rock ; and some grass grounds and an arable
field so broken and rifted by the chasms as to be rendered, for a
time, neither fit for the plough nor safe for pasturage, till con-
siderable labour and expense had been bestowed in levelling the
surface and filling in the gaping fissures.

LETTER XLVI. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

Selborne.

" resonant arb usta ' '

THERE is a steep abrupt pasture field interspersed with furze
close to the back of this village, well known by the name of the
Short Lithe, consisting of a rocky dry soil, and inclining to the
afternoon sun. This spot abounds with the gryllus campestris,
or field-cricket ; which, though frequent in these parts, is by no
means a common insect in many other counties.

As their cheerful summer cry cannot but draw the attention
of a naturalist, I have often gone down to examine the economy
of these grylli, and study their mode of life : but they are so shy
and cautious that it is no easy matter to get a sight of them ;
for, feeling a person's footsteps as he advances, they stop short
in the midst of their song, and retire backward nimbly into their
burrows, where they lurk till all suspicion of danger is over.

At first we attempted to dig them out with a spade, but with-
out any great success ; for either we could not get to the bottom
of the hole, which often terminated under a great stone ; or else,
in breaking up the ground, we inadvertently squeezed the poor
insect to death. Out of one so bruised we took a multitude of
eggs, which were long and narrow, of a yellow colour, and covered
with a very tough skin. By this accident we learned to dis-
tinguish the male from the female ; the former of which is shin-
ing black, with a golden stripe across his shoulders ; the latter is
more dusky, more capacious about the abdomen, and carries a
long sword-shaped weapon at her tail, which probably is the

FIELD-CRICKET. 221

instrument with which she deposits her eggs in crannies and
safe receptacles.

Where violent methods will not avail, more gentle means will
often succeed ; and so it proved in the present case ; for, though
a spade be too boisterous and rough an implement, a pliant stalk
of grass, gently insinuated into the caverns, will probe their
windings to the bottom, and quickly bring out the inhabitant ;
and thus the humane enquirer may gratify his curiosity without
injuring the object of it. It is remarkable that, though these
insects are furnished with long legs behind, and brawny thighs
for leaping, like grasshoppers ; yet when driven from their holes
they show no activity, but crawl along in a shiftless manner, so
as easily to be taken : and again, though provided with a curious
apparatus of wings, yet they never exert them when there seems
to be the greatest occasion. The males only make that shrilling
noise perhaps out of rivalry and emulation, as is the case with
many animals which exert some sprightly note during their breed-
ing time : it is raised by a brisk friction of one wing against the
other. They are solitary beings, living singly male or female,
each as it may happen ; but there must be a time when the sexes
have some intercourse, and then the wings may be useful perhaps
during the hours of night. When the males meet they will fight
fiercely, as I found by some which I put into the crevices of a
dry stone wall, where I should have been glad to have made
them settle. For though they seemed distressed by being taken
out of their knowledge, yet the first that got possession of the
chinks would seize on any that were obtruded upon them with a
vast row of serrated fangs. With their strong jaws, toothed
like the shears of a lobster's claws, they perforate and round
their curious regular cells, having no fore-claws to dig, like the
mole-cricket. When taken in hand I could not but wonder that
they never offered to defend themselves, though armed with such
formidable weapons. Of such herbs as grow before the mouths
of their burrows they eat indiscriminately ; and on a little plat-
form, which they make just by, they drop their dung ; and never,
in the day time, seem to stir more than two or three inches from
home. Sitting in the entrance of their caverns they chirp all
night as well as day from the middle of the month of May to the
middle of July; and in hot weather, when they are most vi-
gorous, they make the hills echo ; and, in the stiller hours of dark-
ness, may be heard to a considerable distance. In the beginning

222 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

of the season their notes are more faint and inward ; but become
louder as the summer advances, and so die away again by de-
grees.

Sounds do not always give us pleasure according to their
sweetness and melody ; nor do harsh sounds always displease.
We are more apt to be captivated or disgusted with the asso-
ciations which they promote, than with the notes themselves.
Thus the shrilling of the field- cricket, though sharp and stridu-
lous, yet marvellously delights some hearers, filling their minds
with a train of summer ideas of every thing that is rural, ver-
durous, and joyous.

About the tenth of March the crickets appear at the mouths
of their cells, which they then open and bore, and shape very
elegantly. All that ever I have seen at that season were in their
pupa state, and had only the rudiments of wings, lying under a
skin or coat, which must be cast before the insect can arrive at
its perfect state ;* from whence I should suppose that the old
ones of last year do not always survive the winter. In August
their holes begin to be obliterated, and the insects are seen no
more till spring.

Not many summers ago I endeavoured to transplant a colony
to the terrace in my garden, by boring deep holes in the sloping
turf. The new inhabitants stayed some time, and fed and sung ;
but wandered away by degrees, and were heard at a further
distance every morning ; so that it appears that on this emer-
gency they made use of their wings in attempting to return to
the spot from which they were taken.

One of these crickets, when confined in a paper cage and set
in the sun, and supplied with plants moistened with water, will
feed and thrive, and become so merry and loud as to be irksome
in the same room where a person is sitting : if the plants are not
wetted it will die.

LETTER XLVII. To THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne.

" Far from all resort of mirth
Save the cricket on the hearth." MILTON'S // Fenserono.

WHILE many other insects must be sought after in fields and

* We have observed that they cast these skins in April, which are then seen lyiug at the
mouths of their holes.

HOUSE-CRICKET- 223

woods, and waters, the gryllus domesticus, or house-cricket, re-
sides altogether within our dwellings,
intruding itself upon our notice
whether we will or no. This species
delights in new-built houses, being,
like the spider, pleased with the mois-
ture of the walls; and besides, the
softness of the mortar enables them to
burrow and mine between the joints House-cricket.

of the bricks or stones, and to open communications from one
room to another. They are particularly fond of kitchens and
bakers' ovens, on account of their perpetual warmth.

Tender insects that live abroad either enjoy only the short
period of one summer, or else doze away the cold uncomfortable
months in profound slumbers ; but these, residing as it were in
a torrid zone, are always alert and merry : a good Christmas fire
is to them like the heats of the dog-days. Though they are
frequently heard by day, yet is their natural time of motion only
in the night. As soon as it grows dusk, the chirping increases,
and they come running forth, and are from the size of a flea to
that of their full stature. As one should suppose, from the burn-
ing atmosphere which they inhabit, they are a thirsty race, and
show a great propensity for liquids, being found frequently
drowned in pans of water, milk, broth, or the like. Whatever is
moist they affect ; and therefore often gnaw holes in wet woollen
stockings and aprons that are hung to the fire: they are the
housewife's barometer, foretelling her when it will rain ; and are
prognostic sometimes, she thinks, of ill or good luck; of the
death of a near relation, or the approach of an absent lover. By
being the constant companions of her solitary hours they natu-
rally become the objects of her superstition. These crickets are
not only very thirsty, but very voracious ; for they will eat the
scummings of pots, and yeast, salt, and crumbs of bread ; and
any kitchen offal or sweepings. In the summer we have observed
them to fly, when it became dusk, out of the windows, and over
the neighbouring roofs. This feat of activity accounts for the
sudden manner in which they often leave their haunts, as it does
for the method by which they come to houses where they were
not known before. It is remarkable, that many sorts of insects
seem never to use their wings but when they have a mind to
shift their quarters and settle new colonies. When in the air

224 NATURAL HISTORY OP SELBORNE.

they move "volatu undoso," in waves or curves, like wopd-
peckers, opening and shutting their wings at every stroke, and
so are always rising or sinking.

When they increase to a great degree, as they did once in the
house where I am now writing, they become noisome pests,
flying into the candles, and dashing into people's faces ; but may
be blasted and destroyed by gunpowder discharged into their
crevices and crannies. In families, at such times, they are, like
Pharaoh's plague of frogs, — "in their bedchambers, and upon
their beds, and in their ovens, and in their kneading-troughs."*
Their shrilling noise is occasioned by a brisk attrition of their
wings. Cats catch hearth crickets, and, playing with them as
they do with mice, devour them. Crickets may be destroyed,
like wasps, by phials half filled with beer, or any liquid, and set
in their haunts ; for, being always eager to drink, they will crowd
in till the bottles are full.

LETTER XLVIII To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

Selborne.

How diversified are the modes of life not only of incongruous
but even of congenerous animals ; and yet their specific distinc-
tions are not more various than their propensities. Thus, while
the field-cricket delights in sunny dry banks, and the houser
cricket rejoices amidst the glowing heat of the kitchen hearth or
oven, the gryllus gryllo talpa\ (the
mole-cricket), haunts moist meadows,
and frequent the sides of ponds and
banks of streams, performing all its
functions in a swampy wet soil. With
a pair of fore-feet, curiously adapted
to the purpose, it burrows and works
under ground like the mole, raising a Mole-cricket,

ridge as it proceeds, but seldom throwing up hillocks.

As mole-crickets often infest gardens by the sides of canals,
they are unwelcome guests to the gardener, raising up ridges in
their subterraneous progress, and rendering the walks unsightly.

* Exod. viii. 3.

t Gryllotalpa vulgarit, of modern hystematiets. -Eo.

MOLE-CRICKET. 225

If they take to the kitchen quarters, they occasion great damage
among the plants and roots, by destroying whole beds of cab-
bages, young legumes, and flowers. When dug out they seem
very slow and helpless, and make no use of their wings by day ;
but at night they come abroad, and make long excursions, as I
have been convinced by finding stragglers, in a morning, in im-
probable places. In fine weather, about the middle of April,
and just at the close of day, they begin to solace themselves
with a low, dull, jarring note, continued for a long time without
interruption, and not unlike the chattering of the fern-owl, or
goat-sucker, but more inward.*

About the beginning of May they lay their eggs, as I was once
an eye-witness : for a gardener at a ttbuse, where I was on a
visit, happening to be mowing, on the 6th of that month, by the
side of a canal, his scythe struck too deep, pared off a large piece
of turf, and laid open to view a curious scene of domestic
economy :

*' ingentem lato dedit ore feneitram :

Apparet domus intus, et atria longa patescunt:
Apparent • penetralia. "

There were many caverns and winding passages leading to a
kind of chamber, neatly smoothed and rounded, and about the
size of a moderate snuff-box. Within this secret nursery were
deposited near a hundred eggs of a dirty yellow colour, and
enveloped in a tough skin, but too lately excluded to contain
any rudiments of young, being full of a viscous substance. The
eggs lay but shallow, and within the influence of the sun, just
under a little heap of fresh-moved mould, like that which is
raised by ants.

When mole-crickets fly they move " cursu undoso" rising and
falling in curves, like the other species mentioned before. In
different parts of this kingdom people call them fen-crickets,
churr-worms, and eve-churrs, all very apposite names.

Anatomists, who have examined the intestines of these insects,
astonish me with their accounts ; for they say that, from the
structure, position, and number of their stomachs, or maws,
there seems to be good reason to suppose that this and the two
former species ruminate or chew the cud like many quadrupeds !f

* Or it may be compared to the sibilant thrill of the locustelle.— ED.

t This erroneous and strange notion must have arisen from the circumstance of these insect*
heing occasionally noticed to more their jaws when not feeding.— ED.

226 NATURAL HISTORY OP SELBORNE.

LETTER XLIX. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

Selborne, May 7, 1779.

IT is now more than forty years that I have paid some attention
to the ornithology of this district, without being able to exhaust
the subject : new occurrences still arise as long as any enquiries
are kept alive.

In the last week of last month five of those most rare birds,
too uncommon to have obtained an English name, but known to
naturalists by the terms of himantopus, or
loripes, and charadrius himantopus, were
shot upon the verge of Frinsham-pond, a
large lake belonging to the bishop of Win-
chester, and lying between Wolmer-forest,
and the town of Farnham, in the county of
Surrey. The pond keeper says there were
three brace in the flock ; but that, after he
had satisfied his curiosity, he suffered the
sixth to remain unmolested. One of these
specimens I procured, and found the length Black Winsed stm.
of the legs to be so extraordinary, that, at first sight, one might
have supposed the shanks had been fastened on to impose on the
credulity of the beholder ; they were legs in caricatura ; and had
we seen such proportions on a Chinese or Japan screen we should
have made large allowances for the fancy of the draughtsman.
These birds are of the plover family, and might with propriety
be called the stilt plovers. Brisson, under that idea, gives them
the apposite name of Vechasse. My specimen, when drawn and
stuffed with pepper, weighed only four ounces and a quarter,
though the naked part of the thigh measured three inches and a
half, and the legs four inches and a half. Hence we may safely
assert that these birds exhibit, weight for inches, incomparably
the greatest length of legs of any known bird. The flamingo,
for instance, is one of the most long legged birds, and yet it
bears no manner of proportion to the himantopus ; for a cock
flamingo weighs, at an average, about four pounds avoirdupois;
and his legs and thighs measure usually about twenty inches.
But four pounds are fifteen times and a fraction more than four

BLACK WINGED STILT. 22?

ounces, and one quarter ; and if four ounces and a quarter have
eight inches of legs, four pounds must have one hundred and
twenty inches and a fraction of legs ; viz. somewhat more than
ten feet ; such a monstrous proportion as the world never saw !
If you should try the experiment in still larger birds the dis-
parity would still increase. It must be matter of great curiosity
to see the stilt plover move ; to observe how it can wield such a
length of lever with such feeble muscles as the thighs seem to be
furnished with. At best one should expect it to be but a bad
walker : but what adds to the wonder is, that it has no back toe.
Now without that steady prop to support its steps it must be
liable, in speculation, to perpetual vacillations, and seldom able
to preserve the true centre of gravity.*
The old name of himantopus is taken from Pliny ; and, by an

* This singular form is now elevated to the rank of a genus, which contains three or four
species, all of which, however, are rather difficult of distinction unless compared together. Our
bird is known as the himantopus melanopterus of systematists. It is of excessively rare occurrence
as a British species, though, as Selby remarks, " a few specimens have from time to time been
killed in different parts of these islands." We know little of its habits, save what can be in-
ferred from Wilson's admirable description of one of its congeners, the black-necked stilt (H-
nigricallis) of North America, termed by him the " long-legged avoset." Indeed, from the minute
description of this admirable ornithologist, the stilts resemble in a variety of respects the avoset
genus, particularly in their habits and manner of feeding, which are peculiar. He relates that,
in North America, the black-necked stilt " arrives on the sea-coast of New Jersey about the 25th
of April, in small detached flocks, of twenty or thirty together. These sometimes again sub-
divide into lesser parties ; but it rarely happens that a pair is found solitary, as, during the
breeding season, they usually associate in small companies. On their first arrival, and indeed
during the whole of their residence, they inhabit those particular parts of the salt marshes pretty
high up towards the laud that are broken into numerous shallow pools, but are not usually over-
flowed by the tides during the summer. These pools, or ponds, are generally so shallow, that,
with their long legs, the avosets [stilts] can easily wade them in every direction ; and as they
abound with minute shell-fish and multitudes of aquatic insects and their larvae, besides the eggs
and spawn of others deposited in the soft mud below, these birds find here an abundant supply of
food, and are almost continually seen wading about in such places, often up to the breast in
water."

After describing their mode of breeding, in which they continue social, each female laying, as
is usual with birds of this order, four eggs, Wilson continues that, " while the females are sitting,
the males are either wading through the ponds or roaming over the adjoining marshes ; bat,
should a person make his appearance, the whole collect together in the air, flying with their long
legs extended behind them, keeping up a continual yelping note of click, click, click. Their flight
is steady and not in short sudden jerks, like that of the plover. As they frequently alight on
the bare marsh, tliey drop their wings, stand with their legs half bent and trembling, as if unable
to sustain the burden of their bodies. In this ridiculous posture they will sometimes stand for
several minutes, uttering a curring sound, while, from the corresponding quiverings of their
wings and long legs, they seem to balance themselves with great difficulty. This singular ma-
noeuvre is, no doubt, intended to induce a belief that they may be easily caught, and so turn the
attention of the person from the pursuit of their nests and young to themselves. The red-
necked avoset practises the same deception, in the same ludicrous manner, and both alight indis-
criminately on the ground or in the water. Both will also occasionally swim for a few feet,
when they chance, in wading, to lose their depth, as 1 have had several times an opportunity of
observing."

It is a pity that the birds Mr. White mentions were not suffered to breed, as they most pro-
bably would have done, if unmolested. Surely less than five might have satisfied the " curiosity"
of the pond keeper. — ED.

a 2

228 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

awkward metaphor, implies that the legs are as slender and pliant
as if cut out of a thong of leather. Neither Willughby nor Ray,
in all their curious researches, either at home or abroad, ever
saw this bird. Mr. Pennant never met with it in all Great
Britain, but observed it often in the cabinets of the curious at
Paris. Hasselquist says that it migrates to Egypt in the autumn:
and a most accurate observer of nature has assured me that he
has found it on the banks of the streams in Andalusia.

Our writers record it to have been found only twice in Great
Britain. From all these relations it plainly appears that these
long legged plovers are birds of South Europe, and rarely visit
our island ; and when they do are wanderers and stragglers, and
impelled to make so distant and northern an excursion from
motives or accidents for which we are not able to account. One
thing may fairly be deduced, that these birds come over to us
from the continent, since nobody can suppose that a species not
noticed once in an age, and of such a remarkable make, can
constantly breed unobserved in this kingdom.

LETTER L. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, April 21, 1780.

THE old Sussex tortoise, that I have mentioned to you so often,
is become my property. I dug it out of its winter dormitory
in March last, when it was enough awakened to express its
resentments by hissing ; and, packing it in a box with earth,
carried it eighty miles in post-chaises. The rattle and hurry of
the journey so perfectly roused it that, when I turned it out on
a border, it walked twice down tp the bottom of my garden ;
however, in the evening, the weather being cold, it buried itself
in the loose mould, and continues still concealed.

As it will be under my eye, I shall now have an opportunity
of enlarging my observations on its mode of life, and propen-
sities ; and perceive, already that, towards the time of coming
forth, it opens a breathing place in the ground near its head,
requiring, I conclude, a freer respiration as it becomes more
alive. This creature not only goes under the earth from the
middle of November to the middle of April, but sleeps great part
of the summer ; for it goes to bed in the longest days at four in
the afternoon, and often* does not stir in the morning till late.

HOUSE-MARTINS. 229

Besides, it retires to rest for every shower ; and does not move
at all in wet days.

When one reflects on the state of this strange being, it is a
matter of wonder to find that Providence should bestow such a
profusion of days, such a seeming waste of longevity, on a rep-
tile that appears to relish it so little as to squander more than
two thirds of its existence in a joyless stupor, and be lost to all
sensation for months together in the profoundest of slumbers.

While I was writing this letter, a moist and warm afternoon,
with the thermometer at 50, brought forth troops of shell-snails ;
and, at the same juncture, the tortoise heaved up the mould and
put out its head ; and the next morning came forth, as it were
raised from the dead ; and walked about till four in the after-
noon. This was a curious coincidence ! a very amusing occur-
rence ! to see such a similarity of feelings between the two
0€f>6o«coi! for so the Greeks call both the shell-snail and the
tortoise.

Summer birds are, this cold and backward spring, unusually
late : I have seen but one swallow yet. This conformity with
the weather convinces me more and more that they sleep in the
winter.

LETTER LI. To THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON.

Selborne, Sept. 3, 1781.

I HAVE now read your miscellanies through with much care and
satisfaction; and am to return you my best thanks for the
honourable mention made in them of me as a naturalist, which
I wish I may deserve.

In some former letters I expressed my suspicions that many
of the house-martins do not depart in the winter far from this
village. I therefore determined to make some search about the
south-east end of the hill, where I imagined they might slumber
out the uncomfortable months of winter. But supposing that
the examination would be made to the best advantage in the
spring, and observing that no martins had appeared by the 1-1 th
of April last ; on that day I employed some men to explore the
shrubs and cavities of the suspected spot. The persons took
pains, but without any success ; however, a remarkable incident
occurred in the midst of our pursuit — while the labourers were

230 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

at work a house-martin, the first that had been seen this year,
came down the village in the sight of several people, and went
at once into a nest, where it stayed a short time, and then flew
over the houses ; for some days after no martins were observed,
not till the 16th of April, and then only a pair. Martins in
general were remarkably late this year.

LETTER LII. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

Selborne, Sept. 9, 1781.

I HAVE just met with a circumstance respecting swifts, which
furnishes an exception to the whole tenour of my observations
ever since I have bestowed any attention on that species of
hirundines. Our swifts, in general, withdrew this year about
the first day of August, all save one pair, which in two or three
days was reduced to a single bird. The perseverance of this
individual made me suspect that the strongest of motives, that
of an attachment to her young, could alone occasion so late a
stay. I watched therefore till the twenty-fourth of August, and
then discovered that, under the eaves of the church, she attended
upon two young, which were fledged, and now put out their
white chins from a crevice. These remained till the twenty-
seventh, looking more alert every day, and seeming to long to
be on the wing. After this day they were missing at once ; nor
could I ever observe them with their dam coursing round the
church in the act of learning to fly, as the first broods evidently
do. On the thirty-first I caused the eaves to be searched, but
we found in the nest only two callow, dead, stinking swifts, on
which a second nest had been formed. This double nest was
full of the black shining cases of the hippobascce hirundinis.

The following remarks on this unusual incident are obvious.
The first is, that though it may be disagreeable to swifts to
remain beyond the beginning of August, yet that they can sub-
sist longer is undeniable. The second is, that this uncommon
event, as it was owing to the loss of the first brood, so it corro-
borates my former remark, that swifts breed regularly but once ;
since, was the contrary the case, the occurrence above could
neither be new nor rare.

P. S. One swift was seen at Lyndon, in the county of Rutland,
in 1782, so late as the third of September.

INSECTS. 231

LETTER LIII. To THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON.

As I have sometimes known you make enquiries about several
kinds of insects, I shall here send you an account of one sort
which I little expected to have found in this kingdom. I had
often observed that one particular part of a vine growing on the
walls of my house was covered in the autumn with a black dust-
like appearance, on which the flies fed eagerly ; and that the
shoots and leaves thus affected did not thrive ; nor did the fruit
ripen. To this substance I applied my glasses ; but could not
discover that it had any thing to do with animal life, as I at first
expected : but, upon a closer examination behind the larger
boughs, we were surprised to find that they were coated over
with husky shells, from whose sides proceeded a cotton-like sub-
stance, surrounding a multitude of eggs. This curious and un-
common production put me upon recollecting what I have heard
and read concerning the coccus vitis viniferce of Linnaeus, which,
in the south of Europe, infests many vines, and is a horrid and
loathsome pest. As soon as I had turned to the accounts given
of this insect, I saw at once that it swarmed on my vine ; and did
not appear to have been at all checked by the preceding winter,
which had been uncommonly severe.

Not being then at all aware that it had any thing to do with
England, I was much inclined to think that it came from Gibral-
tar among the many boxes and packages of plants and birds
which I had formerly received from thence ; and especially as
the vine infested grew immediately under my study-window,
where I usually kept my specimens. True it is that I had re-
ceived nothing from thence for some years : but as insects, we
know, are conveyed from one country to another in a very unex-
pected manner, and have a wonderful power of maintaining their
existence till they fall into a nidus proper for their support and
increase, I cannot but suspect still that these cocci came to me
originally from Andalusia. Yet, all the while, candour obliges
me to confess that Mr. Lightfoot has written me word that he
once, and but once, saw these insects on a vine at Weymouth in
Dorsetshire ; which, it is here to be observed, is a sea-port town
to which the coccus might be conveyed by shipping.

As many of my readers may possibly never have heard of this

NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

strange and unusual insect, I shall here transcribe a passage
from a natural history of Gibraltar, written by the Reverend
John White, late vicar of Blackburn in Lancashire, but not yet
published :—

" In the year 1770 a vine which grew on the east side of my
house, and which had produced the finest crops of grapes for
years past, was suddenly overspread on all the woody branches
with large lumps of a white fibrous substance resembling spiders
webs, or rather raw cotton. It was of a very clammy quality,
sticking fast to every thing that touched it, and capable of being
spun into long threads. At first I suspected it to be the product
of spiders, but could find none. Nothing was to be seen con-
nected with it but many brown oval husky shells, which by no
means looked like insects, but rather resembled bits of the dry
bark of the vine. The tree had a plentiful crop of grapes set,
when this pest appeared upon it ; but the fruit was manifestly
injured by this foul incumbrance. It remained all the summer,
still increasing, and loaded the woody and bearing branches to a
vast degree. I often pulled off great quantities by handfuls ; but
it was so slimy and tenacious that it could by no means be cleared.
The grapes never filled to their natural perfection, but turned
watery and vapid. UpOn perusing the works afterwards of M.
de Reaumur, I found this matter perfectly described and ac-
counted for. Those husky shells, which I had observed, were
no other than the female coccus, from whose sides this cotton-
like substance exudes, and serves as a covering and security for
their eggs."*

To this account I think proper to add, that, though the
female cocci are stationary, and seldom remove from the place to
which they stick, yet the male is a winged insect ; and that the
black dust which I saw was undoubtedly the excrement of the
females, which is eaten by ants as well as flies. Though the
utmost severity of our winter did not destroy these insects, yet

* What is here termed coccus vitis viniferae is now better known as the coccus vini. The male,
which is less than the female, has two erect wings. The white fibrous substance (mentioned in
the text) does not exude from the sides of the insect, as above stated, but is excluded together
with the eggs, and from the same passage. The female dies almost immediately after depositing
her ova, as is the case with all true insects ; but it is remarkable that she always expires upon
her eggs, to which her lifeless body adheres, and serves as a covering. This genus comprises
About thirty known species, all of which are stated to suck the juices of the plants they respec-
tively infest: one of them, the C. cacti* is the valuable cochineal of commerce. Various methods
have been published for destroying them ; but the most practised, and apparently the most ef-
fectual, is to crush them, wherever they are seen, with a smooth blunt instrument, and after-
wards to wash the plant thoroughly with soap and water. — ED.

GOLD FISH. 233

the attention of the gardener in a summer or two has entirely
relieved my vine from this filthy annoyance.

As we have remarked above that insects are often conveyed
from one country to another in a very unaccountable manner, I
shall here mention an emigration of small aphides, which was
observed in the village of Selborne no longer ago than August
the 1st, 1785.

At about three o'clock in the afternoon of that day, which was
very hot, the people of this village were surprisepl by a shower of
aphides, or smother-flies, which fell in these parts. Those that
were walking in the street at that juncture found themselves
covered with these insects, which settled also on the hedges and
gardens, blackening all the vegetables where they alighted. My
annuals were discoloured with them, and the stalks of a bed of
onions were quite coated over for six days after. These armies
were then, no doubt, in a state of emigration, and shifting their
quarters ; and might have come, as far as we know, from the
great hop-plantations of Kent or Sussex, the wind being all that
day in the easterly quarter. They were observed at the same
time in great clouds about Farnham, and all along the vale from
Farnham to Alton.*

LETTER LIV. To. THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR,

WHEN I happen to visit a family where gold and silver fishes
are kept in a glass bowl, I am always pleased with the occur-
rence, because it offers me an opportunity of observing the
actions and propensities of those beings with whom we can be
little acquainted in their natural state. Not long since I spent
a fortnight at the house of a friend where there was such a
vivary, to which I paid no small attention, taking every occasion
to remark what passed within its narrow limits. It was here
that I first observed the manner in which fishes die. As soon
as the creature sickens, the head sinks lower and lower, and it
stands as it were on its head ; till, getting weaker, and losing
all poise, the tail turns over, and at last it floats on the surface

* For various methods by which sereral insects shift their quarters, see Derham's Physico
Theology.

234 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

of the water with its belly uppermost. The reason why fishes,
when dead, swim in that manner is very obvious ; because, when
the body is no longer balanced by the fins of the belly, the broad
muscular back preponderates by its own gravity, and turns the
belly uppermost, as lighter from its being a cavity, and because
it contains the swimming-bladders, which contribute to render it
buoyant.* Some that delight in gold and silver fishes have
adopted a notion that they need no aliment. True it is that they
will subsist for a long time without any apparent food but what
they can collect from pure water frequently changed ; yet they
must draw some support from animalcula, and other nourish-
ment supplied by the water ; because, though they seem to eat
nothing, yet the consequences of eating often drop from them.
That they are best pleased with such jejune diet may easily be
confuted, since if you toss them crumbs they will seize them
with great readiness, not to say greediness : however, bread
should be given sparingly, lest, turning sour, it corrupt the
water. They will also feed on the water-plant called lemna
(duck's meat), and also on small fry.

When they want to move a little they gently protrude them-
selves with their pinna pectorales; but it is with their strong
muscular tails only that they and all fishes shoot along with such
inconceivable rapidity. It has been said that the eyes of fishes
are immoveable: but these apparently turn them forward or
backward in their sockets as their occasions require. They take
little notice of a lighted candle, though applied close to their
heads, but flounce and seem much frightened by a sudden stroke
of the hand against the support whereon the bowl is hung ;
especially when they have been motionless, and are perhaps
asleep. As fishes have no eyelids, it is not easy to discern when
they are sleeping or not, because their eyes are always open.

Nothing can be more amusing than a glass bowl containing
such fishes : the double refractions of the glass and water repre-
sent them, when moving, in a shifting and changeable variety of
dimensions, shades, and colours ; while the two mediums, as-
sisted by the concavo-convex shape of the vessel, magnify and
distort them vastly; not to mention that the introduction ol

* The uses of the swimming bladder of fish are at present nut in the least understood, though
many naturalists have taken great pains to investigate the subject. It is wanting, or rather (to
express it better) it is not present, in many species, even in some which are closely allied to those
which have it. Thus, it is not found in the common mackarel, while it exists in its near congener
the Spanish mackarel, a species comparatively rare in the British seas. — ED.

HOUSE-MARTINS. 235

another element and its inhabitants into our parlours engages the
fancy in a very agreeable manner.

Gold and silver fishes, though originally natives of China and
Japan, yet are become so well reconciled to our climate as to
thrive and multiply very fast in our ponds and stews. Linnaeus
ranks this species of fish under the genus of cyprinus, or carp,
and calls it cyprinus auratus.*

Some people exhibit this sort of fish in a very fanciful way ;
for they cause a glass bowl to be blown with a large hollow space
within, that does not communicate with it. In this cavity they
put a bird occasionally ; so that you may see a goldfinch or a
linnet hopping as it were in the midst of the water, and the fishes
swimming in a circle round it. The simple exhibition of the
fishes is agreeable and pleasant ; but in so complicated a way
becomes whimsical and unnatural, and liable to the objection due
to him,

" Qui variare cupit rem prodigialitSr unam."

I am, &c.

LETTER LV. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

DEAR SIR, Oct. 10, 1781.

I THINK I have observed before that much the most consider-
able part of the house-martins withdraw from hence about the
first week in October; but that some, the latter broods I am
now convinced, linger on till towards the middle of that month :
and that at times, once perhaps in two or three years, a flight,
for one day only, has shown itself in the first week in November.
Having taken notice, in October 1780, that the last flight was
numerous, amounting perhaps to one hundred and fifty ; and
that the season was soft and still ; I was resolved to pay uncom-
mon attention to these late birds ; to find, if possible, where they
roosted, and to determine the precise time of their retreat. The
mode of life of these latter hirundines is very favourable to such
a design ; for they spend the whole day in the sheltered district,
between me and the Hanger, sailing about in a placid, easy
manner, and feasting on those insects which love to haunt a spot

* A came that is still retained.— ED,

236 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

so secure from ruffling winds. As my principal object was to
discover the place of their roosting, I took care to wait on them
before they retired to rest, and was much pleased to find that,
for several evenings together, just at a quarter past five in the
afternoon, they all scudded away in great haste towards the
south-east, and darted down among the low shrubs above the
cottages at the end of the hill. This spot in many respects seems
to be well calculated for their winter residence: for in many
parts it is as steep as the roof of any house, and therefore secure
from the annoyances of water ; and it is moreover clothed with
beechen shrubs, which, being stunted and bitten by sheep, make
the thickest covert imaginable ; and are so entangled as to be
impervious to the smallest spaniel : besides, it is the nature of
underwood beech never to cast its leaf all the winter ; so that,
with the leaves on the ground and those on the twigs, no shelter
can be more complete. I watched them on to the thirteenth
and fourteenth of October, and found their evening retreat was
exact and uniform ; but after this they made no regular appear-
ance. Now and then a straggler was seen ; and, on the twenty-
second of October, I observed two in the morning over the
village, and with them my remarks for the season ended.

From all these circumstances put together, it is more than
probable that this lingering flight, at so late a season of the year,
never departed from the island. Had they indulged me that
autumn with a November visit, as I much desired, I presume
that, with proper assistants, I should have settled the matter past
all doubt; but though the third of November was a sweet day,
and in appearance exactly suited to my wishes, yet not a martin
was to be seen ; and so I was forced^ reluctantly, to give up the
pursuit.

I have only to add that were the bushes, which cover some
acres, and are not my own property, to be grubbed and carefully
examined, probably those late broods, and perhaps the whole
aggregate body of the house-martins of this district, might be
found there, in different secret dormitories ; and that, so far from
withdrawing into warmer climes, it would appear that they never
depart three hundred yards from the village.*

* The following account, by Mr. Audubon, of the manner in which an American species of
swallow passes the winter, will be read with much interest by those who are at all curious on the
subject : —

" Being extremely desirous," he observes, " of settling the long agitated question respecting
the migration or torpidity of swallows, I embraced every opportunity of examining their habits,

INSTINCT. 237

LETTER LVI. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

THEY who write on natural history cannot too frequently advert
to instinct, that wonderful limited faculty, which, in some in-
stances, raises the brute creation as it were above reason, and in
others leaves them so far below it. Philosophers have denned
instinct to be that secret influence by which every species is im-
pelled naturally to pursue, at all times, the same way or track,
without any teaching or example ; whereas reason, without in-

carefully noted their arrival or disappearance, and recorded every fact connected with their
hi§tory. After some years constant observation and reflection, I remarked that, among all the
species of migratory birds, those that remove furthest from us depart sooner than those which
retire only to the confines of the United States, and, by a parity of reasoning, those that remain
later return earlier in the spring. These remarks were confirmed as I advanced towards the
south-west on the approach of winter, for 1 there found numbers of warblers, thrushes, &c., in
full feather and song. It was also remarked that the hirundo viridis of Wilson remained about
the city of New Orleans later than any other swallow. As immense numbers of them were seen
during the month of November, I kept a diary of the temperature from the 3rd of that month,
until the arrival of the hirundo purpurece. The following notes are taken from my journal ; and,
as I had excellent opportunities during a residence of many years in the country of visiting the
lakes to which these swallows were said to resort during transient frosts, I present them with
confidence.

" Nov. llth. Weather very sharp, with a heavy white frost. Swallows in abundance during the
whole day. On enquiring of the inhabitants if this was an unusual occurrence, 1 was answered
in the affirmative by all the French and Spaniards. From this date to the twenty-second the
thermometer averaged sixty-five degrees, the weather generally a drizzly fog. Swallows playing
over the city in thousands.

"Nov. 25th. Thermometer this morning at thirty degrees. Ice in New Orleans a quarter of an
inch thick. The swallows resorted to the lee of the cypress swamp in the rear of the city. Thou-
sands were flying in different flocks. Fourteen were killed at a single shot, all in perfect plumage
and very fat. The markets were abundantly supplied with these tender, juicy, and delicious
birds. Saw swallows every day, but remarked them more plentiful the stronger the breeze blew
from the sea.

" Dec. 20th. The weather continues much the same. Foggy and drizzly mist. Thermometer
averaging sixty-three degrees

" Jan. 14th. Thermometer forty-two degrees. Weather continues the same. My little favourites
constantly in view.

" Jan. 28th. Thermometer at forty-degrees. Having seen the H- viridis continually, and the
H- purpurcee, or purple martin, beginning to appear, I discontinued my observations.

" During the whole winter, many of them retired to the holes about the houses, but the greater
number resorted to the lakes and spent the night among the branches of myrica cerifera, the
eirur, as it is termed by the French settlers. At sunset they began to flock together, calling to
each other for that purpose, and, in a short time, presented the appearance of clouds moving
towards the lakes, or the mouth of the Mississippi, as the weather and wind suited. Their aerial
evolutions before they alight are truly beautiful. They appear at first as if reconuoitering the
place, when, suddenly throwing themselves into a vortex of apparent confusion, they descend
spirally with astonishing quickness, and very ranch resemble a trombe, or water-spout. When
within a few feet of the cirim, they disperse in all directions, and settle in a few moments. Their
twittering, and the motions of their wings, are, however, heard during the whole night. As soon
at the day begins to dawn, they rise, flying low over the lakes, almost touching the water for
•ome time, and then rising gradually move off in search of food, separating in different direc-
tions. The hunters who resort to those places destroy great numbers of them, by knocking them
down with light paddles used in propelling their canoes." — ED.

238 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

struction, would often vary and do that by many methods which
instinct effects by one alone. Now this maxim must be taken in
a qualified sense ; for there are instances in which instinct does
vary and conform to the circumstances of place and convenience.

It has been remarked that every species of bird has a mode of
nidification peculiar to itself ; so that a school-boy would at once
pronounce on the sort of nest before him. This is the case
among fields and woods, and wilds ; but, in the villages round
London, where mosses and gossamer, and cotton from vegetables,
are hardly to be found, the nest of the chaffinch has not that
elegant finished appearance, nor is it so beautifully studded with
lichens, as in a more rural district :
and the wren is obliged to construct
its house with straws and dry grasses,
which do not give it that rotundity
and compactness so remarkable in
the edifices of that little architect.
Again, the regular nest of the house-
martin is hemispheric ; but where a wren.
rafter, or a joist, or a cornice, may happen to stand in the way,
the nest is so contrived as to conform to the obstruction, and
becomes flat or oval, or compressed.

In the following instances instinct is perfectly uniform and
consistent. There are three creatures, the squirrel, the field-
mouse, and the bird called the nut-hatch (sitta EuropceaJ, which
live much on hazle-nuts ; and yet they open them each in a dif-
ferent way. The first, after rasping off the small end, splits the
shell in two with his long fore-teeth, as a man does with his
knife ; the second nibbles a hole with his teeth, so regular as if
drilled with a wimble, and yet so small that one would wonder
how the kernel can be extracted through it ; while the last picks
an irregular ragged hole with its bill : but as this artist has no
paws to hold the nut firm while he pierces it, like an adroit
workman, he fixes it, as it were in a vice, in some cleft of a tree,
or in some crevice ; when, standing over it, he perforates the
stubborn shell. We have often placed nuts in the chink of a
gate-post where nut-hatches have been known to haunt, and have
always found that those birds have readily penetrated them.
While at work they make a rapping noise that may be heard at a
considerable distance.

You that understand both the theory and practical part of

WHITE-THROAT. 239

music may best inform us why harmony or melody should so
strangely affect some men, as it were by recollection, for days
after a concert is over. What I mean the following passage will
most readily explain : —

"Praehabebat porro vocibus humanis, instrumentisque har-
monicis musicam illam avium : non quod alia quoque non delec-
taretur ; sed quod ex musica humana relinqueretur in animo
continens quaedam, attentionemque et somnum conturbans
agitatio ; dum ascensus, exscensus, tenores, ac mutationes illae
sonorum, et consonantiarum euntque, redeuntque per phan-
tasiam : — cum nihil tale relinqui possit ex modulationibus avium,
quae, quod non sunt perinde a nobis imitabiles, non possunt
perinde internam facultatem commovere."

Gassendus in Vita Peireskii.

This curious quotation strikes me much by so well representing
my own case, and by describing what I have so often felt, but
never could so well express. When I hear fine music I am
haunted with passages therefrom night and day ; and especially
at first waking, which, by their importunity, give me more un-
easiness than pleasure : elegant lessons still tease my imagination,
and recur irresistibly to my recollection at seasons, and even
when I am desirous of thinking of more serious matters.

I am, &c.

LETTER LVII. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

A RARE, and I think a new, little bird frequents my garden,
which I have great reason to think is the pettichaps : it is com-
mon in some parts of the kingdom ; and I have received for-
merly several dead specimens from Gibraltar. This bird much
resembles the white-throat, but has a more white or rather sil-
very breast and belly ; is restless and active, like the willow-
wrens, and hops from bough to bough, examining every part
for food ; it also runs up the stems of the crown-imperials, and,
putting its head into the bells of those flowers, sips the liquor
which stands in the nectarium of each petal. Sometimes it feeds
on the ground like the hedge-sparrow, by hopping about on the
grass-plots and mown walks.*

* This is the white-breasted fauvet, or, as some term it, the lesser whitethroat (ficeduta
garruld) , a species common enough in the southern counties, though nowhere so abundant as the

240 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

One of my neighbours, an intelligent and observing man, in-
forms me that, in the beginning of May, and about ten minutes

blackcap and whitethroat fauvets, between which it is in some degree intermediate, though
•mailer, and more activ« in its habits, than either. It is an elegant little bird, arriring generally
towards the clo«e of the month of April, and departing in September, though a few stragglers are
often met with for some weeks afterwards. This species has most erroneously been described to
keep wholly to the closest underwood, whereas it passes its time chiefly upon trees, often at a
considerable height from the ground, and is nowhere found but in their immediate vicinity. It is
a bird wonderfully little known, considering its abundance, and also the familiarity of its habits,
the general character of its haunts much resembling those of its musical congener th« blackcap.
It is particularly common about little cottage gardens, and indeed everywhere affects gardens and
neighbourhoods, often building in ornamental shrubs close to the house. It is also plentiful
about tall and thick hawthorn hedges, but is never found (like the whitethroat) in open and ex-
posed places, nor does it ever mount singing into the air (like that species), though its notes may
be occasionally heard, as it flutters, in a vacillating manner, from tree to tree. Its song is very
low and weak, and may be easily recognised by the frequent recurrence of a note like »ip, «p, sip i
but, after warbling in this strain continuously for a few seconds, it always terminates with a loud
and shrill shivering cry, which is monotonous- and unplcasing, though analogous to the lively
whistle of the blackcap. Not unfrequently it emits this cry without any previous warble, and it
utters also the same check as its congeners, and sometime! also a peculiar inward rolling note, which
it has in common with the furzelin, or Dartford warbler, to which species it is allied (and immedi-
ately connected by means of an exotic congener), and which at least in cpnfinement it consider-
ably resembles in its manners, both these little birds sometimes climbing up the wires of their
cage in a manner that is not observable in the other fauvets. An individual I formerly kept in
captivity, in a spacious cage, was exceedingly active in its habits, sometimes darting about to
rapidly that the eye could scarcely follow ; and it used frequently, and many times in succession,
to perform quick somersets in the air, throwing itself over backwards, a habit which I have
noticed in others of the same species in a captive state. It is a determined fruit-eater in the
season, hardly inferior in this respect to the blackcap, and in the spring is very expert in the
capture of winged insects, though it never leaves its perch in order to seize them, but snaps at
them the moment they are within reach. It also feeds a good deal, like the pettychaps genus,
upon small caterpillars, and like them is a great destroyer of aphides. It also resembles them in
the extreme pugnacity of its disposition, which I have observed, not only in confinement, but in
the wild state, a quality in which it much differs from its British congeners. The male and
female are quite alike in plumage, and some of the older individuals have the irides of a beautiful
and conspicuous pearly white, which adds much to the handsomeness of their appearance ; many
have also a delicate blush on their under parts, which is likewise frequently observable in the
male whitethroat. The nest is smaller than that of the last-mentioned species, and is always
lined with fibrous rootlets ; the eggs, four or five in number, are also of less size than those of that
bird, but have the markings more defined, and larger.

1 have been thus diffuse in describing this pretty little species, because I have never yet met
with a good history of it. Mr. White imagined it to have been the " pettychaps," by which terra
he evidently intended the garden fauvet, which was so named by the earlier naturalists. That
the garden fauvet (ficedula hortensis) should have entirely escaped his observation, I look upon as
a very singular fact, as the species actually abounds in Selborne parish, and is one of the very
finest of our vernal songsters. He probably confused its lay with that of the blackcap. It is
closely allied to the species just mentioned, so much so that an albino of either could scarcely be
distinguished ; but in the hand it may be readily told by its more uniform olive colour, and the
absence of the black (or, in the female, rust-colour) upon the crown. The sexes are very much
alike; and, for the information of those who may wish to keep one in confinement, I may state
that the only difference I could ever perceive between them, consisted in the more rufous tint of
the under surface of the wing in the cock bird. Its melody resembles somewhat the continuous
note of the blackcap, but is softer, much deeper, and more flute-like in its tone, approaching to
the mellifluous warbleof the blackbird. As it proceeds, it increases gradually in spirit and loud-
ness, and often ends with a rich and dulcet melodious flourish, though never so clear and loud as
the lively, spirit-stirring music of its congener the blackcap. I have noticed it to sing with great
spirit against a nightingale, determined not to be outdone; and indeed the peculiar sweetness of
its lay must ever render it a prime favourite with those who love to listen to the wild music of the
groves. Us habits are exactly similar to those of the blackcap, which it also resembles in it.

PEREGRINE-FALCON. 241

before eight o'clock in the evening, he discovered a great cluster
of house-swallows, thirty at least he supposes, perching on a
willow that hung over the verge of James Knight's upper-pond.
His attention was first drawn by the twittering of these birds,
which sat motionless in a row on the bough, with their heads all
one way, and, by their weight, pressing down the twig so that
it nearly touched the water. In this situation he watched them
till he could see no longer. Repeated accounts of this sort,
spring and fall, induce us greatly to suspect that house-swallows
have some strong attachment to water, independent of the matter
of food ; and, though they may not retire into that element, yet
they may conceal themselves in the banks of pools and rivers
during the uncomfortable months of winter.

One of the keepers of Wolmer-forest sent me a peregrine-

falcon, which he shot on the verge of that district as it was de-
vouring a wood-pigeon. Thefalcoperegrinus, or haggard falcon,
is a noble species of hawk seldom seem in the southern counties.
In winter 1/67 one was killed in the neighbouring parish of
Farringdon, and sent by me to Mr. Pennant into North Wales.*
Since that time I have met with none till now. The specimen
mentioned above was in fine preservation, and not injured by

nidification ; but differs in being one of the latest to arrive of all our summer birds of passage,
whence probably it is, generally speaking, so little known. It is seldom heard much before the
beginning of May, but does not, as has been said, depart earlier than its congeners. Its eggs are
of a grayer tinge than those of the blackcap. — En.

* See my tenth and eleventh letter to that gentleman.

242 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

the shot : it measured forty-two inches from wing to wing, and
twenty-one from beak to tail, and weighed two pounds and a
half standing weight. This species is very robust, and wonder-
fully formed for rapine : its breast was plump and muscular ; its
thighs long, thick, and brawny ; and its legs remarkably short
and well set : the feet were armed with most formidable, sharp,
long talons : the eyelids and cere of the bill were yellow ; but
the irides of the eyes dusky ; the beak was thick and hooked, and
of a dark colour, and had a jagged process near the end of the
upper mandible on each side : its tail, or train, was short in pro-
portion to the bulk of its body : yet the wings, when closed, did
not extend to the end of the train. From its large and fair pro-
portions it might be supposed to have been a female ; but I was
not permitted to cut open the specimen. For one of the birds of
prey, which are usually lean, this was in high case : in its craw
were many barley-corns, which probably came from the crop of
the wood-pigeon, on which it was feeding when shot : for vora-
cious birds do not eat grain ; but, when devouring their quarry,
with undistinguishing vehemence swallow bones and feathers,
and all matters, indiscriminately. This falcon was probably
driven from the mountains of North Wales or Scotland, where they
are known to breed, by rigorous weather and deep snows that
had lately fallen. I am, &c.

LETTER LVIII. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

MY near neighbour, a young gentleman in the service of the
East India Company, has brought home a dog and a bitch of
the Chinese breed from Canton ; such as are fattened in that
country for the purpose of being eaten : they are about the size
of a moderate spaniel; of a pale yellow colour, with coarse
bristling hairs on their backs ; sharp upright ears, and peaked
heads, which give them a very fox-like appearance. Their hind
legs are unusually straight, without any bend at the hock or
ham, to such a degree as to give them an awkward gait when
they trot. When they are in motion their tails are curved high
over their backs like those of some hounds, and have a bare
place each on the outside from the tip midway, that does not
seem to be matter of accident, but somewhat singular. Their
eyes are jet-black, small, and piercing ; the insides of their lips

DOGS. 243

and mouths of the same colour, and their tongues blue. The
bitch has a dew-claw on each hind leg ; the dog has none.
When taken out into a field the bitch showed some disposition
for hunting, and dwelt on the scent of a covey of partridges till
she sprung them, giving her tongue all the time. The dogs in
South America are dumb ; but these bark much in a short thick
manner, like foxes ; and have a surly, savage demeanour like
their ancestors, which are not domesticated, but bred up in sties,
where they are fed for the table with rice-meal and other farina-
ceous food. These dogs, having been taken on board as soon as
weaned, could not learn much from their dam ; yet they did not
relish flesh when they came to England. In the islands of the
pacific ocean the dogs are bred up on vegetables, and would not
eat flesh when offered them by our circumnavigators.

We believe that all dogs, in a state of nature, have sharp,
upright, fox-like ears ; and that hanging ears, which are esteemed
so graceful, are the effect of choice breeding and cultivation.
Thus, in the travels of Ysbrandt Ides from Muscovy to China,
• the dogs which draw the Tartars on snow-sledges near the river
Oby are engraved with prick-ears, like those from Canton. The
Kamschatdales also train the same sort of sharp-eared peaked-
nosed dogs to draw their sledges ; as may be seen in an elegant
print engraved for Captain Cook's last voyage round the world.

Now we are upon the subject of dogs, it may not be imper-
tinent to add, that spaniels, as all sportsmen know, though they
hunt partridges and pheasants as it were by instinct, and with
much delight and alacrity, yet will hardly touch their bones
when offered as food ; nor will a mongrel dog of my own, though
he is remarkable for finding that sort of game. But, when we
came to offer the bones of partridges to the two Chinese dogs,
they devoured them with much greediness, and licked the platter
clean.

No sporting dogs will flush woodcocks till inured to the scent
and trained to the sport, which they then pursue with vehemence
and transport ; but then they will not touch their bones, but turn
from them with abhorrence, even when they are hungry.

Now, that dogs should not be fond of the bones of such birds
as they are not disposed to hunt is no wonder ; but why they
reject and do not care to eat their natural game is not so easily
accounted for, since the end of hunting seems to be, that the

R 2

244 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

chase pursued should be eaten.* Dogs again will not devour the
more rancid water-fowls, nor indeed the bones of any wild-fowls;
nor will they touch the foetid bodies of birds that feed on offal
and garbage : and indeed there may be somewhat of providential
instinct in this circumstance of dislike ; for vultures,f and kites,
and ravens, and crows, &c., were intended to be messmates with
dogsj over their carrion ; and seem to be appointed by nature as
fellow-scavengers to remove all cadaverous nuisances from the
face of the earth. I am, &c.

LETTER LIX. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

THE fossil wood buried in the bogs of Wolmer-forest is not yet
all exhausted ; for the peat-cutters now and then stumble upon
a log. I have just seen a piece which was sent by a labourer of
Oakhanger to a carpenter of this village ; this was the but-end
of a small oak, about five feet long, and about five inches in
diameter. It had apparently been severed from the ground by
an axe, was very ponderous, and as black as ebony. Upon ask-
ing the carpenter for what purpose he had procured it ; he told

* In describing the general disposition of a species of animal, naturalists have too often de-
duced their remarks from one or two individuals only, which they had had opportunities of study-
ing. Nothing can be more fallacious than such data ; as there is just the same original diversity
between the natural disposition of different animals of the same species, as we observe to be the
case amongst ourselves ; a faet which must indeed have been noticed by most who have ever
reared up a nest of young birds, or have attended much to the habits of animals of whatever kind.
Thus, however wild and savage, and insensible to kindness, may he the ordinary character of the
wolf, we have instances on record of their being as tractable, and attached to their owner, as the
most faithful dog ; and the inverse of this 1 have had occasion to observe in two or threejnstances,
wherein the dog evinced the usual disposition of the wolf or fox. In this neighbourhood, for two
or three years, there was a fine male pointer, which was a great destroyer of game, and, at times,
of poultry also, but so extremely wary that the keepers could never entrap it, or even get a shot
at the animal. It was not much in the habit of worrying sheep, but appeared to subsist chiefly
on hares and rabbits, which it hunted during the twilight. It was at length shot, after several
nights tedious watching. Another case occurred in a female greyhound, which derived its sus-
tenance much in the same manner. It was of a very fine breed, so that, on its being entrapped,
it was thought desirable to obtain from her a litter of puppies ; she was accordingly chained to a
kennel, but always remained savage, even to her feeders, and, -while her puppies were still very
young, she managed to escape to the woods, and never returned. Her progeny, five in number,
were accordingly brought up by hand, and three of them grew up to be excellent hounds, but the
other two inherited all the wild character of their dam, and, notwithstanding every attention,
contrived finally to effect their escape, and were afterwards shot, as was also their dam, for their
destructive poaching propensities.— ED.

t Hasselquist, in his travels to the Levant, observes that the dogs and vultures at Grand Cairo
maintain such a friendly intercourse as to bring up their young together in the same place.

t The Chinese word for a dog to a European ear sounds like quihloh.

THE WEATHER. 245

me that it was to be sent to his brother, a joiner at Farnham,
who was to make use of it in cabinet work, by inlaying it along
with whiter woods.

Those that are much abroad on evenings after it is dark, in
spring and summer, frequently hear a nocturnal bird passing by
on the wing, and repeating often a short quick note. This bird
I have remarked myself, but never could make out till lately.
I am assured now that it is the stone-curlew, (charadrius cedic-
nemusj Some of theni pass over or near my house almost every
evening after it is dark, from the uplands of the hill and North
field, away down towards Dorton ; where, among the streams
and meadows, they find a greater plenty of food. Birds that
fly by night are obliged to be noisy ; their notes often repeated
become signals or watch-words to keep them together, that they
may not stray or lose each the other in the dark.

The evening proceedings and manoeuvres of the rooks are
curious and amusing in the autumn. Just before dusk they
return in long strings from the foraging of the day, and rendez-
vous by thousands over Selborne-down, where they wheel round
in the air, and sport and dive in a playful manner, all the while
exerting their voices, and making a loud cawing, which, being
blended and softened by the distance that we at the village are
below them, becomes a confused noise or chiding ; or rather a
pleasing murmur, very engaging to the imagination, and not
unlike the cry of a pack of hounds in hollow, echoing woods,
or the rushing of the wind in tall trees, or the tumbling of the
tide upon a pebbly shore. When this ceremony is over, with
the last gleam of day, they retire for the night to the deep
beechen woods of Tisted and Ropley. We remember a little girl
who, as she was going to bed, used to remark on such an occur-
rence, in the true spirit of physico-theology, that the rooks were
saying their prayers ; and yet this child was much too young to
be aware that the scriptures have said of the Deity — that " he
feedeth the ravens who call upon him." I am, &c.

LETTER LX. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

IN reading Dr. Huxham's Observations de Aere, &c., written at
Plymouth, I find by those curious and accurate remarks, which
contain an account of the weather from the year 1727 to the

24 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

year 1/48, inclusive, that though there is frequent rain in that
district of Devonshire, yet the quantity falling is not great ; and
that some years it has been very small: for in 1731 the rain
measured only 17™**- — 266thou- and in 174 J, 20 — 354 ; and again
in 1743 only 20 — 908. Places near the sea have frequent scuds,
that keep the atmosphere moist, yet do not reach far up into the
country ; making thus the maritime situations appear wet, when
the rain is not considerable. In the wettest years at Plymouth
the Doctor measured only once 36 ; and again once, viz., 1734,
37 — 114: a quantity of rain that has twice been exceeded at
Selborne in the short period of my observations. Dr. Huxham
remarks, that frequent small rains keep the air moist; while
heavy ones render it more dry, by beating down the vapours.
He is also of opinion that the dingy, smoky appearance in the
sky, in very dry seasons, arises from the want of moisture suffi-
cient to let the light through, and render the atmosphere trans-
parent ; because he had observed several bodies more diaphanous
when wet than dry ; and did never recollect that the air had that
look in rainy seasons.

My friend, who lives just beyond the top of the down, brought
his three swivel guns to try them in my outlet, with their muzzles
towards the Hanger, supposing that the report would have had a
great effect ; but the experiment did not answer his expectation.
He then removed them to the Alcove on the Hanger ; when the
sound, rushing along the Lythe and Comb-wood, was very grand :
but it was at the Hermitage that the echoes and repercussions
delighted the hearers ; not only filling the Lythe with the roar,
as if all the beeches were tearing up by the roots ; but, turning
to the left, they pervaded the vale above Combwood-ponds ; and
after a pause seemed to take up the crash again, and to extend
round Harteley-hangers, and to die away at last among the cop-
pices and coverts of Ward-le-ham. It has been remarked before
that this district is an anathoth, a place of responses or echoes,
and therefore proper for such experiments : we may further add
that the pauses in echoes, when they cease and yet are taken up
again, like the pauses in music, surprise the hearers, and have a
fine effect on the imagination.

The gentleman above-mentioned has just fixed a barometer
in his parlour at Newton Valence. The tube was first filled here
(at Selborne) twice with care, when the mercury agreed and stood
exactly with my own ; but, being filled again twice at Newton, the

THE WEATHER. 247

mercury stood, on account of the great elevation of that house,
three-tenths of an inch lower than the barometers at this village,
and so continues to do, be the weight of the atmosphere what
it may. The plate of the barometer at Newton is figured as low
as 27 ; because in stormy weather the mercury there will some-
times descend below 28. We have supposed Newton-house to
stand two hundred feet higher than this house : but if the rule
holds good, which says that mercury in a barometer sinks one-
tenth of an inch for every hundred feet elevation, then the Newton
barometer, by standing three-tenths lower than that of Selborne,
proves that Newton-house must be three hundred feet higher
than that in which I am writing, instead of two hundred.

It may not be impertinent to add, that the barometers at
Selborne stand three-tenths of an inch lower than the barometers
at South Lambeth ; whence we may conclude that the former
place is about three hundred feet higher than the latter ; and
with good reason, because the streams that rise with us run into
the Thames at Weybridge, and so to London. Of course there-
fore there must be lower ground all the way from Selborne to
South Lambeth ; the distance between which, all the windings
and indentings of the streams considered, cannot be less than a
hundred miles. I am, &c.

LETTER LXI. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

SINCE the weather of a district is undoubtedly part of its natural
history, I shall make no further apology for the four following
letters, which will contain many particulars concerning some of
the great frosts and a few respecting some very hot summers,
that have distinguished themselves from the rest during the
course of my observations.

As the frost in January 1768 was, for the small time it lasted,
the most severe that we had then known for many years, and
was remarkably injurious to ever-greens, some account of its
rigour, and reason of its ravages, may be useful, and not unac-
ceptable to persons that delight in planting and ornamenting ;
and may particularly become a work that professes never to lose
sight of utility.

For the last two or three days of the former year there were
considerable falls of snow, which lay deep and uniform on the

248 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

ground without any drifting, wrapping up the more humble
vegetation in perfect security. From the first day to the fifth of
the new year more snow succeeded; but from that day the air
became entirely clear ; and the heat of the sun about noon had a
considerable influence in sheltered situations.

It was in such an aspect that the snow on the author's ever-
greens was melted every day, and frozen intensely every night ;
so that the laurustines, bays, laurels, and arbutuses looked, in
three or four days, as if they had been burnt in the fire ; while
a neighbour's plantation of the same kind, in a high cold situa-
tion, where the snow was never melted at all, remained un-
injured.

From hence I would infer that it is the repeated melting and
freezing of the snow that is so fatal to vegetation, rather than the
severity of the cold. Therefore it highly behoves every planter,
who wishes to escape the cruel mortification of losing in a few
days the labour and hopes of years, to bestir himself on such
emergencies ; and, if his plantations are small, to avail himself
of mats, cloths, pease-haum, straw, reeds, or any such covering,
for a short time ; or, if his shrubberies are extensive, to see that
his people go about with prongs and forks, and carefully dis-
lodge the snow from the boughs : since the naked foliage will
shift much better for itself, than where the snow is partly melted
and frozen again.

It may perhaps appear at first like a paradox ; but doubtless
the more tender trees and shrubs should never be planted in hot
aspects ; not only for the reason assigned above, but also because,
thus circumstanced, they are disposed to shoot earlier in the
spring, and to grow on later in the autumn, than they would
otherwise do, and so are sufferers by lagging or early frosts. For
this reason also plants from Siberia will hardly endure our
climate : because, on the very first advances of spring, they shoot
away, and so are cut off by the severe nights of March or April.
Dr. Fothergill and others have experienced the same incon-
venience with respect to the more tender shrubs from North
America ; which they therefore plant under north-walls. There
should also perhaps be a wall to the east to defend them from
the piercing blasts from that quarter.

This observation might without any impropriety be carried
into animal life ; for discerning bee-masters now find that their
hives should not in the winter be exposed to the hot sun, because

THE WEATHER. 249

such unseasonable warmth awakens the inhabitants too early
from their slumbers ; and, by putting their juices into motion
too soon, subjects them afterwards to inconveniences when
rigorous weather returns.

The coincidents attending this short but intense frost were,
that the horses fell sick with an epidemic distemper, which in-
jured the winds of many, and killed some ; that colds and coughs
were general among the human species; that it froze under
people's beds for several nights ; that meat was so hard frozen
that it could not be spitted, and could not be secured but in
cellars; that several redwings and thrushes were killed by the
frost ; and that the large titmouse continued to pull straws length-
wise from the eaves of thatched houses and barns in a most adroit
manner, for a purpose that has been explained already.*

On the 3d of January, Benjamin Martin's thermometer within
doors, in a close parlour where there was no fire, fell in the night
to 20, and ,on the 4th to 18, and on the 7th to \7k, a degree of
cold which the owner never since saw in the same situation ; and
he regrets much that he was not able at that juncture to attend
his instrument abroad. All this time the wind continued north
and north-east : and yet on the 8th roost-cocks, which had been
silent, began to sound their clarions, and crows to clamour, as
prognostic of milder weather ; and, moreover, moles began to
heave and work, and a manifest thaw took place. From the
latter circumstance we may conclude that thaws often originate
under ground from warm vapours which arise ; else how should
subterraneous animals receive such early intimations of their ap-
proach ? Moreover, we have often observed that cold seems to
descend from above ; for, when a thermometer hangs abroad in
a frosty night, the intervention of a cloud shall immediately raise
the mercury ten degrees ; and a clear sky shall again compel it
to descend to its former gage.f

And here it may be proper to observe, on what has been said
above, that though frosts advance to their utmost severity by
somewhat of a regular gradation, yet thaws do not usually come
on by as regular a declension of cold ; but often take place im-
mediately from intense freezing ; as men in sickness often mend
at once from a paroxysm.

To the great credit of Portugal laurels and American junipers,

* See Letter XLI. to Mr. Pennant.

t Of course the cloud tends to hinder, or rather obstructs, the radiation of heat from the
ground. — ED.

250 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

be it remembered that they remained untouched amidst the ge-
neral havoc : hence men should learn to ornament chiefly with
such trees as are able to withstand accidental severities, and not
subject themselves to the vexation of a loss which may befal
them once perhaps in ten years, yet may hardly be recovered
through the whole course of their lives.

As it appeared afterwards the ilexes were much injured, the
cypresses were half destroyed, the arbutuses lingered on, but
never recovered; and the bays, laurustines, and laurels, were
killed to the ground ; and the very wild hollies, in hot aspects,
were so much affected that they cast all their leaves.

By the 14th of January the snow was entirely gone ; the tur-
nips emerged not damaged at all, save in sunny places ; the
wheat looked delicately, and the garden plants were well pre-
served ; for snow is the most kindly mantle that infant vegetation
can be wrapped in: were it not for that friendly meteor no
vegetable life could exist at all in northerly regions. Yet in
Sweden the earth in April is not divested of snow for more than
a fortnight before the face of the country is covered with flowers.

LETTER LXII. To THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON.
THERE were some circumstances attending the remarkable frost
in January 1776 so singular and striking, that a short detail of
them may not be unacceptable.

The most certain way to be exact will be to copy the passages
from my journal, which were taken from time to time as things
occurred. But it may be proper previously to remark that the
first week in January was uncommonly wet, and drowned with
vast rains from every quarter : from whence may be inferred, as
there is great reason to believe is the case, that intense frosts
seldom take place till the earth is perfectly glutted and chilled
with water;* and hence dry autumns are seldom followed by
rigorous winters.

January 7th. — Snow driving all the day, which was followed
by frost, sleet, and some snow, till the 12th, when a prodigious
mass overwhelmed all the works of men, drifting over the tops
of the gates and filling the hollow lanes.

* The autumn preceding January 1/68 was very wet, and particularly the month of September,
during which there fell at Lyndon, in the county of Rutland, six inches and a half of rain.
And the terrible long frost in 1739-40 set in after a rainy season, and when the springs were yery
high.

SEVERE FROSTS. 251

On the 14th the writer was obliged to be much abroad; and
thinks he never before or since has encountered such rugged
Siberian weather. Many of the narrow roads were now filled
above the tops of the hedges ; through which the snow was
driven into most romantic and grotesque shapes, so striking to
the imagination as not to be seen without wonder and pleasure.
The poultry dared not to stir out of their roosting places ; for
cocks and hens are so dazzled and confounded by the glare of
snow that they would soon perish without assistance. The hares
also lay sullenly in their seats, and would not move till com-
pelled by hunger; being conscious, poor animals, that the drifts
and heaps treacherously betray their footsteps, and prove fatal to
numbers of them.

From the 14th the snow continued to increase, and began to
stop the road waggons and coaches, which could no longer keep
on their regular stages; and especially on the western roads,
where the fall appears to have been deeper than in the south.*
The company at Bath, that wanted to attend the Queen's birth-
day, were strangely incommoded: many carriages of persons,
who got in their way to town from Bath as far as Marlborough,
after strange embarrassments, here met with a ne plus ultra. The
ladies fretted, and offered large rewards to labourers if they
would shovel them a track to London : but the relentless heaps
of snow were too bulky to be removed; and so the 18th passed
over, leaving the company in very uncomfortable circumstances
at the Castle and other inns.

On the 20th the sun shone out for the first time since the
frost began ; a circumstance that has been remarked before much
in favour of vegetation. All this time the cold was not very
intense, for the thermometer stood at 29, 28, 25, and thereabout;
but on the 21st it descended to 20. The birds now began to be
in a very pitiable and starving condition. Tamed by the season,
sky-larks settled in the streets of towns, because they saw the
ground was bare ; rooks frequented dunghills close to houses ;
and crows watched horses as they passed, and greedily devoured
what dropped from them ; hares now came into men's gardens,
and, scraping away the snow, devoured such plants as they
could find.

On the 22 d the author had occasion to go to London through

* This fact would seem very generally to be the case, whenever there is much snow in the
couth of England.— ED.

252 NATURAL HISTORY OF 8ELBORNE.

a sort of Laplandian-scene, very wild and grotesque indeed. But
the metropolis itself exhibited a still more singular appearance
than the countiy ; for, being bedded deep in snow, the pavement
of the streets could not be touched by the wheels or the horses'
feet, so that the carriages ran about without the least noise.
Such an exemption from din and clatter was strange, but not
pleasant; it seemed to convey an uncomfortable idea of de-
solation :

« ipsa silentia terrent."

On the 27th much snow fell all day, and in the evening the
frost became very intense. At South Lambeth, for the four fol-
lowing nights, the thermometer fell to 11, 7, 6, 6; and at Sel-
borne to 7, 6, 10; and on the 31st of January, just before sun-
rise, with rime on the trees and on the tube of the glass, the
quicksilver sunk exactly to zero, being 32 degrees below the
freezing point: but by eleven in the morning, though in the
shade, it sprung up to 164* — a most unusual degree of cold this
for the south of England !f During these four nights the cold
was so penetrating that it occasioned ice in warm chambers and
under beds ; and in the day the wind was so keen that persons
of robust constitutions could scarcely endure to face it. The
Thames was at once so frozen over both above and below bridge
that crowds ran about on the ice. The streets were now strangely
incumbered with' snow, which crumbled and trod dusty ; and,
turning gray, resembled bay-salt : what had fallen on the roofs
was so perfectly dry that, from first to last, it lay twenty-six days
on the nouses in the city ; a longer time than had been remem-
bered by the oldest housekeepers living. According to all ap-
pearances we might now have expected the continuance of this
rigorous weather for weeks to come, since every night increased
in severity; but behold, without any apparent cause, on the 1st
of February a thaw took place, and some rain followed before
night ; making good the observation above, that frosts often go
off as it were at once, without any gradual declension of cold.

* At Selborne the cold was greater than at any other place that the author could hear of with
certainty : though some reported at the time that at a village in Kent the thermometer fell two
degrees below zero, viz. 34 degrees below the freezing point.

The thermometer used at Selborne was graduated by Benjamin Martin.

f As a proof what extremes of temperature the human body can endure, when gradually habit-
uated, may be mentioned a curious fact which occurred two or three winters ago in Quebec.
After a course of intensely severe weather, the thermometer rose very suddenly to zero ! when
the workmen were actually seen labouring without their jackets, so uncomfortably warm did it
then appear.— ED.

SEVERE FROSTS. 253

On the 2d of February the thaw persisted ; and on the 3d swarms
of little insects were frisking and sporting in a court-yard at
South Lambeth, as if they had felt no frost. Why the juices in
the small bodies and smaller limbs of such minute beings are
not frozen is a matter of curious enquiry.

Severe frosts seem to be partial, or to run in currents ; for, at
the same juncture, as the author was informed by accurate cor-
respondents, at Lyndon in the county of Rutland, the ther-
mometer stood at 19 : at Blackburn, in Lancashire, at 19 : and
at Manchester at 21, 20, and 18. Thus does some unknown
circumstance strangely overbalance latitude, and render the cold
sometimes much greater in the southern than the northern parts
of this kingdom.

The consequences of this severity were, that in Hampshire at
the melting of the snow, the wheat looked well, and the turnips
came forth little injured. The laurels and laurustines were
somewhat damaged, but only in hot aspects. No evergreens
were quite destroyed ; and not half the damage sustained that
befel in January 1768. Those laurels that were a little scorched
on the south sides were perfectly untouched on their north sides.
The care taken to shake the snow day by day from the branches
seemed greatly to avail the author's evergreens. A neighbour's
laurel hedge, in a high situation, and facing to the north, was
perfectly green and vigorous ; and the Portugal laurels remained
unhurt.

As to the birds, the thrushes and blackbirds were mostly de-
stroyed ; and the partridges, by the weather and poachers, were
so thinned that few remained to breed the following year.

LETTER LXIII. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

As the frost in December 1784 was very extraordinary, you, I
trust, will not be displeased to hear the particulars ; and especially
when I promise to say no more about the severities of winter
after I have finished this letter.

The first week in December was very wet, with the barometer
very low. On the 7th, with the barometer at 28 — five tenths,
came on a vast snow, which continued all that day and the next,
and most part of the following night ; so that by the morning of
the 9th the works of men were quite overwhelmed, the lanes

254 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

filled so as to be impassable, and the ground covered twelve or
fifteen inches without any drifting. In the. evening of the 9th
the air began to be so very sharp that we thought it would be
curious to attend to the motions of a thermometer : we therefore
hung out two ; one made by Martin and one by Dollond, which
soon began to show us what we were to expect ; for, by ten
o'clock, they fell to 21, and at eleven to 4, when we went to bed.
On the 10th, in the morning, the quicksilver of Dollond's glass
was down to half a degree below zero ; and that of Martin's,
which was absurdly graduated only to four degrees above zero,
sunk quite into the brass guard of the ball ; so that when the
weather became most interesting this was useless. On the 10th, at
eleven at night, though the air was perfectly still, Dollond's glass
went down to one degree below zero ! This strange severity of
the weather made me very desirous to know what degree of cold
there might be in such an exalted and near situation as Newton.
We had therefore, on the morning of the 10th, written to

Mr. , and entreated him to hang out his thermometer,

made by Adams ; and to pay some attention to it morning and
evening; expecting wonderful phenomena, in so elevated a
region, at two hundred feet or more above my house. But, be-
hold ! on the 10th, at eleven at night, it was down only to 17,
and the next morning at 22, when mine was at ten ! We were so
disturbed at this unexpected reverse of comparative local cold,

that we sent one of my glasses up, thinking that of Mr.

must, some how, be wrongly constructed. But, when the in-
struments came to be confronted, they went exactly together :
so that, for one night at least, the cold at Newton was 18 degrees
less than at Selborne ; and, through the whole frost, 10 or 12
degrees ; and indeed, when we came to observe consequences,
we could readily credit this ; for all my laurustines, bays, ilexes,
arbutuses, cypresses, and even my Portugal laurels,* and (which
occasions more regret) my fine sloping laurel hedge, were
scorched up ; while, at Newton, the same trees have not lost a
leaf!

We had steady frost on to the 25th, when the thermometer in
the morning was down to 10 with us, and at Newton only to 21.
Strong frost continued till the 31st, when some tendency to

* Mr. Miller in his Gardener's Dictionary, says positively that the Portugal laurels remained
untouched in the remarkable frost of 1739-40. So that either that accurate observer was much
mistaken, or else the frost of December 1784 was much more severe and destructive than that in
the year above mentioned.

HOT SUMMERS. 255

thaw was observed; and, by January the 3d, 1785, the thaw was
confirmed, and some rain fell.

A circumstance that I must not omit, because it was new to
us, is, that on Friday, December the 10th, being bright sun-
shine, the air was full of icy spiculce, floating in all directions,
like atoms in a sun-beam let into a dark room. We thought them
at first particles of the rime falling from my tall hedges ; but
were soon convinced to tjie contrary, by making our observations
in open places where no rime could reach us. Were they watery
particles of the air frozen as they floated ; or were they evapora-
tions from the snow frozen as they mounted ?

We were much obliged to the thermometers for the early in-
formation they gave us ; and hurried our apples, pears, onions,
potatoes, &c. into the cellar, and warm closets ; while those who
had not, or neglected such warnings, lost all their stores of roots
and fruits, and had their very bread and cheese frozen.

I must not omit to tell you that, during those two Siberian
days, my parlour cat was so electric, that had a person stroked
her, and been properly insulated, the shock might have been
given to a whole circle of people.

I forgot to mention before, that, during the two severe days,
two men, who were tracing hares in the snow, had their feet
frozen; and two men, who were much better employed, had
their fingers so affected by the frost, while they were threshing
in a barn, that a mortification followed, from which they did not
recover for many weeks.

This frost killed all the furze and most of the ivy, and in many
places stripped the hollies of all their leaves. It came at a very
early time of the year, before old November ended ; and yet may
be allowed from its effects to have exceeded any since 1739-40.

LE1TER LXIV. To THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON.

As the effects of heat are seldom very remarkable in the north-
erly climate of England, where the summers are often so defec-
tive in warmth and sun-shine as not to ripen the fruits of the
earth so well as might be wished, I shall be more concise in my
account of the severity of a summer season, and so make a little

256

NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

amends for the prolix account of the degrees of cold, and the in-
conveniences that we suffered from some late rigorous winters.

The summers of 1781 and 1783 were unusually hot and dry ;
to them therefore I shall turn back in my journals, without re-
curring to any more distant period. In the former of these years
my peach and nectarine trees suffered so much from the heat
that the rind on the bodies was scalded and came off ; since
which the trees have been in a decaying state. This may prove
a hint to assiduous gardeners to fence and shelter their wall-trees
with mats or boards, as they may easily do, because such annoy-
ance is seldom of long continuance. During that summer also,
I observed that my apples were coddled, as it were, on the trees ;
so that they had no quickness of flavour, and would not keep in
the winter. This circumstance put me in mind of what I have
heard travellers assert, that they never ate a good apple or apricot
in the south of Europe, where the heats were so great as to
render the juices vapid and insipid.

The great pests of a garden are wasps, which destroy all the
finer fruits just as they are coming into perfection. In 1781 we
had none ; in 1783 there were myriads ; which would have de-
voured all the produce of my garden, had not we set the boys to
take the nests, and caught thousands with hazel twigs tipped
with bird-lime : we have since employed the boys to take and
destroy the large breeding wasps in the spring. Such expedients
have a great effect on these marauders, and will keep them under.
Though wasps do not abound but in hot summers, yet they do
not prevail in every hot summer, as I have instanced in the two
years above-mentioned.

In the sultry season of 1783 honey-dews were so frequent as
to deface and destroy the beauties of my garden. My honey-
suckles, which were one week the most sweet and lovely objects
that the eye could behold, became the next the most loathsome ;
being enveloped in a viscous substance, and loaded with black
aphides, or smother-flies. The occasion of this clammy appear-
ance seems to be this, that in hot weather the effluvia of flowers
in fields and meadows and gardens are drawn up in the day by a
brisk evaporation, and then in the night fall down again with
the dews, in which they are entangled ; that the air is strongly
scented, and therefore impregnated with the particles of flowers
in summer weather, our senses will inform us ; and that this
clammy sweet substance is of the vegetable kind we may learn

HOT SUMMERS.

257

from bees, to whom it is very grateful : and we may be assured
that it falls in the night, because it is always first seen in warm
still mornings.*

On chalky and sandy soils, and in the hot villages about
London, the thermometer has been often observed to mount as
high as, 83 or 84 ; but with us, in this hilly and woody district,
I have hardly ever seen it exceed 80 ; nor does it often arrive at
that pitch. The reason, I conclude, is, that our dense clayey soil,
so much shaded by trees, is not so easily heated through as those
above-mentioned : and, besides, our mountains cause currents of
air and breezes ; and the vast effluvia from our woodlands
temper and moderate our heats.

LETTER LXV. To THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON.

THE summer of the year 1783 was an amazing and portentous
one, and full of horrible phsenomena ; for, besides the alarming
meteors and tremendous thunder-storms that affrighted and dis-
tressed the different counties of this kingdom, the peculiar haze,
or smoky fog, that prevailed for many weeks in this island, and
in every part of Europe, and even beyond its limits, was a most
extraordinary appearance, unlike any thing known within the
memory of man. By my journal I find that I had noticed this
strange occurrence from June 23 to July 20 inclusive, during
which period the wind varied to every quarter without making
any alteration in the air. The sun, at noon, looked as blank as
a clouded moon, arid shed a rust-coloured ferruginous light on
the ground, and floors of rooms ; but was particularly lurid and
blood-coloured at rising and setting. All the time the heat was
so intense that butchers' meat could hardly be eaten on the day
after it was killed ; and the flies swarmed so in the lanes and
hedges that they rendered the horses half frantic, and riding irk-
some. The country people began to look with a superstitious
awe, at the red, lowering aspect of the sun ; and indeed there was
reason for the most enlightened person to be apprehensive ; for,
all the while, Calabria and part of the isle of Sicily were torn
and convulsed with earthquakes ; and about that juncture a

* In more instances than this we may observe that Mr. White had some very vague notions
of evaporation ; but that so acute an observer failed to discover the true cause of" honey-dew,"
is certainly rather surprising. This is now well known to be merely an excrementitious product
from the aphides.-r-ED.

258 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

volcano sprung out of the sea on the coast of Norway. On this
occasion Milton's noble simile of the sun, in his first book of
Paradise Lost, frequently occurred to my mind ; and it is indeed
particularly applicable, because, towards the end, it alludes to a
superstitious kind of dread, with which the minds of men are
always impressed by such strange and unusual phenomena.

-As when the sun, new risen,

Looks through the horizontal, misty air,
Shorn of his beams ; or from behind the moon,
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds
On half the nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs. "

LETTER LXVI. To THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON.

WE are very seldom annoyed with thunder-storms ; and it is no
less remarkable than true, that those which arise in the south
have hardly been known to reach this village ; for before they
get over us, they take a direction to the east or to the west, or
sometimes divide into two, and go in part to one of those quar-
ters, and in part to the other ; as was truly the case in summer
1783, when though the country round was continually harassed
with tempests, and often from the south, yet we escaped them
all ; as appears by my journal of that summer. The only way
that I can at all account for this fact — for such it is — is that, on
that quarter, between us and the sea, there are continual moun-
tains, hill behind hill, such as Nore-hill, the Barnet, Butser-hiD,
and Ports-down, which somehow divert the storms, and give
them a different direction. High promontories, and elevated
grounds, have always been observed to attract clouds and disarm
them of their mischievous contents, which are discharged into
the trees and summits as soon as they come in contact with
those turbulent meteors ; while the humble vales escape, because
they are so far beneath them.

But, when I say I do not remember a thunder-storm from the
south, I do not mean that we never have suffered from thunder-
storms at all; for on June 5th, 1784, the thermometer in the
morning being at 64, and at noon at 70, the barometer at 29 —
six tenths one-half, and the wind north, I observed a blue mist,
smelling strongly of sulphur, hanging along our sloping woods,
and seeming to indicate that thunder was at hand. I was called
in about two in the afternoon, and so missed seeing the gather-

THUNDER-STORM. 259

ing of the clouds in the north ; which they who were abroad
assured me had something uncommon in its appearance. At
about a quarter after two the storm began in the parish of Hart-
ley, moving slowly from north to south ; and from thence it
came over Norton-farm, and so to Grange-farm, both in this
parish. It began with vast drops of rain, which were soon suc-
ceeded by round hail, and then by convex pieces of ice, which
measured three inches in girth. Had it been as extensive as it
was violent, and of any continuance (for it was very short), it
must have ravaged all the neighbourhood. In the parish of
Hartley it did some damage to one farm ; but Norton, which lay
in the centre of the storm, was greatly injured ; as was Grange,
which lay next to it. It did but just reach to the middle of the
village, where the hail broke my north windows, and all my
garden-lights and hand-glasses, and many of my neighbours'
windows. The extent of the storm was about two miles in length
and one in breadth. We were just sitting down to dinner ; but
were soon diverted from our repast by the clattering of tiles and
the jingling of glass. There fell at the same time prodigious
torrents of rain on the farms above mentioned, which occasioned
a flood as violent as it was sudden ; doing great damage to the
meadows and fallows, by deluging the one and washing away the
soil of the other. The hollow lane towards Alton was so torn
and disordered as not to be passable till mended, rocks being
removed that weighed 200 weight. Those that saw the effect
which the great hail had on ponds and pools say that the dashing
of the water made an extraordinary appearance, the froth and
spray standing up in the air three feet above the surface. The
rushing and roaring of the hail, as it approached, was truly
tremendous.

Though the clouds at South Lambeth, near London, were at
that juncture thin and light, and no storm was in sight, nor
within hearing, yet the air was strongly electric ; for the bells of
an electric machine at that place rang repeatedly, and fierce
sparks were discharged.

When I first took the present work in hand I proposed to
have added an Annus Historico-naturalis, or the Natural History
of the Twelve Months of the year ; which would have comprised
many incidents and occurrences that have not fallen in my way
to be mentioned in my series of letters ; — but, as Mr. Aikin of
Warrington has lately published somewhat of this sort, and as
S 2

260 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

the length of my correspondence has sufficiently put your pa-
tience to the test, I shall here take a respectful leave of you and
natural history together ; And am, &c.

SEIKO.*., J.ne, 85, 1787. GIL. WHITE.

More Particulars respecting the Old Family Tortoise, omitted in

the Natural History.

BECAUSE we call this creature an abject reptile, we are too apt
to undervalue his abilities, and depreciate his powers of instinct.
Yet he is, as Mr. Pope says of his lord,

" Much too wise to walk into a well :"

and has so much discernment as not to fall down an haha ; but to
stop and withdraw from the brink with the readiest precaution.

Though he loves warm weather he avoids the hot sun"; be-
cause his thick shell, when once heated, would, as the poet says
of solid armour — " scald with safety." He therefore spends the
more sultry hours under the umbrella of a large cabbage-leaf, or
amidst the waving forests of an asparagus-bed.

But as he avoids heat in the summer, so, in the decline of the
year, he improves the faint autumnal beams, by getting within
the reflection of a fruit-wall : and, though he never has read that
planes inclining to the horizon receive a greater share of warmth,*
he inclines his shell, by tilting it against the wall, to collect and
admit every feeble ray.

Pitiable seems the condition of this poor embarrassed reptile :
to be cased in a suit of ponderous armour, which he cannot lay
aside ; to be imprisoned, as it were, within his own shell, must
preclude, we should suppose, all activity and disposition for enter-
prize. Yet there is a season of the year (usually the beginning
of June) when his exertions are remarkable. He then walks on
tiptoe, and is stirring by five in the morning ; and, traversing the
garden, examines every wicket and interstice in the fences, through
which he will escape if possible : and often has eluded the care
of the gardener, and wandered to some distant field. The motives
that impel him to undertake these rambles seem to be of the
amorous kind ; his fancy then becomes intent on sexual attach-
ments, which transport him beyond his usual gravity, and induce
him to forget for a time his ordinary solemn deportment.

* Several years ago a book was written entitled " Fruit-walls improved by inclining them to
horizon:" in which the author has shown, by calculation, that a much greater number of the
rays of the sun will fall on such walls than on those which are perpendicular.

261

OBSERVATIONS

VARIOUS PARTS OF NATURE.

BIRDS.

IN severe weather, fieldfares, redwings, skylarks, and titlarks,
resort to watered meadows for food ; the latter wades up to its
belly in pursuit of the pupae of insects, and runs along upon the
floating grass and weeds.* Many gnats are on the snow near
the water, these support the birds in part.

* Mr. White perpetually confounds the common and tree pipits, the species he has above
designated "titlark" being a very different bird from that which he several times speaks of under
the same name in his letters. Four species of this genus — anthus — are now admitted into the
British fauna, three of which are common birds in their respective localities. They form a very
natural group, and are intimately allied with the different wagtail genera, which they resemble in
every essential particular, though externally approximating towards the larks (alauda) , in which
genus they were arranged by Linnaeus and the other earlier naturalists, and by which general
name they are still popularly known, our three common species being vulgarly denominated tit-
lark, pipitlark, and mudlark. They have little affinity, however, for the lark genus, notwith-
standing this apparent resemblance, and, in a system based on the physiological relations of
species, should range at a considerable distance from them, being modifications of a distinct type
of organization. In general aspect they are less energetic than the larks, stand higher on the
legs, and run about much more in the manner of a water wagtail. They sing generally upon the
wing, but never soar to any considerable height, nor have they the characteristic breadth of wing
of the lark genus ; they ascend only a little way, reiterating without intermission a single note,
which only varies as they commence descending, at which time, as they slowly, with wings
but half expanded, float obliquely downward, many of them utter strains of more interest. They
further differ from the larks, and very strikingly, in the changes they undergo in plumage, a
character of much importance towards determining the true affinities of birds. Thus, the larks
are at first clad in a peculiar mottled garb, which is entirely cast at the first moulting, including
the wing and tail primaries ; they also change their feathers once only in the year, though shed-
ding the extreme tips of them in the spring ; but the pipits (like all the other wagtail genera) are
double moulting birds, changing all but the primaries both in spring and autumn, and retaining
their nestling primaries till the second autumn, that is, until the third (including the vernal)
renovation of their clothing plumage ; their nestling garb, also, is simply intermediate between
the diverse seasonal dresses of the old birds.

To return, however, to the specific distinctions, which Mr. White altogether overlooked. The
most abundant species is the common pipit (A. cowmunis), or meadow pipit, as it is often
called. This is by far the most generally diffused, and haunts everywhere, in all parts of the
island, wild moors and commons, marshes, and meadow lands wherever situate, being equally
common on the bleakest mountain heaths and along the richest water-meadows of the south. It
is the smallest species, and one of the most typical, or characteristic of its tribe. The bill
is slender and insectivorous-looking, the hind toe furnished with an elongated and stiaightened
claw, as in the larks, which all the genus much resemble in their colours and markings. It sings
generally on the wing, in the manner described, but its voice has little music to recommend it,

262 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS.

Birds are much influenced in their choice of food by colour,
for though white currants are a much sweeter fruit than red, yet
they seldom touch the former till they have devoured every
bunch of the latter.

Redstarts, flycatchers, and blackcaps, arrive early in April. If
these little delicate beings are birds of passage (as we have reason
to suppose they are, because they are never seen in winter) how
could they, feeble as they seem, bear up against such storms of
snow and rain, and make their way through such meteorous tur-
bulences, as one should suppose would embarrass and retard the
most hardy and resolute of the winged nation ? Yet they keep
their appointed times and seasons ; and in spite of frosts and
winds return to their stations periodically, as if they had met
with nothing to obstruct them. The withdrawing and appear-
ance of the short-winged summer birds is a very puzzling cir-
cumstance in natural history !

When the boys bring me wasps' nests, my bantam fowls fare
deliciously, and, when the combs are pulled to pieces, devour the
young wasps in their maggot state with the highest glee and

being merely the same note, repeated gradually quicker and quicker till it reaches the ground
The summer plumage is considerably more dusky than that of winter.,

Closely allied to it is the shore pipit (A> ofescwru«)> called mud-lark by the London bird-catchers ,
of larger size and much darker colour, with the hind-claw somewhat less elongated, and the bill
proportionably longer and larger. This species almost exclusively inhabits the sea-shore, where
it abounds on many parts of the coast, subsisting, for the most part (as 1 hare ascertained by
dissection), on small-shelled mollusca. The common pipit also frequents the same localities.
The shore pipit rises singing into the air in exactly the same manner as the former, with the
same monotonous pip, pip, pip ; but its notes are pleasingly varied in the descent, a little remind-
ing one of those of the domestic canary. It migi-ates partially within the limits of the island,
being found only in winter in some parts of the southern coast; and, in autumn, occasionally
ventures inland, being taken sometimes hear London by the bird-catchers. Both this and the
former species are veiy commonly the foster-parent of a young cuckoo.

Next we have the tree pipit (A- arboreus), the titlark of Mr. White's letters and of the bird-
catchers, though in books this name has been erroneously applied to the A- communis- It is by
far the most beautiful of the genus, and the sweetest songster, and differs in many particulars
from the rest. The bill is thicker at the base, more conical, and lark-like ; the feet have more of
a perching character, the toes being longer, with the hind claw shorter and more curved ; and
there is lesjj difference between its summer and winter plumage. Its general aspect is also very
different, being more equally poised on the centre of gravity, whence its movements are more
graceful, and they are also much more deliberate than those of the others. It is a migratory
species, chiefly inhabiting enclosed situations, more particularly where a few tall trees grow out
of the hedge. There it warbles forth its sweet melody, often perched at a considerable height
from the ground, and frequently as it slowly sails downward, having only the characteristic
pipit-cry when ascending. After moulting at the close of summer, they assemble in small flocks,
apparently the amount of broods, soon after which the majority leave the country. This species
is much sought after by bird-catchers, in order to teach its song to young canaries, the best song-
sters of which are usually reared under the tree pipit and nightingale.

The great pipit (A- mcucimus ; Ricardi, auct.) is a very rare bird all over Europe, at once dis-
tinguishable by its much larger size. It is in every respect a true anthus, and a specimen lately
caught near London by a bird-catcher, during its autumnal moult, enables me to say that its
changes are similar to those of A- communis. It is not improbably a summer visitant. — ED.

ROOKS. 263

delight. Any insect-eating bird would do the same ; and there-
fore I have often wondered that the accurate Mr. Ray should
call one species of buzzard buteo apworus sive vespivorus, or the
honey buzzard, because some combs of wasps happened to be
found in one of their nests. The combs were conveyed thither
doubtless for the sake of the maggots or nymphs, and not for
their honey : since none is to be found in the combs of wasps.
Birds of prey occasionally feed on insects ; thus have I seen a
tame kite picking up the female ants full of eggs with much
satisfaction.*

ROOKS.

ROOKS are continually fighting and pulling each other's nests
to pieces : these proceedings are inconsistent with living in such
close community. And yet if a pair offer to build on a single
tree, the nest is plundered and demolished at once. Some rooks
roost on their nest trees. The twigs which the rooks drop in
building supply the poor with brushwood to light their fires.
Some unhappy pairs are not permitted to finish any nest till the
rest have completed their building. As soon as they get a few
sticks together, a party comes and demolishes the whole. As
soon as rooks have finished their nests, and before they lay, the
cocks begin to feed the hens, who receive their bounty with a

* That redstarts, flycatchers, blackcaps, and other slender-billed insectivorous small birds,
particularly the swallow tribe, make their first appearance very early in the spring, is a weli-
knowu fact ; though the flycatcher is the latest of them all in its visit (as this accurate naturalist
observes in another place), for it is never seen before the month of May. If these delicate crea-
tures come to us from a distant country, they will probably be exposed in their passage, as Mr.
White justly remarks, to much greater difficulties from storms and tempests than their feeble
powers appear to be able to surmount : on the other hand, if we suppose them to pass the winter
in a dormant state in this country concealed in caverns or other hiding places sufficiently guarded
from the extreme cold of our winter to preserve their life, and that at the approach of spring they
e from their torpid state and reassume their usual powers of action, it will entirely remove

e first difficulty

passage ; but how are we to get over
torpid state? What degree of warm
effect, and how it operates on the fu
How could Mr. White suppose tha
on honey, when he not only named
1 it feeds on insects, and brings up

i in their

he still greater difficulty of their revivification from their
h in the temperature of the air is necessary to produce that
ctions of animal life, are questions not easily answered.
Ray named this species the honey buzzard because it fed
in Latin buteo apworus et vespivorus, but expressly says that
the maggots or nymphs of w

That birds of prey, when in want of their proper food, flesh, sometimes feed on insects I have
little doubt, and think I have observed the common buzzard (falco buteo) to settle on the ground
and pick up insects of some kind or other. — MARKWICK.

The common buzzard and tawney hooter (aluco stridula) are particularly insectivorous ; and
the kestrel falcon has also been seen to catch chaffers on a summer evening, feeding upon them
while on the wing ; a better name for the honey buzzard is the common pern (pernis vulgaris) ,
now that several are known possessing the same characters. — ED.

264 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS.

fondling tremulous voice and fluttering wings, and all the little
blandishments that are expressed by the young, while in a help-

Rookery.

less state. This gallant deportment of the males is continued
through the whole season of incubation. These birds do not
copulate on trees, nor in their nests, but on the ground in the t
open fields.*

THRUSHES.

THRUSHES during long droughts are of great service in hunting
out shell snails, which they pull in pieces for their young, and
are thereby very serviceable in gardens. f Missel thrushes do not
destroy the fruit in gardens like the other species of turdi, but
feed on the berries of misseltoe, and in the spring on ivy berries,
which then begin to ripen. In the summer, when their young
become fledged, they leave neighbourhoods, and retire to sheep
walks and wild commons. J

* After the first brood of rooks are sufficiently fledged, they all leave their nest trees in the
day-time, and resort to some distant place in search of food, but return regularly every evening,
in vast flights, to their nest trees, where, after flying round several times with much noise and
clamour, till they are all assembled together, they take up their abode for the night.— M AUK-
WICK.

t The only instance I ever knew of the rook assuming the character of a predacious bird was
towards a brooil of young missel thrushes, which were attacked and destroyed by two or three of
the sable gentry from a neighbouring rookery. To be sure, it was during a period of drought,
when the rooks were a little put to for subsistence. The crow at all times is extremely predatory
in its habits.— En.

t The missel thrush is a great devourer of currants and gooseberries, also of greeli pea«, as
gardeners well know to their cost.— ED.

MAGPIES. 265

MAGPIES.

THE magpies, when they have young, destroy the broods of
missel thrushes, though the dams
are fierce birds, and fight boldly in
defence of their nests.* It is proba-
bly to avoid such insults, that this
species of thrush, though wild at
other times, delights to build near
houses, and in frequented walks and
gardens.

POULTRY.

MANY creatures are endowed with a ready discernment to see
what will turn to their own advantage and emolument, and often
discover more sagacity than could be expected. Thus my neigh-
bour's poultry watch for waggons loaded with wheat, and run-
ning after them pick up a number of grains which are shaken
from the sheaves by the agitation of the carriages. Thus, when
my brother used to take down his gun to shoot sparrows, his
cats would run out before him, to be ready to catch up the birds
as they fell.

The earnest and early propensity of the gallinae to roost on
high is very observable ; and discovers a strong dread impressed
on their spirits respecting vermin that may annoy them on the
ground during the hours of darkness. Hence poultry, if left to
themselves and not housed, will perch the winter through on
yew-trees and fir-trees ; and turkeys and guinea fowls, heavy as

* Of the truth of this I have been an eye-witness, having seen the common thrush feeding on
the shell snail.

In the very early part of this spring (1/9/) a bird of this species used to sit every morning on
the top of some high elms close by my windows, and delight me with its charming song, attracted
thither, probably, by some ripe ivy berries that grew near the place.

I have remarked something like the latter fact, for I remember, many years ago, seeing a pair
of these birds fly up repeatedly and attack some larger bird, which I suppose disturbed their nest
in my orchard, uttering at the same time violent shrieks. Since writing the above, I have seen
more than once a pair of these birds attack some magpies that had disturbed their nest, with
great violence and loud shrieks. — MARKWiCK.t

f It is indeed quite a common occurrence, but I have reason to believe that the missel thrushes
not unfrequeiitly betray the site of their nest, in the first instance, by virulently attacking every
large bird that comes near the place. — ED.

266 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS.

they are, get up into apple trees : pheasants also in woods sleep

on trees to avoid foxes ; while pea-fowls climb to the tops of the

highest trees round their owner's

house for security, let the weather be

ever so cold or blowing. Partridges,

it is true, roost on the ground, not

having the faculty of perching ; but

then the same fear prevails in their

minds ; for through apprehensions

from pole-cats and stoats, they never

trust themselves to coverts, but

nestle together in the midst of large fields, far removed from

hedges and coppices, which they love to haunt in the day, and

where at that season they can sculk more secure from the ravages

of rapacious birds.*

As to ducks and geese, their awkward splay web-feet forbid
them to settle on trees ; they therefore, in the hours of darkness
and danger, betake themselves to their own element, the water,
where., amidst large lakes and pools, like ships riding at anchor,
they float the whole night long in peace and security.f

HEN PARTRIDGE.

A HEN partridge came out of a ditch, and ran along shivering

* A foreign genus of ducks (dendronessa) , of beautiful and even gorgeous plumage, roosts
habitually on trees ; as do also oitr common heron and its congeners, birds which would seem
equally ill-fitted for perching. — ED.

t Guinea fowls not only roost on high, but in hard weather resort, even in the day-time, to the
very tops of the highest trees. Last winter, when the ground was covered with snow, I discovered
all my guinea fowls, in the middle of the day, sitting on the highest boughs of some very tall
elms, chattering and making a great clamour: I ordered them to be driven down lest they should
be frozen to death in so elevated a situation, but this was not effected without much difficulty,
they being very unwilling to quit their lofty abode, notwithstanding one of them had its feet so
much frozen that we were obliged to kill it. I know not how to account for this, unless it was
occasioned by their aversion to the snow on the ground, they being birds that come originally
from a hot climate.

Notwithstanding the awkward splay web-feet (as Mr. White calls them) of the duck genus,
»ome of the foreign species have the power of settling on the boughs of trees apparently with
ffreat ease, an instance of which I have seen in the earl of Ashburnham's menagerie, where the
summer duck, anas sponsa (the dendronessa sponsa of modern nomenclature), flew up and settled
on the branch of an oak tree in my presence; but whether any of them roost on trees in the
night we are not informed by any author that I am acquainted with. I suppose not, but that,
like the rest of the genus, they sleep on the water, where the birds of this genus are not always
perfectly secure, as will appear from the following circumstance, which happened in this neigh-
bourhood a few years since, as I was credibly informed. A female fox was found in the morn-
ing drowned in the same pond in which were several geese, and it was supposed that in the night
the fox swam into the pond to devour the geese, but was attacked by the gander, which, being
most powerful in its own element, buffeted the fox with its wings about the head till it was
drowned. — MABKWICK.

A HYBRID PHEASANT. 267

with her wings, and crying out as if wounded and unable to get
from us. While the dam acted this distress, the boy who at-
tended me saw her brood, that was small and unable to fly, run
for shelter into an old fox-earth under the bank. So wonderful
a power is instinct.*

A HYBRID PHEASANT.

LORD Stawell sent me from the great lodge in the Holt a
curious bird for my inspection. It was found by the spaniels of
one of his keepers in a coppice, and shot on the wing. The
shape, air, and habit of the bird, and the scarlet ring round the
eyes, agreed well with the appearance of a cock pheasant ; but
then the head and neck, and breast and belly were of a glossy
black : and though it weighed three pounds three ounces and a
half,f the weight of a large full-grown cock pheasant, yet there
were no signs of any spurs on the legs, as is usual with all grown
cock pheasants, who have long ones. The legs and feet were
naked of feathers, and therefore it could be nothing of the grouse
kind. In the tail were no long bending feathers, such as cock
pheasants usually have, and are characteristic of the sex. The
tail was much shorter than the tail of a hen pheasant, and blunt
and square at the end. The back, wing feathers, and tail, were
all of a pale russet, curiously streaked, somewhat like the upper
parts of a hen partridge. I returned it with my verdict, that it
was probably a spurious or hybrid hen bird, bred between a cock
pheasant and some domestic fowl. When I came to talk with
the keeper who brought it, he told me that some pea-hens had
been known last summer to haunt the coppices and coverts
where this mule was found. J

* It is not uncommon to see an old partridge feign itself wounded and run along on the ground
fluttering and crying before either dog or man, to draw them away from its helpless unfledged
young ones. I have seen it often, and once in particular I saw a remarkable instance of the old
bird's solicitude to save its brood. As I was hunting a young pointer, the dog ran on a-brood of
very small partridges ; the old bird cried, fluttered, and ran tumbling along just before the dog's
nose till she had drawn him to a considerable distance, when she took wing and flew still further
off, but not out of the field : on this the dog returned to me, near which place the young ones lay
concealed in the grass, which the old bird no sooner perceived than she flew back again to us,
settled just before the dog's nose again, and by rolling and tumbling about drew off his attention
from her young, and thus preserved her brood a second time. I have also seen, when a kite has
been hovering over a covey of young partridges, the old birds fly up at the bird of prey, screaming
and fighting with all their might to preserve their brood. — MARKWICK.

t Hen pheasants usually weigh only two pounds ten ounces.

t There cannot be the slightest doubt as to the origin of this hybrid bird, which was a mule
between the male pheasant and the female black grouse, differing, however, from most hybrids so
produced in the tarse being entirely devoid of feathers. The only mixed progeny of the pheasant

268 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS.

Mr. Elmer, of Farnham, the famous game painter, was em-
ployed to take an exact copy of this curious bird.

It ought to be mentioned, that some good judges have
imagined this bird to have been a stray grouse or blackcock ; it
is however to be observed, that Mr. W. remarks, that its legs
and feet were naked, whereas those of the grouse are feathered
to the toes.*

LAND-RAIL.

A MAN brought me a land -rail or daker-hen, a bird so rare in
this district that we seldom see more than one or two in a season,
and those only in autumn. This is deemed a bird of passage by
all the writers : yet from its formation seems to be poorly quali-
fied for migration ; for its wings are short, and placed so forward,
and out of the centre of gravity, that it flies in a very heavy and
embarrassed manner, with its legs hanging down ; and can hardly
be sprung a second time, as it runs very fast, and seems to de-
pend more on the swiftness of its feet than on its flying.f

When we came to draw it, we found the entrails so soft and
tender, that in appearance they might have been dressed like the
ropes of a woodcock. The craw or crop was small and lank,
containing a mucus ; the gizzard thick and strong, and filled
with small shell snails, some whole, and many ground to pieces
through the attrition which is occasioned by the muscular force
and motion of that intestine. We saw no gravels among the
food : perhaps the shell snails might perform the functions of
gravels or pebbles, and might grind one another.^ Land-rails
used to abound formerly, I remember, in the low wet bean fields

and black grouse which I have seen was a female, in which the tarse was feathered half way
down; but, as mule productions are not always exactly intermediate, there is nothing so very un-
common about its appearance. In his sixth Letter to Mr. Pennant, Mr.White states, that black
game were formerly common in VVolmer-ibrest, and mentions also that a solitary female had been
seen some years previously. Such an individual might be expected to produce a hybrid with a
male pheasant, where none of her own species remained in the neighbourhood. — ED.

* Mr. Latham observes that " pea-hens, after they have done laying, sometimes assume the
plumage of the male bird," and has given a figure of the male-feathered pea-hen now to be seen
in the Leverian Museum ; and M. Salerne remarks that " the hen pheasant, when she has done
laying and sitting, will get the plumage of the male." May not this hybrid pheasant (as Mr.
White calls it) be a bird of this kind? that is, an old hen pheasant which had just begun to
assume the plumage of the cock.— MARKWICK.

t I have known a bird of this species to have been shot in mid-winter, in good condition ; and
there are two or three instances of their haring been found torpid — not nyberuating; but 1 have
also known one to alight in spring upon the deck of an Indiumnn coming up the channel, and
it is now well known that by ftr the greater number migrate. A very few remain and build in
Surrey, but in summer they are much more plentiful in the northern and midland counties.— ED.

t Sir W. Jardiue has taken a field mouse from the stomach of this species. — ED.

FOOD OF THE RING-DOVE. 269

of Christian Malford in North Wilts, and in the meadows near
Paradise Gardens at Oxford, where I have often heard them cry
crex, crex. The bird mentioned above weighed 7| oz., was fat
and tender, and in flavour like the flesh of a woodcock. The
liver was very large and delicate *

FOOD OF THE RING-DOVE.

ONE of my neighbours shot a ring-dove on an evening as it
was returning from feed and going to roost. When his wife had
picked and drawn it, she found its craw stuffed with the most
nice arid tender tops of turnips. These she washed and boiled,
and so sat down to a choice and delicate plate of greens, culled
and provided in this extraordinary manner.

Hence we may see that graminivorous birds, when grain fails,
can subsist on the leaves of vegetables. f There is reason to
suppose that they would not long be healthy without ; for tur-
keys, though corn fed, delight in a variety of plants, such as
cabbage, lettuce, endive, &c., and poultry pick much grass ; while
geese live for months together on commons by grazing alone.

' Nought is useless made !-

- On the barren heath

The shepherd tends his flock that daily crop
Their verdant dinner from the mossy turf
Sufficient : after them the cackling goose,
Close-grazer, finds wherewith to ease her want."

PHILIP'S CYDER.

* Land-rails are more plentiful with us than in the neighbourhood of Selborne. I have found
four brace in an afternoon, and a friend of mine lately shot nine in two adjoining fields ; but I
never saw them in any other season than the autumn.

That it is a bird of passage there can be little doubt, though Mr. White thinks it poorly quali-
fied for migration, on account of the wings being short and not placed in the exact centre of
gravity : how that may be 1 cannot say, but I know that its heavy sluggish flight is not owing to
its inability of flying faster, for I have seen it fly very swiftly, although in general its actions
are sluggish. Its unwillingness to rise proceeds, 1 imagine, from its sluggish disposition, and its
great timidity, for it will sometimes squat so close to the ground as to suffer itself to be taken up
by the hand, rather than rise ; and yet it will at times run very fast.

What Mr, White remarks respecting the small shell snails found in its gizzard confirms my
opinion that it frequents corn-fields, seed-clover, and brakes or fern, more for the sake of snails,
slugs, and other insects which abound in such places, than for the grain or seeds ; and that it is
entirely an insectivorous bird.* — MARKWICK.

* It is also a corn-feeder. — ED.

t That many graminivorous birds feed also on the herbage or leaves of plants there can be,
no doubt: partridges and larks frequently feed on the green leaves of turnips, which gives a
peculiar flavour to their flesh, that is, to me, very palatable : the flavour also of wild ducks and
geese greatly depends on the nature of their food; and their flesh frequently contracts a rank
unpleasant taste, from their having lately fed on strong marshy aquatic plants as I suppose.

That the leaves of vegetables are wholesome and conducive to the health of birds seems pro-
bable, for many people fat their ducks and turkeys with the leaves of lettuce chopped small.—
MARKWICX.

270 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS.

HEN HARRIER.

A NEIGHBOURING gentleman sprung a pheasant in a wheat
stubble, and shot at it ; when, notwithstanding the report of the
gun, it was immediately pursued by the blue hawk, known by
the name of the hen-harrier, but escaped into some covert. He
then sprung a second, and a third, in the same field, that got
away in the same manner ; the hawk hovering round him all the
while that he was beating the field, conscious no doubt of the
game that lurked in the stubble. Hence we may conclude that
this bird of prey was rendered very daring and bold by hunger,
and that hawks cannot always seize their game when they please.
We may further observe, that they cannot pounce their quarry
on the ground, where it might be able to make a stout resistance,
since so large a fowl as a pheasant could not but be visible to the
piercing eye of a hawk, when hovering over the field. Hence
that propensity of cowring and squatting till they are almost
trod on, which no doubt was intended as a mode of security :
though long rendered destructive to the whole race of gallinse by
the invention of nets and guns.*

GREAT SPECKLED DIVER, OR LOON.

As one of my neighbours was traversing Wolmer-forest from
Bramshot across the moors, he found a large uncommon bird
fluttering in the heath, but not wounded, which he brought

* Of the great boldness and rapacity of birds of prey, when urged on by hunger, 1 have seen
several instances ; particularly, when shooting in the winter in company with two friends, a
woodcock flew across us closely pursued by a small hawk ; we all three fired at the woodcock
instead of the hawk, which, notwithstanding the report of three guns close by it, continued its
pursuit of the woodcock, struck it down, and carried it off, as we afterwards discovered.

At another time, when partridge-shooting with a friend, we saw a ring-tail hawk rise out of a
pit with some large bird in its claws ; though at a great distance, we both fired and obliged it to
drop its prey, which proved to be one of the partridges which we were in pursuit of; and lastly,
in an evening, I shot at and plainly saw that I had wounded a partridge, but it being late was
obliged to go home without finding it again. The next morning 1 walked round my land without
any gun, but a favourite old spaniel followed my heels. When I came near the field where 1
wounded the bird the evening before, I heard the partridges call, and seeming to be much dis-
turbed. On my app caching the bar-way they all rose, some on my right and some on my left
hand ; and just befo e and over my head, 1 perceived (though indistinctly, from the extreme
velocity of their moti n) two birds fly directly against each other, when instantly, to my great
astonishment, down Iropped a partridge at my feet : the dog immediately seized it, and on
examination I found he blood flow very fast from a fresh wound in the head, but there was some
dry clotted blood on s wings and side ; whence 1 concluded that a hawk had singled out rny
wounded bird as the bject of his prey, and had struck it down the instant that my approach
had obliged the bird to rise on the wing ; but the space between the hedges was so small, and
the motion of the birds so instantaneous and quick, that I could not distinctly observe the oper-
ation.— MARK-WICK.

GREAT SPECKLED DIVER, OR LOON. 271

home alive. On examination it proved to be colymbus glacialis
Linn., the great speckled diver or loon, which is most excellently
described in Willoughby's Ornithology.

Every part and proportion of this bird is so incomparably
adapted to its mode of life, that in no instance do we see the wisdom
of God in the creation to more advan-
tage. The head is sharp and smaller
than the part of the neck adjoining, in
order that it may pierce the water ; the
wings are placed forward and out of
the centre of gravity for a purpose
which shall be noticed hereafter ; ______

the thighs quite at the podeX, in ~GrTat Speckled Diver, or Loon.

order to facilitate diving , and the legs are flat, and as
sharp backwards almost as the edge of a knife, that in striking
they may easily cut the water : while the feet are palmated, and
broad for swimming, yet so folded up when advanced forward to
take a fresh stroke, as to be full as narrow as the shank. The
two exterior toes of the feet are longest ; the nails flat and broad,
resembling the human, which give strength and increase the
power of swimming. The foot, when expanded, is not at right
angles to the leg or body of the bird : but the exterior part in-
clining towards the head forms an acute angle with the body ;
the intention being not to give motion in the line of the legs
themselves, but by the combined impulse of both in an inter-
mediate line, the line of the body.

Most people know, that have observed at all, that the swim-
ming of birds is nothing more than a walking in the water,
where one foot suceeds the other as on the land ; yet no one, as
far as I am aware, has remarked that diving fowls, while under
water, impel and row themselves forward by a motion of their
wings, as well as by the impulse of their feet : but such is really
the case, as any person may easily be convinced, who will ob-
serve ducks when hunted by dogs in a clear pond. Nor do I
know that any one has given a reason why the wings of diving
fowls are placed so forward : doubtless, not for the purpose of
promoting their speed in flying, since that position certainly im-
pedes it ; but probably for the increase of their motion under
water, by the use of four oars instead of two ; yet were the wings
and feet nearer together, as in land-birds, they would, when in
action, rather hinder than assist one another.

272 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS

This colymbus was of considerable bulk, weighing only three
drachms short of three pounds avoirdupois. It measured in
length from the bill to the tail (which was very short) two feet,
and to the extremities of the toes four inches more ; and the
breadth of the wings expanded was 42 inches. A person at-
tempted to eat the body, but found it very strong and rancid, as
is the flesh of all birds living on fish. Divers or loons, though
bred in the most northerly parts of Europe, yet are seen with us
in very severe winters ; and on the Thames are called sprat
loons, because they prey much on that sort of fish.

The legs of the colymbi and mergi are placed so very back-
ward, and so out of all centre of gravity, that these birds cannot
walk at all. They are called by Linnaeus compedes, because they
move on the ground as if shackled or fettered.*

STONE CURLEW.

ON the 27th of February 1788, stone curlews were heard to
pipe ; and on March 1st, after it was dark, some were passing
over the village, as might be perceived by their quick short note,
which they use in their nocturnal excursions by way of watch-
word, that they may not stray and lose their companions.

Thus, we see, that retire whithersoever they may in the winter,
they return again early in the spring, and are, as it now appears,
the first summer birds that come back. Perhaps the mildness of
the season may have quickened the emigration of the curlews
this year.

* These accurate and ingenious observations, tending to set forth in a proper light the won-
derful works of God in the creation, and to point out his wisdom in adapting the singular form
and position of the limbs of this bird to the particular mode in which it is destined to pass the
greatest part of its life in an element much denser than the air, do Mr. White credit, not only
as a naturalist, but as a man and as a philosopher, in the truest sense of the word, in my opinion ;
for, were we enabled to trace the works of nature minutely and accurately, we should find, not
only that every bird, but every creature, was equally well adapted for the purpose for which it
was intended ; though this fitness and propriety of form is more striking in such animals as are
destined to any uncommon mode of life.

I have had in my possession two birds, which, though of a different genus, bear a great
resemblance to Mr. White's Colymbus, in their manner of life, which is spent chiefly in the
water, where they swim and dive with astonishing rapidity, for which purpose their fin-toed feet,
placed far behind, and very short wings, are particularly well adapted, and show the wisdom of
God in the creation as conspicuously as the bird before mentioned. These birds were the greater
and lesser crested grebe, podiceps cristatus et awitus- What surprised me most was that the first
of these birds was found alive o*> dry ground, about seven miles from the sea, to which place
there was no communication by water. How did it get so far from the sea? its wings and legs
being so ill adapted either to flying or walking.* The lesser crested grebe was also found in a
fresh-water pond which had no communication with other water, at some miles distance from the
sea. — MARK-WICK.

* When once upon the wing, these birds contrive to advance without much difficulty.- En.

FERN OWL. 273

They spend the day in high elevated fields and sheep-walks ;
but seem to descend in the night to streams and meadows, per-
haps for water, which their upland haunts do not afford them.*

THE SMALLEST UNCRESTED WILLOW WREN.

THE smallest uncrested willow wren, or chiff chaf, is the next
early summer bird which we have remarked ; it utters two sharp
piercing notes, so loud in hollow woods, as to occasion an echo,
and is usually first heard about the 20th of March, t

FERN OWL, OR GOAT SUCKER.

THE country people have a notion that the fern owl, or churn
owl, or eve-jarr, which they also call a puckeridge, is very in-
jurious to weanling calves, by inflicting, as it strikes at them, the
fatal distemper known to cow-leeches by the name of puckeridge.
Thus does this harmless ill-fated bird fall under a double im-
putation which it by no means deserves — in Italy, of sucking the
teats of goats, whence it is called caprimulgus ; and with us, of
communicating a deadly disorder to cattle. But the truth of the
matter is, the malady above mentioned is occasioned by the
csstrus bovis, a dipterous insect, which lays its eggs along the
chines of kine, where the maggots, when hatched, eat their way
through the hide of the beast into the flesh, and grow to a very
large size. I have just talked with a man, who says, he has
more than once stripped calves who have died of the puckeridge ;
that the ail or complaint lay along the chine, where the flesh was
much swelled, and filled with purulent matter. Once I myself
saw a large rough maggot of this sort squeezed out of the back
of a cow. These maggots in Essex are called wormils.

* On the 31st of January 1792 I received a bird of this species which had been recently killed
by a neighbouring farmer, who said that he had frequently seen it in his fields during the former
part of the winter ; this perhaps was an occasional straggler, which, by some accident, was
prevented from accompanying its companions in their migration. — MAKKWICK.

t This bird, which Mr. White calls the smallest willow wren or chiff chaf, makes its
appearance very early in the spring, and is very common with us ; but I cannot make out the
three different species of willow wrens which he assures us he has discovered. Ever since the
publication of his History of Selborne I have used my utmost endeavours to discover his three
birds, but hitherto without success. I have frequently shot the bird which " haunts only the
tops of trees and makes a sibilous noise," even in the very act of uttering that sibilous note, but
it always proved to be the common willow wren or his chiff chaf. In short, 1 never could dis-
cover more than one species, unless my greater pettychaps, sylvia hortensis of Latham, is his
greatest willow wren.* — MAKKWICK.

* It is pretty evident that Mr. Markwick could never have compared his birds together, or
attended much to their distinctive characters, as pointed out by Mr. White; otherwise he could
not fail to have distinguished them. — F,D.

T

274 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS.

The least observation and attention would convince men, that
these birds neither injure the goatherd nor the grazier, but are
perfectly harmless, and subsist alone, being night birds, on night
insects, such as scarabcei, and phalance j and through the month
of July mostly on the scarabceus solstitialis, which in many
districts abounds at that season. Those that we have opened,
have always had their craws stuffed with large night moths and
their eggs, and pieces of chaffers : nor does it any wise appear
how they can, weak and unarmed as they seem, inflict any harm
upon kine, unless they possess the powers of animal magnetism,
and can affect them by fluttering over them.

A fern owl, this evening (August 27) showed off in a very un-
usual and entertaining manner, by hawking round and round the
circumference of my great spreading oak for twenty times fol-
lowing, keeping mostly close to the grass, but occasionally
glancing up amidst the boughs of the tree. This amusing bird
was then in pursuit of a brood of some particular phalaena be-
longing to the oak, of which there are several sorts ; and ex-
hibited on the occasion a command of wing superior, I think, to
that of the swallow itself.

When a person approaches the haunt of fern-owls in an even-
ing, they continue flying round the head of the obtruder ; and
by striking their wings together above their backs, in the manner
that the pigeons called smiters are known to do, make a smart
snap : perhaps at that time they are jealous for their young ; and
their noise and gesture are intended by way of menace.

Fern-owls have attachment to oaks, no doubt on account of
food; for the next evening we saw one again several times
among the boughs of the same tree ; but it did not skim round
its stem over the grass, as on the evening before. In May these
birds find the scarabceus melolontha on the oak ; and the scarabceus
solstitialis at midsummer. These peculiar birds can only be
watched and observed for two hours in the twenty-four: and
then in a dubious twilight an hour after sun-set and an hour
before sun-rise.

On this day (July 14, 1789) a woman brought me two eggs of
a fern-owl or eve-jarr, which she found on the verge of the
Hanger, to the left of the hermitage, under a beechen shrub.
This person, who lives just at the foot of the Hanger, seems well
acquainted with these nocturnal swallows, and says she has often
found their eggs near that place, and that they lay only two at

SAND MARTINS. 275

a time on the bare ground. The eggs were oblong, dusky, and
streaked somewhat in the manner of the plumage of the parent
bird, and were equal in size at each end. The dam was sitting
on the eggs when found, which contained the rudiments of young,
and would have been hatched perhaps in a week. From hence
we may see the time of their breeding, which corresponds pretty
well with that of the swift, as does also the period of their arrival.
Each species is usually seen about the beginning of May. Each
breeds but once in a summer ; each lays only two eggs.*

July 4, 1790. The woman who brought me two fern-owl's
eggs last year on July 14, on this day produced me two more,
one of which had been laid this morning, as appears plainly,
because there was only one in the nest the evening before. They
were found, as last July, on the verge of the down above the
hermitage under a beechen shrub, on the naked ground. Last
year those eggs were full of young, and just ready to be hatched.

These circumstances point out the exact time when these
curious nocturnal migratory birds lay their eggs and hatch their
young. Fern-owls, like snipes, stone curlews, and some other
birds, make no nest. Birds that build on the ground do not
make much of nests. f

SAND MARTINS.

MARCH 23, 1788. A gentleman, who was this week on a visit
at Waverly, took the opportunity of examining some of the holes
in the sand-banks with which that district abounds. As these
are undoubtedly bored by bank martins, and are the places where
they avowedly breed, he was in hopes they might have slept there
also, and that he might have surprised them just as they were
awaking from their winter slumbers. When he had dug for

* The swift often lays three, and sometimes four eggs. — ED

t No author that 1 am acquainted with has giveu so accurate and pleasing an account of the
manners and habits of the goat-sucker as Mr. White, taken entirely from his own observations.
Its being a nocturnal bird, has prevented my having many opportunities of observing it. I suspect
that it passes the day in concealment amidst the dark and shady gloom of deep-wooded dells, or
as they are called here gills, having more than once seen it roused from such solitary places by
my dogs, when shooting in the day-time. I have also sometimes seen it in an evening, but not
long enough to take notice of its habits and manners. 1 have never seen it but in the summer,
between the months of May and September. — MAKKWICK.*

* This bird I have many times noticed during the day-time, sitting on lichened fences, nearly
of its own colour, and even hedges, but generally in shady situations. It will allow of a close
approach, and more than once I have advanced so near that I could have easily knocked it down
with a stick, before I could convince myself that it was not a mere lump of mouldiness ; when
disturbed, it flits away, with an easy buoyant flight, to the shelter generally of some contiguous
fern-covert. — ED.

276 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE.

some time, he found the holes were horizontal and serpentine, as
I had observed before : and that the nests were deposited at the
inner end, and had been occupied by broods in former summers,
but no torpid birds were to be found. He opened and examined
about a dozen holes. Another gentleman made the same search
many years ago, with as little success. These holes were in
depth about two feet.

March 21, 1790. A single bank or sand martin was seen
hovering and playing round the sand-pit at Short Heath, where
in the summer they abound.

April 9, 1793. A sober hind assures us, that this
Wish-hanger common between Hedleigh and Frinsham, he saw
several bank- martins playing in and out, and hanging before
some nest-holes in a sand-hill, where these birds usually nestle.

This incident confirms my suspicions that this species of
hirundo is to be seen first of any ; and gives great reason to sup-
pose that they do not leave their wild haunts at all, but are
secreted amidst the clefts and caverns of those abrupt cliffs
where they usually spend their summers.

The late severe weather considered, it is not very probable
that these birds should have migrated so early from a tropical
region, through all these cutting winds and pinching frosts : but
it is easy to suppose that they may, like bats and flies, have been
awakened by the influence of the sun, amidst their secret latebrae,
where they have spent the uncomfortable foodless months in a
torpid state, and the profoundest of slumbers.

There is a large pond at Wish-hanger, which induces these
sand-martins to frequent that district. For I have ever remarked
that they haunt near great waters, either rivers or lakes.*

* Here, and in many other passages of his writings, this very ingenious naturalist favours the
opinion that part at least of the swallow tribe pass their winter in a torpid state in the same
manner as hats and flies, and revive again on the approach of spring.

1 have frequently taken notice of all these circumstances, which induced Mr. White to suppose
that some of the hirundines lie torpid during winter. 1 have seen, so late as November, on a
finer day than usual at that season of the year, two or three swallows flying backwards and for-
wards under a warm hedge, or on the sunny side of some old building; nay I once saw on the
Sth of December two martins flying about very briskly, the weather being mild. I had not seen
any considerable number either of swallows or martins for a considerable time before ; from
whence then could these few birds come, if not from some hole or cavern where they had laid
themselves up for the winter? Surely it will not be asserted that these birds migrate back again
from some distant tropical region, merely on the appearance of a fine day or two at this late
season of the year. Again, very early in the spring, and sometimes immediately after very cold
severe weather, on its growing a little warmer, a few of these birds suddenly make their appear-
ance, long before the generality of them are seen. These appearances certainly favour the opinion
of their passing the winter in a torpid state, but do not absolutely prove the fact ; for who ever
saw them reviving of their own accord from their torpid state, without being first brought to the
fire, and as it were, forced into life again ; soon after which revivification they constantly die. —
MARK WICK.

SWALLOWS. 277

CONGREGATING AND DISAPPEARANCE OF
SWALLOWS.

DURING the severe winds that often prevail late in the spring, it
is not easy to say how the hirundines subsist : for they withdraw
themselves, and are hardly ever seen, nor do any insects appear
for their support. That they can retire to rest, and sleep away
these uncomfortable periods, as bats do, is a matter rather to be
susi^|ed than proved : or do they not rather spend their time in
de^^pid sheltered vales near waters, where insects are more
likely to be found ? Certain it is, that hardly any individuals
of this genus have at such time's been seen for several days
together.

September 13, 1791. The congregating flocks of hirundines
on the church and tower are very beautiful and amusing ! When
they fly off together from the roof, on any alarm, they quite
swarm in the air. But they soon settle in heaps, and preening
their feathers, and lifting up their wings to admit the sun, seem
highly to enjoy the warm situation. Thus they spend the heat
of the day, preparing for their emigration, and, as it were, con-
sulting when and where they are to go. The flight about the
church seems to consist chiefly of house martins, about 400 in
number: but there are other places of rendezvous about the
village frequented at the same time.

It is remarkable, that though most of them sit on the battle-
ments and roofs, yet many hang or cling for some time by their
claws against the surface of the walls, in a manner not practised
by them at any other time of their remaining with us.

The swallows seem to delight more in holding their assemblies
on trees.

November 3, 1789. Two swallows were seen this morning at
Newton vicarage-house, hovering and settling on the roofs and
out-buildings. None have been observed at Selborne since
October 11. It is very remarkable, that after the hirundines
have disappeared for some weeks, a few are occasionally seen
again : sometimes, in the first week in November, and that only
for one day. Do they not withdraw and slumber in some hiding
place during the interval ? for we cannot suppose they had mi-
grated to warmer climes and so returned again for one day.* Is

* Of their migration the proofs are such as will scarcely admit of a doubt. Sir Charles Wager

278 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS.

it not more probable that they are awakened from sleep, and like
the bats are come forth to collect a little food ? Bats appear
at all seasons through the autumn and spring months, when the
thermometer is at 50, because then phalaenae and moths are
stirring. These swallows looked like young ones.

WAGTAILS.

WHILE the cows are feeding in the moist low nastures, broods
of wagtails, white and gray, run round
them, close up to their noses, and
under their very bellies, availing them-
selves of the flies that settle on their
legs, and probably finding worms and
larvae that are roused by the trampling
of their feet. Nature is such an econo-
mist, that the most incongruous ani-
mals can avail themselves of each
other ! Interest makes strange friendships.*

WRYNECK.

THESE birds appear on the grass-plots and walks; they walk a
little as well as hop, and thrust their bills into the turf, in quest,
I conclude, of ants, which are their food. While they hold their
bills in the grass, they draw out their prey with their tongues,
which are so long as to be coiled round their heads.f

and Captain Wright saw vast flocks of them at sea, when on their passage from one country to
another. Our author, Mr. White, saw what he deemed the actual migration of these birds, and
which he has described at p. 65 of his History of Selborne ; and of their congregating together on
the roofs of churches and other buildings, and on trees, previous to tb^eir departure, many in-
stances occur, particularly I once observed a large flock of house-martins on the roof of the
church here at Catsfield, which acted exactly in the manner here described by Mr. White, some-

times preening
but soon return

heir feathers and spreading their wings to the sun, and then flying off ail togethei
ig to their former situation. The greatest part of these birds seemed to be young

ually avail themselves of particular and unusual circumstances to procure their
ills keep playing about the noses and legs of cattle as they feed, in quest of flies
which abound near those animals ; and great numbers of them will follow close

* Birds conti
food ; thus wag
and other inset-
to the plough to devour the worms, &c., that are turned, up by that instrument. The redbr«
attends the gardener when digging his borders; and will, with great familiarity and lameness,
pick out the worms, almost close to his spade, as 1 have frequently seen. Starlings and magpies
very often sit on the backs of sheep and deer to pick out their ticks. — MABKWICK.

t This curious and very beautifully marked species is particularly common in many parts of
Surrey, where it is known by various names, ascuckoo's-mate, pay-pay, snake bird, &.c., the second
term being obviously derived from its hawk-like note. Though its foot closely resembles that of
many woodpeckers, it is very rarely indeed seen to climb, but that it can do 'so I have had occa-
sion to witness ; it presses, however, its soft tail against the bark, the structure of which sufficiently

GROSBEAK.

279

GROSBEAK,

MR. B. shot a cock grosbeak which he had observed to haunt
his garden for more than a fortnight. I began to accuse this
bird of making sad havoc among the buds of the cherries, goose-
berries, and wall-fruit of all the neighbouring orchards. Upon
opening its crop or craw, no buds
were to be seen ; but a mass of
kernels of the stones of fruits. Mr.
B. observed that this bird frequented
the spot where plum-trees grow ; and
that he had seen it with somewhat
hard in its mouth, which it broke
with difficulty ; these were the stones Grosbeak,

of damsons. The Latin ornithologists call this bird cocco-
thraustes, that is, berry-breaker, because with its large horny
beak it cracks and breaks the shells of stone fruits for the sake
of the seed or kernel. Birds of this sort are rarely seen in Eng-
land, and only in winter.*

shows that it is not an habitual climber. Writers have strangely attributed the origin of the word
"wryneck" to a supposed habit of frequently turning round the head while feeding, giving the
>rted appearance. Much as I have noticed the bird, I

mesial line at the back of the neck a

never could observe this habit, and am sceptical rather as to its occurrence. Th
winged or picked up a slightly wounded wryneck, will be at no loss to divine
appellation. Nothing can be more ridiculous than the menacing postures
Erecting the crest and closely depressing the neck plumage, it hisses like a
about its long neck as if to imitate one. If placed again on the ground, its atti

se who have ever
he origin of the
then assumes,
nake, and moves
udes will be even

sibling those of an

aton figure, rather than of a creatu;

more preposterous, and i
endowed with life.— En.

* This is a mistake ; the haw grosbeak is a resident species, but so extremely shy during the
breeding season that it a long while escaped the attention of our naturalists. I know several
localities where they annually breed, and know one instance of a nest occurring two following
seasons in the very same fork of a tree. It has but poor claims to our regard in the way of music,
but generally delivers its few notes from a bare branch near the top of a tree. In summer the
bills of both sexes become of a fine blue, and the young differ much from their parents, having a
deal of yellowish about the head and throat, and many small dusky spots on the under plumage.
A brood of them committed great depredations on my neighbour's green peas, one of which was
shot, and is in my collection. It is extremely difficult to get even a distant shot at this bird in
summer, as it flies off the moment it perceives a person approach. — ED.

280

OBSERVATIONS

ON

QUADRUPEDS.

SHEEP.

THE sheep on the downs this winter (1769) are very ragged, and
their coats much torn ; the shepherds say they tear their fleeces
with their own mouths and horns, and they are always in that
way in mild wet winters, being teased and tickled with a kind
of lice.

After ewes and lambs are shorn, there is great confusion and
bleating, neither the dams nor the young being able to distin-
guish one another as before. This embarrassment seems not so
much to arise from the loss of the fleece, which may occasion an
alteration in their appearance, as from the defect of that notus
odor, discriminating each individual personally; which also is
confounded by the strong scent of the pitch and tar wherewith
they are newly marked ; for the brute creation recognize each
other more from the smell than the sight; and in matters of
identity and diversity appeal much more to their noses than their
eyes. After sheep have been washed there is the same con-
fusion, from the reason given above*.

RABBITS.

RABBITS make incomparably the finest turf, for they riot only
bite closer than larger quadrupeds, but they allow no bents to
rise ; hence warrens produce much the most delicate turf for
gardens. Sheep never touch the stalks of grasses.

CAT AND SQUIRRELS.*

A BOY has taken three little young squirrels in their nest, or

* The changes of appearance which the common squirrel undergoes have not been noticed in
^ny work that 1 have met with. They shed their covering twice in the year, and in summer the

HORSES, HOUNDS. 281

drey as it is called in these parts. These small creatures he put
under the care of a cat who had lately lost her kittens, and finds
that she nurses and suckles them with the same assiduity and
affection, as if they were her own off-
spring. This circumstance corrobo-
rates my suspicion, that the mention
of exposed and deserted children
being nurtured by female beasts of
prey who had lost their young, may
not be so improbable ah incident as
many have supposed ; and therefore
may be a justification of those authors squirrel.

who have gravely mentioned, what some have deemed to be a
wild and improbable story.

So many people went to see the little squirrels suckled by a
cat, that the foster mother became jealous of her charge, and in
pain for their safety ; and therefore hid them over the ceiling,
where one died. This circumstance shows her affection for these
fondlings, and that she supposes the squirrels to be her own
young. Thus hens, when they have hatched ducklings, are
equally attached to them as if they were their own chickens.*

HORSE.

AN old hunting mare, which ran on the common, being taken
very ill, ran down into the village, as it were, to implore the help
of men, and died the night following in the street.

HOUNDS.

THE king's stag-hounds came down to Alton, attended by a
huntsman and six yeomen prickers, with horns, to try for the
stag that has haunted Hartley Wood for so long a time. Many
hundreds of people, horse and foot, attended the dogs to see the

ornamental ear-tufts are entirely wanting; the whole fur also is then much coarser, more shiuy,
and redder; and it is a curious fact that those young ones born in early spring are first clad in
the winter livery (which 1 believe they do not the first summer exchange), while the second lit-

^ ters, which are produced about midsummer, are decked in the summer, coat, and have no ear

' pencils. — ED.

* At the mention of this, 1 may record a curious fact, which was lately related to me by a
person who witnessed it, of a hen, that for many seasons had been accustomed to hatch duck's
eggs, being at length suffered to incubate her own offspring, which she immediately led to the
pond, as she had been accustomed to do with the ducklings, and, flying to the opposite side, tried
every means in her power to induce them to enter. — ED.

282 OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS,

deer unharboured ; but though the huntsman drew Hartley
Wood, and Long Coppice, and Shrubwood, and Temple Hangers,
and in their way back Hartley and Ward-le-ham Hangers, yet no
stag could be found.

The royal pack, accustomed to have the deer turned out before
them, never drew the coverts with any address and spirit, as
many people that were present observed ; and this remark the
event has proved to be a true one. For as a person was lately
pursuing a pheasant that was wing-broken in Hartley Wood, he
stumbled upon the stag by accident, and ran in upon him as he
lay concealed amidst a thick brake of brambles and bushes.

283

OBSERVATIONS

ON

INSECTS AND VERMES.

INSECTS IN GENERAL.

THE day and night insects occupy the annuals alternately: the
papilios, muscse, and apes, are succeeded at the close of day by
phalaenae, earwigs, woodlice, &c. In the dusk of the evening,
when beetles begin to buz, partridges begin to call ; these two
circumstances are exactly coincident.

Ivy is the last flower that supports the hymenopterous and
dipterous insects. On sunny days quite on to November they
swarm on trees covered with this plant ; and when they disap-
pear, probably retire under the shelter of its leaves, concealing
themselves between its fibres and the trees which it entwines.*

Spiders, woodlice, lepismse in cupboards and among sugar,
some empedes, gnats, flies of several species, some phalaenae in
hedges, earth-worms, &c., are stirring at all times when winters
are mild ; and are of great service to those soft-billed birds that
never leave us.

On every sunny day the winter through, clouds of insects
usually called gnats (I suppose tipulae and empedes) appear
sporting and dancing over the tops of the ever-green trees in the
shrubbery, and frisking about as if the business of generation
was still going on. Hence it appears that these diptera (which
by their sizes appear to be of different species) are not subject to
a torpid state in the winter, as most winged insects are. At night,
and in frosty weather, and when it rains and blows, they seem to
retire into those trees. They often are out in a fog.f

* The number of beautiful alderman butterflies (vanessa atalanta) that may be seen basking on
ivy blossoms on a sunny November morning render them a pleasing object to behold. They are
the resort, too, of great numbers of bees, which keep up an incessant and loud humming.— ED.

t This I have also seen, and have frequently observed swarms of little winged insects playing
up and down in the air in the middle of winter, even when the ground has been covered with
snow. — ED.

284 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES

HUMMING IN THE AIR.

THERE is a natural occurrence to be met with upon the highest
part of our down in hot summer days, which always amuses me
much, without giving me any satisfaction with respect to the
cause of it ; and that is a loud audible humming of bees in the
air, though not one insect is to be seen. This sound is to be
heard distinctly the whole common through, from the Money-
dells, to Mr. White's avenue gate. Any person would suppose
that a large swarm of bees was in motion, and playing about
over his head. This noise was hsard last week, on June 28th.

" Resounds the living surface of the ground,
Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum

To him who muses at noon.

Thick in yon stream of light a thousand ways,
Upward and downward, thwarting and convolv'd,
The quivering nations sport"*

THOMSON'S SEASONS.

CHAFFERS.

COCKCHAFFERS seldom abound oftener than once in three'or four
years; when they swarm, they deface the trees and hedges.
Whole woods of oaks are stripped bare by them.

Chaffers are eaten by the turkey, the rook, and the house-
sparrow.f

The scarabcevs solstitialis first appears about June 26 : they
are very punctual in their coming out every year. They are a
small species, about half the size of the May-chaffer, and are
known in some parts by the name of the fern-chaffer. J

* The exact site whence the humming proceeds is often indicated by a concourse of hungry
swallows. — ED.

t A young sparrow which i picked up in my garden, and placed in a cage, for the purpose of
ascertaining what food would be brought to it by its parents, was almost wholly fed on these
insects. — ED.

t A singular circumstance relative to the cockchaffer, or as it is called here the May-bug,
tcarabasus melolontha, happened this year (1800) : My gardener in digging some ground found,
about six inches above the surface, two of these insects alive and perfectly formed so early as the
24th of March. When We brought them to me, they appeared to be as perfect and as much alive
as in the midst of summer, crawling about as briskly as ever; yet I saw no more of this insect
till the 22d of May, when it began to make its appearance. How comes it that, though it was
perfectly formed so early as the 24th of March, it did not show itself above ground till nearly
two months afterwards ? — MABKWICK.

PTINUS PECTINICORNIS. 285

PTINUS PECTINICORNIS.

THOSE maggots that make worm-holes in tables, chairs, bed-
posts, &c., and destroy wooden furniture, especially where there
is any sap, are the larvae of the ptinus pectinicornis. This insect,
it is probable, deposits its eggs on the surface, and the worms
eat their way in.

In their holes they turn into their pupae state, and so come
forth winged in July : eating their way through the valances or
curtains of a bed, or any other furniture that happens to obstruct
their passage.

They seem to be most inclined to breed in beech ; hence beech
will not make lasting utensils, or furniture. If their eggs are
deposited on the surface, frequent rubbing will preserve wooden
furniture.

COCKROACH. BLATTA ORIENTALIS.

A NEIGHBOUR complained to me that her house was over-run
with a kind of black beetle, or as she expressed herself, with a
kind of black-bob, which swarmed in her kitchen when they got
up in a morning before day-break.

Soon after this account, I observed an unusual insect in one
of my dark chimney closets, and find since,
that in the night they swarm also in my
kitchen. On examination, I soon ascer-
tained the species to be the blatta orien-
talis of Linnaeus, and the blatta molen-
dinaria of Mouffet. The male is winged;
the female is not, but shows somewhat like
the rudiments of wings, as if in the pupa
state.

These insects belonged originally to the
warmer parts of America, and were con-
veyed from thence by shipping to the East Indies; and by
means of commerce begin to prevail in the more northern parts
of Europe, as Russia, Sweden, &c. How long they have
abounded in England I cannot say ; but have never observed
them in my house till lately.

They love warmth, and haunt chimney-closets, and the backs

286 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES.

of ovens. Poda says that these and house crickets will not as-
sociate together ; but he is mistaken in that assertion, as Lin-
naeus suspected he was. They are altogether night insects,
lucifugce, never coming forth till the rooms are dark and still,
and escaping away nimbly at the approach of a candle. Their
antennae are remarkably long, slender, and flexile.

October 1790. After the servants are gone to bed, the kitchen
hearth swarms with young crickets, and young blattae molendi-
narice of all sizes, from the most minute growth to their full
proportions. They seem to live in a friendly manner together,
and not to prey the one on the other.

August 1792. After the destruction of many thousands of
blatttB molendinarice, we find that at intervals a fresh detachment
of old ones arrives, and particularly during this hot season : for
the windows being left open in the evenings, the males come
flying in at the casements from the neighbouring houses, which
swarm with them. How the females, that seem to have no per-
fect wings that they can use, can contrive to get from house to
house, does not so readily appear. These, like many insects,
when they find their present abodes over-stocked, have powers
of migrating to fresh quarters. Since the blatta have been so
much kept under, the crickets have greatly increased in num-
ber.*

HOUSE CRICKET. GRYLLUS DOMESTICUS.

NOVEMBER. After the servants are gone to bed, the kitchen
hearth swarms with minute crickets not so large as fleas, which
must have been lately hatched. So that these domestic insects,
cherished by the influence of a constant large fire, regard not
the season of the year, but produce their young at a time when
their congeners are either dead, or laid up for the winter, to pass
away the uncomfortable months in the profoundest slumbers,
and a state of torpidity.

When house-crickets are out, and running about in a room in
the night, if surprised by a candle, they give two or three shrill
notes, as it were for a signal to their fellows, that they may
escape to their crannies and lurking holes, to avoid danger.

* There are several species of these blattae (or cockroaches) now commonly found about our
•Iwellings.— ED.

CIMEX LINEARIS. 287

CIMEX LINEARIS.

AUGUST 12, 1775. Cimices lineares are now in high copulation
on ponds and pools. The females, who vastly exceed the males
in bulk, dart and shoot along on the surface of the water with
the males on their backs. When a female chooses to be disen-
gaged, she rears, and jumps, and plunges, like an unruly colt ;
the lover thus dismounted, soon finds a new mate. The females,
as fast as their curiosities are satisfied, retire to another part of
the lake, perhaps to deposit their foetus in quiet ; hence the sexes
are found separate, except where generation is going on. From
the multitude of minute young of all gradations of sizes, these
insects seem without doubt to be viviparous.*

PHALJENA QUERCUS.

MOST of our oaks are naked of leaves, and even the Holt in
general, having been ravaged by the caterpillars of a small pha-
leena which is of a pale yellow colour. These insects, though a
feeble race, yet, from their infinite numbers, are of wonderful
effect, being able to destroy the foliage of whole forests and dis-
tricts. At this season they leave their aurelia, and issue forth in
their fly-state, swarming and covering the trees and hedges.

In a field at Greatham, I saw a flight of swifts busied in catch-
ing'their prey near the ground; and found they were hawking
after these phalcence. The aurelice of this moth is shining and as
black as jet ; and lies wrapped up in a leaf of the tree, which is
rolled round it, and secured at the ends by a web, to prevent the
maggot from falling out.f

MAY FLY. EPHEMERA CAUDA BISETA.

JUNE 10, 1771. Myriads of May flies appear for the first time

* Or rather there is little perceptible difference between the larva and the imago.— ED.

t I suspect that the insect here meant is not the phalcena quercus, but the^ phaleena viridata,
concerning which I find the following note in my Naturalist's Calendar for the year 1/85.*

About this time, and for a few days last past, I observed the leaves of almost all the oak trees
in Den copse to be eaten and destroyed, and, on examining more narrowly, saw an infinite
number of small beautiful pale green moths flying about the trees, the leaves of which that were
not quite destroyed were curled up, and withinside were the exuvite or remains of the chryialis,
from whence I suppose the moths had issued, and whose caterpillar had eaten the leaves.—
MARKWICK.

* Tortrix viridana of present systematists, an insect of small size, but vivid beautiful green
colour (when new from the chrysalis), which, from its excessive abundance, sometimes commits
frightful ravages upon tlie oaks. -En.

288 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES.

on the Alresford stream. The air was crowded with them, and
the surface of the water covered. Large trouts sucked them in
as they lay struggling on the surface of the stream, unable to
rise till their wings were dried.

This appearance reconciled me in some measure to the won-
derful account that Scopoli gives of the quantities emerging from
the rivers of Carniola. Their motions are very peculiar, up and
down for many yards almost in a perpendicular line.*

SPHYNX OCELLATA.f

A VAST insect appears after it is dusk, flying with a humming
noise, and inserting its tongue into the bloom of the honey-
suckle ; it scarcely settles upon the plants, but feeds on the wing
in the manner of humming birds. J

WILD BEE.

THERE is a sort of wild bee frequenting the garden-campion for
the sake of its tomentum, which probably it turns to some pur-
pose in the business of nidification. It is very pleasant to see
with what address it strips off the pubes, running from the top
to the bottom of a branch, and shaving it bare with all the dex-
terity of a hoop-shaver. When it has got a vast bundle, almost
as large as itself, it flies away, holding it secure between its chin
and its fore legs.

There is a remarkable hill on the downs near Lewes in Sus-
sex, known by the name of Mount Carburn, which overlooks
that town, and affords a most engaging prospect of all the
country round, besides several views of the sea. On the very
summit of this exalted promontory, and amidst the trenches of

* 1 once saw a swarm of these insects playing up and down over the surface of a pond in Denn
park, exactly in the manner described by this accurate naturalist. It was late in the evening of
a warm summer's day when I observed them.* — MARKWICK.

t Smerintkus ocellatus, a species by no means uncommon. — ED.

t I have frequently seen the large bee moth, sphinx stellatarum, inserting its long tongue or
proboscis into the centre of flowers, and feeding on their nectar, without settling on them, but
keeping constantly on the wing.f — MARKWICK.

* T have noticed them in particular abundance over theCroydon canal, where it passes through
Penge Common, Kent. — ED.

t Macroglossa stellatarum. Decidedly one of the most interesting of our native lepidoptcra,
though dusky in its hues, having the manners of the gorgeous humming birds of the western
world. These insects are, I fancy, every where more abundant near the sea-side. 1 have picked
up the caterpillar upon turf, and it has undergone the whole period of its pupation with me
n about five weeks.— ED.

WASPS, OESTRUS CURVICAUDA, NOSE FLY. 289

its Danish camp, there haunts a species of wild bee, making its
nest in the chalky soil. When people approach the place, these
insects begin to be alarmed, and, with a sharp and hostile sound,
dash and strike round the heads and faces of intruders. I have
often been interrupted myself while contemplating the grandeur
of the scenery around me, and have thought myself in danger of
being stung.

WASPS.

WASPS abound in woody wild districts far from neighbour-
hoods ; they feed on flowers, and catch flies and caterpillars to
carry to their young. Wasps make their nests with the raspings
of sound timber ; hornets, with what they gnaw from decayed :
these particles of wood are kneaded up with a mixture of saliva
from their bodies, and moulded into combs.

When there is no fruit in the gardens, wasps eat flies, and
suck the honey from flowers, from ivy blossoms, and umbellated
plants : they carry off also flesh from butchers' shambles.*

OESTRUS CURVICAUDA.

THIS insect lays its nits or eggs on horses' legs, flanks, &c.
each on a single hair. The maggots when hatched do not enter
the horses' skins, but fall to the ground. It seems to abound
most in moist, moorish places, though sometimes seen in the
uplands.

NOSE FLY.

ABOUT the beginning of July, a species of fly (musca) obtains,
which proves very tormenting to horses, trying still to enter
their nostrils and ears, and actually laying their eggs in the latter
of those organs, or perhaps in both. When these abound,
horses in woodland districts become very impatient at their
work, continually tossing their heads, and rubbing their noses
on each other, regardless of the driver, so that accidents often

* In the year 1775 wasps abounded so prodigiously in this neighbourhood, that, in the mouth
of August, no less than seven or eight of their nests were ploughed up in one field, of which
there were several instances, as I was informed.

In the spring, about the beginning of April, a single wasp is sometimes seen, which is of a
larger size than usual ; this I imagine is the queen or female wasp, (the mother of the future
swarm.*— MARKWICK,

* Great numbers of these are devoured by the flusher shrike (lanius collurit)-— ED.

U

I

2QO OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES.

ensue. In the heat of the day, men are often obliged to desist
from ploughing. Saddle-horses are also very troublesome at
such seasons. Country people call this insect the nose fly.*

ICHNEUMON FLY.

I SAW lately a small ichneumon fly attack a spider much larger
than itself on a grass walk. When the spider made any resist-
ance, the ichneumon applied her tail to him, and stung him with
great vehemence, so that he soon became dead and motionless.
The ichneumon then running backward drew her prey very
nimbly over the walk into the standing grass. This spider would
be deposited in some hole where the ichneumon would lay some
eggs ; and as soon as the eggs were hatched, the carcase would
afford ready food for the maggots.

Perhaps some eggs might be injected into the body of the
spider, in the act of stinging. Some ichneumons deposit their
eggs in the aurelia of moths and butterflies.f

BOMBYLIUS MEDIUS.

THE bombylius medius is much about in March and the begin-
ning of April, and soon seems to retire. It is an hairy insect,
like an humble-bee, but with only two wings, and a long straight
beak, with which it sucks the early flowers. The female seems
to lay its eggs as it poises on its wings, by striking its tail on
the ground, and against the grass that stands in its way, in a
quick manner, for several times together. %

* Is not this insect the oestrus nasalis of Linnaeus, so well described by Mr. Clark in the third
volume of the Linnaean Transactions, under the name of oestrus veterinus P — MAKKWICK.

t In my Naturalist's Calendar for 1/95, July 21st, I find the following note r—

It is not uncommon for some of the species of ichneumon flies to deposit their eggs in the
chrysalis of a butterfly :* some time ago I put two of the chrysalis of a butterfly into a box and
covered it with gauze, to discover what species of butterfly they would produce ; but, instead of a
butterfly, one of them produced a number of small ichneumon flies.

There are many instances of the great service these little insects are to mankind in reducing
the number of noxious insects, by depositing their eggs in the soft bodies of their larva ; but
none more remarkable than that of the ichneumon tipula, which pierces the tender body and
deposits its eggs in the larva of the tipnla tritici, an insect which, when it abounds greatly, is
yery prejudicial to the grains of wheat. This operation J have frequently seen it perform with
wonder and delight.* — MARKWICK.

* Some minute species deposit their ova in the eggs of other insects. — ED.

i I have often seen this insect fly with great velocity, stop on a sudden, hang in the air in a
stationary position for some time, and then fly off again ; but do not recollect having tvcr seen it
btrike its tail against the ground, or any other substance.— MABK.WICK.

MUSCLE, TIPUL^E, APHIDES. 291

MUSCLE. FLIES.

IN the decline of the year, when the mornings and evenings
become chilly, many species of flies (muscce) retire into houses,
and swarm in the windows.

At first they are very brisk and alert ; but as they grow more
torpid, one cannot help observing that they move with difficulty,
and are scarce able to lift their legs, which seem as if glued to
the glass ; and by degrees many do actually stick on till they
die in the place.

It has been observed that divers flies, besides their sharp
hooked nails, have also skinny palms, or flaps to their feet,
whereby they are enabled to stick on glass and other smooth
bodies, and to walk on ceilings with their backs downward, by
means of the pressure of the atmosphere on those flaps; the
weight of which they easily overcome in warm weather when
they are brisk and alert. But in the decline of the year, this re-
sistance becomes too mighty for their diminished strength ; and
we see flies labouring along, and lugging their feet in windows
as if they stuck fast to the glass, and it is with the utmost diffi-
culty they can draw one foot after another, and disengage their
hollow caps from the slippery surface.

Upon the same principle that flies stick and support them-
selves, do boys, by way of play, carry heavy weights by only a
piece of wet leather at the end of a string clapped close on the
surface of a stone.

TIPUI^E, OR EMPEDES.

MAY Millions of empedes, or tipulce, come forth at the close
of day, and swarm to such a degree as to fill the air. At this
juncture they sport and copulate ; as it grows more dark they
retire. All day they hide in the hedges. As they rise in a cloud
they appear like smoke.

I do not ever remember to have seen such swarms, except
in the fens of the Isle of Ely. They appear most over grass
grounds.

APHIDES.

ON the 1st of August, about half an hour after three in the
afternoon, the people of Selborne were surprised by a shower of

292 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES,

aphides which fell in these parts. They who were walking the
streets at that time found themselves covered with these insects,
which settled also on the trees and gardens, and blackened all
the vegetables where they alighted. These armies, no doubt, '
were then in a state of emigration, and shifting their quarters,
and might perhaps come from the great hop plantations of Kent
or Sussex, the wind being that day at North. They were ob-
served at the same time at Farnham, and all along the vale to
Alton.

ANTS.

AUGUST, 23. Every ant-hill about this time is in a strange
hurry and confusion ; and all the winged ants, agitated by some
violent impulse, are leaving their homes, and, bent on emigra-
tion, swarm by myriads in the air, to the great emolument of
the hirundines, which fare luxuriously. Those that escape the
swallows return no more to their nests, but looking out for fresh
settlements, lay a foundation for future colonies. All the females
at this time are pregnant: the males that escape being eaten,
wander away and die.

October 2. Flying ants, male and female, usually swarm and
migrate on hot sunny days in August and September ; but this
day a vast emigration took place in my garden, and myriads
came forth, in appearance from the drain which goes under the
fruit wall ; filling the air and the adjoining trees and shrubs
with their numbers. The females were full of eggs. This late
swarming is probably owing to the backward, wet season. The
day following, not one flying ant was to be seen.

Horse ants travel home to their nests laden with flies, which
they have caught, and the aureliae of smaller ants, which they
seize by violence.*

* In my Naturalist's Calendar for the year 1777i on September 6th, I find the following note
to the article Flying Ants : —

I saw a prodigious swarm of these ants flying about the top of some tall elm trees (close by
my house) ; some were continually dropping to the ground as if from the trees, and others rising
up from the ground : many of them were joined together in copulation ; and I imagine their life
is but short, for as soon as produced from the egg by the heat of the sun, they propagate their
species, and soon after perish. They were black, somewhat like the small black ant, and had
four wings. I saw also, at another place, a large sort -which were yellowish. On the 8th of
September, 1785, I again observed the same circumstance of a vast number of these insects flying
near the tops of the elms and dropping to the ground.

On the 2d of March, 1/77, I saw great numbers of ants come out of the ground.— MARKWICK.

GLOW-WORMS, EARTHWORMS, SNAILS AND SLUGS. 2Q3

GLOW-WORMS.

BY observing two glow-worms which were brought from the
field to the bank in the garden, it appeared
to us, that these little creatures put out
their lamps between eleven and twelve, and
shine no more for the rest of the night.

Male glow-worms, attracted by the light
of the candles, come into the parlour.

EARTH-WORMS.

EARTH-WORMS' make their casts most in mild weather about
March and April 4 they do not lie torpid in winter, but come
forth when there is no frost ; they travel about in rainy nights,
as appears from their sinuous tracks on the soft muddy soil,
perhaps in search of food.

When earth-worms lie out a-nights on the turf, though they
extend their bodies a great way, they do not quite leave their
holes, but keep the ends of their tails fixed therein, so that on
the least alarm they can retire with precipitation under the earth.
Whatever food falls within their reach when thus extended, they
seem to be content with, such as blades of grass, straws, fallen
leaves, the ends of which they often draw into their holes ; even
in copulation their hinder parts never quit their holes ; so that
no two, except they lie within reach of each other's bodies, can
have any commerce of that kind ; but as every individual is an
hermaphrodite, there is no difficulty in meeting with a mate, as
would be the case were they of different sexes.

•SNAILS AND SLUGS.

THE shell-less snails called slugs are in motion all the winter in
mild weather, and commit great depredations on garden plants,
'and much injure the green wheat, the loss of which is imputed
to earth-worms ; while the shelled snail, the faptoiKoc, does not
come forth at all till about April 10th, and not only lays itself
up pretty early in autumn, in places secure from frost, but also
throws out round the mouth of its shell a thick operculum

294 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES.

formed from its own saliva ; so that it is perfectly secured, and
corked up as it were, from all inclemencies. The cause why the
slugs are able to endure the cold so much better than shell-
snails is, that their bodies are covered with slime as wales are
with blubber.

Snails copulate about Midsummer; and soon after deposit
their eggs in the mould by running their heads and bodies under
ground. Hence the way to be rid of them is to kill as many as
possible before they begin to breed.

Large, gray, shell-less, cellar snails lay themselves up about
the same time with those that live abroad ; hence it is plam that
a defect of warmth is not the only cause that influences their
retreat.

SNAKE'S SLOUGH.

There the snake throws her enamell'd skin.

• Shakspeare, Mids. Night's dream.

ABOUT the middle of this month (September) we found in a field
near a hedge the slough of a large snake, which seemed to have
been newly cast. From circumstances it appeared as if turned
wrong side outward, and as drawn off backward, like a stocking
or woman's glove. Not only the whole skin, but scales from
the very eyes, are peeled off, and appear in the head of the
slough like a pair of spectacles. The reptile, at the time of
changing his coat, had entangled himself intricately in the grass
and weeds, so that the friction of the stalks and blades might
promote this curious shifting of his exuviae.

' Lubrica serpens

Exuit in spinis vestem." Lucret.

It would be a most entertaining sight could a person be an
eye-witness to such a feat, and see the snake in the act of
changing his garment. As the convexity of the scales of the
eyes in the slough is now inward, that circumstance alone is a
proof that the skin has been turned : not to mention that now
the present inside is much darker than the outer. If you look
through the scales of the snake's eyes from the concave side,
viz. as the reptile used them, they lessen objects much. Thus
it appears from what has been said, that snakes crawl out of the
mouth of their own sloughs, and quit the tail part last, just as
eels are skinned by a cook maid. While the scales of the eyes

SNAKE'S SLOUGH. 295

are growing loose, and a new skin is forming, the creature, in
appearance, must be blind, and feel itself in an awkward uneasy
situation.*

* I have seen many sloughs or skins of snakes eatire, after they have cast them off; and once
in particular I remember to have found one of these sloughs so intricately interwoven amongst
some brakes that it was with difficulty removed without being broken : this undoubtedly was
done by the creature to assist in getting rid of its incumbrance.

1 have great reason to suppose that the eft or common lizard also casts its skin or slough, but
not entire like the snake, for on the 30th of March 1777, I saw one with something ragged
hanging to it, which appeared to be part of its old skin. — MARK-WICK.

296

OBSERVATIONS

ON

VEGETABLES.

TREES, ORDER OF LOSING THEIR LEAVES.

ONE of the first trees that becomes naked is the walnut ; the
mulberry, the ash, especially if it bears many keys, and the
horse-chestnut come next. All lopped trees, while their heads
are young, carry their leaves a long while. Apple-trees and
peaches remain green very late, often till the end of November :
young beeches never cast their leaves till spring, till the new
leaves sprout and push them off: in the autumn the beechen-
leaves turn of a deep chestmit colour. Tall beeches cast their
leaves about the end of October.*

SIZE AND GROWTH.

MR. MARS HAM of Stratton, near Norwich, informs me by letter
thus : " I became a planter early ; so that an oak which I planted
in 1720 is become now, at 1 foot from the earth, 12 feet 6 inches
in circumference, and at 14 feet (the half of the timber length)
is 8 feet 2 inches. So if the bark was to be measured as timber,
the tree gives 116£ feet, buyer's measure. Perhaps you never
heard of a larger oak while the planter was living. I flatter
myself that I increased the growth by washing the stem, and
digging a circle as far as I supposed the roots to extend, and by
spreading sawdust, &c., as related in the Phil. Trans. I wish I
had begun with beeches (my favourite trees as well as yours,) I

* Perhaps the weeping willow is the latest of all deciduous trees to shed its leaves, retaining its
verdure sometimes even to December ; it is also one of the earliest in spring to push forth,
chough from the small size of its leaves it is generally along while becoming green. Of this tree,
we have at present only the female sex in this country; the male is more generally seen in Italy,
which, at the time of blossoming, is extremely ornamental ; so much so, that 1 cannot but
wonder that it has never been imported. — ED.

SIZE AND GROWTH OF TREES. 297

might then have seen very large trees of my own raising. But
I did not begin with beech till 1741, and then by seed; so that
my largest is now at five feet from the ground, 6 feet 3 inches
in girth, and with its head spreads a circle of 20 yards diameter.
This tree was also dug round, washed, &c." Stratton, July 24th,
1790.

The circumference of trees planted by myself at 1 foot from
the ground, 1790.

feet. inches.

Oak in ...... 1730 4 5

Ash 1730 4 6£

Great fir 1751 5 0

Greatest Beech .... 1751 4 0

Elm 1750 5 3

Lime 1756 5 5

The great oak in the Holt, which is deemed by Mr. Marsham
to be the biggest in this island, at 7 feet from the ground, mea-
sures in circumference 34 feet. It has in old times lost several
of its boughs, and is tending to decay. Mr. Marsham computes,
that at 14 feet length this oak contains 1000 feet of timber.

It has been the received opinion that trees grow in height
only by their annual upper shoot. But my neighbour over the
way, whose occupation confines him to one spot, assures me that
trees ara expanded and raised in the lower parts also. The
reason that he gives is this : the point of one of my firs began
for the first time to peep over an opposite roof at the beginning
of summer ; but before the growing season was over, the whole
shoot of the year, and three or four joints of the body beside,
became visible to him as he sits on his form in his shop. Ac-
cording to this supposition, a tree may advance in height con-
siderably, though the summer shoot should be destroyed every
year.

FLOWING OF SAP.

IF the bough of a vine is cut late in the spring, just before the
shoots push out, it will bleed considerably ; but after the leaf is
out, any part may be taken off without the least inconvenience.
So oaks may be barked while the leaf is budding; but as soon
as they are expanded, the bark will no longer part from the
wood, because the sap that lubricates the bark and makes it
part, is evaporated off through the leaves.

2Q8 OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES.

RENOVATION OF LEAVES.

WHEN oaks are quite stripped of their leaves by chaffers, they
are clothed again soon after Midsummer with a beautiful foliage :
but beeches, horse-chestnuts and maples, once defaced by those
insects, never recover their beauty again for the whole season.

ASH TREES.

MANY ash trees bear loads of keys every year, others never
seem to bear any at all. The prolific ones are naked of leaves
and unsightly ; those that are sterile abound in foliage, and carry
their verdure a long while, and are pleasing objects.

BEECH.

BEECHES love to grow in crowded situations, and will insinuate
themselves through the thickest covert, so as to surmount it all :
are therefore proper to mend thin places in tall hedges.

SYCAMORE.

MAY 12. The sycamore or great maple is in bloom, and at this
season makes a beautiful appearance, and affords much pabulum
for bees, smelling strongly like honey. The foliage of this tree
is very fine, and very ornamental to outlets. All the maples
have saccharine juices.

GALLS OF LOMBARDY POPLAR.

THE stalks and ribs of the leaves of the Lombardy poplar are
embossed with large tumours of an oblong shape, which by in-
curious observers have been taken for the fruit of the tree.
These galls are full of small insects, some of which are winged,
and some not. The parent insect is of the genus of cynips.
Some poplars in the garden are quite loaded with these excres-
cences.

CHESTNUT TIMBER.

JOHN CARPENTER brings home some old chestnut trees which
are very long ; in several places the wood-peckers had begun to

HOPS. 299

bore them. The timber and bark of these trees are so very like
oak, as might easily deceive an indifferent observer, but the wood
is very shakey, and towards the heart cup-shakey (that is to say,
apt to separate in round pieces like cups) so that the inward
parts are of no use. They are bought for the purpose of cooper-
age, but must make hut ordinary barrels, buckets, &c. Chestnut
sells for half the price of oak ; but has sometimes been sent into
the king's docks, and passed off instead of oak.

LIME BLOSSOMS.

DR. Chandler tells, that in the south of France, an infusion of
the blossoms of the lime tree, tilia, is in much esteem as a remedy
for coughs, hoarsenesses, fevers, &c., and that at Nismes, he saw
an avenue of limes that was quite ravaged and torn in pieces by
people greedily gathering the bloom, which they dried and kept
for these purposes.

Upon the strength of this information we made some tea of
lime blossoms, and found it a very soft, well-flavoured, pleasant,
saccharine julep, in taste much resembling the juice of liquorice.

BLACKTHORN.

THIS tree usually blossoms while cold N. E. winds blow; so
that the harsh rugged weather obtaining at this season is called
by the country people, Blackthorn winter.

IVY BERRIES.

IVY berries afford a noble and providential supply for birds in
winter and spring ; for the first severe frost freezes and spoils all
the haws, sometimes by the middle of November ;* ivy berries
do not seem to freeze.

HOPS.

THE culture of Virgil's vines corresponded very exactly with the
modern management of hops. I might instance in the perpetual
diggings and hoeings, in the tying to the stakes and poles, in
pruning the superfluous shoots, &c., but lately I have observed
a new circumstance, which was a neighbouring farmer's harrowing

* I imagine, however, that they are by no means spoiled, but, on the contrary, rendered
more nutritious, after freezing.— ED.

300 OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES.

between the rows of hops with a small triangular harrow, drawn
by one horse, and guided by two handles. This occurrence
brought to my mind the following passage.

" ipsa

Flectere luctantes inter vineta juvencos." Georgic II.

Hops are diecious plants : hence perhaps it might be proper,
though not practised, to leave purposely some male plants in
every garden, that their farina might impregnate the blossoms.
The female plants without their male attendants are not in their
natural state : hence we may suppose the frequent failure of crop
so incident to hop-grounds ; no other growth, cultivated by man,
has such frequent and general failures as hops.

Two hop gardens much injured by a hail-storm, June 5, show
now (September 2) a prodigious crop, and larger and fairer hops
than any in the parish. The owners seem now to be convinced
that the hail, by beating off the tops of the binds, has increased
the side-shoots, and improved the crop. Query. Therefore
should not the tops of hops be pinched off when the binds are
very gross, and strong ?

SEED LYING DORMANT.

THE naked part of the Hanger is now covered with thistles of
various kinds. The seeds of these thistles may have lain pro-
bably under the thick shade of the beeches for many years, but
could not vegetate till the sun and air were admitted. When
old beech trees are cleared away, the naked ground in a year or
two becomes covered with strawberry plants, the seeds of which
must have lain in the ground for an age at least. One of the
slidders or trenches down the middle of the Hanger, close
covered over with lofty beeches near a century old, is still called
strawberry slidder, though no strawberries have grown there in
the memory of man. That sort of fruit did once, no doubt,
abound there, and will again when the obstruction is removed.*

BEANS SOWN BY BIRDS.

MANY horse-beans sprang up in my field-walks in the autumn,

* In like manner, when the woods are cleared in many parts of North America, a thick growth
of red cedar, a species of juniper, makes its appearance, though none had been previously noticed
in the neighbourhood, from which it appears that seeds may lie dormant for an indefinite period,
till circumstances induce them to germinate. So also soil, turned up from some depth, generally
produces plants not previously observed in the vicinity.— ED.

TRUFFLES. 301

and are now grown to a considerable height. As the Ewel was
in beans last summer, it is most likely that these seeds came
from thence ; but then the distance is too considerable for them
to have been conveyed by mice. It is most probable therefore
that they were brought by birds, and in particular by jays and
pies, who seem to have hid them among the grass and moss, and
then to have forgotten where they had stowed them.* Some peas
are growing also in the same situation, and probably under the
same circumstances.

CUCUMBERS SET BY BEES.

IF bees, who are much the best setters of cucumbers, do not
happen to take kindly to the frames, the best way is to tempt
them by a little honey put on the male and female bloom. When
they are once induced to haunt the frames, they set all the fruit,
and will hover with impatience round the lights in a morning,
till the glasses are opened. Probatum est.

WHEAT.

A NOTION has always obtained, that in England hot summers
are productive of fine crops of wheat; yet in the years 1780 and
1781, though the heat was intense, the wheat was much mil-
dewed, and the crop light. Does not severe heat, while the straw
is milky, occasion its juices to exude, which being extravasated,
occasion spots, discolour the stems and blades, and injure the
health of the plants ?

TRUFFLES.

AUGUST. A truffle-hunter called on us, having in his pocket
several large truffles found in this neighbourhood. He says these
roots are not to be found in deep woods, but in narrow hedge-
rows and the skirts of coppices.f Some truffles, he informed us,
lie two feet within the earth, and some quite on the surface ; the
latter, he added, have little or no smell, and are not so easily

* These birds are in the continual habit of thus sowing beans, acorns, and the like, so that
many lofty mnnarchs of the forest may have originated through their ageucy. The common
squirrel does the same. — ED.

t " Roots" is rather a faulty term by which to distinguish these curious vegetable productions,
which are a species of underground fungus. — ED.

302 OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES.

discovered by the dogs as those that lie deeper. Half a crown a
pound was the price which he asked for this commodity.

Truffles never abound in wet winters and springs. They are
in season in different situations, at least nine months in the year.

TREMELLA NOSTOC.

THOUGH the weather may have been ever so dry and burning,
yet, after two or three wet days, this jelly-like substance abounds
on the walks.*

FAIRY RINGS.

THE cause, occasion, call it what you will, of fairy-rings, subsists
in the turf, and is conveyable with it ; for the turf of my garden-
walks, brought from the down above, abounds with those appear-
ances, which vary their shape, and shift situation continually,
discovering themselves now in circles, now in segments, and
sometimes in irregular patches and spots. Wherever they obtain,
puff-balls abound ; the seeds of which were doubtless brought
in the turf.f

* This is commonly called " fallen stars" in many places, a most unaccountable name, which
is also sometimes applied to the spawn of toads. It is a modification of the fungus tribe, which
dries up till it becomes imperceptible in dry weather.— ED.

t The cause of " fairy rings" is still a subject of discussion, and I suspect the truth is that
there are different kinds of them. Some 1 have no doubt are occasioned by minute centrifugal
fungi.— ED.

303

METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS,

BAROMETER.

NOVEMBER 22, 1768. A remarkable fall of the barometer all
over the kingdom. At Selborne we had no wind, and not much
rain ; only vast., swagging, rock-like clouds, appeared at a distance.

PARTIAL FROST.

THE country people, who are abroad in winter mornings long
before sun-rise, talk much of hard frost in some spots, and none
in others. The reason of these partial frosts is obvious, for there
are at such times partial fogs about ; where the fog obtains, little
or no frost appears : but where the air is clear, there it freezes
hard. So the frost takes place either on hill or in dale, where-
ever the air happens to be clearest and freest from vapour.

THAW.

THAWS are sometimes surprisingly quick, considering the small
quantity of rain. Does not the warmth at such times come from
below ? The cold in still, severe seasons seems to come down
from above : for the coming over of a cloud in severe nights
raises the thermometer abroad at once full ten degrees.* The
first notices of thaws often seem to appear in vaults, cellars, &c.
If a frost happens, even when the ground is considerably dry,
as soon as a thaw takes place, the paths and fields are all in a
batter. Country people say that the frost draws moisture. But
the true philosophy is, that the steam and vapours continually
ascending from the earth, are bound in by the frost, and not suf-
fered to escape till released by the thaw. No wonder then that
the surface is all in a float ; since the quantity of moisture
by evaporation that arises daily from every acre of ground is
astonishing.

* hi such cases, the heat radiating from the surface of the earth is of course confined by the
covering of cloud, and prevented from dissipating. — ED.

304 METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.

FROZEN SLEET.

JANUARY 20. Mr. H.'s man says that he caught this day, in a
lane near Hackwood park, many rooks, which, attempting to fly,
fell from the trees with their wings frozen together by the sleet,
that froze as it fell. There were, he affirms, many dozen so
disabled.

MIST, CALLED LONDON FOG.

THIS is a blue mist which has somewhat the smell of coal smoke,
and as it always comes to us with a N. E. wind, is supposed
to come from London. It has a strong smell, and is supposed
to occasion blights. When such mists appear they are usually
followed by dry weather.

REFLECTION OF FOG.

WHEN people walk in a deep white fog by night with a lan-
tern, if they will turn their backs to the light, they will see
their shades impressed on the fog in rude gigantic proportions.
This phenomenon seems not to have been attended to, but
implies the great density of the meteor at that juncture.

HONEY DEW.

JUNE 4, 1783. Vast honey dews this week. The reason of
these seem to be, that in hot days the effluvia of flowers are
drawn up by a brisk evaporation, and then in the night fall down
with the dews with which they are entangled.

This clammy substance is very grateful to bees, who gather
it with great assiduity, but it is injurious to the trees on which
it happens to fall, by stopping the pores of the leaves. The
greatest quantity falls in still close weather ; because winds dis-
perse it, and copious dews dilute it, and prevent its ill. effects.
It falls mostly in hazy warm weather.*

MORNING CLOUDS.

AFTER a bright night and vast dew, the sky usually becomes
cloudy by eleven or twelve o'clock in the forenoon, and clear

* In a former note, I have explained the origin of this substance, so strangely misundtrstouii
by Mr. White.-ED.

BLACK SPRING. 305

again towards the decline of the day The reason seems to be,
that the dew, drawn up by evaporation, occasions the clouds ;
which, towards evening, being no longer rendered buoyant by
the warmth cf the sun, melt away, and fall down again in dews.*
If clouds are watched in a still warm evening, they will be seen
to melt away, and disappear.

DRIPPING WEATHER AFTER DROUGHT.

No one that has not attended to such matters, and taken down
remarks, can be aware how much ten days' dripping weather will
influence the growth of grass or corn after a severe dry season.
This present summer, 1776, yielded a remarkable instance; for
till the 30th of May the fields were burnt up and naked, and the
barley not half out of the ground ; but now, June 10, there is an
agreeable prospect of plenty.

AURORA BOREALIS.

NOVEMBER 1, 1787. The N. aurora made a particular appear-
ance, forming itself into a broad, red, fiery belt, which extended
from E. to W. across the welkin : but the moon rising at about
ten o'clock, in unclouded majesty, in the E. put an end to this
grand, but awful meteorous phenomenon.

BLACK SPRING, 1771.

DR. Johnson says, that "in 1771 the season was so severe in the
island of Sky, that it is remembered by the name of the black
spring. The snow, which seldom lies at all, covered the ground
for eight weeks, many cattle died, and those that survived were
so emaciated that they did not require the male at the usual
season." The case was just the same with us here in the south;
never were so many barren cows known as in the spring follow-
ing that dreadful period. Whole dairies missed being in calf
together.

At the end of March the face of the earth was naked to a sur-
prising degree. Wheat hardly to be seen, and no signs of any
grass ; turnips all gone, and sheep in a starving way. All pro-
visions rising in price. Farmers cannot sow for want of rain.

* The true theory of dew is that it rises from the ground, not falls, as is the vulgar opinion.
Much moisture is at all times continually ascending from the earth, which passes off during th«
day in invisible vapour, but is condensed by the chills of night, and appears as dew.— ED.

X

306

A

SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER,

FROM THE YEAR 1768 to 1793.

1768. BEGINS with a fortnight's frost and snow ; rainy during
February. Cold arid wet spring ; wet season from the beginning
of June to the end of harvest. Latter end of September foggy,
without rain. All October and the first part of November rainy ;
and thence to the end of the year alternate rains and frosts.

1769. January and February, frosty and rainy, with gleams of
fine weather in the intervals. To the middle of March, wind
and rain. To the end of March, dry and windy. To the middle
of April, stormy, with rain. To the end of June, fine weather,
with rain. To the beginning of August, warm, dry weather.
To the end of September, rainy with short intervals of fine
weather. To the latter end of October, frosty mornings, with
fine days. The next fortnight rainy: thence to the end of
November dry and frosty. December, windy, with rain and
intervals of frost, and the first fortnight very foggy.

1770. Frost for the first fortnight : During the 14th and 15th
all the snow melted. To the end of February, mild hazy weather.
The whole of March frosty, with bright weather. April, cloudy,
with rain and snow. May began with summer showers, and
ended with dark cold rains. June, rainy, chequered with
gleams of sunshine. The first fortnight in July, dark and sultry ;
the latter part of the month, heavy rain. August, September,
and the first fortnight in October, in general fine weather, though
with frequent interruptions of rain : from the middle of October
to the end of the year, almost incessant rains.

SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 307

1771. Severe frosts till the last week in January. To the first
week in -February, rain and snow : to the end of February, spring
weather. To the end of the third week in April, frosty weather.
To the end of the first fortnight in May, spring weather, with
copious showers. To the end of June, dry, warm weather. The
first fortnight in July, warm, rainy weather. To the end of
September, warm weather, but in general cloudy, with showers.
October, rainy. November, frost, with intervals of fog and rain.
December, in general bright, mild weather, with hoar frosts.

1772. To the end of the first week in February, frost and
snow. To the end of the first fortnight in March, frost, sleet,
rain and snow. To the middle of April, cold rains. To the
middle of May, dry weather, with cold piercing winds. To the
end of the first week in June, cool showers. To the middle of
August, hot dry summer weather. To the end of September,
rain with storms and thunder. To December 22, rain with mild
weather. December 23, the first ice. To the end of the month,
cold foggy weather.

1773. The first week in January, frost; thence to the end of
the month, dark rainy weather. The first fortnight in February,
hard frost. To the end of the first week in March, misty,
showery weather. Bright spring days to the close of the month.
Frequent showers to the latter end of April. To the end of
June, warm showers, with intervals of sunshine. To the end of
August, dry weather, with a few days of rain. To the end of
the first fortnight in November, rainy. The next four weeks,
frost : and thence to the end of the year, rainy.

1774. Frost and rain to the end of the first fortnight in
March : thence to the end of the month, dry weather. To the
1 5th of April, showers ; thence to the end of April, fine spring
days. During May, showers and sunshine in about an equal
proportion. Dark rainy weather to the end of the third week in
July : thence to the 24th of August, sultry, with thunder and
occasional showers. To the end of the third week in November,
rain, with frequent intervals of sunny weather. To the end of
December, dark dripping fogs.

1775. To the end of the first fortnight in March, rain almost
every day. To the first week in April, cold winds, with showers
of rain and snow. To the end of June, warm, bright weather,
with frequent showers. The first fortnight in July, almost in-
cessant rains. To the 26th August, sultry weather with frequent

308 SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER.

showers. To the end of the third week in September, rain, with
a few intervals of fine weather. To the end of the year, rain,
with internals of hoar-frost and sunshine.

1776. To January 24, dark frosty weather, with much snow.
March 24, to the end of the month, foggy, with hoar-frost. To
the 30th of May, dark, dry, harsh weather, with cold winds. To
the end of the first fortnight in July, warm, with much rain.
To the end of the first week in August, hot and dry, with inter-
vals of thunder showers. To the end of October, in general
fine seasonable weather, with a considerable proportion of rain.
To the end of the year, dry, frosty weather, with some days of
hard rain.

1777- To the 10th of January, hard frost. To the 20th of
January, foggy, with frequent showers. To the 18th of Feb-
ruary, hard dry frost with snow. To the end of May, heavy
showers, with intervals of warm dry spring days. To the 8th
July, dark, with heavy rain. To the 18th July, dry, warm
weather. To the end of July, very heavy rains. To the 12th
October, remarkably fine warm weather. To the end of the year
gray mild weather, with but little rain, and still less frost.

1778. To the 13th of January, frost, with a little snow; to the
24th January, rain : to the 30th, hard frost. To the 23rd Feb-
ruary, dark, harsh, foggy weather, with rain. To the end of the
month, hard frost, with snow. To the end of the first fortnight
in March, dark, harsh, weather. From the first, to the end of
the first fortnight in April, spring weather. To the end of the
month, snow and ice. To the llth of June, cool, with heavy
showers. To the 19th July, hot, sultry, parching weather. To
the end of the month, heavy showers. To the end of September,
dry warm weather. To the end of the year, wet, with consider-
able intervals of sunshine.

1779- Frost and showers to the end of January. To 21st April,
warm dry weather. To 8th May, rainy. To the 7th June, dry
and warm. To the 6th July, hot weather, with frequent rain.
To the 18th July, dry hot weather. To August 8, hot weather,
with frequent rains. To the end of August, fine dry harvest
weather. To the end of November, fine autumnal weather with
intervals of rain. To the end of the year, rain with frost and
snow.

1780. To the end of January, frost. To the end of February,
dark, harsh weather, with frequent intervals of frost. To the end

SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 309

of March, warm, showery, spring weather. To the end of April,
dark harsh weather, with rain and frost. To the end of the first
fortnight in May, mild, with rain. To the end of August, rain
and fair weather in pretty equal proportions. To the end of
October, fine autumnal weather, with intervals of rain. To the
24th November, frost. To December 16, mild dry foggy weather.
To the end of the year frost and snow.

1781. To January 25, frost and snow. To the end of Feb-
ruary, harsh and windy, with rain and snow. To April 5, cold
drying winds. To the end of May, mild spring weather, with a
few light showers. June began with heavy rain, but thence to
the end of October, dry weather, with a few flying showers. To
the end of the year, open weather with frequent rains.

1782. To Februaiy 4, open mild weather. To February 22,
hard frost. To the end of March, cold blowing weather, with
frost and snow and rain. To May 7, cold dark rains. To the
end of May, mild, with incessant rains. To the end of June,
warm and dry. To the end of August warm, with almost per-
petual rains. The first fortnight in September mild and dry ;
thence to the end of the month, rain. To the end of October,
mild with frequent showers. November began with hard frost,
and continued throughout with alternate frost and thaw. The
first part of December frosty ; the latter part mild.

1783. To January 16, rainy with heavy winds. To the 24th,
hard frost. To the end of the first fortnight in February, blow-
ing, with much rain. To the end of February, stormy dripping
weather. To the 9th of May, cold harsh winds (thick ice on 5th
of May). To the end of August, hot weather, with frequent
showers. To the 23d September, mild, with heavy driving rains.
To November 12, dry, mild weather. To the 18th December,
gray soft weather, with a few showers. To the end of the year,
hard frost.

1784. To February 19, hard frost, with two thaws; one the
14th January, the other 5th February. To February 28, mild
wet fogs. To the 3d March, frost with ice. To March 10, sleet
and snow. To April 2, snow and hard frost. To April 27,
mild weather with much rain. To May 12, cold drying winds.
To May 20, hot cloudless weather. To June 27, warm with
frequent showers. To July 18, hot and dry. To the end of
August, warm with heavy rains. To November 6, clear mild
autumnal weather, except a few days of rain at the latter end

310 SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER.

of September. To the end of the year, fog, rain, and hard frost
(on December 10, the therm. 1 deg. below 0.)

1785. A thaw began on the 2d January, and rainy weather
with wind continued to January 28. To 15th March, very hard
frost. To 21st March, mild with sprinkling showers. To April
7, hard frost. To May 17, mild windy weather, without a drop
of rain. To the end of May, cold with a few showers. To
June 9, mild weather, with frequent soft showers. To July 13,
hot dry weather, with a few showery intervals. To July 22,
heavy rain. To the end of September, warm with frequent
showers. To the end of October, frequent rain. To 18th of
November, dry, mild weather. (Hay-making finished November
9, and the wheat harvest November 14.) To December 23, rain.
To the end of the year, hard frost.

1786. To the 7th January, frost and snow. To January
13, mild with much rain. To 21st January, deep snow. To
February 11, mild with frequent rains. To 21st February, dry,
with high winds. To 10th March, hard frost. To 13th April,
wet, with intervals of frost. To the end of April, dry mild
weather. On the 1st and 2d May, thick ice. To 10th May,
heavy rain. To June 14, fine warm dry weather. From the
8th to the llth July, heavy showers. To October 13, warm,
with frequent showers. To October 19, ice. To October 24,
mild pleasant weather. To November 3, frost. To December
16, rain, with a few detached days of frost. To the end of the
year, frost and snow.

1787. To January 24, dark, moist, mild weather. To Ja-
nuary 28, frost and snow. To February 16, mild showery wea-
ther. To February 28, dry, cool weather. To March 10,
stormy, with driving rain. To March 24, bright frosty weather.
To the end of April, mild, with frequent rain., To May 22, fine
bright weather. To the end of June, mostly warm, with frequent
showers (on June 7, ice as thick as a crown piece.) To the end
of July, hot and sultry, with copious rain. To the end of Sep.
tember, hot dry weather, with occasional showers. To Novem-
ber 23, mild, with light frosts and rain. To the end of Novem-
ber, hard frost. To December 21, still and mild, with rain. To
the end of the year, frost.

1788. To January 13, mild and wet. To January 18, frost.
To the end of the month, dry windy weather. To the end of
February, frosty, with frequent showers. To March 14, hard

SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 311

frost. To the end of March, dark, harsh weather, with frequent
showers. To April 4, windy, with showers. To the end of
May, bright, dry, warm weather, with a few occasional showers.
From June 28 to July 17, heavy rains. To August 12, hot dry
weather. To the end of September, alternate showers and sun-
shine. To November 22, dry, cool weather. To the end of the
year, hard frost.

1789. To January 13, hard frost. To the end of the month,
mild, with showers. To the end of February, frequent rain, with
snow-showers and heavy gales of wind. To 13th March, hard
frost, with snow. To April 18, heavy rain, with frost and snow
and sleet. To the end of April, dark cold weather, with frequent
rains. To June 9, warm spring weather, with brisk winds and
frequent showers. From June 4 to the end of July, warm with
much rain. To August 29, hot, dry, sultry weather. To Sep-
tember 11, mild, with frequent showers. To the end of Sep-
tember, fine autumnal weather, with occasional showers. To
November 17, heavy rain, with violent gales of wind. To De-
cember 18, mild dry weather, with a few showers. To the end
of the year, rain and wind.

1790. To January 16, mild foggy weather, with occasional
rains. To January 21, frost. To January 28, dark, with driving
rains. To February 14, mild, dry weather. To February 22,
hard frost. To April 5, bright cold weather, with a few showers.
To April 15, dark and harsh, with a deep snow. To April 21,
cold cloudy weather, with ice. To June 6, mild spring weather,
with much rain. From July 3, to July 14, cool, with heavy rain.
To the end of July, warm, dry weather. To August 6, cold,
with wind and rain. To August 24, fine harvest weather. To
September 5, strong gales, with driving showers. To November
26, mild autumnal weather, with frequent showers. To Decem-
ber 1, hard frost and snow. To the end of the year, rain and
snow, and a few days of frost.

1791. To the end of January, mild, with heavy rains. To the
end of February, windy, with much rain and snow From March
to the end of June, mostly dry, especially June. March and April,
rather cold and frosty. May and June, hot. July, rainy. Fine
harvest weather, and pretty dry, to the end of September. Wet
October, and cold towards the end. Very wet and stormy in
November. Much frost in December.

1792. Some hard frost in January, but mostly wet and mild.

312

SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER.

February, some hard frost and a little snow. March, wet and
cold. April, great storms on the 13th, then some very warm
weather. May and June, cold and dry. July, wet and cool ;
indifferent harvest, rather late and wet. September, windy and
wet. October, showery and mild. November, dry and fine.
December, mild.

Measure of Rain in Inches and Hundreds.

Year.

Jan.

Feb.]

Mar.

April

May

June

July

Aug.

Sept.

Oct.

Nov.

Dec.

Total.

1782.

4.64

1.98

6.54

4.57

6.34

1.75

7.09

8.28J3.72

1.93

251

0.91

50.26

1783.

4.43

5.54

2.16

0.88

2.84

2.82

1.45

2.24

5.52

1.71

3.01

1.10

33.71

1784.

3.18

0.77

3.82

3.92

1.52

3.65

2.40

3.88

2.51

0.39

4.70

3.06

33.80

1785.

2.84

1.80

0.30

0.17

0.60

1.39

3.80

3.21

5.94

5.21

2.27

4. 2

31.55

1786.

6.91

1.42

1.62

1.81

2.40

1.20

1.99

4.34

4.79

5. 4

4.38

1787.

0.88

3.67

4.28

0.74

2.60

1.50

6.53

0.83

1.56

5. 4

4. 9

5. 6

36.24

1788.

1.60

3.37

1.31

0.61

0.76

1.27

3.58

3.22

5.71

0. 0

0.86

0.23

22.50

1789.

4.48

4.11

2.47

1,81

4. 5

4.24

3.69

0.99

2.82

5. 4

3.67

4.62

42.—

1790.

1.99

0.49

0.45

3.64

4.38

0.13

3.24

2.30

0.66

2.10

6.95

5.94

32.27

1791.

6.73

4.64

1.59

1.13

1.33

0.91

5.56

1.73

1.73

6.49

8.16

4.93

44.93

1792.

6.7.

1.68

6.70

4.08

3.00

2.78

5.16

4.25

5.53

5.55

1.65

2.11

48.56

1793.

3.71

2.32

3.33

3.19

1.21

313

A COMPARATIVE VIEW

CALENDAR OF NATURE,

AS KEPT BY THE REV. G. WHITE AT SELBORNE IN HAMP-
SHIRE, AND WILLIAM MARKWICK, ESQ., AT CATSFIELD
NEAR BATTLE IN SUSSEX, FROM 1768 TO 1793.

Of the abbreviations used, fl. signifies flowering; L leafing; and ap- the first appeara:
dates, when more than one, express the earliest and latest times at which the circui
was observed.

•WHITK

MARKWICK.

Redbreast (erythaca Europoea) sings
Larks (alauda arvensis) congregate

Jan. 1—12.
Jan. 1—18.

Jan. a— 31, and again
Oct. 16. Feb. 9. [Oct. 6.

Nuthatch (sitta Europaea) heard

Jan. 1—14.

March 3. April 10.

Winter aconite (helleborus hiemalis) fl.

Jan. 1. Feb. 18.

Feb. 28. April 17.

Shelless snail or slug (Umax) ap.

Jan. 2

Jan. 16. May 31.

Gray & ) ., c (motacilla cinerea) ap. i
White j* W3! i (motacilla domestica) ap. 3

Jan. 2—11. £
Jan. 2—14.

Jan.i'4. March 26.
Dec. 12. Feb. 23.
Feb. 19. April 14.

Bearsfoot (helleborus foetidus) fl.

Ja . 2. Feb. 14.

March 1. May 5.

Polyanthus (primula vulgaris, var.) fl.
Double daisy (bellis perennis plena) fl.

Ja . 2. April 12.
Ja . 2. Feb. 1

Jan. 1. April 9.
March 17. April 29.

Mezereon (daphne mezereum) fl.

Ja . 3. Feb. 16.

Jan. 2. April 4.

Pansie (viola tricolor) fl.

Ja .3.

Jan. 1. May 10.

Red dead-nettle (lamium purpureum) fl.

Ja . 3—21.

Jan. 1. April. 5.

Groundsel (senecio vulgaris) fl.

Ja .3—15.

Jan. 1. April 9.

Hazel (corylus avellana) fl.

Ja .3. Feb. 28.

Jan. 21. March 11.

Hepatica (anemone hepatica) fl.

Ja . 4. Feb. 18.

Jan. 17. April 9.

Hedge dunnock (accentor modularis) sings

Ja .5—12.

Jan. 16. March 13.

Common flies (musca domestica) seen in numbers

Ja . 5. Feb. 3.

May 15.

Greater titmouse (parus hortensis) sings

Ja . 6. Feb. 6.

Feb. 17. March 17

Thrush (merula musica) sings
Insects swarm under sunny hedges

Ja . 6—22.
Ja .6.

Jan. 15. April 4.

Primrose (primula vulgaris) fl.

Jan. 6. April 7.

Jan. 3. March. 22.

Bees (apis mellifica) ap

Jan. 6. March 19.

Jan. 31. April 11, last

Gnats play about

Jan. 6. Feb. 3.

[seen Dec. 30.

Chaffinches, male and female (spiza leucoptera)

seen jn equal numbers

Jan. 6—11.

Dec. 2. Feb. 3.

Furze or gorse (ulex europseus) fl.

Jan. 8. Feb 1.

Jan. 1. March 27

Wall-flower (cheiranthus cheiri ; seu fruticulosus

of Smith) fl.

Jan. 8. April 1.

Feb. 21. May 9.

Stock (cheiranthus incanus) fl.

Jan. 8—12.

Feb. 1. June 3.

Emberiza alba* (bunting) in great flocks

Jan. 9.

Linnets (linaria cannabina) congregate

Jan. 9.

Jan. 11.

Lambs begin to fall

Jan. 9—11.

Jan. 6. Feb. 21.

Rooks (corvus frugilegus) resort to their nest-trees

Jan. 10. Feb. 11.

Jan 23.

Black hellebore (helleborus niger) fl.

Jan. 10.

April 27.

Snow-drop (galanthus nivalis) fl.

Jan. 10. Feb. 5.

Jan. 18. March 1.

k Quere, the c

a snow-flock (plectrophanes nivalis) ?

314

CALENDAR OF NATURE.

WHITE.

MARKWICK.

White dead-nettle (lammm album) fl.

Jan. 13.

March 23. May 10.

Trumpet honey-suckle, fl.

Jan. 13.

Common creeping crowfoot (ranunculus repeus) fl.

Ian. 13.

April 10. May 12.

House sparrow (passer domesticus) chirps

Jan. 14.

Feb. 17. May 9.

Dandelion (leontodon taraxacum) fl.

Jan. 16. March 11.

Feb. 1. April 17.

Bat (vespertilio) ap.

Jan. 16. March 24.

Feb. 6. June 1, last seen

Spiders shoot their webs

Jan. 16.

[Nov. 20.

Butterfly, ap.

Jan. 16.
Jan. 16.

Feb. 21. May8, last seen
fan. 10 — 31. [Dec. 22.

Black-bird (merula nigra) whistles

Jan. 17.

Feb. 15. ftlay 13.

Wren (troglodytes Europceus) sings

Jan 17-

Feb 7. June 12.

Earth-worms lie out

Jan. 18. Feb. 8.

Crocus (crocus vernus) fl.

Jan. 13. March 18.

Jan 20. March 19.

-Sky-lark (alauda arvensis) sings

Jan. 21.

Jan. 12. Feb. 27, sings till

ivy casts its leaves

Jan. 22.

[Nov. 13.

Helleborus hiemalis, fl.

Jan. 22—24.

Feb. 28. April 17.

Common dor or clock (geotrupe* stercorarius)

Jan. 23.

Feb. 12. April 19, last seen

Peziza acetabulum, ap.

Jan. 23.

[Nov. 24.

Helleborus viridis, fl.

Jan. 23 March 5.

Hazel (corylus avellana) fl.

Jan. 23. Feb. 1.

Jan. 27. March 11.

Woodlark (alamda arborea) sings

Jan. 24. Feb. 21.

Jan. 28. June 5.

Chaffinch (spiza leucoptera) sings

Jan. 24. Feb. 15.

Jan. 21. Feb. 26.

Jack-daws begin to come to churches

Jan. 25. March 4.

Yellow Wagtail (budytes flavissima) ap.

Jan. 25. April 14.

April 13. July 3, last seen

Honeysuckle (lonicera periclymenum) 1.
Field or procumbent speedwell (veronica agrestis) fl.

Jan. 25.
Jan. 27. March 15.

Jan. 1. April 9. [Sept. 8.
Feb. 12. March 29.

Nettle butterfly (vanessa urticae) ap.

Jan. 27. April 2.

March 5. April 24, last

White wagtail (motacilla domestica) chirps

Jan. 28.

March 16. [seen June 6

Shell-snail (helix nemoralis) ap.

Jan. 28. Feb. 24.

April 2. June 11.

Earth-worms engender

Jan. 30.

Barren strawberry (frajaria sterilis) fl.

Feb. 1. March 26.

Jan. 13. March 26.

Blue tit (parus caeruleus) chirps

Feb. 1.

April 27.

Brown wood-owls hoot

Feb. 2.

Hen (gallus domesticus) sits

Feb. 3.

March 8 hatches

Marsh tit begins his two harsh sharp notes

Feb 3.

Gossamer floats

Feb. 4. April 1.

Musca tenax, ap.

Feb. 4. April 8.

Laurustine (viburnum tinus) fl.

Feb. 5

Jan. 1. April 5.

Butcher's broom (ruscus aculeatus) fl.

Feb. 5.

Jan. 1. May 10.

Fox (canis vulpes) smells rank

Feb. 7.

Way 19, young brought

Turkey-cocks strut and gobble

Feb. 10.

[forth.

Yellow-bunting (emberiza citrinella) sings

Feb. 12.

Feb. 18. April 28.

Brimstone butterfly (gouepteryx rhamni) ap.

Feb. 13. April 2.

Feb. 13. March 8, last seen

Green woodpecker (picus viridis) makes a loud cry

Feb. 13. March 23.

Jan.l April 17. [Dec. 24.

Raven (corvus corax) builds

Feb. 14—17.

April 1, has young ones.

Yew-tree (taxus baccata) fl.

Feb. 14. March 27.

Feb. 2. April 11. [June 1.

Coltsfoot (tussilago farfara) fl.

Feb. 15. March 26.

Feb. 18. April 13.

Rooks (corvus frugilegus) build

Feb. 16 March 6.

Feb. 28. March 5.

Partridges (perdix cinerea) pair

Feb. 17.

Feb. 16. March 20.

Peas (pisum sativum) sown

Feb. 17. March 8.

Feb. 8. March 31.

House pigeon (columba livia) has young ones

Feb. 18.

February 8.

Field crickets open their holes

Feb. 20. March 30.

Common flea (pulex irritans) ap.

Feb. 21—26.

Pilewort (ficaria verna) fl.

Feb. 21. April 13.

Jan. 25. March 26.

Goldfinch (carduelis elegans) sings

Feb. 21. April 5.

Feb. 28. May 5.

Viper (vipera vulgaris) ap.

Feb. 22. March 26

Feb. 23. May 6, last seen

[Oct. 28.

Wood-louse (oniscus asellus) ap

Feb. 23. April 1.

April 27. June 17.

Missel thrushes pair

Feb. 24.

Daffodil (narcissus pseudonarcissus) fl.

Feb 24. April 7-

Feb. 26. April 18.

Willow (salix alba) fl.

Feb 24. April 2.

Feb. 27. April 11.

Frogs (rana temporaria) croak

Feb 25.

March 9. April 20.

Sweet violet (viola odorata) fl.

Feb. 26. March 31.

Feb. 7- April 5.

Tinea vestianella, ap.

Feb. 26.

European thickuee(cedicnemus Europoeus) clamours

Feb. 2". April 24.

June 17.

Filbert (coryhis sativus) fl.

Feb. 27-

Jan. 25. March 26.

Ring-dove cooes

Feb. 27. April 5.

March 2. August 10.

Apricot-tree (prunus armeniaca) fl.

February.

Feb. 28. April 5.

Toad (rana bufo) ap.

Feb. 28. March 24.

March 15. July 1.

Frogs (rana temporaria) spawn

Feb. 28. March 22.

Feb. 9. April 10, tadpoles

[March 19.

CALENDAR OF NATURE.

315

WHITE.

MAKKWICK.

Ivy-leaved speedwell (veronica hederifolia) fl.

March 1. April 2.

Feb. 16. April 10.

Pe'ach (amygdalus persica) fl.

March 2. April 17.

March 4. April 29.

Frog (ran a temporaria) ap.

March 2. April 6.

March 9.

Shepherd's purse (thlaspi bursa pastoris) fl.

March 3.

Jan. 2. April 16.

Pheasant (phasianus colchicus) crows

March 3—29.

March 1. May 22

Land tortoise comes forth

March 4. May 3.

Lungwort (pulmonaria officinalis) fl.

March 4. April 16.

March 2. May 19.

Podura fimetaria, ap.

March 4

Salticus scenicus, ap.

March 4.

Scolopendra forficata, ap.

March 5—16.

Wryneck (torquilla vulgaris) ap.

March 5. April 25.

March 26. April 23, last

[seen Sept. 14.

Goose (anser domesticus) sits on its eggs

March 5.

March 21.

Duck (anas boschas) lays

March 5.

March 28.

Dog's violet (viola caniua) fl.

March 6. April 18.

Feb. 28. April 22

Peacock butterfly (vanessa io) ap.

March 6.

Feb. 13. April 20, last

Trouts begin to rise

March 7—14.

[seen Dec. 25.

Field beans (vicia faba) planted

March 8.

April 29 emerge

Blood-worms appear in the water

March 8.

Crow (corvus corone) builds

March 10.
VI arch 10 18.

July 1 has young ones.

Id d k 1 t ( 1 > "

VI arch 12. April 30.

April 15. May 22 seen

; g

[Dec. 23. Jan. 26.

Ash (populus tremula) fl.

March 12.

Feb. 26. March 28.

Common elder (sambucus nigra) 1.

March 13—20.

Jan. 24. April 22.

Laurel (prunus laurocerasus) fl.

March 15. May 21.

April 2. May 27.

Chrysomela Gotting. ap.

March 15.

Black ants (formica nigra) ap.

March 15. April 22.

March 2. May 18.

Ephemerae biseta?, ap.

March 16.

Gooseberry (ribes grossularia) 1.
Common Stitchwort (stellaria holostea) fl.

March 17. April. 11.
March 17. May 19.

Feb. 26. April 9.
March 8. May 7.

Wood anemone (anemone nemorosa) fl.

March 17. April 22.

Feb. 27. April 10.

Blackbird (merula nigra) lays
Raven (corvus corax) sits

March 17-
March 17.

April 14, young ones
April 1 builds. [May 19.

Wheatear (saxicola cenanthe) ap.

March 18--30.

March 13. May 23, "last

[seen Oct. 26>

Musk wood crowfoot (adoxa moscbatellina) fl.

March 18. April 13.

Feb. 23. April 28.

Darkfooted petty chap s(sy 1 via loquax) ap.

March 19. April 13

March 30. May 16, sits

[May 27, last seenOct. 23.

Fumaria bulbosa, fl.

March 19.

Elm (ulmus campestris) fl.

March 19. April 4.

Feb. 17. April 25.

Turkey (meleagris gallopavo) lays

March 19. April 7.

March 18—25, sits April

[4, young ones April 30.

House pigeons (columbalivia) sit

March 20.

March 20 young hatched.

Marsh marigold (caltha palustris) fl.

March 20. April 14.

March 22. May 8.

Buzz-fly (bombylius medius) ap.

March 21. April 28.

March 15. April 30.

Bank swallow (hirundo riparia) ap.

March 21. April 12.

April 8. May 16, last

March 22 30.

[seen Sept. 8.
March 3. April 29 last

a e ( q a , ap.

[seen Oct. 2.

Horse ant (formica herculeana) ap.

March 22. April 18.

Feb. 4. March 26, last

[seen Nov. 12.

Greenfinch (fringilla chloris) sings
Ivy (hedera helix) berries ripe

March 22. April 22
March 23. April 14.

March 6. April 26.
Feb. 16. May 19.

Periwinkle (vinca minor) fl.

March 25.

Feb. 6. May 7.

Spurge laurel (daphne laureola) fl.

March 25. April 1.

April 12—22.

Swallow (hirundo garrula) ap.

March 26. April 29.

April 7 — 27, last seen

[Nov. 16.

Black-cap (ficedula atricapilla) heard

March 26. May 4.

April 14. Mav 18, seen

April 14. May 20, last

seen Sept 19.

Young ducks hatched

March 27.

April 6. May 16.

Golden saxifrage (chrysosplenium oppositifolium) fl

March 27. April 9.

Feb. 7. March 27.

Eave swallow (hirundo urbica) ap.

March 28 May 1.

April 14. May 8, last

[seen Dec. 8.

Double hyacinth (hyacinthus orientalis) fl.

March 29. April 22

March 13. April 24.

Young geese (anser domesticus)

March 29.

March 29. April 19.

Wood sorrel (oxalis acetosella) fl.

March 30. April 22

Feb. 26. April 26.

Ring ouzel (merula torquata) seen

March 30. April 17-

October 11.

Barley (hordeum vulgare) sown

March 31. April 30

April 12. May 20.

316

CALENDAR OF NATURE.

WHITE.

Nightingale (philoiuela lusciuia) sings

April 1. May 1.

April 5. July 4, last seen

[Aug. 29

Ash (fraxinus excelsior) fl.

April 1. May 4.

March 16. May 8.

Spider's webs on the surface of the ground

April 1.

Chequered daffodil (fritillaria meleagris) fl.

April 2—24.

April 15. May 1.

Julus tvrrestri? , ap.

April 2.

Cowslip (primula vulgaris, var.) fl.

April 3—24.

March 3. May 17.

Ground-ivy (glecoma hederacea) fl.

April 3—15.

March 2. April 16.

Snipe pipes

April 3.

Box-tree (buxus sempcrvivens) fl.

April 3.

March 27- May 8.

Elm (ulnuts campestris) 1.

April 3.

April 2 May 19.

Gooseberry (ribes grossularia) fl.

April 3—14.

March 21. May 1.

Current (ribes horteusis) fl.

April 3—5.

March 24. April 28.

Pear-tree (pyrus conimums) fl.

April 3. May 21.

March 30. April 30.

Triton punetatus (newt or eft) ap.

April 4.

Feb. 17. April. 15, last

[seen Oct. 9.

Dogs mercury (mercurialis perennis) fl.

April 5—19.

Jan. 20. April 16. ;

Wych elm (ulmus glabra sen montana of Smith) fl.

April 5.

April 19. Mav 10 1.

Lady smock ^carilamine pratensis) fl.
Cuckoo (cuculus canorus) heard

April 6—20.
April 7—26.

Feb. 21. April 26.
April 15. May 3, last

[heard June 28.

Black-thorn (prunuR spinosa) fl.

April 7. May 10.

March 16. May 8.

Death-watch (termes pulatorius) beato

April 7-

March 28. May 28.

Gudgeon spawns

April 7.

Redstart (phoenicura albifrons) ap.

April 8—28.

April 5, sings April 25,

[last seen Sept. 30.

Crown imperial (fritillaria imperialis) fl.

April 8—24.

April 1. May 13.

Tree pipit (nntf'us arboreus) sings

April 9—19.

April 14—29, sits June

[16-27

Beech (fagus sylvatica) 1.

April 10. May 8.

April 24. May 25.

Shell-snail (helix nemoralis) comes out in troops

April 11. May 9.

May 17. June 11 ap.

Song pettychaps, ap.

April 11.

Swift (cypselus murarius) ap.

April 13. May 7.

April 28. May 19.

Stinging-flv (conops calcitrans) ap.

April 14. May 17.

Whitlow grass (draba verna) fl.

April 14.

Jan. 15. March 24.

Larch-tree (pinus-larix rubra) 1.

April 14.

April 1. May 9.

Whitethroat (ticedula ciuerea) ap.

April 14. May 14.

Aprill4. May5, sings May

rf— 10, last seen Sept. 23.

Red ant (formica rubra) ap.

April 14.

April 9. June 26.

Mole cricket (gryllotalpa vulgaris) churs

April 14.

Red rattle (pedicularis sylvatica) fl.

April 15—19.
April 15

April 10. June 4.

Lady cow (coccinella bipunctata) ap.

April 16

Ray's locustelle (locustella Raii) ap.

April 16—30.

Song pettychaps, its shivering note heard

April 1". May 7-

April 28. May.

Wild cherry (prunus cerasus) fl.

April 18. May 12.

March 30. May 10.

Garden cherry (prunus cerasus) fl

April 18. Ma> 11.

March 25. May 6.

Plum (prunus domestica) fl.

April 18. May 5.

March 24. May 6.

Harebell (hyacinthus non-scriptns seu scilla nutaus

of Smith) fl.

April 19—25.

March 27. May 8.

Turtle (columba turtur) cooes

April 20—17.

May 14. Aug. 10 seen.

Hawthorn (crataegus seu mespilus oxycantha of

Smith) fl.

April 20. June 11.

April 19. May 26.

Male fool's orchis (orchis mascula) fl.

April 21.

March 29. May 13.

Blue flesh-fly (musca vomitoria) ap.

April 21. May 23.

Black snail or slug (limax ater) abounds

April 22.

Feb. 1. Oct. 24 ap.

Apple-tree (pyrus-malus sativus)

April 22. Mav 25.

April 11. May 26.

Large bat (vespetilio noctula) ap.

April 22. June 11,

Strawberry, wild wood (fragaria vesca sylv.) fl.

April 23—29.

April 8-9

Sauce alone (erysimum alliaria) fl.

April 23.

March 31. May 8.

Wild or bird cherry (prunus avium) fl.

April 24.

March 30. May 10.

Apis hypnorum, ap.

April 24.

Musca meridiana, ap.

April 24. May 28.

Wolf-fly (asilns) ap.

April 25.

Cabbage butterfly (pontia brassicae) ap.

April 28. May 20.

April 29. June 15.

Dragon-fly (libellula) ap.

April 30. May 21.

April 18. May 13, last

[seen Nov. l«-

Sycamore (acer pseudoplatanus) fl.

April 30. June 6.

April 10. June 4

Bombylius minor, ap.

May 1.

Glow-worm (Umpyris noctilnca) shines

May 1. June 11.

June 19. Sept. 28,

CALENDAR OF NATURE.

317

WHITE.

MARKW1CK.

Moth-eater ( phalaenivora Europaea) ap.
Common bugle (ajuga reptans) fl.

May 1—26.
May 1.

May 16. Sept. 14.
March 27. May 10.

Field crickets (gryllus campestris) crink

May 2—24.

Chaffer or may-bug (melolontha vulgaris) ap.

May 2—26.

May 2. July 7.

Honeysuckle (lohicera perk-lymenum) fl.

May 3—30.

April 24. June 2J.

Toothwort (lathraea squamaria) fl.

May 4—12.

Shell-snails copulate

May 4. June 17-

Sedge-reedling (salicaria phragmitis) sings

May 4.

June 2—30.

Mealy tree (viburnum lantausi) fl.

May 5—17.

April 25. May 22.

Flycatcher (muscicapa grisola) ap.

May 10—30.

April 29. May 21.

Apis longicornis, ap.

May 10. June 9.

Oak (quercus robur) fl.

May 13—15.

April 29. June 4.

Admiral-butterfly (ammiralis atalanta) ap.

May 13.

Orange-tip (mancipium cardamines) ap.

May 14.

March 30. May 19.

Beech (fagus sylvatica) fl.

May 15—26.

April 23. May 28.

Common maple (acer campestris) fl.

May 16.

April 24. May 27-

Barberry-tree (berberis vulgaris) fl.

May 17-26.

April 28. June 4.

Wood argus butterfly (hipparchii aegeria) ap.

May 17-

Orange lilly (lilium bulbiferum) fl.

May 18. June 11.

June 14. July 22.

Burnet moth (zygaena filipendulse) ap.

Ma 18. June 13.

May 24. June 26.

Walnut (juglans rcgia) 1.

Ma 18.
[Via 18. June 5.

April 10. June 1.

Forest-fly (hippobosca equina) ap.

Ma 18. June 9.

ay

Saintfoiu (hedysarum onobrychis) fl.

Ma 19. June 8.

May 21. July 28.

Peony (paeonia officinalis) fl.

Ma 20. June 15.

April 18. May 26.

Horsechestnut (aesculus hippocastanuml fl.

May 21. June 9.

April 19. June 7-

Lilac (syringa vulgaris) fl.

May 21.

April 15. May 30.

Columbine (aquilegia vulgaris) fl.

May 21—27-

May 6. June 13.

Medlar (mespilus germanica) fl.

May 21. June 20.

April 8. June 19.

Tormentil (tormentilla erecta seu ofHcinalis of

Smith) fl.
Lily of the valley (convallaria majalis) fl.
Bees (apis mellifica) swarm

May 21.

May 22.
May 22. July 22.

April 17. June 11.
April 27. June 13.
May 12. June 23.

Woodroof (asperula odorata) fl.

May 22-25.

April 14. June 4.

Wasp, female, (vespa vulgaris) ap.

May 23.

April 2. June 4, last

Mountain ash sorbus seu pyrus aucuparia of

[seen Nov. 2.

Smith) fl.

May 23. June 8.

April 20. June 8.

Bird's nest orchis (ophrys nidus avis) fl.

May 24. June 11.

May 18. June 12.

White-beam tree (crataegus seu pyrus aria of

Smith) 1.

May 24. June 4.

May 3.

Milkwort (polygala vulgaris) fl.

Ma 24. June 7.

April 13. June 2.

Dwarf cistus (cistus helianthemuua) fl.

Ma 25.

Way 4. August 8.

Gelder rose (viburnum opulus) fl.

Ma 26.

May 10. June 8.

Common elder (sambucus nigra) fl.

Ma 26. June 25.

May 6. June 17.

Cantharis noctiluca, ap.

Ma 26.

Apis longitornis bores holes in walks

Ma 27 June 9.

Mulberry-tree (morus nigra) 1.

Ma 27. June 13.

May 20. June 11.

VVild service-tree (crataegus seu pyrus torminalis

of Smith) fl.

May 27.

May 13. June 19.

Sanicle (sjamcula Europaea) fl.

May 27. June 13.
May 28.

April 21. June 4.
Vlay 9. June 11.

Female fool's orchis (orchis morio) fl.

May 28.

April 17. May 20.

Ragged robin (lychnis flos cuculi) fl.

May 29. June 1.

May 12. June 8.

Burnet (poterium sangnisorba) fl.

May 29.

April 30. August 7

Foxglove (digitalis purpurea) fl.

May 30. June 22.

May 23. June 15.

Corn-flag (gladiolus communis) fl.

May 30. June 20.

June. 9. July 8.

Serapias longifol. fl.

May 30. June 13.

Raspberry (rubus idaeus) fl.

May 30. June 21,

May 10. June 16.

Herb Robert (geranium Robertianum) fl.

Ma 30.

March 7. May 16.

Figwort (scrophularia nodosa) fl.

Ma 31.

May 12. June 20.

Cromwell (lithospermum officinale) fl.

Ma 31.

May 10-24.

Wood spurge (euphorbia amygdaloides) fl.

Jun 1.

March 23. May 13.

Ramsons (allium ursinum) fl.

Jun 1.

April 21. June 4

Mouse-ear scorpion grass (myosotis scorpioides) fl.

Jun 1.

April 11 June 1.

Grasshopper (gryllus grossus) ap.

Jun 1—14.

March 25. July 6, la,t

[seen Nov. 3.

Rose (rosa hortensis) fl.

June 1—21.

June 7- July 1.

Mouse-ear hawkweed (hieracmm pilosella) fl.

June 1. July 16.

April 19. June 12.

Buckbean (meuyanthes trifoliata) fl.

Junel. "

April 20. June 8.

Rose chaffer (cetonia aurata) ap.

June 2—8.

April 18. August 4-

318

CALENDAR OF NATURE.

WHITE.

MARKWICK.

Sheep (ovis aries) shorn

une 2—23.

May 23. June 17

Water-flag (iris pseudo acorus) fl.

une 2.

VI ay 8. June 9.

Cultivated rye (secale cereale) fl.

une 2.

May 27-

Hounds tongue (cynoglossum officinale) fl

une 2.

May 11. June 7

Hellehorine (serapias latifblia) fl.

une 2. Aug. 6.

July 22. Sept. 6.

Green-gold flj' (musca caesar) ap.

une 2.

Argus butterfly (hipparchia megsera) ap.

une 2.

Spearwort (ranunculus flammula) fl.

une 3.

April 25. June 13.

Birdsfoot trefoil (lotus corniculatus) fl.

une 3.

April 10. June 3.

Fraxinella or white dittany (dictamnug albus) fl.

une 3—11.

June 9. July 24.

Phryganea nigra ap.

une 3.

Angler's may-fly (ephemera vulg.) ap.

une 3—14.

Ladies finger (anthyllis vulneraria) fl.

une 4.

June 1. Aug. 16.

Bee-orchis (ophrys apifera) fl.

une 4. July 4.

Pink (dianthus d'eltoides) fl.

une 5 — 19.

May 26. July 6.

Mock orange (philadelphus coronarius) fl

une 5.

May 16. June 23.

Calepteryx virgo ap.

une 5—20.
une 7. July 30

Tune 18 July 29.

Portugal laurel (prunus lusitanicus) fl.

une 8. July 1.

(une 3. July 16.

Purple spotted martagon (liliuin martagon) fl.

une 8—25.

June 18. July 19.

Meadow cranes-bill (geranium pratense) fl.

une 8. Aug. 1.

Field pea (pisum sativum arvense) fl.

une 8.
une 9.

Way 15. June 21.
May 15. June 21.

Bladder campion (cucabalus behen seu silene in-

flata of Smith) fl.

une 9.

May 4. July 13.

Bryony (bryonia alba) fl.

une 9.

May 13. Aug 17.

Hedge-nettle (stachys sylvatica) fl.

une 10.

May 28. June 24.

Bittersweet (solatium dulcamara) fl.

une 11.

May 15. June 20.

Walnut (juglans regia) fl.

une 12.

April 18. June 1.

Phallus impudicus ap.

une 12. July 23.

Rosebay willow-herb (epilobium angusti-folium) fl.

une 12.

June 4 July 28.

Wheat (triticiim hybernum) fl.

une 13. July 22.

June 4—30.

Comfrey (symphytum officinale) fl.

June 13.

May 4. June 23.

Yellaw pimpernel (lysimachia nemorum) fl.
Tremella nostoc ap.

June 13—30.
June 15. Aug. 24.

April 10. June 12.

Buckthorn (rharonus catharticus) 1.

June 16.

May 25.

Cuckoo-spit insect (cicada spumaria ap,

June 16.

June 2- 21.

Dog-rose (rosa canina) fl.

June 17, 18.

May 24. June 21.

Puff-ball (lycoperdon bovista) ap.

June 17. Sept. 3.

iViaj 6. Aug. 19.

Mullein (verbascum thapsus) fl.

June 18.

June 10. July 22.

Viper's bugloss (echium anglicura seu vuigare o

Smith) fl.

June 19.

May 27. July 3.

Meadow hay cut

June 19. July 20.

June 13. July 7-

Stag beetle (lucanus ceryus) ap

June 19.

June 14—21.

Borage (borago officinalis) fl.

June 20.

April 22. July 26.

Spiudle-tree (evonymus europseiis) fl.

une 20.

May 11. June 25

Musk thistle (carduiis nutau?) fl.

une 20. July 4.

June 4. July 25.

Dogwood (cornus sanguinea) fl.

une 21.

Mav 28. June 27-

Field scabious (scabiosa arvensis) fl.

une 21.

June Ifi. Aug 14.

Marsh thistle (carduus palustris) fl.

une 21—27-

May 15. June 19.

Dropwort (spiraea filipendula) fl.

une 22. July 9.

May 8. Sept. 3

Great wild valerian (valeriana officinalis) fl.

une 22. July 7-

May 22. July 21.

Quail (coturnix vulgaris) calls

June 22. July 4.

July 2o, seen Sept. 1—

Mountain willow-herb (epilobium raontanum) fl.

June 22.

June 5—21.

Thistle upon thistle (carduus crispns) fl.

Juue23— 29.

May 22 July 22.

Cow-parsnep (heracleum spondylium) fl.

June 23.

May 27. July 12.

Earth-nut (bunium bulbocastauum seu flexuosnm

of Smith) fl.

June 23.

May 4—31.

Young frogs migrate

June 23. Aug. 2.

Oestrus curvicauda ap.

June 24.

Vervain (verbena officinalis) fl.

June 24.

June 10. July 17.

Corn poppy (papaver rhoeas) fl.

June 24.

April 30. July 15.

Self-heal (prunella vulgaris) fl.

June 24.

June?— 23.

Agrimony (agrimonia eupatoria) fl. IJune 24 — 29.

June 7. July 9.

Great horse-fly (tabanus bovinus) ap. June 24. Aug. 2.
Greater knapweed (centaurea scabiosa) fl. IJune 25.

June 7- Aug 14.

Mushroom (agaricus campestris) ap June 26. Aug. 30.

April 16. Aug. 16.

Common mallow (malva sylvestris) fl. June 26.

May 27. July 13.

Dwarf mallow (malva rotundifolia) fl. June 26.

May 12. July 30.

St. John's wort (hypercium perforatum) fl. IJune 26.

June 15. July 12.

CALENDAR OF NATURE.

319

WHITB.

MAKKW1CK.

Broom-rape (orobanche major) fl.

June 27. July 4.

May 9. July 25

Henbane (hyoscyamus niger) fl.

June 27.

May 13. June 19.

Goats-beard (tragopogon pratense) fl.

June 27.

June 5—14.

Deadly nightshade (atropa belladonna) fl.

June 27.

May 22. Aug. 14.

Truffles begin to be found

June 28. July 29.

Young partridges fly

June 28. July 31.

July 8—28,

Lime-tree (tilia Europuea) fl.

June 28. July 31.

June 12. July 30.

Spear thistle (carduus lanceolatus) fl.

June 28. July 12.

June 27. July 18.

Meadow sweet (spiraea ulmaria) fl.

June 28.

June 16. July 24.

Greenweed (genista tinctoria) fl.

June 28.

June 4. July 24.

Wild thyme (thymus serpyllum) fl.

June 28.

June 6. July 19.

Stachys Germanic, fl.

June 29. July 20.

Day-lily (hemerocallis flava) fl.

June 29. July 4.

May 29. June 9.

Jasmine (jasminum officinale) fl.

June 29. July 30.

June 27. July 21.

Holy-oak (alcea rosea) fl.

June 29. Aug. 4.

July 4. Sept. 7.

Monotropa hypopithys fl.

June 29. July 23.

Ladies bedstraw (galium verum) fl.

June 29.

June 22. Aug. 3.

Galium ialustre fl.

June 29.

Nipplewort (lapsana communis) fl.

June 29.

May 30. July 24.

Welted ttiistle (carduus acanthoides) fl.

June 29.

Sncezewtart (achillea ptarmica) fl.

June 30.

June 22. Aug. 3.

Musk nVallow (malva moschata) fl.

June 30.

June 9. July 14.

Pimpernel (anagallis arvensis) fl.

June .30.

May 4. June 22.

Hoarj beetle (melolontha solstitialis) ap

June 30. July 17-

Corn saw-wort (serratula arvensis seu carduus ar-

vensis of Smith) fl.

July 1

June 15. July 15.

Pheasant's eye (adonis annua seu aiitumnalis of

Smith) fl.

July 1.

April 11. July 15.

Red eyebright (euphrasia seu bartsia odontites of

Smith) fl.

July 2.

June 20. Aug. 10.

Thorough wax (bupleurum rotundifol.) fl.

June 2.

Cockle (agrostemma githago) fl.

July 2.

May 14. July 25.

Ivy-leaved wild lettuce (prenanthes muralis) fl.

July 2.

June 2. July 25.

Smith) fl.

July 2.

June 19. July 24.

Wall pepper (sedum acre) fl.

July 3.

June 8. July 12.

Privet (IJ^ustrum vulgare) fl.

July 3.

Fune 3. July 13.

Perennial wild flax (linum perenne) fl.

Fuly 4.

April 21. July 6.

Whortle-berries ripe (vaccinium ulig.)

July 4—24.

Yellow base rocket (reseda lutea) fl.

July 5.
fuly 5.

July 19.
May 15. Oct. 14,

Dwarf carline thistle (carduus acaulis) fl.

July 5—12.

June 30. Aug. 4.

Bull-rush or cats-tail (typha latifolia) fl.

July 6.

June 29, July 21.

Spiked willow-herb (lythrum salicaria) fl.

July 6.

June 24. Aug. 17-

Black mullein (verbascum niger) fl.

July 6.

Chrysanthemum coronarium fl.

July 6.

May 28. July 28.

Marigolds (calendula officiualis) fl.

July 6—9.

April 20. July 16.

Little field madder (sherardia arvensis) fl.

July 7-

Jan. 11. June 6.

Calamint (melissa seu thymus calamintha of

Smith) fl.

July 7-

July 21.

Black horehound (ballota nigra) fl.

July 7-

June 16. Sept. 12.

Wood betony (betonica officinalis) fl.

July 8—19.

June 10. July 15.

Round-leaved bell-flower (campanula rotuudi-

folia) fl.

uly 8

June 12. July 29.

All-good (chenopodium bonus Henricus) fl.

uly 8.

April 21. June 15.

Wild carrot (daucus carota) fl.

uly 8.

June 7. July 14.

Indian cress (epopieolum majus) fl.

uly 8—20.

June 11. July 25.

Cat-mint (nepeta cataria) fl.

uly 9.

Cow-wheat (melampyrum sylvaticum seu pratense

of Smith) fl.

uly 9.

May 2. June 22.

Crosswort (valantia cruciata seu galium cruciatum

of Smith) fl.

uly 9.

April 10. May 28.

Cranberries ripe

uly 9—27.

Tufted vetch (vicia craeca) fl.

uly 10.

May 31. July 8.

Wood vetch (vicia sylvat.) fl.

uly 10.

Little throat-wort (campanula glomerata) fl.

uly 11.

July 28. Aug. 18.

Sheep's scabious (jasione montana) fl.

»ly 11.

June 10. July 25.

Pastinaca sylv. fl.

July 12.

White lily (lilium candidum) fl.

July 12.

June 21. July 22.

320

CALENDAR OP NATURE.

WHITE.

MARKWICK.

Hemlock (conium maculatum) fl.

July 13.

June 4. July 20.

Caucalis anthriscus fl.

July 13.

Flying ants ap.

July 13. Aug. 11.

Aug. 20. Sept. 19.

Moneywort (lysimachia iiummularia) fl.

July 13.

June 14. Aug. 16.

Scarlet mariagon (lilium chalcedonicum) fl.

July 14. Aug. 4.

June 21. Aug. 6.

Lesser stitchwort (stellaria graminea) fl.

July 14.

May 8. June 23.

Uwarf elder (sambucus ebulus) fl.

Jul 14—29.

ug.

Swallows and martins congregate

Jul 14. Aug. £9.

Aug. 12. Sept. 8.

Potato (solatium tuberosum) fl.

Jul 14.

June 3. July 12.

Angelica sylv. fl.

Jul 15.

Digitalis ferrugin. fl.

Jul 15—25.

Ragwort (senecio jacobaea) fl.

July 15.

June 22. July 13.

Golden rod (solidago virgaurea) fl.

July 15.
July 16.

July 7- Aug. 29.
julv is. Aug. 16.

Tree primrose (cenothera biennis) fl.

Ju'y 16.

June 12. July 18.

Peas (pisum sativurn) cut

uly 17. Aug. 14.

July 13. Aug. 15.

Galega officin. fl.

uly 17.

Apricots (prunus armeniaca) ripe

uly 17. Aug. 21.

July 5. Aug. 16.

Clown's allheal (stachys palustris) fl.

uly 17

June 12. July 14.

Branching willow-herb (epilobium rainos.) fl.

uly 17.

Rye harvest begins

uly 17- Aug. 7.

Yellow centanry (chlora perfoliata) fl.

uly 18. Aug. 15.

tune 15. Aug. 13.

Yellow vetchling (lathyrus aphaca) fl.

uly 18.

Enchanter's nightshade (circaea lutetiana) fl.

uly 18.

June 20. July 2?.

Water hemp agrimony (eupatorium cannabinuin) fl.

u y 18.

July 4. Aug. 6.

Giant throatwori (campanula trachelium) fl.

uly 19.

July 13. Aug. 14.

Eyebright (euphrasia oflicinalis) fl.

uy!9.

May 28. July 29.

Hops (humulus lupulus) fl.

July 19. Aug. 10.

July 20. Aug. 17.

Poultry moult

July 19.

Dodder (cuscuta Europaea seu epithymum of

Smith) fl.

July 20.

July 9. Aug. 7-

Lesser ceutaury (gentiana seu chironia centau-

rinm of Smith) fl.

July 20.

June 3. July 19.

Creeping water parsnep (smm nodiflorum) fl.

Ju y 20.

July 10. Sept. 11.

Common spurrey (spergula arvensis) fl.

Ju y 21.

April 10. July 16.

Wild clover (trifolium pratense) fl.

Ju y 21.

May 2. June 7-

Buckwheat (polygonum fagopyrum) fl.

Ju y 21.

June 27. July 10.

Wheat harvest begins

July 21. Aug. 23.

July 11. Aug. 26.

Great bur-reed (sparganium erectum) fl.

July 22.

June 10. July 23.

Marsh St. John's-wort (hypericum eludes) fl.

July 22— 31.

June 16. Aug. 10.

Sun-dew (drnsera rotundifolia) fl.

July 22.

Aug. 1.

Marsh cinquefoil (comarum palustre) fl.

July 22.

May 27. July 12.

Wild cherries ripe

July 22.

Lancashire asphodel (anthericum ossifragum) fl.

July 22.
July 23.

June 21. July 29.
June 2, July 31

Water dropwort (oeuanthe fistulos.) fl.

July 23.

Horehound (marrubium vulg.) fl.

July 23.

Seseli caruifol fl.

July 24.

Water plantain (alisma plantago) fl.

July 24.

May 31. July 21.

Alopecurus myosuroides fl.

July 25.

Virgin's bower (clematis vitalba) fl.

July 25. Aug. 9.

July 13. Aug. 14.

Bees kill the drones

July 25.
Ju y 26.

July 16. Aug. 3-

Wild marjoram (origanum vulgare) fl.

Juy26!

July 17. Aug. 29

Swifts (cypselus murarius) begin to depart

Ju y 27—29.

Aug. 5.

Small wild teasel (dipsacus pilosus) fl.

July 28, 29.

Wood sage (teucriiim scorodonia) fl.

July 28.

June 17. July 24.

Everlasting pea (lathyrus latifolius) fl.

July 28.

June 20. July :;0.

Trailing St. John's wort (hypericum humifusum) fl.

Juy 29.

May 20. June 22.

White hellebore (veratrum album) fl.

July 30.

July ]8— S3.

Camomile (anthemis nobilis) fl.

July 30.

June 21. Aug. 20.

Lesser field scabious (scabiosa columbaria) fl.

Ju y SO.

Julv 13. Aug. 9.

Sun-flower (helian,thus multiflorus) fl.

Ju y 31. Aug. 6.

July 4. Aug. 22.

Yellow loosestrife (lysimachia vulgaris) fl.

Juy 31.

July 2. Aug. 7.

Swift (cypselus murarius) last seen

Ju y 31. Aug. 27.

Aug. 11.

Oats (avena saliva) cut

Aug. 1—16.

July 26. Aug. 19.

Barli-y (hordeum sativum) cut

Aug. 1-26.

July 27- Sept. 4.

Lesser hooded willow-herb (scutellaria minor) fl.

Aug. 1.

Aug. 8. Sept. 7.

Middle fleabane (inula dysenterica) fl.

Aug. 2.

July 7- Aug. 3.

CALENDAR OF NATURE.

321

WHITB.

Apis manicata ap.

Aug. 2.

Swallow-tailed butterfly (papilio machaon) ap.

Aug. 2.

April 20. June 7- last seen

[Aug. 28.

Whame or burrel fly (oestrus bovis) lays eggs on

horses

Aug. 3-19.

Sow-thistle (sonchus arvensis) fl.

Aug. 3.

June 17. July 21.

Plantain fritillary (militaea cinxia) ap.

Aug 3.

Yellow succory (picris hieracioides) fl.

Aug. 4.

June 6—25.

Musca mystacea ap.

Canterbury bells (campanula medium) fl.

Aug. 5.

June 5. Aug. 11.

Mentha longifbl. fl.

Aug. 5.

Carline thistle (carlina vulgaris) fl.

Aug. 7.

July 21. Aug. 18.

Venetian sumach (rhus cotinus) fl.

Aug. 7.

June 5. July 20.

Ptinu* pectinicornis ap.

Aug. 7.

Burdock (arctium lappa) fl.

Aug. 8.

June 17. Aug. 4.

Aug. 8. ~ept. 3.

July 22. Aug. 21.

Aug 8.

July 9. Au". 10.

St. Barnaby's thistle (centaurea solstit.) fl.

Aug! 10.

Meadow saffron (colchicum autnmnale) fl.

Aug. 10. Sept. 13.

Aug. 15. Sept. 29.

Michaelmas daisy (aster tradescanti) fl.

Aug. 12. Sept. 27.

Aug. 11. Oct. 8.

Meadow rue (thalictrum flavum) fl.

Aug. 14.

Sea holly (eryngium marit.) fl.

Aug. 1-1.

Aug. 6. Oct. 2.

Boletus albus ap.

Aug. 14. Sept. 28.
Aug. 14.

May 10.

Less Venus looking glass (campanula hybrida) fl.

Aug. 15.

May 14.

Carthamus tinctor. fl.

Aug. 15.

Goldfinch (carduelis elegans) young broods ap.

Aug. 15.

June 15.

Lapwings (vanellus cristatus) congregate

Aug. 15. Sept. 12.

Jept. 25. Feb. 4.

Black-eyed marble butterfly (hipparchia semele) ap.

Aug. 15.

DeviPs-bit (scabiosa succisa) fl.

Aug. 16.
Aujf. 17.

June 22. Aug. 23.

Thistle down floats

Aug 17 Sept. 10.

Ploughman's spikenard (conyza squarrosa) fl.

Aug. 18.

Autumnal dandelion (leontodon autumnale) fl.

Aug. 18.

July 25.

Flies abound in wiftdows

Aug. 18.

Linnets (linaria cannabina) congregate

Aug. 18. Nov. 1.

Aug. 22. Nov. 8.

Bulls make their shrill autumnal noise

Aug. 20.

Aster amellus fl.

Aug. 22.

Balsam (itnpatiens balsamina) fl.

Aug. 23.

May 22. July 26.

Milk thistle (carduus mananus) fl.

Aug. 24.

April 21. July IS.

Hop picking begins
Beech (fagus sylvatica) turns yellow

Aug. 24. Sept. 17.
Aug. 24. Sept. 22.

Sept. 1—15.
Sept. 5—29.

Soapwort (saponarra ofik-inalis) fl.

Aug. 25

July 19. Aug. 23.

Ladies traces (ophrys spiralis) fl.

Aug 27. Sept. 12.

Aug. 18. Sept. 18.

Small golden black-spotted butterfly (lycaena

phla-as) ap.

Aug. 29.

Swallow (hi-undo garrula) sings

Aug. 29.

April 11. Aug. 20.

Althaea frutex (hibiscus syriacus) fl.

Aug. M. Sept. 2.

July 20. Sept. 28.

Great fritillary (argynnis paphia) ap.

Aug. 30.

Willow red under-wing moth (catocala pacta) ap.

Aug. 31.

European thicknee (oedicnemus Europaeus) cla-

mours

Sept. 1. Nov. 7.

June 17.

Phalaena russula ap.

Sept. 1.

Grapes ripea

Sept. 4. Oct. 24.

Aug. 31. Nov. 4.

Wood owls hoot

Sept. 4. Nov. 9.

Saffron butterfly (colias edusa) ap.

Sept. 4.

Aug. 5. Sept. 26.

Ring ouzel appears on its autumnal visit

Sept. 4—30.

Beans (vicia faba) cut

Sept. 6 — 29.
Sept. 11.

Aug. 9. Oct 14.

Ivy (hedera helix) fl.

Sept. 12. Oct. -2.

Sept. 18. Oct. 28.

Stares congregate

Sept. 12. Nov. 1.

June 4. March 21.

Wild honeysuckles fl. a second time

Sept. 25.

Woodlafk sings

Sept. 28. Oct. 24.

Woodcock (rusticola Eniropaea, returns

Sept. 29. Nov. 11.

Oct. 1. Nov. 1. young

ones April 28, last seen

April 11.

Strawberry-tree (arbutus unedo) fl.

Oct. 1.

May 21. Dec. 10.

Wheat sown

Oct. 3. Nov. 9.

Sept. 23. Oct. 19.

322

CALENDAR OF NATURE.

WHITK.

Swallows last seen. (N. B. The eave swallow the

latest.)

Oct. 4. Nov. 5.

Nov. 16.

Redwing (merula iliaca) comes

Oct. 10. Nov. 10.

Oct. 1. Dec. 18. sings

Feb. 10. March 21 .

last seen April 13.

Fieldfare (merula pilaris) returns

Oct. 12. Nov. 23.

Oct. 13. Nov. 18, last

seen May 1.*

Gossamer fills the air

Oct. 15—27.

Chinese holy-oak (alcea rosea) fi.

Oct. 19.

July 7. Aug. 21.

Hen chaffinches congregate

Oct. 20. Dec. 31.

Wood pigeons come

Oct. 23. Dec. 27.

Roystun crow (corvus cornix) returns

Oct. 23. Nov. 29.

Oct. 13. Nov. 17, last

[seen April 15.

Snipe (scolopax gallinago) returns

Oct. 25. Nov. 20.

Sept. 29. Nov. 11, last

[seen April 14.

Tortoise begins to bury himself
Rooks (corvus frwgilegus) return to their nest trees

Oct. 27. Nov. 26.
Oct. 31. Dec. 25.

Jane 29. Oct. 20.

Bucks grunt

Nov. 1.

Primrose (primula vulgaris) fl.

Nov. 10.

Oct. 7. Dec. 30.

Green whistling plover ap.

Nov. 13, 14.

Helvella mitra ap.

Nov. 16.

Greenfinches flock

Nov. 27.

Hepatica fl.

Nov. 30. Dec. 29.

Feb. 19.

Furze (ulex Europaeus) fl.

Dec. 4—21.

Dec. 16—31.

Polyanthus (primula vulgaris, var.) fl.

Dec. 7—16.

Dec. 31.

Young lambs dropped

Dec. 11—27.

Dec. 12. Feb. 21.

.Moles work in throwing up hillocks

Dec. 12—23.

Helleborus foetidus fl.

Dec. 14—30.

Daisy (be.llis perennis) fl.

Dec. 15.

Dec. 26—31.

Wall-flower (cheiranthus cheiri seu fruticulosus of

Smith) fl.

Dec. 15.

Nov. 5.

Mezereon fl.

Dec. 15.

Snowdrop fl.

Dec. 29.

IN SKSK VEHTITUB ANNU9

* A few straggling fieldfares not unfrequently remain, in Surrey, till nearly the middle of
May.— ED.

323

THE ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

LETTER I.

IT is reasonable to suppose that in remote ages this woody and
mountainous district was inhabited only by bears and wolves.
Whether the Britons ever thought it worthy their attention, is
not in our power to determine; but we may safely conclude,
from circumstances, that it was not unknown to the Romans.
Old people remember to have heard their fathers and grand-
fathers say that, in dry summers and in windy weather, pieces
of money were sometimes found round the verge of Wolmer-
pond; and tradition had inspired the foresters with a notion
that the bottom of that lake contained great stores of treasure.
During the spring and summer of 1740 there was little rain ;
and the following summer also, 1741, was so uncommonly dry
that many springs and ponds failed, and this lake in particular,
whose bed became as dusty as the surrounding heaths and
wastes. This favourable juncture induced some of the forest-
cottagers to begin a search, which was attended with such suc-
cess, that all the labourers in the neighbourhood flocked to the
spot, and with spades and hoes turned up great part of that large
area. Instead of pots of coins, as they expected, they found great
heaps, the one lying on the other, as if shot out of a bag ; many
of which were in good preservation. Silver and gold these en-
quirers expected to find ; but their discoveries consisted solely of
many hundreds of Roman copper-coins, and some medallions, all
of the lower empire. There was not much virtu stirring at that
time in this neighbourhood ; however, some of the gentry and
clergy around bought what pleased them best ; and some dozens
fell to the share of the author.

The owners at first held their commodity at a high price ; but,
finding that they were not likely to meet with dealers at such a
rate, they soon lowered their terms, and sold the fairest as they
could. The coins that were rejected became current, and passed

Y 2

324 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE^

for farthings at the petty shops. Of those that we saw, the
greater part were of Marcus Aurelius, and the Empress Faustina,
his wife, the father and mother of Commodus. Some of Faustina
were in high relief, and exhibited a very agreeable set of features,
which probably resembled that lady, who was more celebrated
for her beauty than for her virtues. The medallions in general
were of a paler colour than the coins. To pretend to account
for the means of their coming to this place would be spending
time in conjecture. The spot, I think, could not be a Roman
camp, becaiise it is commanded by hills on two sides ; nor does
it show the least traces of entrenchments ; nor can I suppose
that it was a Roman town, because I have too good an opinion
of the taste and judgment of those polished conquerors to imagine
that they would settle on so barren and dreary a waste.

LETTER II.

THAT Selborne was a place of some distinction and note in the
time of the Saxons we can give most undoubted proofs. But,
as there are few if any accounts of villages before Domesday, it
will be best to begin with that venerable record. " Ipse rex tenet
Selesburne, Eddid regina tenuit, et nunquam geldavit. De isto
manerio dono dedit rex Radfredo presbytero dimidiam hidam cum
ecclesia. Tempore regis Edwardi et post, valuit duodecim solidos
et sex deriarios ; modo octo solidos et quatuor denarios." Here
we see that Selborne was a royal manor ; and that Editha, the
queen of Edward the Confessor, had been lady of that manor ;
and was succeeded in it by the Conqueror ; and that it had a
church. Beside these, many circumstances concur to prove it to
have been a Saxon village ; such as the name of the place itself,*
the names of many fields, and some families,f with a variety of

* Selesburne, Seleburne, Selburn, Selbourn, Selborne, and Selborn, as it has been variously
spelt at different periods, is of Saxon derivation ; for Sel signifies great, and burn torrens, a
brook or rivulet : so that the name seems to be derived from the great perennial stream that
breaks out at the upper end of the village. Sel also signifies bonus, item, fcecundus, fertilis.
' ' Sgl-T3EfiT"~lCUll • foecunda graminis clausura; fertile pascuum : a meadow in the
parish of Godalming is still called Sal-gars-ton "—Lye's Saxon Dictionary, in the Supplement,
by Mr. Manning.

' f Thus the name of Aldred signifies all-reverend, and that of Kemp means a soldier. Thus we
have a church-litton, or enclosure for dead bodies, and not a church-yard : there is also a Culver-
•>roft near the Grange-farm, being the enclosure where the priory pigeon-house stood, from culvf r
a pigeon. Again there are three steep pastures in this parish called the Lithe, from Hlithe, clivu*.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

325

words in husbandry and common life, still subsisting among the
country people.

What probably first drew the attention of the Saxons to this
spot was the beautiful spring or fountain called Well-head,* which

induced them to build by the banks of that perennial current ;
for ancient settlers loved to reside by brooks and rivulets, where
they could dip for their water without the trouble and expense
of digging wells and of drawing.

It remains still unsettled among the antiquaries at what time
tracts of land were first appropriated to the chase alone for the
amusement of the sovereign. Whether our Saxon monarchs
had any royal forests does not, I believe, appear on record ; but
the Constitutions de Foresta of Canute, the Danej are come down

The wicker-work that binds and fattens down a hedge on the top is called ether, from ether an
hedge. When the good women call their hogs they cry sic, sic,f not knowing that sic is Saxon,
or rather Celtic, for a hog. Coppice or brush wood our countrymen call rise, from hris, frondes;
and talk of a load of rise. Within the author's memory the Saxon plurals, housen and peason,
were in common use. But it would he endless to instance in every circumstance : he that wishes
for more specimens must frequent a farmer's kitchen. I have therefore selected some words to
show how familiar the Saxon dialect was to this district, since in more than seven hundred years
it is far from being obliterated.

* Well-head signifies spring-head, and not a deep pit from whence we draw water. For par-
ticulars about which see Letter I. to Mr. Pennant.

•f Z<Ka, porcus, apud Lacones ; un Porceau chez les Lace'demoniens : ce mot a sans double este
pris des Celtes, qui discent sic, pour marquer un porceau. Encore aujour'huy quand les Bretons
rhassent ces animaux, ils ne disent point autrement, que sic, sic. — Antiquite de la Nation, et de
a Langue des Celtes, par Pezron.

326 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

to us. We shall not therefore pretend to say whether Wolmer.
forest existed as a royal domain before the conquest. If it did
not, we may suppose it was laid out by some of our earliest
Norman kings, who were exceedingly attached to the pleasures
of the chase, and resided much at Winchester, which lies at a
moderate distance from this district. The Plantagenet princes
seem to have been pleased with Wolmer ; for tradition says that
king John resided just upon the verge, at Ward-le-ham, on a re-
gular and remarkable mount, still called King John's Hill, and
Lodge Hill ; and Edward III. had a chapel in his park, or en-
closure at Kingsley.* Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, and
Richard, duke of York, say my evidences, were both, in their
turns, wardens of Wolmer-forest ; which seems to have served
for an appointment for the younger princes of the royal family,
as it may again.

I have intentionally mentioned Edward III. and the dukes
Humphrey and Richard, before king Edward II. because I have
reserved, for the entertainment of my readers, a pleasant anec-
dote respecting that prince, with which I shall close this letter.

As Edward II. was hunting on Wolmer-forest, Morris Ken,
of the kitchen, fell from his horse several times ; at which acci-
dents the king laughed immoderately : and, when the chase was
over, ordered him twenty shillings ;f an enormous sum for those
days ! Proper allowances ought to be made for the youth of this
monarch, whose spirits also, we may suppose, were much ex-
hilarated by the sport of the day : but, at the same time, it is
reasonable to remark that, whatever might be the occasion of
Ken's first fall, the subsequent ones seem to have been designed.
The scullion appears to have been an artful fellow, and to have
seen the king's foible ; which furnishes an early specimen of that
his easy softness and facility of temper, of which the infamous
Gaveston took such advantages, as brought innumerable calami-
ties on the nation, and involved the prince at last in misfortunes
and sufferings too deplorable to be mentioned without horror
and amazement.

* The parish of Kingsley lies between, and divides Wolraer-forest from Ayles Holt-forest. -See
Letter IX. to Mr. Pennant.

The church at Kingsley is a remarkably mean-looking edifice. The tower has a striking re-
semblance to a " dove-cote," and the edifice bears out the assertion made by Mr. White that some
of the Hampshire "places of worship make little better appearances than dove-cots. — D.

t " Item, paid at the lodge at Wolmer, when the king was stag-hunting there, to Morris Ken,
of the kitchen, because he rode before the king and often fell from his horse, at which the king
aughed exceedingly, a gift, by command, of twenty shillings."— From a MS. in possession of
Thomas Astle, esq., containing the private expenses qf Edward II.

ANTiaUITIES OF SELBORNE.

327

LETTER III.

FROM the silence of Domesday respecting churches, it has been
supposed that few villages had any at the time when that record
was taken ; but Selborne, we see, enjoyed the benefit of one :
hence we may conclude, that this place was in no abject state
even at that very distant period. How many fabrics have suc-
ceeded each other since the days of Radfredrus the presbyter, we
cannot pretend to say ; our business leads us to a description of
the present edifice, in which we shall be circumstantial.

Selborne Church.

Our church, which was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, con-
sists of three aisles, and measures fifty-four feet in length by
forty-seven in breadth, being almost as broad as it is long. The
present building has no pretensions to antiquity ;* and is, as I
suppose, of no earlier date than the beginning of the reign of
Henry VII. It is perfectly plain and unadorned, without painted
glass, carved work, sculpture, or tracery. But when I say it has

* The churches of some of the adjoining parishes are of very great antiquity, and particularly
deserving of the attention of the antiquary. Those of Empshot and Hartley (especially the latter)
are very curious structures, and may I think be referrible to a period antecedent to the Norman
conquest. Hartley church has been most ridiculously "beautified" by a sort of Inigo-Jones gable
end, a piece of workmanship by no means bad in itself, but so outrageously out of character with
the original architecture as to draw a smile of contempt from every observer of taste. — D.

328 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

no claim to antiquity, I would mean to be understood of the
fabric in general ; for the pillars which support the roof, are un-
doubtedly old, being of that low, squat, thick order, usually
called Saxon. These, I should imagine, upheld the roof of a
former church, which, falling into decay, was rebuilt on those
massy props, because their strength had preserved them from
the injuries of time.* Upon these rest blunt gothic arches, such
as prevailed in the reign above mentioned, and by which, as a
criterion, we would prove the date of the building.

At the bottom of the south aisle, between the west and south
doors, stands the font, which is deep and capacious, and consists
of three massy round stones, piled one on another, without the
least ornament or sculpture : the cavity at the top is lined with
lead, and has a pipe at bottom to convey off the water after the
sacred ceremony is performed.

The east end of the south aisle is called the South Chancel,
and, till within these thirty years, was divided off by old carved
gothic frame-work of timber, having been a private chantry. In
this opinion we are more confirmed by observing two gothic
niches within the space, the one in the east wall and the other in
the south, near which there probably stood images and altars.

In the middle aisle there is nothing remarkable : but I re-
member when its beams were hung with garlands in honour of
young women of the parish, reputed to have died virgins ;f and
recollect to have seen the clerk's wife cutting, in white paper,
the resemblances of gloves, and ribbons to be twisted into knots
and roses, to decorate these memorials of chastity. In the church
of Faringdon, which is the next parish, many garlands of this
sort still remain.

The north aisle is narrow and low, with a sloping ceiling,
reaching within eight or nine feet of the floor. It had originally
a flat roof covered with lead, till, within a century past, a
churchwarden stripping off the lead, in order, as he said, to have
it mended, sold it to a plumber, and ran away with the money.
This aisle has no door, for an obvious reason; because the north-

* In the same manner, to compare great things with small, did Wykeham, when he new-built
the cathedral at Winchester, from the tower westward, apply to his purpose the old piers or
pillars of Bishop Walkelin's church, by blending Saxoti and Gothic architecture together. — See
Lowth's Life of Wykeham.

t Virgin garlands were originally formed of real flowers, and garlands so made are alluded to
by our old dramatists and "metre-ballad-mongers." Garlands of the description given by Mr.
White are still common among the peasantry of the mountains of Craven in Yorkshire and
Westmoreland.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 329

side of the church-yard, being surrounded by the vicarage-gar-
den, affords no path to that side of the church. Nothing can
be more irregular than the pews of this church, which are of all
dimensions and heights, being patched up according to the fancy
of the owners : but whoever nicely examines them will find that
the middle aisle had, on each side, a regular row of benches of
solid oak, all alike, with a low back-board to each. These we
should not hesitate to say are coeval with the present church :
and especially as it is to be observed that, at their ends, they
are ornamented with carved blunt gothic niches, exactly corre-
spondent to the arches of the church, and to a niche in the south
wall. The south aisle also has a row of these benches ; but some
are decayed through age, and the rest much disguised by modern
alterations.

At the upper end of this aisle, and running out to the north,
stands a transept, known by the name of the North Chancel,
measuring twenty-one feet from south to north, and nineteen
feet from east to west : this was intended, no doubt, as a private
chantry ; and was also, till of late, divided off by a gothic frame-
work of timber. In its north wall, under a very blunt gothic
arch, lies perhaps the founder of this edifice, which, from the
shape of its arch, may be deemed no older than the latter end of
the reign of Henry VII. The tomb was examined some years
ago, but contained nothing except the scull and thigh-bones of
a large tall man, and the bones of a youth or woman, lying in a
very irregular manner, without any escutcheon or other token to
ascertain the names or rank of the deceased. The grave was very
shallow, and lined with stone at the bottom and on the sides.

From the east wall project four stone brackets, which I con-
clude supported images and crucifixes. In the great thick pilaster,
jutting out between this transept and the chancel, there is a very
sharp gothic niche, of older date than the present chantry or
church. But the chief pieces of antiquity are two narrow stone
coffin-lids, which compose part of the floor, and lie from west to
east, with the very narrow ends eastward : these belong to re-
mote times ; and, if originally placed here, which I doubt, must
have been part of the pavement of an older transept. At present
there are no coffins under them, whence I conclude they have
been removed to this place from some part of a former church.
One of these lids is so eaten by time, that no sculpture can be
discovered upon it ; or, perhaps, it may be the wrong side upper-

330 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

most : but on the other, which seems to be of stone of a closer
and harder texture, is to be discerned a discus, with a cross on it,
at the end of a s,taff or rod, the well-known symbol of a Knight-
Templar.*

This order was distinguished by a red cross on the left shoul-
der of their cloak, and by this attribute in their hand. Now, if
these stones belonged to Knights-Templars, they must have lain
here many centuries ; for this order came into England early in
the reign of king Stephen in 1113, and was dissolved in the time
of E(Jward II. in 1312, having subsisted only one hundred and
ninety-nine years.f Why I should suppose that Knights-
Templars were occasionally buried at this church, will appear in
some future letter, when we come to treat more particularly con-
cerning the property they possessed here, and the intercourse
that subsisted between them and the priors of Selborne.

We must now proceed to the chancel, properly so called,
which seems to be coeval with the church, and is in the same
plain unadorned style, though neatly kept. This room measures
thirty-one feet in length, and sixteen feet and a half in breadth,
and is wainscoted all round, as high as to the bottom of the
windows. The space for the communion table is raised two
steps above the rest of the floor, and railed in with oaken balus-
ters. Here I shall say somewhat of the windows of the chancel
in particular, and of the whole fabric in general. They are mostly
of that simple and unadorned sort called Lancet, some single,
some double, and some in triplets. At the east end of the chan-
cel are two of a moderate size, near each other ; and in the north
wall two very distant small ones, unequal in length and height:
and iii the south wall are two, one on each side of the chancel
door, that are broad and squat, and of a different order. At the
east end of the south aisle of the church there is a large lancet-
window in a triplet ; and two very small, narrow, single ones in
the south wall, and a broad squat window beside, and a double
lancet one in the west end ; so that the appearance is very irre-
gular. In the north aisle are two windows, made shorter when
the roof was sloped ; and in the north transept a large triple

* See Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, Vol. II. where there is a fine engraving of a Knight-
Templar, by Hollar.

t It is not generally known that this order sprung out of freemasonry. It is one of the highest
degrees in that society, and at the present day many *' encampments," as they are called, of the
order of Knights-Templars exist in the metropolis and other parts of the kingdom. Our modern
templars boast of an uninterrupted series of encampments from tile times of their ancient brethren,
and deny that their order was ever effectually dissolved or suppressed. — D.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBOBNE. 331

window, shortened at the time of a repair in 1721 ; when over it
was opened a round one of considerable size, which affords an
agreeable light, and renders that chantry the most cheerful part
of the edifice.*

The church and chancels have all coved roofs, ceiled about
the year 1683 ; before which they were open to the tiles and
shingles, showing the naked rafters, and threatening the congre-
gation with the fall of a spar, or a blow from a piece of loose
mortar.

On the north wall of the chancel is fixed a large oval white
marble monument, with the following inscription ; and at the
foot of the wall, over the deceased, and inscribed with his name,
age, arms, and time of death, lies a large slab of black marble : —

Prope hunc parietem sepelitur
GILBERTUS WHITE, SAMSONS WHITE, de

Oxon. militis filius tertius, Collegii Magdale-

-nensis ibidem alumnus, et socius. Tandem faven-

-te collegio ad hanc ecclesiam promotus ; ubi prim«-

-va morum simplicitate, et diffusa erga omnes bene-

-volentia feliciter consenuit.

Pastor fidelis, comis, affabilis,

Maritus, et pater amantissimus,

A conjuge invicem, et liberis, atque

A parochianis impense dilectus.

Pauperibus ita beneficus

ut decimam partem census

moribundus

piis usibus consecravit.

Meritis demum juxta et annis p.enus

ex hac vita migravit Feb. 13«.

anno salutis 172|

jEtatis sure 77.

Hoc posuit Rebecca

Conjux illius msestissima,

mox secutura.

On the same wall is newly fixed a small square table-monu-
ment of white marble, inscribed to the memory of the Rev.
Andrew Etty, B. D., twenty-three years vicar of this parish. He
died April 8th, 1784, aged 66 years.

LETTER IV.

WE have now taken leave of the inside of the church, f and shall

* The "lancet" windows are evidently insertions' in the place of perpendicular ones. Indeed
in some of them the work of the original windows may be very distinctly traced. The " round
window" may afford " an agreeable light," but it is an ugly unseemly object, and deserving of any
thing but commendation. — D.

t Selborne church can now boast of a small organ. With this addition the edifice seems to be
in the same state as when our author wrote. — D.

332 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

pass by a door at the west end of the middle aisle into the belfry.
'Ihis room is part of a handsome square embattled tower of
forty-five feet in height, and of much more modern date than the
church ; but old enough to have needed a thorough repair in
1781, when it was neatly stuccoed at a considerable expense, by
a set of workmen who were employed on it for the greatest part
of the summer. The old bells, three in number, loud and out of
tune, were taken down in 1735, and cast into four; to which Sir
Simeon Stuart, the grandfather of the present baronet, added a
fifth at his own expense : and, bestowing it in the name of his
favourite daughter Mrs. Mary Stuart, caused it to be cast with
the following motto round it : —

" Clara puella dedit, dixitque mihi esto Maria:
Illius et laudes nomen ad astra sono."

The day of the arrival of this tuneable peal was observed as a
high festival by the village, and rendered more joyous, by an
order from the donor, that the treble-bell should be fixed bottom
upward in the ground, and filled with punch, of which all present
were permitted to partake.

The porch of the church, to the south, is modern, and would
not be worthy attention did it not shelter a fine sharp gothic
door-way. This is undoubtedly much older than the present
fabric ; and being found in good preservation, was worked into
the wall, and is the grand entrance into the church : nor are the
folding-doors to be passed over in silence ; since, from their thick
and clumsy structure, and the rude flourished work of their
hinges, they may possibly be as ancient as the do or- way itself.

The whole roof of the south aisle, and the south-side of the
roof of the middle aisle, are covered with oaken shingles instead
of tiles, on account of their lightness, which favours the ancient
and crazy timber-frame. And indeed, the consideration of acci-
dents by fire excepted, this sort of roofing is much more eligible
than tiles. For shingles well seasoned, and cleft from quartered
timber, never warp, nor let in drifting snow ; nor do they shiver
with frost ; nor are they liable to be blown off, like tiles ; but
when well nailed down, last for a long period, as experience has
shown us in this place, where those that face to the north are
known to have endured, untouched, by undoubted tradition for
more than a century.

Considering the size of the church, and the extent of the parish,
the church-yard is very scanty ; and especially as all wish to be

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 333

buried on the south side, which is become such a mass of mor-
tality that no person can be there interred without disturbing or
displacing the bones of his ancestors. There is reason to sup-
pose that it once was larger, and extended to what is now the
vicarage court and garden; because many human bones have
been dug up in those parts several yards without the present
limits. At the east end are a few graves ; yet none till very lately
on the north side ; but, as two or three families of best repute
have begun to bury in that quarter, prejudice may wear out by
degrees,* and their example be followed by the rest of the neigh-
bourhood.

In speaking of the church, I have all along talked of the east
and west end, as if the chancel stood exactly true to those points
of the compass ; but this is by no means the case, for the fabric
bears so much to the north of the east that the four corners of
the tower, and not the four sides, stand to the four cardinal
points. The best method of accounting for this deviation seems
to be, that the workmen, who probably were employed in the
longest days, endeavoured to set the chancels to the rising of
the sun.

Close by the church, at the west end, stands the vicarage-
house ; an old, but roomy and convenient edifice. It faces very
agreeably to the morning sun, and is divided from the village by
a neat and cheerful court. According to the manner of old times,
the hall was open to the roof; and so continued, probably, till
the vicars became family-men, and began to want more conveni-
ences ; when they flung a floor across, and, by partitions, divided
the space into chambers. In this hall we remember a date, some
time in the reign of Elizabeth ; it was over the door that leads
to the stairs.

Behind the house is a garden of an irregular shape, but well
laid out; whose terrace commands so romantic and picturesque
a prospect, that the first master in landscape might contemplate
it with pleasure, and deem it an object well worthy of his pencil.

LETTER V.

IN the church-yard of this village is a yew-tree, whose aspect

* The prejudice seems to have worn out. The objection to bury behind the church is bv no
means confined to a Hampshire village. In several towns in the north of England, the same
foolish scruple exists.- D.

334 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

bespeaks it to be of a great age : it seems to have seen several
centuries, and is probably coeval with the church, and therefore
may be deemed an antiquity : the body is squat, short', and
thick, and measures twenty-three feet in the girth, supporting
an head of suitable extent to its bulk. This is a male tree, which
in the spring sheds clouds of dust, and fills the atmosphere
around with its farina.

As far as we have been able to observe, the males of this
species become much larger than the females ; and it has so
fallen out that most of the yew-trees in the church-yards of this
neighbourhood are males : but this must have been matter of
mere accident, since men, when they first planted yews, little
dreamed that there were sexes in trees.

In a yard, in the midst of the street, till 'very lately, grew a
middle-sized female tree of the same species, which commonly
bore great crops of berries. By the high winds usually prevail-
ing about the autumnal equinox, these berries, then ripe, were
blown down into the road, where the hogs ate them. And it was
very remarkable, that, though barrow-hogs and young sows
found no inconvenience from this food, yet milch-sows often
died after such a repast : a circumstance that can be accounted
for only by supposing that the latter, being much exhausted and
hungry, devoured a larger quantity.

While mention is making of the bad effects of yew-berries, it
may be proper to remind the unwary, that the twigs and leaves
of yew, though eaten in a very small quantity, are certain death
to horses and cows, and that in a few minutes. A horse tied
to a yew-hedge, or to a faggot-stack of dead yew, shall be found
dead before the owner can be aware that any danger is at hand :
and the writer has been several times a sorrowful witness to
losses of this kind among his friends ; and in the island of Ely
had once the mortification to see nine young steers or bullocks
of his own all lying dead in a heap from browzing a little on a
hedge of yew in an old garden into which they had broken in
snowy weather. Even the clippings of a yew-hedge have de-
stroyed a whole dairy of cows when thrown inadvertently into a
yard. And yet sheep and turkies, and, as park-keepers say,
deer, will crop these trees with impunity.

Some intelligent persons assert that the branches of yew, while
green, are not noxious ; and that they will kill only when dead
and withered, by lacerating the stomach : but to this assertion

ANTIQUITIES OP SELBQRNE. 335

we cannot by any means assent, because, among the number of
cattle that we have known fall victims to this deadly food, not
one has been found, when it was opened, but had a lump of
green yew in its paunch. True it is, that yew-trees stand for
twenty years or more in a field, and no bad consequences ensue :
but at some time or other cattle, either from wantonness when
full, or from hunger when empty, (from both which circum-
stances we have seen them perish) will be meddling, to their
certain destruction ; the yew seems to be a very improper tree
for a pasture-field.

Antiquaries seem much at a loss to determine at what period
this tree first obtained a place in church-yards. A statute passed
A. D. 1307 and 35 Edward I. the title of which is " Ne rector
arbores in cemeterio prosternat." Now if it is recollected that
we seldom see any other very large or ancient tree in a church-
yard but yews, this statute must have principally related to this
species of tree ; and consequently their being planted in church-
yards is of much more ancient date than the year 1307.

As to the use of these trees, possibly the more respectable
parishioners were buried under their shade before the improper
custom was introduced of burying within the body of the church,
where the living are to assemble. Deborah, Rebekah's nurse,*
was buried under an oak ; the most honourable place of inter-
ment probably next to the cave of Machpelah,f which seems to
have been appropriated to the remains of the patriarchal family
alone.

The further use of yew-trees might be as a screen to churches,
by their thick foliage, from the violence of winds ; perhaps also
for the purpose of archery, the best long bows being made of
that material : and we do not hear that they are planted in the
church-yards of other parts of Europe, where long bows were not
so much in use. They might also be placed as a shelter to the
congregation assembling before the church-doors were opened,
and as an emblem of mortality by their funereal appearance. In
the south of England every church-yard almost has its tree,
and some two ; but in the north, we understand, few are to be
ound.J:

t Gen. xxiii. 9.

336 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

The idea of R. C. that the yew-tree afforded its branches in-
stead of palms for the processions on Palm-sunday, is a good
one, and deserves attention. See Gent. Mag. Vol. L. p. 128.

LETTER VI.

THE living of Selborne was a very small vicarage ; but, being in
the patronage of Magdalen College, in the university of Oxford,
that society endowed it with the great tithes of Selborne, more
than a century ago : and since the year 1758 again with the
great tithes of Oakhanger, called Dene's parsonage : so that, to-
gether, it is become a respectable piece of preferment, to which
one of the fellows is always presented. The vicar holds the
great tithes, by lease, under the college. The great disadvantage
of this living is, that it has not one foot of glebe near home.*

ITS PAYMENTS ARE

£. 8. d.

King's books .821

Yearly tenths 0 16 2£

Yearly procurations for Blackmore and Oak- ) *

hanger Chap : with acquit : t

Selborne procurations and acquit » 0 9 0

I am unable to give a complete list of the vicars of this parish
till towards the end of the reign of queen Elizabeth ; from which
period the registers furnish a regular series.

In Domesday we find thus — " De isto manerio dono dedit Rex
Radfredo presbytero dimidiam hidam cum ecclesia." So that
before Domesday, which was compiled between the years 1081
and 1086, here was an officiating minister at this place.

After this, among my documents, I find occasional mention of
a vicar here and there : the first is
Roger, instituted in 1254.
In 1410 John Lynne was vicar of Selborne.
In 1411 Hugo Tybbe was vicar.

The presentations to the vicarage of Selborne generally ran in
the name of the prior and the convent ; but Tybbe was presented
by prior John Wynechestre only.

* At Bene's, or Bin's, parsonage there is a house and stout barn, and seven acres of gl«be.
Beite's parsonage is three miles from the church.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 337

June 29, 1528, William Fisher, vicar of Selborne, resigned to
Miles Peyrson.

1594, William White appears to have been vicar to this time.
Of this person there is nothing remarkable, but that he hath
made a regular entry twice in the register of Selborne of the
funeral of Thomas Cowper, bishop of Winchester, as if he had
been buried at Selborne ; yet this learned prelate, who died
1594, was buried at Winchester, in the cathedral, near the epis-
copal throne.*

1595, Richard Boughton, vicar.

1596, William Inkforbye, vicar.
May 1606, Thomas Phippes, vicar.
June 1631, Ralph Austine, vicar.

July 1632, John Longworth. This unfortunate gentleman,
living in the time of Cromwell's usurpation, was deprived of his
preferment for many years, probably because he would not take
the league and covenant: for I observe that his father-in-law,
the Reverend Jethro Beal, rector of Faringdon, which is the
next parish, enjoyed his benefice during the whole of that un-
happy period. Longworth, after he was dispossessed, retired to
a little tenement about one hundred and fifty yards from the
church, where he earned a small pittance by the practice of
physic. During those dismal times it was not uncommon for
the deposed clergy to take up a medical character ; as was the
case in particular, I know, with the Reverend Mr. Yalden, rector
of Compton, near Guildford, in the county of Surrey. Vicar
Longworth used frequently to mention to his sons, who told it
to my relations, that, the Sunday after his deprivation, his puri-
tanical successor stepped into the pulpit with no small petulance
and exultation; and began his sermon from Psalm xx. 8. "They
are brought down and fallen ; but we are risen and stand up-
right." This person lived to be restored in 1660, and continued
vicar for eighteen years ; but was so impoverished by his mis-
fortunes, that he left the vicarage-house and premises in a very
abject and delapidated state.

July 1678. Richard Byfield, who left eighty pounds by will,
the interest to be applied to apprentice out poor children : but
this money, lent on private security, was in danger of being lost,
and the bequest remained in an unsettled state for near twenty
years, till 1700 ; so that little or no advantage was derived from

* See Godwin de przesulibus, folio Cant. 1743, page 239.

z

338 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

it. About the year 1759 it was again in the utmost danger by
the failure of a borrower ; but, by prudent management, has
since been raised to one hundred pounds stock in the three per
cents reduced. The trustees are the vicar and the renters or
owners of Temple, Priory, Grange, Blackmore, and Oakhanger-
house, for the time being. This gentleman seemed inclined to
have put the vicarial premises in a comfortable state ; and began,
by building a solid stone wall round the front-court, and another
in the lower yard, between that and the neighbouring garden ;
but was interrupted by death from fulfilling his laudable inten-
tions.

April, 1680, Barnabas Long became vicar.

June 1681. This living was now in such low estimation in
Magdalen College, that it descended to a junior fellow, Gilbert
White, M. A. who was instituted to it in the thirty-first year of
his age. At his first coming he ceiled the chancel, and also
floored and wainscoted the parlour and hall, which before were
paved with stone, and had naked walls ; he enlarged the kitchen
and brewhouse, and dug a cellar and well : he also built a large
new barn in the lower yard, removed the hovels in the front
court, which he laid out in walks and borders ; and entirely
planned the back garden, before a rude field with a stone-pit in
the midst of it. By his will he gave and bequeathed " the sum
of forty pounds to be laid out in the most necessary repairs of
the church ; that is, in strengthening and securing such parts as
seem decaying and dangerous." With this sum two large but-
tresses were erected to support the east end of the south wall of
the church ; and the gable-end wall of the west end of the south
aisle was new built from the ground.

By his will also he gave " One hundred pounds to be laid out
on lands ; the yearly rents whereof shall be employed in teaching
the poor children of Selborne parish to read and write, and say
their prayers and catechism, and to sew and knit : — and be under
the direction of his executrix as long as she lives ; and, after her,
under the direction of such of his children and their issue, as
shall live in or within five miles of the said parish : and on failure
of any such, then under the direction of the vicar of Selborne for
the time being ; but still to the uses above named." With this
sum was purchased, of Thomas Turville, of Hawkeley, in the
county of Southampton, yeoman, and Hannah his wife, two
closes of freehold land, commonly called Collier's, containing by

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 339

estimation, eleven acres, lying in Hawkeley aforesaid. These
closes are let at this time, 1785, on lease, at the rate of three
pounds by the year.

This vicar also gave by will two hundred pounds towards the
repairs of the highways* in the parish of Selborne. That sum
was carefully and judiciously laid out in the summer of the year
1730, by his son John White, who made a solid and firm causey
from Rood Green, all down Honey Lane, to a farm called Oak-
woods, where the sandy soil begins. This miry and gulfy lane
was chosen as worthy of repair, because it leads to the forest,
and thence through the Holt to the town of Farnham in Surrey,
the only market in those days for men who had wheat to sell in
this neighbourhood. This causey was so deeply bedded with
stone, so properly raised above the level of the soil, and so well
drained, that it has, in some degree, withstood fifty-four years of
neglect and abuse ; and might, with moderate attention, be ren-
dered a solid and comfortable road. The space from Rood Green
to Oakwoods measures about three quarters of a mile.

In 1727, William Henry Cane, B. D. became vicar ; and among
several alterations and repairs, new-built the back front of the
vicarage-house.

On February 1, 1740, Buncombe Bristowe, D. D. was in-
stituted to this living. What benefactions this vicar bestowed on
the parish will be best explained by the following passages from
his will : — " Item, I hereby give and bequeath to the minister
and churchwardens of the parish of Selborne in the county of
Southampton, a mahogany table, which I have ordered to be
made for the celebration of the Holy Communion ; and also the
sum of thirty pounds, in trust, to be applied in manner follow-
ing : that is, ten pounds towards the charge of erecting a gallery
at the west end of the church ; and ten pounds to be laid out for
clothing, and such like necessaries, among the poor (and espe-
cially among the ancient and infirm) of the said parish : and the
remaining ten pounds to be distributed in bread, at twenty shil-
lings a week, at the discretion of John White, Esq., or any of
his family, who shall be resident in the said parish."

On November 12, 1758, Andrew Etty, B. D. became vicar.
Among many useful repairs he new-roofed the body of the vicar-
age-house ; and wainscoted, up to the bottom of the windows,

* '• Such legacies were very common in former times, before any effectual lawi were made tor
the repairs of highways." — Sir John Cullum's Hawsted, p. 15.

z 2

340 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

the whole of the chancel ; to the neatness and decency of which
he always paid the most exact attention.

On September 25, 1784, Christopher Taylor, B. D. was in-
ducted into the vicarage of Selborne.

LETTER VII.

I SHALL now proceed to the Priory, which is undoubtedly the
most interesting part of our history.

The Priory of Selborne was founded by Peter de la Roche, or
de Rupibus,* one of those accomplished foreigners that resorted
to the court of king John, where they were usually caressed, and
met with a more favourable reception than ought, in prudence,
to have been shown by any monarch to strangers. This adven-
turer was a Poictevin by birth, had been bred to arms in his
youth, and distinguished by knighthood. Historians all agree
not to speak very favourably of this remarkable man ; they allow
that he was possessed of courage and fine abilities, but then they
charge him with arbitrary principles, and violent conduct. By
his insinuating manners he soon rose high in the favour of John ;
and in 1205, early in the reign of that prince, was appointed
bishop of Winchester. In 1214 he became lord chief justiciary
of England, the first magistrate in the state, and a kind of vice-
roy, on whom depended all the civil affairs in the kingdom.
After the death of John, and during the minority of his son
Henry, this prelate took upon him the entire management of the
realm, and was soon appointed protector of the king and king-
dom.

The barons saw with indignation a stranger possessed of all
the power and influence, to part of which they thought they had
a claim ; they therefore entered into an association against him,
and determined to wrest some of that authority from him which
he had so unreasonably usurped. The bishop discerned the
storm at a distance ; and, prudently resolving to give way to that
torrent of envy which he knew not how to withstand, withdrew
quietly to the Holy Land, where he resided some time.

At this juncture a very small part of Palestine remained in the
hands of the Christians : they had been by Saladin dispossessed

* See Godwin de Prx<mUbu« Anglia. Folio. London. 1743, p. 217.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 341

of Jerusalem, and all the internal parts, near forty years before ;
and with difficulty maintained some maritime towns and gar-
risons : yet the busy and enterprising spirit of de Rupibus could
not be at rest ; he distinguished himself by the splendour and
magnificence of his expenses, and amused his mind by strength-
ening fortresses and castles, and by removing and endowing of
churches. Before his expedition to the east he had signalized
himself as a founder of convents, and as a benefactor to hospitals
and monasteries.

In the year 1231 he returned again to England; and the very
next year, in 1232, began to build and endow the PRIORY of
SELBORNE. As this great work followed so closa upon his re-
turn, it is not improbable that it was the result of a vow made
during his voyage ; and especially as it was dedicated to the
Virgin Mary. Why the bishop made choice of Selbome for the
scene of his munificence can never be determined now : it can
only be said that the parish was in his diocese, and lay almost
midway between Winchester and Farnham, or South Waltham
and Farnham ; from either of which places he could without
much trouble overlook his workmen, and observe what progress
they made ; and that the situation was retired, with a stream
running by it, and sequestered from the world, amidst woods
and meadows, and so far proper for the site of a religious
house.*

The first person with whom the founder treated about the
purchase of land was Jacobus de Achangre, or Ochangre, a gen-
tleman of property who resided at that hamlet ; and, as appears,
at the house now called Oakhanger-house. With him he agreed
for a croft, or little close of land, known by the name of La liega,
or La lyge, which was to be the immediate site of the Priory.

De Achangre also accommodated the bishop at the same in-
stant with three more adjoining crofts, which for a time was all
the footing that this institution obtained in the parish. The

* The institution at Selborue was a priory of Black Canons of the order of St. Augustine,
called also Canons-Regular. Regular Canons were such as lived in a conventual manner, under
one roof, had a common refectory and dormitory, and were bound by vows to observe the rules
and statutes of their order: in fine, they were a kind of religious, whose discipline was less rigid
than the monks. The chief rule of these canons was that of St. Augustine, who was constituted
bishop of Hippo, A. 1). 395: but they were not brought into England till after the conquest ; and
seem not to have obtained the appellation of Augustine canons till some years after. Their
habit was a long black cassock, with a white rocket over it; and over that a black cloak and
hood. The monks were always shaved : but these canons wore their hair and beards, and cap§
on their heads. There were of these canons, and women of the same order called Cauonesses,
about 1/5 houses.

342 ANTiaUITIES OP SELBORNE.

seller in the conveyance says " Warantizabimus, defendemus, et
aequietabimus contra omnes gentes ;" viz. " We will warrant the
thing sold against all claims from any quarter." In modern
conveyancing this would be termed a covenant for further as-
surance. Afterwards is added, " Pro hac autem donacione, &c.
dedit mihi pred. Episcopus sexdecem marcas argenti in Ger-
sumam :" i. e. "the bishop gave me sixteen silver marks as a
consideration for the thing purchased."

As the grant from Jac. de Achangre was without date,* and
the next is circumstanced in the same manner, we cannot say
exactly what interval there was between the two purchases ; but
we find that Jacobus de Nortun, a neighbouring gentleman, also
soon sold to the bishop of Winchester some adjoining grounds,
through which our stream passes, that the priory might be ac-
commodated with a mill, which was a common necessary appen-
dage to every manor : he also allowed access to these lands by a
road for carts and waggons. — "Jacobus de Nortun concedit
Petro Winton episcopo totum cursum aque que descendit d$
Molendino de Durton usq ; ad boscum Will. Mauduit, et crof-
tam terre vocat : Edriche croft, cum extensione ejusdem et abut-
tamentis ; ad fundandam domum religiosam de ordine Sti.
Augustini. Concedit etiam viam ad carros, et caretas," &c.
This vale, down which runs the brook, is now called the Long
Lithe, or Lythe. Bating the following particular expression,
this grant runs much in the style of the former ; " Dedit mihi
episcopus predictus triginta quinque marcas argenti ad me ac-
quietandum versus Judaeos." — That is, " the bishop advanced
me thirty- five marks of silver to pay my debts to the Jews," who
were then the only lenders of money.

Finding himself still straightened for room, the founder ap-
plied to his royal master, Henry, who was graciously pleased to
bestow certain lands in the manor at Selborne on the new priory
of his favourite minister. These grounds had been the property
of Stephen de Lucy ; and, abutting upon the narrow limits of
the convent, became a very commodious and agreeable acqui-
sition. This grant, I find, was made on March the 9th, in the
eighteenth year of Henry, viz, 1234, being two years after the
foundation of the monastery. The royal donor bestowed his
favour with a good grace, by adding to it almost every immunity
and privilege that could have been specified in the law-language

t The custom of affixing dates to deeds was not become general in the reign of Henry III.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 343

of the times. — " Quare volumus prior, &c. habeant totam terram,
&c. cum omnibus libertatibus in bosco et piano, in viis et semitis,
pratis et pascuis ; aquis et piscariis ; infra burgum, et extra
burgum cum soka et saca, Thol et Them, Infangenethef et Ut-
fangenethef, et hamsocne et blodwite, et pecunia que dari solet
pro murdro et forstal, et flemenestrick, et cum quietancia de
omni scotto et geldo, et de omnibus auxiliis regum, vice comitum,
et omn : ministralium suorum ; et hidagio et exercitibus, et
scutagiis, et tallagiis, et shiris et hundredis, et placitis et querelis,
et warda et wardpeny, et opibus castellorum et pontium, et
clausuris parcorum, et omni carcio et sumagio, et domor : regal :
edificatione, et omnimoda reparatione, et cum omnibus aliis
libertatibus." This grant was made out by Richard bishop of
Chichester, then chancellor, at the town of Northampton, before
the lord chief justiciary, who was the founder himself.

The charter of foundation of the Priory, dated 1233, comes
next in order to be considered.* This my copy, taken from the

* CARTA PKTRI KT CONVENTUS KCCLKSIK WTNTON. PRO FUNDATIONE PRIORATU8 DB
8KLKBURNB, &C. DAT. 1233.

Omnibus Christi fidelibus ad quos presens scriptum pervenerit. P. divina miseracione WintoB
ecclesie minister humilis salutem in Domino : Ex officio pastorali tenemur viros religiosos, qui
pauperes spiritu esse pro Christo neglectis lucris temporalibns elegerunt ; spiritual! afTectu
diligere, fovere pariter et creare, eorumq ; quieti sollicite providere ; ut tanto uheriores fructus
«le continua in lege Dei meditatione percipiant, quanto a conturbationibus malignorum amplius
fuerint ex patroni provisions et ecclesiastica defensione securi. Hinc est quod universitati vestre
notificamus, nos divine caritatis instinctu, de assensu convening ecclesie nostre Winton, fundas.se
doinnni religiosain, ordinis magni patris Augustini, in honore Dei et gloriose semper virginis
ejusdem Dei genetricis Marie, apud Seleburne; ibidemque canonicos regulares institnisse: ad
quorum sustentationem et hospitum et pauperum susceptioneni, dedimus, concessimus, et pre-
senti carta nostra confirmavimus eisdem canonicis, totam terram quam habniimus de dono Jocobi
de Acangre : et totam terram, cursum aque, boscum et pratum que habuimus de dono Jacob!
de Nortone; et totam terram boscum et redditum que habuimus de dono domini Ilenrici regis
Anglie ; cum omnibus predictarum possessionum pertinentiis. Dedimus etiam et concessimus in
proprios usus eisdem canonicis ecclesiam predicte ville de Seleburne, et ecclesias de Basing, et
de Basingestok, cum omnibus earundem ecclesiarum capellis, libertatibus, et aliis pertinenciis ;
•alva honesta et sufficient* sustentatione vicariorum in predictis ecclesiis ministrantium ; quorum
presentatio ad priorem predicte domus religiose de Seleburne et canonicos ejusdem loci in perpetuum
pertinebit. Preterea possessiones et redditus, ecclesias sive decimas, quas in episcopatu nostro
adempti sunt, vel in posterum, Deo dante, justis modis poterunt adipisci, sub nostra et Winton
ecclesie protectione suscepimus, et episcopalis auctoritate offidi contirmavimus ; eadem auctori-
tate firmiter inhibentes, ne quis locum, in quo divino sunt officio mancipati, seu alias eorum
possessiones, invadere vi vel fraude vel ingenio malo occupare audeat, vel etiam retinere, aut
fratres converses, senientes, vel homines eorum aliqua violentia perturbare, sive fugientes ad
eos causa salutis sue conservande a septis domus sue violenter presurnat extraere. Precipimus
autem ut in eadem domo religiosa de Seleburne ordo canonicus, et regularis conversatio, secun-
dum regulam magni patris Augustini, quam primi inhabitatores professi sunt, in perpetuum
observetur ; et ipsa domus religiosa a cujuslibet alterius domus religiose subjections libcra per-
maneat, et in omnibus absoluta ; salva in omnibus episcopal! auctoritate, et Winton ecclesie dig-
nitate. Quod ut in nosternm ratum permaneat et inconcussum, present! scripto et sigilli nostri
patrocinis duximus confirrnandum. His testibus domino Waltero abbate de Hyda. Domino
Walters Priore de sancto Swithuno, domino Stephano priore de Motesfonte, magistro Alano d«

344 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

original, 1 have compared with Dugdale's copy, and find that
they perfectly agree ; except that in the latter the preamble and
the names of the witnesses are omitted. Yet I think it proper
to quote a passage from this charter — " Et ipsa domus religiosa
a cujuslibet alterius domus religiosee subjectione libera per-
maneat, et in omnibus absoluta" — to show how much Dugdale
was mistaken when he inserted Selborne among the alien pri-
ories ; forgetting that this disposition of the convent contradicted
the grant that he had published. In the Monasticon Angli-
canum, in English, p. 119, is part of his catalogue of alien
priories, suppressed 2 Henry V. viz. 1414, where maybe seen
as follows,

S. Sele, Sussex. SELEBURN. Shirburn.

This appeared to me from the first to have been an oversight,
before I had seen my authentic evidences. For priories alien, a
few conventual ones excepted, were little better than granges to
foreign abbeys ; and their priors little more than bailiffs, remove-
able at will : whereas the priory of Selborne possessed the val-
uable estates and manors of Selborne, Achangre, Norton,
Brompden, Bassinges, Basingstoke, and Natele ; and the prior
challenged the right of pillory, thurcet, and furcas, and every
manorial privilege.

I find next a grant from Jo. de Venur, or Venuz, to the prior
of Selborne — " de tota mora [a moor or bog] ubi Berne oritur,
usque ad campum vivarii, et de prato voc. Sydenmeade cum
abutt : et de cursu aque molendini." And also a grant in rever-
sion " unius virgate terre," [a yard land] in Achangre at the
death of Richard Actedene his sister's husband, who had no
child. He was to present a pair of gloves of one penny value to
the prior and canons, to be given annually by the said Richard ;
and to quit all claim to the said lands in reversion, provided the
prior and canons would engage annually to pay to the king,
through the hands of his bailiffs of Aulton, ten shillings at four
quarterly payments, " pro omnibus serviciis, consuetudinibus,
exactionibus, et demandis."

Stoke ; magistro Willode sancte Marie ecclesia, tune official! nostro ; Luca archidiacon' de SUIT.'
magistro Humfrido de Millers, Henrico & Hugone capellauis, Roberto de Clinchamp, et Petro
Rossmol clericis, et imiltis aliis. Datum apud Wines* per inanum P. de cancellis. ID die sane-
torum martirum Fabiani et Sebastiani. Anno Domi millesiuio ducentesimo tricesimo tercio.

Seal, two saints and a bishop praying :

Legend: SVT. M. S1T€. BONI. PBTR' PAVL' 6 PATRON1.
* Probably Wolvesey-house, neat Winchester.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 345

This Jo. de Venur was a man of property at Oakhanger, and
lived probably at the spot now called Chapel-farm. The grant
bears date the 17th year of the reign of Henry III. [viz. 1233.]

It would be tedious to enumerate every little grant for lands
or tenements that might be produced from my vouchers. I
shall therefore pass over all such for the present, and conclude
this letter with a remark that must strike every thinking person
with some degree of wonder. No sooner had a monastic insti-
tution got a footing, but the neighbourhood began to be touched
with a secret and religious awe. Every person round was de-
sirous to promote so good a work ; and either by sale, by grant,
or by gift in reversion, was ambitious of appearing a benefactor.
They who had not lands to spare gave roads to accommodate the
infant foundation. The religious were not backward in keeping
up this pious propensity, which they observed so readily influ-
enced the breasts of men. Thus did the more opulent monas-
teries add house to house, and field to field ; and by degrees
manor to manor : till at last " there was no place left ;" but
every district around became appropriated to the purposes of
their founders, and every precinct was drawn into the vortex.

LETTER VIII.

OUR forefathers in this village were no doubt as busy and bust-
ling, and as important, as ourselves : yet have their names and
transactions been forgotten from century to century, and have
sunk into oblivion ; nor has this happened only to the vulgar,
but even to men remarkable and famous in their generation. I
was led into this train of thinking by finding in my vouchers
that Sir Adam Gurdon was an inhabitant of Selborne, and a man
of the first rank and property in the parish. By Sir Adam Gur-
don I would be und-srstood to mean that leading and accom-
plished malecontent in the Mountfort faction, who distinguished
himself by his daring conduct in the reign of Henry III. The
first that we hear of this person in my papers is, that with two
others he was bailiff of Alton before the sixteenth of Henry III.
viz. about 1231, and then not knighted. Who Gurdon was, and
whence he came, does not appear : yet there is reason to suspect
that he was originally a mere soldier of fortune, who had raised
himself by marrying women of property. The name of Gurdon

346 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

does not seem to be known in the south ; but there is a name so
like it in an adjoining kingdom, and which belongs to two or
three noble families, that it is probable this remarkable person
was a North Briton ; and the more so, since the Christian name
of Adam is a distinguished one to this day among the family of
the Gordons. But, be this as it may, Sir Adam Gurdon has been
noticed by all the writers of English history for his bold disposi-
tion and disaffected spirit, in that he not only figured during the
successful rebellion of Leicester, but kept up the war after the
defeat and death of that baron, entrenching himself in the woods
of Hampshire, towards the town of Farnham. After the battle
of Evesham, in which Mountfort fell, in the year 1265, Gurdon
might not think it safe to return to his house for fear of a sur-
prise; but cautiously fortified himself amidst the forests and
woodlands with which he was so well acquainted. Prince
Edward, desirous of putting an end to the troubles which had
so long harrassed the kingdom, pursued the arch-rebel into his
fastnesses ; attacked his camp ; leaped over the entrenchments ;
and, singling out Gurdon, ran him down, wounded him, and
took him prisoner.*

There is not perhaps in all history a more remarkable instance
of command of temper, and magnanimity, than this before us :
that a young prince, in the moment of victory, when he had the
fell adversary of the crown and royal family at his mercy, should
be able to withhold his hand from that vengeance which the
vanquished so well deserved. A cowardly disposition would
have been blinded by resentment : but this gallant heir-apparent
saw at once a method of converting a most desperate foe into a
lasting friend. He raised the fallen veteran from the ground, he
pardoned him, he admitted him into his confidence, and intro-
duced him to the queen, then lying at Guildford, that very even-
ing.* This unmerited and unexpected lenity melted the heart of
the rugged Gurdon at once ; he became in an instant a loyal and
useful subject, trusted and employed in matters of moment by
Edward when king, and confided in till the day of his death.

LE1TER IX.

IT has been hinted in a former letter that Sir Adam Gurdon had

* M. Paris, p. 6/5, & Triveti Annale.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 347

availed himself by marrying women of property. By my evidences
it appears that he had three wives, and probably in the follow-
ing order : Constantia, Ameria, and Agnes. The first of these
ladies, who was the companion of his middle life, seems to have
been a person of considerable fortune, which she inherited from
Thomas Makerel, a gentleman of Selborne, who was either her
father or uncle. The second, Ameria, calls herself the quondam
wife of Sir Adam, " quae fui uxor," &c. and talks of her sons
under age. Now Gurdon had no son: and beside Agnes in
another document says, " Ego Agnes quondam uxor Domini Adae
Gurdon in pura et ligea viduitate mea:" but Gurdon could not
leave two widows ; arid therefore it seems probable that he had
been divorced from Ameria, who afterwards married, and had
sons. By Agnes Sir Adam had a daughter Johanna, who was his
heiress, to whom Agnes in her life-time surrendered part of her
jointure : — he had also a bastard son.

Sir Adam seems to have inhabited the house now called Temple,
lying about two miles east of the church, which had been the
property of Thomas Makerel.

In the year 1262 he petitioned the prior of Selborne in his own
name, and that of his wife Constantia only, for leave to build
him an oratory in his manor-house, " in curia sua." Licenses of
this sort were frequently obtained by men of fortune and rank
from the bishop of the diocese, the archbishop, and sometimes,
as I have seen instances, from the pope ; not only for conveni-
ence-sake, and on account of distance, and the badness of the
roads, but as a matter of state and distinction. Why the owner
should apply to the prior, in preference to the bishop of the
diocese, and how the former became competent to such a grant,
I cannot say ; but that the priors of Selborne did take that pri-
vilege is plain, because some years afterward, in 1280, Prior
Richard granted to Henry Waterford and his wife Nicholaa a
license to build an oratory in their court-house, " curia sua de
Waterford," in which they might celebrate divine service, saving
the rights of the mother church of Basynges. Yet all the while
the prior of Selborne grants with such reserve and caution, as if
in doubt of his power, and leaves Gurdon and his lady answer-
able in future to the bishop, or his ordinary, or to the vicar for
the time being, in case they should infringe the rights of the
mother church at Selborne.

The manor-house called Temple is at present a single building,

348 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

running in length from south to north, and has been occupied
as a common farm-house from time immemorial. The south end
is modern, and consists of a brew-house, and then a kitchen.
The middle part is a hall twenty-seven feet in length, and nine-
teen feet in breadjh ; and has been formerly open to the top ; but
there is now a floor above it, and also a chimney in the western
wall : the roofing consists of strong massive rafter-work orna-
mented with carved roses. I have often looked for the lamb and
flag, the arms of the knights templars, without success ; but in
one corner found a fox with a goose on his back, so coarsely exe-
cuted, that it required some attention to make out the device.

Beyond the hall to the north is a small parlour with a vast
heavy stone chimney-piece ; and, at the end of all, the chapel or
oratory, whose massive thick walls and narrow windows at once
bespeak great antiquity. This room is only sixteen feet by six-
teen feet eight inches ; and full seventeen feet nine inches in
height. The ceiling is formed of vast joists, placed only five or
six inches apart. Modern delicacy would not much approve of
such a place of worship : for it has at present much more the
appearance of a dungeon than of a room fit for the reception of
people of condition. For the outside I refer the reader to the
plate, in which Mr. Grimm has represented it with his usual
accuracy. The field on which this oratory abuts is still called
Chapel-field. The situation of this house is very particular, for
it stands upon the immediate verge of a steep abrupt hill.

Not many years since this place was used for a hop-kiln, and
was divided into two stories by a loft, part of which remains at
present, and makes it convenient for peat and turf, with which
it is stowed.

LETTER X.

THE Priory at times was much obliged to Gurdon and his family.
As Sir Adam began to advance in years he found his mind influ-
enced by the prevailing opinion of the reasonableness and efficacy
of prayers for the dead ; and, therefore, in conjunction with his
wife Constantia, in the year 1271, granted to the prior and con-
vent of Selborne all his right and claim to a certain place, placea,
called La Pleystow, in the village aforesaid, " in liberam, puram,

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

349

et perpetuam elemosinam." This Pleystow,* locus ludorum, or
play place, is a level area near the church of about forty-four
yards by thirty-six, and is known now by the name of the Plestor.f

It continues still, as it was in old times, to be the scene of re-
creation for the youths and children of the neighbourhood ; and
impresses an idea on the mind that this village, even in Saxon
times, could not be the most abject of places, when the inhabit-
ants thought proper to assign so spacious a spot for the sports
and amusements of its young people. J

As soon as the prior became possessed of this piece of ground,
he procured a charter for a market§ from king Henry III. and
began to erect houses and stalls, " seldas," around it. From this
period Selborne became a market town : but how long it enjoyed
that privilege does not appear. At the same time Gurdon re-
served to himself, and his heirs, a way through the said Plestor

• In Saxon Pleger^Oj? or Plej^of ; viz. Plegestow, or Plegstow.

t At this juncture probably the vast oak, mentioned p. 5, was planted by the prior, as an
ornament to his new acqaired market place. According; to this supposition 'the oak was aged 432
years when blown down.

t For more circumstances respecting the Plestor, see Letter II. to Mr. Pennant.

§ Bishop Tanner,, in his Notitia Monastica, has made a mistake respecting the market and fair
at Selborne : for in his references to Dodsworth, cart 54 Hen. Ill m. 3. he says, " De mercatu,
et feriade Seleburn." But this reference is wrong; for, instead of Selebnrn, it proves that th«
place there meant was Lekelmrne, or Legeborne, in the county of Lincoln. This error was copied
from the index of the Cat. !MSS. Angl. It does not appear that there ever was a chartered fair at
Selborne. For several particulars respecting the present fair at Selborue see Letter XXVI. «f
these Antiquities.

350 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

to a tenement and some crofts at the upper end, abutting on the
south corner of the church-yard. This was, in old days, the
manorial house of the street manor, though now a poor cottage ;
and is known at present by the modern name of Elliot's. Sir
Adam also did, for the health of his own soul, and that of his
wife Constantia, their predecessors and successors, grant to the
priors and canons quiet possession of all the tenements and gar-
dens, "curtillagia," which they had built and laid out on the
lands in Selborne, on which he and his vassals, " homines," had
undoubted right of common : and moreover did grant to the
convent the full privilege of that right of common ; and empower-
ed the religious to build tenements and make gardens along the
king's highway in the village of Selborne.

From circumstances put together it appears that the above
were the first grants obtained by the Priory in the village of
Selborne, after it had subsisted about thirty-nine years : more-
over they explain the nature of the mixed manor still remaining
in and about the village, where one field or tenement shall belong
to Magdalen-college in the university of Oxford, and the next to
Norton Powlet, esq. of Rotherfield house ; and so down the whole
street. The case was, that the whole was once the property of
Gurdon, till he made his grants to the convent; since which
some belongs to the successors of Gurdon in the manor, and some
to the college ; and this is the occasion of the strange jumbl® of
property. It is remarkable that the tenement and crofts which
Sir Adam reserved at the time of granting the Plestor should
still remain a part of the Gurdon-manor, though so desirable an
addition to the vicarage that is not as yet possessed of one inch
of glebe at home: but of late, viz. in January 1785, Magdalen-
college purchased that little estate, which is life-holding, in re-
version, for the generous purpose of bestowing it, and its lands,
being twelve acres (three of which abut on the church-yard and
vicarage-garden) as an improvement hereafter to the living, and
an eligible advantage to future incumbents.

The year after Gurdon had bestowed the Plestor on the Priory,
viz. in 1272, Henry III. king of England died, and was succeeded
by his son Edward. This magnanimous prince continued his
regard for Sir Adam, whom he esteemed as a brave man, and
made him warden, " custos," of the forest of Wolmer.* Though

* Since the letters respecting W»lmer- forest and Ayles holt, from p. 14 to 26, were printed, the
author has been favoured with the following extracts : —

la the "Act of Resumption, 1 Hen. VII." it was provided, that it be not prejudicial to " Harry

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 351

little emolument might hang to this appointment, yet are there
reasons why it might be highly acceptable ; and, in a few reigns
after, it was given to princes of the blood.* In old days gentry
resided more at home on their estates, and, having fewer resources
of elegant in-door amusement, spent most of their leisure hours
in the field and the pleasures of the chase. A large domain,
therefore, at little more than a mile distance, and well-stocked
with game, must have been a very eligible acquisition, affording
him influence as well as entertainment ; and especially as the
manorial house of Temple, by its exalted situation, could com-
mand a view of near two-thirds of the forest.

That Gurdon, who had lived some years the life of an out-law,
and at the head of an army of insurgents, was, for a considerable
time, in high rebellion against his sovereign, should have been
guilty of some outrages, and should have committed some depre-
dations, is by no means matter of wonder. Accordingly we find
a distringas against him, ordering him to restore to the bishop
of Winchester some of the temporalities of that see, which he had
taken by violence and detained ; viz. some lands in Hocheleye,

at Lode, ranger of our forest of Wolmere, to him by oure letters patents before tyme gevyn-" —
Rolls of I'arl. Vol. VI. p. 3/0.

In the 11 Hen. VII. 1495 " Warlham [Wardleham] and the office of forest [forester] of Wol-
mere" were held by Edmund duke of Suffolk.— Rolls, ib. 4/4.

Act of general pardon, 14 Hen. VIM. 1523, not to extend to "Rich. Bp. ofWynton [bishop
Fox] for any seizure or forfeiture of liberties, &c., within the forest of Wilrner, Alysholt, and
Newe Forest ; nor to any person for waste, £c., within the. manor of Wardlam, or parish of
Wardlam [Wardleham;] nor to abusing, &c., of any office or fee, within the said forests of Wol-
mer or Alysholt, or the said park of Wardlam."— County Suth't. Rolls prefixed to 1st. Vol. of
Journals of the Lords, p. xciii. b.

To these may be added some other particulars, taken from a book lately published, entitled
" An Account of all the Manors, Messuages, Lands, &c. in the different counties of England and
Wales, held by Lease from the Crown ; as contained in the Report of the Commissioners ap-
pointed to enquire into the State and Condition of the Royal Forests," &c. London, 178/.
" Southampton."

P. 64, "A fee-farm rent Jof 31Z. 2,. lid. out of the manors of east and west Wardleham; and
also the office of lieutenant or keeper of the forest or chase of Aliceholt and Wolmer, with all
offices, fpes, commodities, and privileges thereto belonging.

" Names of lessees, William earl of Dartmouth and others (in trust.)

" Date of the last lease, March 23, 1/80 ; granted for such term as would fill up the subsisting
term to 31 years.

" Expiration March 23, 1811."

« Appendix, No. III."
" Southampton."

" Hundreds— Selborne and Finchdeane."
" Honouis and manors," &c.

" Aliceholt forest, three parks there.

" Bensted and Kingsley ; a petition of the parishioners concerning the three parks in Alieeholt
forest."

William, first earl of Dartmouth, and paternal grandfather to the present lord Stawel, was a
lessee of the forests of Aliceholt and Wolmer before brigadier-general Emanuel Scroope Howe.

* See Letter II. of these Antiquitie*.

352 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

and a mill.* By a breve, or writ, from the king he is also en-
joined to readmit the bishop of Winchester, and his tenants of
the parish and town of Farnham, to pasture their horses, and
other larger cattle, "averia," in the forest of Wolmer, as had
been the usage from time immemorial. This writ is dated in the
tenth year of the reign of Edward, viz. 1282.

All the king's writs directed to Gurdon are addressed in the
following manner : " Edwardus, Dei gratia, &c. dilecto et fideli
suo Ade Gurdon salutem ;" and again, " Custodi foreste sue -de
Wolvemere."

In the year 1293 a quarrel between the crews of an English
and a Norman ship, about some trifle, brought on by degrees
such serious consequences, that in 1295 a war broke out between
the two nations. The French king, Philip the Hardy, gained
some advantages in Gascony ; and, not content with those, threat-
ened England with an invasion, and, by a sudden attempt, took
and burnt Dover.

Upon this emergency Edward sent a writ to Gurdon, ordering
him and four others to enlist three thousand soldiers in the coun-
ties of Surrey, Dorset, and Wiltshire, able-bodied men, " tarn
sagittare quam balistare potentes :" and to see that they were
marched, by the feast of All Saints, to Winchelsea, there to be
embarked aboard the king's transports.

The occasion of this armament appears also from a summons
to the bishop of Winchester to parliament, part of which I shall
transcribe on account of the insolent menace which is said
therein to have been denounced against the English language : —
" qualiter rex Francise de terra nostra Gascon nos fraudulenter
et cautelose decepit, earn nobis nequiter detinendo . . . vero
predictis fraude et nequitia non contentus, ad expugnationem
regni nostri classe maxima et bellatorum copiosa multitudine con-
gregatis, cum quibus regnum nostrum et regni ejusdem incolas
hostiliter jam invasurus, linguam Anglicam, si concepte iniqui-
tatis proposito detestabili potestas correspondeat, quod Deus
avertat, omnino de terra delere proponit." Dated 30th Septem-
ber, in the year of king Edward's reign xxiii.f

The above are the last traces that I can discover of Gurdon' s
appearing and acting in public. The first notice that my evi-
dences give of hirn is, that, in 1232, being the 16th of Henry III.

* Hooheleye, now spelt Hawkley, is in the hundred of Selborne, and has a mill at this day.
t Rep. Wynton, Stratford, but query Stratford; for Stratford was not bishop of Winton till
1323, near thirty years afterwards.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 353

he was the king's bailiff, with others, for the town of Alton.
Now, from 1232 to 1295 is a space of sixty-three years; a long
period for one man to be employed in active life ! Should any
one doubt whether all these particulars can relate to one and the
same person, I should wish him to attend to the following reasons
why they might. In the first place, the documents from the
priory mention but one Sir Adam Gurdon, who had no son
lawfully begotten : and in the next, we are to recollect that he
must have probably been a man of uncommon vigour both of
mind and body ; since no one, unsupported by such accomplish-
ments, could have engaged in such adventures, or could have
borne up against the difficulties which he sometimes must have
encountered : and, moreover, we have modern instances of per-
sons that have maintained their abilities for near that period.

Were we to suppose Gurdon to be only twenty y^ars of age in
1232, in 1295 he would be eighty-three; after which advanced
period it could not be expected that he should live long. From
the silence, therefore, of my evidences it seems probable that this
extraordinary person finished his life in peace, not long after, at
his mansion of Temple. Gurdon's seal had for its device — a man,
with a helmet on his head, drawing a cross-bow; the legend,
" Sigillum Ade de Gurdon ;" his arms were, " Goulis, iii floures
argent issant de testes de leopards."*

If the stout and unsubmitting spirit of Gurdon could be so
much influenced by the belief and superstition of the times, much
more might the hearts of his ladies and daughter. And accord-
ingly we find that Ameria, by the consent and advice of her sons,
though said to be all under age, makes a grant for ever of some
lands down by the stream at Durton ; and also of her right of
the common of Durton itself, f Johanna, the daughter and heiress
of Sir Adam, was married, I find, to Richard Achard ; she also
grants to the prior and convent lands and tenements in the village
of Selborne, which her father obtained from Thomas Makerel ;
and also all her goods and chattels in Selborne for the considera-
tion of two hundred pounds sterling. This last business was
transacted in the first year of Edward II. viz. 1307. It has been
observed before that Gurdon had a natural son.: this person was
called by the name of John Dastard, alias VVastard, but more
probably Bastard ; since bastardy in those days was not deemed

* From the collection of Thomas Martin, Esq. in the Antiquarian Repertory, p. 109, No. XXXI.
t Durton, now called Dorton, is still a common for the copyholders of Selborne niauor.

2 /,

354 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

any disgrace, though dastardy was esteemed the greatest. He
was married to Gunnorie Duncun ; and had a tenement and some
land granted him in Selborne by his sister Johanna.

LETTER XL

THE Knights-Templars,* who have been mentioned in a former
letter, had considerable property in Selborne ; and also a precep-
tory at Sudington, now called Southington, a hamlet lying one
mile to the east of the village. Bishop Tanner mentions only
two such houses of the Templars in all the county of Southamp-
ton, viz. Godesfield, founded by Henry de Blois, bishop of Win-
chester, and South Badeisley, a preceptory of the Knights-
Templars, and afterwards of St. John of Jerusalem, valued at one

The Knights-Hospitalars of St. John of Jerusalem, afterwards called Knights of Rhodes,
now of Malta, came into England about the year 1100, 1 Hen. I.

The Knights-Templars came into England pretty early in Stephen's reign, which commenced
in 1135. The order was dissolved in 1312, and their estates given by act of parliament to the Hos-
pitalars in 1323, (all in Edw. II.) though many of their estates were never actually enjoyed by
the said Hospitalars. Vid. Tanner, p. xxiv. x.

The commandries of the Hospitalars, and preceptories of Templars, were each subordinate to
the principal house of their respective religion in London. Although these are the different deno-
minations which Tanner at p. xxviii. assigns to the cells of these different orders, yet throughout
the work very frequent instances occur of preceptories attributed to the Hospitalars ; and if in
some passages of Notitia Monast. command-Ties are attributed to the Templars, it is only where
the place afterwards became the property of the Hospitalars, and so is there indifferently styled
preceptory or commandry; see p. 243, 263, 2/6, 577, 673. But, to account for the first observed
Hiaccuraey, it is probable the preceptories of the Templars, when given to the Hospitalars, were
still vulgarly, however, called by their old name of preceptories ; whereas in propriety the socie-
ties of the Hospitalars were indeed (as has been said) commandries. . And such deviation from
the strictness of expression in this case might occasion those societies of Hospitalars also to be
indifferently called preceptories, which had originally been vested in them, having never belonged
to the Templars at all.— See in Archer, p. 609. Tanner, p. 300, col. 1. 720, note e-

It is observable that the very statute for the dissolution of the Hospitalars holds the same lan-
guage ; for there, in the enumeration of particulars, occur " commandries, preceptories." Codex,
p. 1190. Now this intercommunity of names, and that in an act of parliament too, made some of
our ablest antiquaries look upon a preceptory aiid commandry as strictly synonymous ; accord-
ingly we find Camden, in his Britannia, explaining praeceptoria in the text by a. commandry in
the margin, p. 356, 510. J. L.

Commandry, a manor or chief messuage with lands, &c. belonging to the priory of St. John of
Jerusalem ; and he who had the government of such house was called the commander, who could
not dispose of it but to the use «f the priory, only taking thence his own sustenance, according to
his degree, who was usually a brother of the same priory. Cowell. He adds (confounding these
with preceptories) they are in many places termed Temples, as Temple Bruere in Lincolnshire,
See. Preceptories were" possessed by the more eminent sort of Templars, whom the chief master
Created and called Praeceptores Templi. Cowell, who refers to Stephens de Jurisd. lib. 4, c. 10,
mini. 2/.

Placita de juratis et a=sis coram Salom. de Roff et sociis suis justic. Itiner. apud Wynton. &c.
auno regni R. Edwardi fil. Reg. Hen. octavo.— " et Magr. Milicie Templi in Angl. ht emandaste
panis, et suis [cerevisiae] in Sodington, et nescint q°. war, et— etmagist. Milicie Templi non ven
10 Aistr. Chapter-house, Westminster.

ANTIQUITIES OF SKLBORNE. 355

hundred and eighteen pounds sixteen shillings and seven pence
per annum. Here then was a preceptory unnoticed by antiqua-
ries, between the village and Temple. Whatever the edifice of
the preceptory might have been, it has long since been dilapi-
dated , and the whole hamlet contains now only one mean farm-
house, though there were two in the memory of man.

It has been usual for the religious of different orders to fall
into great dissensions, and especially when they were near neigh-
bours. Instances of this sort we have heard of between the
monks of Canterbury ; and again between the old abbey of St.
Swythun, and the comparatively new minster of Hyde in the city
of Winchester.* These feuds arose probably from different orders
being crowded within the narrow limits of a city, or garrison-
town, where every inch of ground was precious, and an, object of
contention. But with us, as far as my evidences extend, and
while Robert Saunford was master, f and Richard Carpenter was
preceptor, the Templars and the Priors lived in an intercourse of
mutual good offices.

My papers mention three transactions, the exact time of which
cannot be ascertained, because they fell out before dates were
usually inserted; though probably they happened about the
middle of the thirteenth century; not long after Saunford became
master. The first of these is that the Templars shall pay to the
priory of Selborne, annually, the sum of ten shillings at two half
yearly payments from their chamber, "camera," at Sudington,
"per manum preceptoris, vel ballivi nostri, qui pro tempore
fuerit ibidem," till they can provide the prior and canons with an

* J*OTITIA MONASTICA, P. 155.

"Winchester, Newminster. King Alfred founded here first only a house and chapel for thr
learned monk Grimbald, whom he had brought out of Flanders : but afterwards projected, and by
his will ordered, a noble church or religious house to be built in the cemetery on the north side
of the old minster or cathedral; and designed that Grimbald should preside over it. This was
begun A. D, 901, and finished to the honour of the Holy Trinity, Virgin Mary, and St Peter, by
his son king Edward, who placed therein secular canons : but A. D. 963 they were expelled, and
an abbot and monks put in possession by bishop Ethelwold.

" Now the churches and habitations of these two societies being so very near together, the dif-
ferences which were occasioned by their singing, bells, and other mat ers, arose to so great a height,
that the religious of the new monastery thought fit, about A. D. 1119, to remove to a better and
more quiet situation without the walls, on the north part of the city called Hyde, where king
Henry I. at the instance of Will. Gittbrd, bishop of Winton, founded a stately abbey /or then,.
St. Peter was generally accounted patron ; though it is sometimes called the monastery of St,
Grimbald, and sometimes of St. Barnabas," &c.

A few years since a county bridewell, or house of correction, has been built on the immediate
site of Hyde Abbey. In digging up the old foundations the workmen found the head of a crosier
in good preservation.

t Robert Saunforde was master of the Temple in 1241 ; Guido de Foresta was the next in 129::.
The former is fifth in a list of the masters iu a MS. Bib. Cotton Nero. E. VI.

2 A 2

356 ANTIQUITIES OP SELBORNE.

equivalent in lands or rents within four or five miles of the said
convent. It is also further agreed that, if the templars shall be
in arrears for one year, that then the prior shall be empowered
to distrain upon their live stock in Bradeseth. The next matter
was a grant from Robert de Saunford to the priory for ever, of a
good and sufficient road, " cheminum," capable of admitting car-
riages, and proper for the drift of their larger cattle, from the
way which extends from Sudington towards Blakemere, on to the
lands which the convent possesses in Bradeseth.

The third transaction (though for want of dates we cannot say
which happened first and which last) was a grant from Robert
Samford to the priory of a tenement and its appurtenances in the
village of Selborne, given to the Templars by Americus de Vasci.*
This property, by the manner of describing it, — " totum tene-
mentum cum omnibus pertinentiis suis, scilicet in terris, et
hominibus, in pratis et pascuis, et nemoribus," &c. seems to have
been no inconsiderable purchase, and was sold for two hundred
marks sterling, to be applied for the buying of more land for the
support of the holy war.

Prior John is mentioned as the person to whom Vasci's land
is conveyed. But in Willis's list there is no prior John till 1339,
several years after the dissolution of the order of the Templars
in 1312 ; so that unless Willis is wrong, and has omitted a prior
John since 1262, (that being the date of his first prior) these
transactions must have fallen out before that date.

I find not the least traces of any concerns between Gurdon and
the Knights-Templars ; but probably after his death his daughter
Johanna might have, and might bestow, Temple on that order in
support of the holy land : and, moreover, she seems to have been
moving from Selborne when she sold her goods and chattels to
the priory, as mentioned above.

Temple no doubt did belong to the knights, as may be as-
serted, not only from its name, but also from another corrobo-
rating circumstance of its being still a manor tithe-free ; " for,
by virtue of their order," says Dr. Blackstone, " the lands of the
Knights-Templars were privileged by the pope with a discharge
from tithes."

Antiquaries have been much puzzled about the terms precep-
tores and preceptorium, not being able to determine what officer

* Americus Vasci, by his name, must have been an Italian, and had been probably a soldier of
fortune, and one of (iurdon's captains. Americus Vespucio, the person who gave name to the
iittvr world, was a Fl orentinc.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 357

or edifice was meant. But perhaps all the while the passage
quoted above from one of my papers " per manum preceptoris
vel ballivi nostri, qui pro tempore fuerit ibidem," may help to
explain the difficulty. For if it be allowed here that preceptor
and ballivus are synonymous words, then the brother who took
on him that office resided in the house of the Templars at Sud-
ington, a preceptory; where he was their preceptor, superintended
their affairs, received their money ; and, as in the instance there
mentioned, paid from their chamber, " camera/' as directed : so
that, according to this explanation, a preceptor was no other than
a steward, and a preceptorium was his residence. I am well
aware that, according to strict Latin, the vel should have been
seu or sive, and the order of the words " preceptoris nostri, vel
ballivi, qui"— et "ibidem" should have been ibi; ibidem neces-
sarily having reference to two or more persons : but it will hardly
be thought fair to apply the niceties of classic rules to the
Latinity of the thirteenth century, the writers of which seem to
have aimed at nothing further than to render themselves in-
telligible.

There is another remark that we have made, which, I think,
corroborates what has been advanced ; and that is, that Richard
Carpenter, preceptor of Sudington, at the time of the transactions
between the Templars and Selborne Priory, did always sign last
as a witness in the three deeds : he calls himself frater, it is true,
among many other brothers, but subscribes with a kind of de-
ference, as if, for the time being, his office rendered him an
inferior in the community.*

* In two or three jancient records relating to St. Oswald's hospital in the city of Worcester
printed by Dr. Nash, p. 227 and 228, of his collections for the history of Worcestershire, the words
preceptorium and preceptoria signify the mastership of the said hospital: " ad preceptorium sive
magisterium preseiitavit— preceptorii sive magisterii patronus. Vacavit dicta preceptoria seu
magisterinm— ad preceptoriam et regimen dicti hospitalis— Te preceptorem sive magistrum pre-
fecimus."

Where preceptorium denotes a building or apartment it may probably mean the master's lodg-
ings, or at least the preceptor's apartment, whatsoever may have been the office or employment
of the said preceptor.

A preceptor is mentioned in Thoresby's Ducatus Leodinensis, or History of Leeds, p. 225, and
a deed witnessed by the preceptor and chaplain before dates were inserted. — Du Fresne's Supple-
ment : " Preceptoriae, praedia preceptoribus assignata." Cowell, in his Law Dictionary, enume-
rates sixteen preceptorine, or preceptories, in England , but Sudington is not among them. It is
remarkable that Gurtlerus, in his Historia Templariorum Amstel. 1691, never once mentions the
word preceptor or preceptorium.

358 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE,

LETTER XII.

THE ladies and daughters of Sir Adam Gurdon were not the
only benefactresses to the Priory of Selborne ; for, in the year
1281, Ela Longspee obtained masses to be performed for her
soul's health ; and the prior entered into an engagement that one
of the convent should every day say a special mass for ever for
the said benefactress, whether living or dead. She also engaged
within five years to pay to the said convent one hundred marks
of silver for the support of a chantry and chantry-chaplain, who
should perform his masses daily in the parish church of Selborne.*
In the east end of the south aisle there are two sharp^pointed
Gothic niches ; one of these probably was the place under which
these masses were performed ; and there is the more reason to
suppose as much, because, till within these thirty years, this
space was fenced off with Gothic wooden railing, and was known
by the name of the south chancel.f

The solicitude expressed by the donor plainly shows her piety
and firm persuasion of the efficacy of prayers for the dead ; for
she seems to have made every provision for the payment* of the
sum stipulated within the appointed time ; and to have, felt much
anxiety lest her death, or the neglect of her executors or assigns,
might frustrate her intentions. " Et si contingat me in solucione
predicte pecunie annis predictis in parte aut in toto deficere,
quod absit ; concede et oblige pro me et assignatis meis, quod

Vice-Comes Oxon et qui pro tempore fuerint, per

omnes terras et tenementa, et omnia bona mea mobilia et immo-
bilia ubicunque in balliva sua fuerint inventa ad solucionem pre-
dictam faciendam possent nos compellere." And again—" Et si
contingat dictos religiosos labores SQU expensas facere circa pre-
dictam pecuniam, seu circa partem dicte pecunie ; volo quod
dictorum religiosorum impense et labores levantur ita quod pre-
dicto priori vel uni canonicorum suorum superhiis simplici verbo
credatur sine alterius honere probacionis ; et quod utrique pre-

* A chantry was a chapel joined to some cathedral or parish chnrch, and endowed with annual
revenues for the maintenance of one or more priests to sing mass daily for the soul of the founder,
and others

t For what is said more respecting this chantry see Letter III. of these Antiquities. Mention
is made »f a Nicholas Langrish, capellanus tie Selhorne, in the time of Henry VIII. \\ as he
rhiintry-chaplain to Ela Longspee, whose masses were probahly continued to the time of the re-
formation ? More will be said of this person hereafter.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 359

dictorum virorum in unam marcam argenti pro cujuslibet distrin-
cione super me facienda fcenear. — Dat. apud,Wareborn die sabati
proxima ante festum St. Marci evangeliste, anno regni regis
Edwardi tertio decimo."*

But the reader perhaps would wish to be better informed
respecting this benefactress, of whom as yet he has heard no
particulars.

The Ela Longspee therefore above-mentioned was a lady of
high birth and rank, and became countess to Thomas de New-
burgh, the sixth earl of Warwick : she was the second daughter
of the famous Ela Longspee, countess of • Salisbury, by William
Longspee, natural son of king Henry II. by Rosamond.

Our lady, following the steps of her illustrious mother, f was a
great benefactress to the university of Oxford, to the canons of
Oseneyy the nuns of Godstow, and other religious houses in Ox-
fordshire. She died very aged in the year 13004 and was buried
before the high altar in the abbey church of Oseney, at the head
of the tomb of Henry D'Oily, under a flat marble, on which was
inlaid her portraiture, in the habit of a vowess, engraved on a
copper-plate " — Edmonson's History and Genealogical Account
of the Grevilles, p. 23.

LETTER XIII.

THE reader is here presented with five forms respecting the
choosing of a prior.§ Such evidences are rare and curious, and

* Ancient deeds are often dated on a Sunday, having been executed in churches and church-
yards for the sake of notoriety, and for the conveniency of procuring several witnesses to attest.

t Ela Longspee, countess of Salisbury, in 1232 founded a monastery at Lacock, iu the county
of Wilts, and also another at Hendon, iu the county of Somerset, in her widowhood, to the honour
of the Blessed Virgin and St. Bernard.— Caaiden.

J Thus she survived the foundation of her chantry at Selborne fifteen years. About this lady
and her mother consult Dugdale's Baronage, I. 72, 175, 177 — Dugdale's Warwickshire, I. 383,-
Leland's Itin. II. 45.

§ CAKTA PETENS LICENTIAM KLIGENDI PKKLATUM A DOMINO EPISCOPO WINTONIKNSI.
Defuncto prelate forma petendi licenlwm eligendi.

Domino et patri in Christo reverendo domino et P. Dei gratia Wintoniensi episcopo, devoti sui
filii supprior monastem de S. Wintoniensis dioceseos salutem cum subjectione humili, reveren-
tiam, et honorem. Monasterio nostro de S. in quo sub protectione vestra vivimus, sub habitu
regulari, Prioris solacio destitute per mortem bone memorie, &c. quondam Prioris nostri, qui tali
hora in aurora diem clausit extremum, vestre paternitati reverende et dominatioui precipue istum
nostrum et nostri monasterii casum flebilem cum merore nunciamus ; ad vestre paternitatis re-
{ugium fratres nostres A. et C. cauonicos destinantes, rogando et petendo devote quatenus nobis
dignemini licenciam tribuere, ut motiasterio predicto, Prioris regimine destitute, providere possi-

360 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

throw great light upon the general monastico-ecclesiastical his-
tory of this kingdom, not yet sufficiently understood.

mus, invocata Spiritus sancti gratia, per electionem canonicam de Priore. Actum in monasterio
predicto 5 kaleud. &c. anno Domini, 8cc. Valeat reverenda paternitas vestra semper in Domino.

Forma licencie concesse.

P. Dei gratia Wintouiensis episcopus dilectis in Christo filiis suppriori at conventni talis loci
salutero, gratiam, et benedictionem. Yiduitatem monasterii vestri vacantis per mortem quondam
R. Prioris vestri, cujus anime propicietur altissimus, paterno compacientes afiectu, pvtitam a
nobis eligendi licenciam vobis concedimus, ut patronus. Datum apud, &c. 3 kalend. Jul. anno
consecrationis nostre terlio.

Forma, decreti post electionem conficiendi.

In nomine Domini nostri Jhesu Christi, Amen. Monasterio beate Marie talislnei Winton. dioc,
solacio destitute per mortem R. quondam Prioris ipsius ; ac corpore ejusr prout moris est, eccle-
siastice sepulture commendato ; petita cum devocione licentia per fratres K. at. canonicos a ten :
in Christo patre et domino domino P. Dei gratia Wintoniensi episcopo ajusdem monasterii
patrono, eligendi priorem, et optenta ; die dato, a toto capitulo ad eligendum vecati fuere evo-
candi, qui debuerunt, voluerunt, et potuerunt comode election! prioris in monasterio predicto
interesse: oranes canonici in capitulo ejnsdem ecclesie cbnvenerunt tali die, anno Dom.^ic. ad
tractandum de electione sui prioris facienda ; qui, invocata Spiritus Sancti gratia, ad procedendnm
per tbrinam scrutinii concencientes.

Modus procedendi ad electionem per formnm Krvtinii.

Omnibus in capitulo congregatis qui debent volant et possunt comotfe fhteresse electioni eli-
gendi sunt tres de capitulo* non nostro obediencias ores,t qw» erunt scrntatores, et sedebunt in
angulo capituli ; et primo requirent vota sua propria, videlicet, duo requirent tnrtinm et duo
alternm, &.c. dicendo sic, " Frater P. inquem concentis ad eligendum in prelatum nostrum?"
quibus examinatis, et dictis eorum per vicem ex ipsis in scriptwra redactis, vocabunt ad «e omnes
fratres singillatim, primo suppriorem, &c. Et unus de tribus examinatoribns scribet dictum
cujuslibet. Celebrato scrutinio, pnblicare db coram omnibus. Facta ptmodu concenaum eollec-
tione apparebit in qu^m pars major capituli et sanior concentit ; quo viso, major pars dicet
minori, " Cum major pars et sanior capituli nostri concenciat in fratrem R. ipse est eligendus,
unde, si placet, ipsum communiter eligamus;" si vero omnes acquieverint, tune ille qui majorem
rocem habet in capitulo surgens dicet, ** Ego frater R. pro toto capitulo eligo fratrem R. nobis in
pastorem ;" et omnes dicent; " Placet nobis." Et incipient, w TB DKUM tAtJDAMus." Si vero
m unum concordare nequiverint, tune hiis, qui majorem vocem habet inter illos qui majorem et
saniorem partem capituli ronstifuerint, dicet, " Ego pro me et illis qui mecum coucenciuot in
fratrem R. eligo ipsum in," &c. Et illi dicent, " Placet nobis," &c

Formn ricte presentnndi eleclum.

Reverendo in Christo patri et domino domino P. Dei gratia Winton. episcopo devoti sui filii
frater R. Supprior conventualis beate Marie de tali loco, et ejusdem loci Conventusr cum sub-
jectione humili, omnem obedienciam, reverenciam, et honorem. Cum conventualis ecclesia beate
Marie talis loci, in qua sub proteetione vestra vivimus sub habitu regulari, per mortem felicis
recordationis R. quondam prioris nostri destituta ecclesia priore, qui 6to Kalemf. Jwl. in aurora
anno Dom. &c. diem clausit extremum ; de corpore ejus, prout moris est, ecclesiastice tradito
sepulture ; petita a vobis, tanquam a Domino, et vero ejusdem ecclesie patrono et pastore, licencia
eligendi priorem et optenta; convenientibus omnibus canonicis predicte ecclesie in capitulo
nostro, qui voluerunt debuerunt et potuerunt comode electioni nostre interesse, tali die anno
Dom. supradicto, invocata Spiritus Sancti gratia, fratrem R. de C. ejusdem ecclesie canonicum
nnanimi assensu et voluntate in priorem nostrum, ex puris votis singulorum, nnanimiter eligimus.
Quern reverende paternitati vestre et tlominacioni precipue Priorem vero patrono nostro et pastore
ronti rmaiidtini, si placet, tenore presentinm presentamns ; dignitatem vestram bumiliter et devote
rogantes, quatenus, dicte electioni felicem prebere volentes assensum, cidem R. electo nostro
mine confirmabitis, et quod vestrum est pastorali solicitudine impendere dignemini. In ciijus rei
testimonium presentes litteras sigillo capituli nostri signatas paternitati vestre transmittimus.
Valeat reverenda paternitas vestra semper in Domino. Datum tali loco die et anno supradictis.
Omnes et singuli, per fratres A. B. et C. ejusdem ecclesie canonicos de voluntate tocius conventus

* Fratres canonicos. See Forma decreti, 8tc.

+ Obedientiores sc. more regular. In virtute obedientiae occurs in Not. Visit.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 36l

In the year 1324 there was an election for a prior at Selborne;
when some difficulties occurring, and a devolution taking place,
application was made to Stratford, who was bishop of Winchester
at that time, and of course the visitor and patron of the convent
at the spot above-mentioned.*

An extract from REG. STRATFORD. Winton.

' P. 4. " Commissio facta sub-priori de Selebourne" by the
bishop enjoining him to preserve the discipline of the order in
the convent during the vacancy made by the late death of the
prior, (" super pastoris solatio destituta,") dated 4th. kal. Maii.
ann. 2 do. sc. of his consecration, [sc. 1324.]

P. 6. " Custodia Prioratus de Seleburne vacantis," committed

by the bishop to Nicholas de la , a layman, it belonging to

the bishop "ratione vacationis ejusdem," in July 1324, ibid.
" negotium electionis de Selebourne. Acta coram Johanne Epis-
copo, &c. 1324 in negotio electionis de fratre Waltero de Insula
concanonico prioratus de Selebourne/' lately elected by the sub-
prior and convent, by way of scrutiny : that it appeared to the
bishop, by certificate from the dean of Alton, that solemn citation
and proclamation had been made in the church of the convent
where the election was held, that any who opposed the said elec-
tion or elected should appear. Some difficulties were started,
which the bishop overruled, and confirmed the election, and
admitted the new prior sub hac forma : —

" In Dei nomine Amen. Ego Johannes permissione divina, &c.
te Walterum de Insula ecclesie de Selebourne nostre dioceseos
nostrique patronatus vacantis, canonicum et cantorem, virum
utique providum, et discretum, literarum scientia preditum, vita
moribus et conversatione merito commendatum, in ordine sacer-

a<i inquirenda vota singulorum constitutes, secreto et siugillatim requisiti ; tandem publicato
srrtttinio et facta votorum colectione inventum est, majorent et seniorem partem tocius capituli

cte ecclesie in fratrem S. de B. dicte ecclesie canonicum unanimiter et concorditer concencisse ;

1 sic, quaniio inventum omnes canonicos dicte ecclesie preter duos in fratrem, A. D. quibus
i majori parti eiigendum adquiescenter : frater k. supprior ecclesie memorate, juxta potes-

m S. de B. in priorem ejusdem ecclesie elegit, sub hac forma ; "Ego frater supprior con-
nlualis ecclesie beate Marie talis loci, potestate et auctoritate mihi a toto conventu dicte ecclesie

jorem et partem seniorem tocius capituli nostri in fratrem S. de B. virum providum unanimiter
concencisse, ipsum nobis et ecclesie nostre, vice tocius conventus, in priorem eiigendum ; et
eidem election! subscribe ; cui electioni omnes canonici nostri concencerunt, et siibstripserunt."
— "Ego frater de C. presenti electioni concencio, et subscribe." Et sic de singulis electoribus
in cujus rei testimonium sigillum capituli nostri apponi fecimus ad presentes.

* Stratford was bishop of Winchester from 1323 to 1333, when he was translated to Canterbury.

362 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

dotali et etate legitima constitutum, de legitimo matrimonio pro-
creatum, in ordine et religione Sancti Augustini de Selebourne
expresse professum, in spiritualibus et temporalibus circumspec-
tum, jure nobis hac vice devoluto in hac parte, in dicte ecclesie
de Selebourne perfectum priorem ; curam et administrationem
ejusdem tibi in spiritualibus et temporalibus committentes. Dat.
apud Selebourne XIII kalend. Augusti anno supradicto."

There follows an order to the sub-prior and convent pro
obedientia :

A mandate to Nicholas above-named to release the Priory to
the new prior :

A mandate for the induction of the new prior.

LETTER XIV.

" IN the year 1373 Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, held a visi-
tation of his whole diocese ; not only of the secular clergy
through the several deaneries, but also of the monasteries, and
religious houses of all sorts, which he visited in person. The
next year he sent his, commissioners with power to correct and
reform the several irregularities and abuses which he had dis-
covered in the course of his visitation.

" Some years afterward, the bishop having visited three several
times all the religious houses throughout his diocese, and being
well informed of the state and condition of each, and of the
particular abuses which .required correction and reformation,
besides the orders which he had already given, and the remedies
which he had occasionally applied by his commissioners, now
issued his injunctions to each of them. They were accommo-
dated to their several exigencies, and intended to correct the
abuses introduced, and to recal them all to a strict observation
of the rules of their respective orders. Many of these injunctions
are still extant, and are evident monuments of the care and atten-
tion with which he discharged this part of his episcopal duty."*

Some of these injunctions I shall here produce ; and they are
such as will not fail, I think, to give satisfaction to the antiquary,
both as never having been published before, and as they are a
curious picture of monastic irregularities at that time.

The documents that I allude to are contained in the Notabilis

* See Lowth's Life of Wykeham.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 363

Visitatio de Seleburne, held at the Priory of that place, by
Wykeham in person, in the year 1387.

This evidence, in the original, is written on two skins of
parchment ; the one large, and the other smaller, and consists of
a preamble, thirty-six items, and a conclusion, which altogether
evince the patient investigation of the visitor, for which he had
always been so remarkable in all matters of moment, and how
much he had at heart the regularity of those institutions, of
whose efficacy in their prayers for the dead he was so firmly
persuaded. As the bishop was so much in earnest, we may be
assured that he had nothing in view but to correct and reform
what he found amiss ; and was under no bias to blacken, or
misrepresent, as the commissioners of Thomas Lord Cromwell
seem in part to have done at the time of the reformation.* We
may therefore with reason suppose that the bishop gives us ah
exact delineation of the morals and manners of the canons of
Selborne at that juncture ; and that what he found they had
omitted he enjoins them ; and for what they had done amiss,
and contrary to their rules and statutes, he reproves them; and
threatens them with punishment suitable to their irregularities.

This visitatio is of considerable length, and cannot be intro-
duced into this work ; we shall therefore only take some notice,
and make some remarks, on the most singular items as they
occur.

In the preamble the visitor says — " Considering the charge
lying upon us, that your blood may not be required at our hands,
we came down to visit your Priory, as our office required : and
every time we repeated our visitation we found something still
not only contrary to regular rules, but also repugnant to religion
and good reputation/'

In the first article after the preamble — " he commands them
on their obedience, and on pain of the greater excommunication,
to see that the canonical hours by night and by day be sung in
their choir, and the masses of the Blessed Mary, and other
accustomed masses, be celebrated at the proper hours with de-
votion, and at moderate pauses ; and that it be not allowed to
any to absent themselves from the hours and masses, or to
withdraw before they are finished."

ITEM 2d. " He enjoins them to observe that silence to which
they are so strictly bound by the rule of Saint Augustine at

* Letters of this sort from Dr. Layton to Thomas Lord Cromwell are still extant.

364 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

stated times, and wholly to abstain from frivolous conversa-
tion."

ITEM 4th. " Not to permit such frequent passing of secular
people of both sexes through their convent, as if a thoroughfare,
from whence many disorders may and have arisen."

ITEM 5th. "To take care that the dpors of their church and
Priory be so attended to that no suspected and disorderly females,
'suspecta? et alise inhonestae/ pass through their choir and
cloister in the dark ;" and to see that the doors of their church
between the nave and the choir, and the gates of their cloister
opening into the fields, be constantly kept shut until their first
choir-service is over in the morning, at dinner time, and when
they meet at their evening collation.*

ITEM 6th mentions that several of the canons are found to be
very ignorant and illiterate, and enjoins the prior to see that they
be better instructed by a proper master,

ITEM 8th. The canons are here accused of refusing to accept
of their statutable clothing year by year, and of demanding a
certain specified sum of money, as if it were their annual rent
and due. This the bishop forbids, and orders that the canons
shall be clothed out of the revenue of the Priory, and the old
garments be laid by in a chamber and given to the poor, accord-^
ing to the rule of Saint Augustine.

In ITEM 9th is a complaint that some of the canons are given
to wander out of the precincts of the convent without leave ; and
that others ride to their manors and farms, under pretence of in-
specting the concerns of the society, when they please, and stay
as long as they please. But they are enjoined never to stir either
about their own private concerns or the business of the convent
without leave from the prior : and no canon is to go alone, but
to have a grave brother to accompany him.

The injunction in ITEM 10th, at this distance of time, appears
rather ludicrous ; but the visitor seems to be very serious on the
occasion, and says that it has been evidently proved to him that
gome of the canons, living dissolutely after the flesh, and not
after the spirit, sleep naked in their beds without their breeches
and shirts, " absque femoralibus et camisiis."f He enjoins that
these culprits shall be punished by severe fasting, especially
if they shall be found to be faulty a third time ; and threatens

* A Collation was a meal or repast on a fast day in lieu of a supper.

t The rule alluded to in ITEM 10th, of not sleeping naked, was enjoined the Knights Tem-
plars, who also were subject to the rules of Saint Augustine.— See Gurtleri Hist. Templariorum.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 365

the prior and sub-prior with suspension if they do not correct
this enormity.

In ITEM llth the good bishop is very wroth with some of the
canons, whom he finds to be professed hunters and sportsmen,
keeping hounds, and publicly attending hunting matches. These
pursuits, he says, occasion much dissipation, danger to the soul
and body, and frequent expense ; he, therefore, wishing to extir-
pate this vice wholly from the convent, "radicibus extirpare,"
does absolutely enjoin the canons never intentionally to be
present at any public noisy tumultuous huntings ; or to keep any
hounds, by themselves or by others, openly or by stealth, within
the convent or without.*

In ITEM 12th he forbids the canons in office to make their
business a plea for not attending the service of the choir ; since
by these means either divine worship is neglected or their
brother canons are overburdened.

By ITEM 14th we are informed that the original number of
canons at the Priory of Selborne was fourteen ; but that at this
visitation they were found to be let down to eleven. The visitor
therefore strongly and earnestly enjoins them that, with all due
speed and diligence, they should proceed to the election of
proper persons to fill up the vacancies, under pain of the greater
excommunication.

In ITEM 17th the prior and canons are accused of suffering,
through neglect, notorious dilapidations to take place among
their manorial houses and tenements, and in the walls and en-
closures of the convent itself, to the shame and scandal of the
institution ; they are therefore enjoined, under pain of suspen-
sion, to repair all defects within the space of six months.

ITEM 18th charges them with grievously burthening the said
Priory by means of sales, and grants of li veriest and corrodies. J

* Considering the strong'propensity in human nature towards the pleasures of the chase, it U
not to he wondered that the canons of Selborue should languish after hunting, when, from their
situation so near the precincts of VVolmer-forest, the king's hounds must have been often in
hearing, and sometimes in sight from their windows.— If the bishop was so offended at these
sporting canons, what would he have said to our modern fox-hunting divines ?

t " Liberationes, or liberaturae, allowances of corn, &c. to servants delivered at certain times,
and in certain quantities, as clothes were among the allowances from religious houses to their
dependants. — See the corrodies granted by Croyland Abbey. — History of Croyland, Appendix,
No. XXXIV.

" It is not improbable that the word in after-ages came to be confined to the uniform of the
retainers or servants of the great, who were hence called livery servants. — Sir John Cullum's
Hist, of Hawsted

t A corrody is an allowance to a servant living in an abbey or priory

366 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

The bishop, in ITEM 19th, accuses the canons of neglect and
omission with respect to their perpetual chantry-services.

ITEM 20th. The visitor here conjures the prior and canons
not to withhold their original alms, " eleemosynas ;" nor those
that they were enjoined to distribute for the good of the souls
of founders and benefactors : he also strictly orders that the
fragments and broken victuals, both from the hall of their prior
and their common refectory, should be carefully collected toge-
ther by their eleemosynarius, and given to the poor without any
diminution ; the officer to be suspended for neglect or omission.

ITEM 23d. He bids them distribute their pittances, pitancias,"*
regularly on obits, anniversaries, festivals, &c.

ITEM 25th. All and every one of the canons are hereby in-
hibited from standing godfather to any boy for the future, " ne
compatres alicujus pueri de cetero fieri presumatis," unless by
express license from the bishop obtained ; because from such
relationship favour and affection, nepotism, and undue influence,
arise, to the injury and detriment of religious institutions. t

ITEM 26th. The visitor herein severely reprimands the canons
for appearing publicly in what would be called in the universities
an unstatutable manner, and for wearing of boots, "caligae de
Burneto, et sotularium -- in ocrearum loco, ad modum sotula-

It is remarkable that the bishop expresses more warmth against
this than any other irregularity ; and strictly enjoins them, under
pain of ecclesiastical censures, and even imprisonment if necessary
(authreat not made use of before,) for the future to wear boots,

* " Pitancia, an allowance of bread a«id l>eer, or other provision to any pious use, especially to
the religious in a monastery, &c. for augmentation of their commons." — Gloss, to Rennet's
Par. Antiq.

t "The relationship between sponsors and their god-children, who were called spiritual sons
and daughters, was formerly esteemed much more sacred than at present. The presents at
christenings were sometimes very considerable: the connection lasted through life, and was closed
with a legacy. This last mark of attention seems to have been thought almost indispensable ;
for, in a will, from whence no extracts have been given, the testator left every one of his god-
children a bushel of barley."— Sir John Cullum's Hist, of Hawsted.

" D. Margaret-* filiae Regis primogenitae, quam filiolam, quia ejus in baptismo compater fiiit,
appellat, cyphum aureum et quadraginta libras, legavit." — Archbishop Parker, de Antiquitate
Eccles. Brit, speaking of Archbishop Morton.

t Du Fresne is copious on caligae of several sorts. " Hoc item de Clericis, presertim benefici-
atis: caligis scacatis (chequered) ruheis, et viridibus publice utentibus dicimus esse censendum."
Statu. Eccles. Tutel. The chequered boots seem to be thehighland plaid stockings.— " Burnetum,
i. e. Brunetum, pannus non ex lananativi colons coufectus." — "Sotularium, i. e. subtalaris, quia
«ub talo est. Peculinm grnus, quibns maxime Mouachi nocte utebantur in sestate ; in hyeme
vero Soccis."

This writer gives many quotations concerning Sotularia, which were not to be made too shapely ;
nor were the caligae to be laced on too nicely.

ANTiaUITIES OF SELBORNE. 367

" ocreis seu botis," according to the regular usage of their ancient
order.

ITEM 2Qth. He here again, but with less earnestness, forbids
them foppish ornaments, and the affectation of appearing like
beaux with garments edged with costly furs, with fringed gloves,
and silken girdles trimmed with gold and silver. It is remark-
able that no punishment is annexed to this injunction.

ITEM 31st. He here singly and severally forbids each canon
not admitted to a cure of souls to administer extreme unction, or
the sacrament, to clergy or laity ; or to perform the service of
matrimony, till he has taken out the license of the parish priest.

ITEM 32d. The bishop says in this item that he had observed
and found, in his several visitations, that the sacramental plate
and cloths of the altar, surplices, &c. were sometimes left in such
an uncleanly and disgusting condition as to make the beholders
shudder with horror; — "quod aliquibus sunt horrori;"* he there-
fore enjoins them for the future to see that the plate, cloths, and
vestments, be kept bright, clean, and in decent order: and,
what must surprise the reader, adds — that he expects for the
future that the sacrist should provide for the sacrament good
wine, pure and unadulterated ; and not, as had often been the
practice, that which was sour, and tending to decay , — he says
further, that it seems quite preposterous to omit in sacred matters
that attention to decent cleanliness, the neglect of which would
disgrace a common convivial meeting.f

ITEM 33d says that, though the relics of saints, the plate,
holy vestments, and books of religious houses, are forbidden by
canonical institutes to be pledged or lent out upon pawn ; yet,
as the visitor finds this to be the case in his several visitations,
he therefore strictly enjoins the prior forthwith to recal those
pledges, and to restore them to the convent ; and orders that all
the papers and title deeds thereto belonging should be safely
deposited, and kept under three locks and keys.

* " Men abhorred the offering of the Lord." 1 >am. chap. ii. v. 17. Strange as this account
may appear to modern delicacy, the author, when first in orders, twice met with similar circum-
stances attending the sacrament at two churches be'onging to two obscure villages. In the first
he found the inside of the chalice covered with birds' dung; and in the other the communion-
cloth soiled with cabbage and the greasy drippings of a gammon ol" bacon. The good dame at the
great farm-house, who was to furnish the cloth, being a notable woman, thought it best to save
her clean linen, and so sent a foul cloth that had covered her own table for two or three Sundays
before.

t •" ne turpe toral, ne sordida niappa

Corruget nares ; ne non et cantharus, et lanx
Ostendat tibi te "

368 ANTiaUITIES OF SELBORNE.

In the course of the Visitatio Notabilis the constitutions of
Legate Ottobonus are frequently referred to. Ottobonus was
afterwards Pope Adrian V. and died in 1276. His constitutions
are in Lyndewood's Provinciale, and were drawn up in the 52d
of Henry III.

In the Visitatio Notabilis the usual punishment is fasting on
bread and beer ; and in cases of repeated delinquency on bread
and water. On these occasions quarta feria, et sexta feria, are
mentioned often, and are to be understood of the days of the
week numerically on which such punishment is to be inflicted.

LETTER XV.

THOUGH bishop Wykeham appears somewhat stern and rigid in
his visitatorial character towards the Priory of Selborne, yet he
was on the whole a liberal friend and benefactor to that convent,
which, like every society or individual that fell in his way, par-
took of the generosity and benevolence of that munificent prelate.

"In the year 1377 William of Wykeham, out of his mere
good will and liberality, discharged the whole debts of the prior
and convent of Selborne, to the amount of one hundred and ten
marks eleven shillings and sixpence ;* and, a few years before
he died, he made a free gift of one hundred marks to the same
Priory : on which account the Prior and convent voluntarily en-
gaged for the celebration of two masses a day by two canons of
the convent for ten years, for the bishop's welfare, if he should
live so long ; and for his soul if he should die before the expira-
tion of this term."f

At this distance of time it seems matter of great wonder to us
how these societies, so nobly endowed, and whose members were
exempt by their very institution from every means of personal
and family expense, could possibly run in debt without squan-
dering their revenues in a manner incompatible with their
function.

Religious houses might sometimes be distressed in their re-
venues by fires among their buildings, or large dilapidations
from storms, &c. ; but no such accident appears to have befallen
the Priory at Selborne. Tnose situate on public roads, or in great

* Yet in ten years time we find, by the Notabilis Visitatio, that all their relics, plate, ve&t-
m» nts, title-deeds, &tc. were in pawn.
t Lowth's Life of Wykeham.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 369

towns, where there were shrines of saints, were liable to be in-
truded on by travellers, devotees, and pilgrims ; and were sub-
ject to the importunity of the poor, who swarmed at their gates
to partake of doles and broken victuals. Of these disadvantages
some convents used to complain, and especially those at Canter-
bury; but this Priory, from its sequestered situation, could
seldom be subject to either of these inconveniences, and therefore
we must attribute its frequent debts and embarrassments, well
endowed as it was, to the bad conduct of its members, and a
general inattention to the interests of the institution.

LETTER XVI.

BEAUFORT was bishop of Winchester from 1405 to 1447 ; and
yet, notwithstanding this long episcopate, only torn. I. of Beau-
fort's Register is to be found. This loss is much to be regretted,
as it must unavoidably make a gap in the history of Selborne
Priory, and perhaps in the list of its priors.

In 1410 there was an election for a prior, and again in 1411.

In vol. I. p. 24, of Beaufort's Register, is the instrument of
the election of John Wynchestre to be prior — the substance as
follows :

Richard Elstede, senior canon, signifies to the bishop that
brother Thomas Weston, the late prior, died October 18th, 1410,
and was buried November llth. — That the bishop's license to
elect having been obtained, he and the whole convent met in the
chapter-house, on the same day, about the hour of vespers, to
consider of the election :— that brother John Wynchestre, then
sub-prior, with the general consent, appointed the 12th of No-
vember, ad horam ejusdem diei capitularem, for the business : —
when they met in the chapter-house, post missam de sancto
Spiritu, solemnly celebrated in the church; — to wit, Richard
Elstede ; Thomas Halyborne ; John Lemyngton, sacrista ; John
Stepe, cantor ; Walter Ffarnham ; Richard Putworth, celerarius ;
Hugh London ; Henry Brampton, alias Brompton ; John Wyn-
chestre, senior ; John Wynchestre, junior ; — then " Proposito
primitus verbo Dei," and then ympno " Veni Creator Spiritus "
being solemnly sung, cum " versiculo et oratione," as usual, and
his letter of licence, with the appointment of the hour and place
of election, being read, alta voce, in valvis of the chapter-house ;

2 B

370 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

— John Wynchestre, senior, the sub-prior, in his own behalf and
that of all the canons, and by their mandate, " quasdam moni-
cionem et protestacionem in scriptis redactas fecit, legit, et inter-
posuit " — that all persons disqualified, or not having right to be
present, should immediately withdraw; and protesting against
their voting, &c. — that then having read the constitution of the
general council " Quia propter," and explained the modes of
proceeding to election, they agreed unanimously to proceed " per
viam seu formam simplicis compromissi ;" when John Wyn-
chestre, sub-prior, and all the others (the commissaries under-
named excepted) named and chose brothers Richard Elstede,
Thomas Halyborne, John Lemyngton the sacrist, John Stepe,
chantor, and Richard Putworth, canons, to be commissaries, who
were sworti each to nominate and elect a fit person to be prior :
and empowered by letters patent under the common seal, to be
in force only until the darkness of the night of the same day ; —
that they, or the greater part of them, should elect for the whole
convent, within the limited time, from their own number, or from
the rest of the convent ; — that one of them should publish their
consent in common before the clergy and people : — they then all
promised to receive as prior the person these five canons should
fix on. These commissaries seceded from the chapter-house to
the refectory of the Priory, and were shut in with master John
Penkester, bachelor of laws ; and John Couke and John Lynne,
perpetual vicars of the parish churches of Newton and Selborne ;
and with Sampson Maycock, a public notary ; where they treated
of the election ; when they unanimously agreed on John Wyn-
chestre, and appointed Thomas Halyborne, to choose him in
common for all, and to publish the election, as customary ; and
returned long before it was dark to the chapter-house, where
Thomas Halyborne read publicly the instrument of election;
when all the brothers, the new prior excepted, singing solemnly
the hymn "Te Deum laudamus," fecerunt deportari novum
electum, by some of the brothers, from the chapter-house to the
high altar of the church ;* and the hymn being sung, dictisque
versiculoet oratione consuetis in hac parte, Thomas Halyborne,
mox tune ibidem, before the clergy and people of both sexes
solemnly published the election in vulgari. Then Richard El-
stede, and the whole convent by their proctors and nuncios ap-

* It seems here as if the canons used to chair their new-elected prior from the chapter-house
to the high altar of their convent-church. In letter^XXI., on the same occasion, it is said — "et
sic canentes dictum electum ad niajus altare ecclesie deduximus, ut apud nos moris est."

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 371

pointed for the purposes, Thomas Halyborne and John Stepe
required several times the assent of the elected ; " et tandem post
diutinas interpellations, et deliberationem providam penes se
habitam, in hac parte divine nolens, ut asseruit, resistere volun-
tati," within the limited time he signified his acceptance in the
usual written form of words. The bishop is then supplicated to
confirm their election, and do the needful, under common seal,
in the chapter-house. November 14, 1410.

The bishop, January 6, 1410, apud Esher in camera inferiori,
declared the election duly made, and ordered the new prior to
be inducted — for this the archdeacon of Winchester was written
to ; " stallumque in choro, et locum in capitulo juxta morem
preteriti temporis," to be assigned him ; and every thing beside
necessary to be done.

BEAUFORT'S REGISTER, Vol. I.

P. 2. Taxatio spiritualis Decanatus de Aulton, Ecclesia de
Selebourn, cum Capella, — xxx marc, decima x lib. iii sol. Vicaria
de Selebourn non taxatur propter exilitatem.

P. 9. Taxatio bonorum temporalium religiosorum in Arch-
idiac. Wynton.

Prior de Selebourn habet meneria de

Bromdene taxat. ad xxx s. ii d.

Apud Schete ad xvii s.

P. Selebourne ad vi lib.

In civitate Wynton de reddit. . . . vi lib. viii ob.

Tannaria sua taxat. ad x lib. s.

Summa tax. xxxviii lib. xiiii d. ob. Inde decima vi lib. s. q. ob .

LETTER XVII.

INFORMATION being sent to Rome respecting the havock and
spoil that was carrying on among the revenues and lands of the
Priory of Selborne, as we may suppose by the bishop of Win-
chester, its visitor, Pope Martin,* as soon as the news of these
proceedings came before him, issued forth a bull, in which he
enjoins his commissary immediately to revoke all the property
that had been alienated.

* Pope Martin V. chosen about 1417. He attempted to reform the church, but died in 1431,
just as he had summoned the council of Basil.

2 B 2

372 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

In this instrument his holiness accuses the prior and canons
of having granted away (they themselves and their predecessors)
to certain clerks and laymen their tithes, lands, rents, tenements,
and possessions, to some of them for their lives, to others for an
undue term of years, and to some again for a perpetuity, to the
great and heavy detriment of the monastery : and these leases
were granted, he continues to add, under their own hands, with
the sanction of an oath and the renunciation of all right and
claims, and under penalties, if the right was not made good. —
But it will be best to give an abstract from the bull.

N. 298. Pope Martin's bull touching the revoking of certaine
things alienated from the Priory of Seleburne, Pontif. sui ann. 1.

" Martinus Eps. servus servorum Dei. Dilecto filio Priori de
Suthvale* Wyntonien. dioc. Salutem & apostolicam ben. Ad
audientiam nostram pervenit quam tarn dilecti filii prior et con-
ventus monasterii de Seleburn per Priorern soliti gubernari
ordinis Stj. Augustini Winton. dioc. quam de predecessores
eorum decimas, terras, redditus, domos, possessiones, vineas,f
et quedam alia bona ad monasterium ipsum spectantia, datis
super hoc litteris, interpositis juramentis, factis renuntiationibus,
et penis adjectis, in gravem ipsius monasterii lesionem nonnullis
clericis et laicis, aliquibus eorum ad vitam, quibusdam vero ad
non modicum tempus, & aliis perpetuo ad firmam, vel sub censu
annuo concesserunt ; quorum aliqui dicunt super hiis a sede
aplica in communi forma confimationis litteras impetrasse. Quia
vero nostra interest lesis monasteriis subvenire — [He the Pope
here commands] — ea ad jus et proprietatem monasterii studeas
legitime revocare," &c.

The conduct of the religious had now for some time been
generally bad. Many of the monastic societies, being very opu-
lent, were become voluptuous and licentious, and had deviated
entirely from their original institutions. The laity saw with in-
dignation the wealth and possessions of their pious ancestors
perverted to the service of sensuality and indulgence ; and spent
in gratifications highly unbecoming the purposes for which they
were given. A total disregard to their respective rules and dis-

* Should have been no doubt Southwick, a priory under Portsdown.

t Mr. Harrington is of opinion that anciently the English vinea was in almost every instance
an orchard ; not perhaps always of apples merely, but of other fruits ; as cherries, plums, and
currants. We still say a plum or cherry-orchard. See vol. 111. "of Archseologia.

In the instance above the pope's secretary might insert vineas merely because they were a
species of cultivation familiar to him in Italy.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 373

cipline drew on the monks and canons a heavy load of popular
odium. Some good men there were who endeavoured to oppose
the general delinquency j but their efforts were too feeble to stem
the torrent of monastic luxury. As far back as the year 1381
Wickliffe's principles and doctrines had made some progress,
were well received by men who wished for a reformation, and
were defended and maintained by them as long as they dared ;
till the bishops and clergy began to be so greatly alarmed, that
they procured an act to be passed by which the secular arm was
empowered to support the corrupt doctrines of the church ; but
the first Lollard was not burnt until the year 1401.

The wits also of those times did not spare the gross morals of
the clergy, but boldly ridiculed their ignorance and profligacy.
The most remarkable of these were Chaucer, and his contem-
porary, Robert Langelande, better known by the name of Piers
Plowman. The laughable tales of the former are familiar to al-
most every reader ; while the visions of the latter are but in few
hands. With a quotation from the Passus Decimus of this writer
I shall conclude my letter ; not only on account of the remark-
able prediction therein contained, which carries with it somewhat
of the air of a prophecy ; but also as it seems to have been a
striking picture of monastic insolence and dissipation ; and a
specimen of one of the keenest pieces of satire now perhaps sub-
sisting in any language, ancient or modern.

" Now is religion a rider, a roraer by streate ;

A leader of love-days, and a loud begger ;

A pricker on a palfrey from maner to maner,

A heape of hounds at his arse, as he a lord were.

And but if his knave kneel, that shall his cope bring,

He loureth at him, and asketh him who taught him curtesie.

Little had lords to done, to give lands from her heirs,

To religious that have no ruth if it rain on her altars.

In many places ther they persons be, by himself at ease :

Of the poor have they no pity, and that is her charitie ;

And they letten hem as lords, her lands lie so broad.

And. there shal come a king,* and confess you religious ;

And beate you, as the bible telleth, for breaking your rule,

And amend monials, and monks, and chanons,

And put hem to her penaunce ad pristinum statum ire."

* F. 1. a. " This prediction, although a probable conclusion concerning a king who after a time
would suppress the religious houses, is remarkable. 1 imagined it might have been foisted into
the copies in the reign of king Henry VIII., but it is to be found in MSS. of this poem older than
the year 1400." fol. 1. a. b.

"Again, where he, Piers Plowman, alludes to the Knights Templars, lately suppressed, he says,

" Men of holie kirk

Shall turn as templars did ; the tyme approacheth nere."

"This, I suppose, was a favourite doctrine in Wkkliife's discourses." Warton's History of
English Poetry, Vol. I. p. 282.

374 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

LETTER XVIII.

WILLIAM of Waynflete became bishop of Winchester in the year
1447, and seems to have pursued the generous plan of Wykeham
in endeavouring to reform the Priory of Selborne.

When Waynflete came to the see he found prior Stype, alias
Stepe, still living, who had been elected as long ago as the year
1411.

Among my documents I find a curious paper of the things
put into the custody of Peter Bernes the sacrist, and especially
some relics: the title of this evidence is, "No. 50, Indentura
prioris de Selborne quorundam tradit. Petro Bernes sacristae,

ibidem, ann. Hen. VI. una cum confiss. ejusdem Petri

script."* The occasion of this catalogue, or list of effects, being

* Hcc indentura facta die June proxime post ffestum natalium Dni anno regis Henrici sexti post
couquestum anglie v. - - - - inter ifratrem Johannem Stepe priorem ecclesie beate Marie de Sel-
borne & Petrum Bernes sacrist, ibidem videlidet quod predictus prior deliveravit prefato Petro
omnia subscripta In primis xxn amit xxxi aubes vid. v. sine parura pro quadragesima xxil
manicul. Item xxn stole Item vm casule vid. HI albe pro quadragesima Item xi dalmatic, vid.
i debit. Item xvi cape vid. mi veteres Item imam amittam i albam cum paruris unum mani-
pulurn i stolani i casulam et duas dalmaticas de dono Johannis Combe capellani de Cicestria pro
diebus principalibus Item i amittam i aubam cum paruris i manupulum i stolam i casulam de
dono ffratris Thome Halybone canonicis Item i amittam i aubam cum paruris i manupulum I
stolam i casulam pertinentem ad altare sancte Catherine virginis pro priore Item i amittam n
aubas cum paruris irmauiptil u stolas et n casulas pertinetites ad altare sancti Petri de dono
patris Ricardi holte. Item de dono ejusdem u tuella vid. i cum fruictello et i canvas pro eodem
altare Item i tuellum pendentem ad terrain pro quadragesima Item vi tuell cum ffruictibus xv

tuell sine ffruictell. Item mi tuell pro lavatore Item v corporas Item u ffruictell pro summo
altare sine tuellis Item u coopertor pro le ceste Item u pallias de serico debili Item i velum pro
quadragesima Item i tapetum viridi colons pro summo altar« n ridell cum mi ridellis parvis
pertinent, ad diet, altare Item vn offretor vid. v debit. Item mi vexilla Item mi pelves in
quessones vid. i de serico Item u super altaria Item quinq ; calices vid. mi de auro Item u
cruette* de argento de dono dni Johannis Combe capellani de Cicestre Item vm cruettes de
peuter Item i coupam argent, et deaur. Item n osculator argent- Item i osculatorium cum osse
digiti auricular Stl- Johannis Baptists Item i crux argent, et deaur. non radicat. Item turribulum
argent et deaur. Item i anulum cum saphiro Item i aliud anulum i politum aureum Item i
anulum argent, et deauratum S". Edmnndi. Item i concha cum pereo infixo Item i cistam
argent, et deaur. Item i imaginem beate Marie argent, et deaurat. Item i parvam crucem cum v

reliquiis Item i junctorium S"'. Ricardi Item i tecani pro reliquiis imponend Item i calefactor S«.
Ricardi Item mi candelebra vid. u de stagno et u de ferro Item i pecten S(i. Ricardi Item u
viell de cristall. In parte fract Item i pelvim de coper ad lavator Item n osculat- de coper Item i
parvum terribulum de latyn Item i vas de coper pro frank et sence consecrand Item i pixidem
de juery pro corpore Christi Item iivasa de plumbo pro oleo conservando Item i patellam eneam
ferro ligat. Item i tripodem ferr. Item i costrell contum u lagen et i potrel) Item n
babyngyres Item n botelles de corio vid. i de quarte et i de pynte Item HI anul. arg. et i
pixidem Ste Marie de Waddon Item ( ) Instrumcnta pro Sandyng Item i ledbnyfF Item i

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 3J5

drawn between the prior and sacrist does not appear, nor the
date when ; only that it happened in the reign of Hen. VI. This
transaction probably took place when Bernes entered on his
office ; and there is the more reason to suppose that to be the
case, because the list consists of vestments and implements, and
relics, such as belonged to the church of the Priory, and fell
under the care of the sacrist. For the numerous items I shall
refer the curious reader to the Note, and shall just mention the
relics, although they are not all specified ; and the state of the
live stock of the monastery at that juncture.

" Item 2. osculator. argent.

"Item 1. osculatorium cum osse digiti auricular. — Sa. Johannis
Baptist ce*

"Item 1. parvam crucem cum V. reliquiis.

"Item 1. anulum argent, et deauratum St. Edmundi.f

" Item 2. osculat. de coper.

" Item 1. junctorium St. Ricardi.J

"Item 1. pecten St. Ricardi."§

The staurum, or live stock, is quite ridiculous, consisting only
of " 2 vacce, 1 sus, 4 hoggett. et 4 porcell." viz. two cows, one
sow, four porkers, and four pigs.

shasshobe Item i securim Item n scabell. de ferro pro cancell Item i plane Item i cistam sine
cerura Item xmi sonas Item xix taperes ponder xm 16 et dimid. Item n torches ponder xx!6
Item xii 16 cere et dimid. Item de candelis de cera ponder vi 16 Item 1 16 de frank et sence
Item i lagenam olei Item ix pondera de plumbo (Vide de stauro in tergo) et in tergo

scribuutur haec, ** n vacce i sus mi hoggett et mi porcell."

* How the convent came by the bone of the little finger of St. John the Baptist does not
appear ; probably the founder, \vhile in Palestine, purchased it among the Asiatics, who were at
that time great traders in relics. We know from the best authority that as soon as Herod had
cruelly beheaded that holy man, " his disciples came and took up the body and buried it, and
went and told Jesus." Matt. iv. 12.— Further would be difficult to say.

t November 20, in the calendar, Edmund king and martyr, in the 9th century. ' See also a
Sanctus Fdmundus in Godwin, among the archbishops of Canterbury, in the 13th century ; his
surname Rich, in 1234.

i April 3, ibid. Richard bishop of Chichester, in the 13th century ; his surname De la Wich,
in 1245.

Junctorium, perhaps a joint or limb of St. Richard ; but what particular joint the religious
were not such osteologists as to specify. This barbarous word was not to be found in any
dictionary consulted by the author.

§ " Pecten inter ministeria sacra recensetur, quo scil. sacerdotes ac clerici, antequam in
ecclesiam procederent, crines pecterent. E quibus colligitur monachos, tune temporis, non
omniuo tonsos fuisse." — Du Fresue.

The author remembers to have seen in great farm houses a family comb chained to a post for
the use of the hinds when they came into their meals.

376 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

LETTER XIX.

STEPE died towards the end of the year 1453, as we may sup-
pose pretty far advanced in life, having been prior forty-four
years.

On the very day that the vacancy happened, viz. January 26,
1453-4. the sub-prior and convent petitioned the visitor — "vos
unicum levamen nostrum, et spem unanimiter rogamus, quatinus
eligendum ex nobis unum confratrem de gremio nostro, in nostra
religione probatum et expertem, licenciam vestram paternalem
cum plena libertate nobis concedere dignemini graciose."

Reg. Waynflete, torn. I.

Instead of the licence requested we find next a commission
" custodie prioratus de Selebourne durante vacatione," addressed
to brother Peter Berne, canon-regular of the priory of Selebourne,
and of the order of St. Augustine, appointing him keeper of the
said priory, and empowering him to collect and receive the profits
and revenues, and " alia bona " of the said priory ; and to exer-
cise in every respect the full power and authority of a prior j but
to be responsible to the visitor finally, and to maintain this
superiority during the bishop's pleasure only. This instrument
is dated from the bishop's manor-house in Southwark, March 1,
1453-4, and the seventh of his consecration.

After this transaction it does not appear that the chapter of
the Priory proceeded to any election : on the contrary, we find
that at six months' end from the vacancy the visitor declared that
a lapse had taken place ; and that therefore he did confer the
priorship on canon Peter Berne. — "Prioratum vacantem et ad
nostram collationem, seu provisionem jure ad nos in hac parte
per lapsum temporis legitime devolutu spectantem, tibi (sc. P.
Berne) de legitimo matrimonio procreate, &c. — conferimus," &c.
This deed bears date July 28, 1454.

Reg. Waynflete, torn I. p. 69.

On February 8, 1462, the visitor issued out a power of seques-
tration against the Priory of Selborne on account of notorious
dilapidations which threatened manifest ruin to the roofs, walls,
and edifices of the said convent ; and appointing John Ham-
mond, B. D. rector of the parish church of Hetlegh, John
Hylling, vicar of the parish church of Newton Valence, and Wal-
ter Gorfin, inhabitant of the parish of Selborne, his sequestrators,
to exact, collect, levy, and receive, all the profits and revenues of

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 377

the said convent : he adds " ac ea sub areto, et tiito custodiatis,
custodirive faciatis ;" as they would answer it to the bishop at
their peril.

In consequence of these proceedings prior Berne, on the last
day of February, and the next year, produced a state of the re-
venues of the Priory, No. 381, called "A paper conteyning the
value of the manors and lands pertayning to the Priory of Sel-
borne. 4 Edward III. with a note of charges yssuing out of it."*

SUMMA totalis valoris maneriorum ten-arum tenementorum et premissorum ejusdem Prioratus
in ffesto St>. Michaelis Archang. anno secundo Regis Edvardi 4ti. ut patet Rotul. de valoribiis

liberal? xx

mi vi li. (i. e. LXXXVI li.) xs. vi d.

Inde in redditibus resolutis domino pape domino Archiepiscopo et in diversis fleodis certis
personis concessis ac aliis aunualibus reprisis in eisdem Rotul. de valoribus annotatis per
annum xim li. xix s. v d.

Et remanet de claro valore LXXI li. x s. vm d.

Quatuor canonicis et quatuor ffamulis deo et ecclesie ibid, servientibus pro eorum
vadiis vestur. et diet, ut patet per bill inde fact, per annum xxx li.

Diversis creditoribus pro eorum debitis persolvendis ct patet per parcell inde fact1,
xv li. xv s. mid.

Reparacionibus Ecclesiarnm domorum murorum et clausurarum ejusdem Prioratus
per annum xv li. xv s. uu d.

Annua pencione Domini Prioris ei assiguata per annum quousque remanet xli.

li

Modo sequitor de Reformatione premissorum-

Summa total, valorum. ibid, misis et desperatis inde de- I LXXI li. x s. vm d
| ductis prout patet per decTaracionem Dni Petri Prioris de I unde;per ipsum Dnum
ad man. Dni uostri Wynton apud Palacium suum SnostrumWynton assig-
5 £ I de Wolsley present, per ipsum ultimo die ffebr. Ann. Domini j "antur in fforma se-
^ « | MCCCCLXII. et penes ipsum remanet. I luente videlicet.

V

Pro quatuor canouicis et quatuor ffamulis deo et ecclesie 1
ibid.^servientibus pro eorum Diet, vadiis et vestur. ut patet >xxxh<
per bill inde fact. J

Pro annua pencione Prioris quosque reman** x li.

pxv li. xv s. mi d.

I per ii annos ad xxxi

Pro diversis creditoribus pro eorum debitis persolvendis ut J H. x s. VIII a. ultra

patet per bill inde fac^

L,dit. stau;

'"xv li. xv s. mi d.
per ii annos ad xxxi
li. x s. vm d. Sum-
ma total, valoris pro
Pro diversis reparacionibus ecclesiarum domorum mure

clausurarum ut patet bill.

Lvli. xim d. de-v

debitis et reparacioui-
bus assignat. cum LV

li. xim d. de vendit.
Stauri ut supra cxvm
li. « s. vi d.

378 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

From circumstances in this curious document, it is plain that
the sequestration produced good effects ; for in it are to be found
bills of repairs to a considerable amount.

By this evidence also it appears that there were at that junc-
ture only four canons at the Priory ;* and that these, and their
four household servants, during this sequestration for their
clothing, wages, and diet, were allowed per ann. xxx lib. ; and
that the annual pension of the lord prior, reside where he would,
was to be x lib,

In the year 1468, prior Berne, probably wearied out by the
dissensions and want of order that prevailed in the convent, re-
signed his prior ship into the hands of the bishop.

Reg. Waynflete, torn. I. pars ima, fol. 157-

March 28, A. D. 1468. '" In quadam alta camera juxta mag-
nam portam manerii of the bishop of Wynton de Waltham
coram eodem rev. patre ibidem tune sedente, Peter Berne, prior
of Selborne, ipsum prioratum in sacras, et venerabiles manus of
the bishop, viva voce libere resignavit : and his resignation was
admitted before two witnesses and a notary-public. In conse-
quence, March 29th, before the bishop, in capella manerii sui
ante dicti pro tribunali sedente, comparuerunt fratres" Peter

Debita que debentur ibid, per diversos tenentes et ffirmarios ad festum Sti. Michaelis anno
tertio Regis Edvardi 4t>. videlicet.

Abbas de Derford de ffeod ffirme sua ad ix li. vi s. vin d. per annum 1 xxJ. vji g
a retro. J

Thomas Perkyns armig. ffirmarius Rectorie de Estworlam pro uno }
anno finiente ad ffestum S»'. Mich, anno n. Regis Edvardi 4*». 3 *"*

Johannes Shalmere bill de Selborne debet LXXV s.

Ricardus Cawry debet de eodem anno vi s.

Summa xxvn li. vin s. xi d.

Thomas Perkyns armig. debet de ffirme sua predicta' ad festum S". } yn }i yig VHld
Mich. ann. vn et ultra feod. suum ad xx s. per annum.

Thomas lusher debet pro ffirme sua ad XL s. per annum cum feod. ?
suis ad xx s. per annum.

^
Hugo Pakenham debet de reddit. suo ad xxs. psr ann. c. s.

Abbas de Derford debet de ffeod ffirme sua ultra xxli. vn s. xi d. ut J
supra pro annis HI. mi. et v. Regis Edvardi 5 XXVI" T

Walterus Berlond ffirmarius de Shene debet ix li. v s. 11 d.

Henr. Shafter. ffirmarius ffeod de Basynstoke xii li. mi d.

Henr. lode uuper ffirmarius manerii de Chede debet xx li.

Total Lxxxxivli. xii d.

Summa LXVI li. xii s. vi d.

* If bishop Wykeham was so disturbed (see Notab. Visitatio) to find the number of canons
reduced from fourteen to eleven, what would he have said to have seen it diminished below one
third of that number.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 379

Berne, Thomas London, William Wyndesor, and William Pay-
nell, alias Stretford, canons regular of the priory, " capitulum, et
conventum ejusdem ecclesie facientes ; ac jus et voces in electione
futura prioris dicti prioratus solum et in solidum, ut asseruerunt,
habentes ;" and after the bishop had notified to them the vacancy
of a prior, with his free license to elect, deliberated awhile, and
then, by way of compromise, as they affirmed, unanimously
transferred their right of election to the bishop before witnesses.
In consequence of this the bishop, after full deliberation, pro-
ceeded, April 7th, "in capella manerii sui de Waltham," to the
election of a prior ; " et fratrem Johannem Morton, priorem
ecclesie conventualis de Reygate dicti ordinis Sli Augustini
Wynton. dioc. in priorem vice et nomine omnium et singulorum
canonicorum predictorum elegit, in ordine sacerdotali, et etate
licita constitutum, &c." And on the same day, in the same place,
and before the same witnesses, John Morton resigned to the
bishop the priorship of Reygate viva voce. The bishop then re-
quired his consent to his own election; " qui licet in parte
renitens tanti reverendi patris se confirmans," obeyed, and signi-
fied his consent oraculo vive vocis. Then was there a mandate
citing any one who would gainsay the said election to appear
before the bishop or his commissary in his chapel at Farnham on
the second day of May next. The dean of the deanery of Aulton
then appeared before the chancellor, his commissary, and re-
turned the citation or mandate dated April 22d, 1468, with signi-
fication, in writing, of his having published it as required, dated
Newton Valence, May 1st, 1468. This certificate being read, the
four canons of Selborne appeared and required the election to be
confirmed ; et ex super abundant! appointed William Long their
proctor to solicit in their name that he might be canonically con-
firmed. John Morton also appeared, and proclamation was made;
and no one appearing against him, the commissary pronounced
all absentees contumacious, and precluded them from objecting
at any other time ; and, at the instance of John Morton and the
proctor, confirmed the election by his decree, and directed his
mandate to the rector of Hedley and the vicar of Newton Valence
to install him in the usual form.

Thus, for the first time, was a person, a stranger to the con-
vent of Selborne, and never canon of that monastery, elected
prior ; though the style of the petitions in former elections used
to run thus, — " Vos - - - - rogamus quatinus eligendum ex

380 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

nobis unum confratrem de gremio nostro, — licentiam vestram —
nobis concedere dignemini."

LETTER XX.

PRIOR Morton dying in 1471, two canons, by themselves, pro-
ceeded to election, and chose a prior ; but two more (one of them
Berne) complaining of not being summoned, objected to the pro-
ceedings as informal; till at last the matter was compromised
that the bishop should again, for that turn, nominate as he had
before. But the circumstances of this election will be best ex-
plained by the following extract : —

REG. WAYNFLETE, torn. II. pars ima, fol. 7.

Memorandum. A. D. 1471. August 22.

William Wyndesor, a canon- regular of the Priory of Selborne,
having been elected prior on the death of brother John, appeared
in person before the bishop in his chapel at South Waltham. He
was attended on this occasion by Thomas London and John
Bromesgrove, canons, who had elected him. Peter Berne and
William Stratfeld, canons, also presented themselves at the same
time, complaining that in this business they had been overlooked,
and not summoned ; and that therefore the validity of the elec-
tion might with reason be called in question, and quarrels and
dissensions might probably arise between the newly chosen prior
and the parties thus neglected.

After some altercation and dispute they all came to an agree-
ment with the new prior, that what had been done should be
rejected and annulled ; and that they would again, for this turn,
transfer to the bishop their power to elect, order, and provide
them another prior, whom they promised unanimously to admit.

The bishop accepted of this offer before witnesses; and on
September 27, in an inner chamber near the chapel above-men-
tioned, after full deliberation, chose brother Thomas Fairwise,
vicar of Somborne, a canon-regular of Saint Augustine in the
Priory of Bruscough, in the diocese of Coventry and Litchfield,
to be prior of Selborne. The form is nearly as above in the last
election. The canons are again enumerated ; W. Wyndesor, sub-
prior, P. Berne, T. London, W. Stratfeld, J. Bromesgrove, who

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 381

had formed the chapter, and had requested and obtained license
to elect, but had unanimously conferred their power on the
bishop. In consequence of this proceeding, the bishop taking
the business upon himself, that the Priory might not suffer
detriment for want of a governor, appoints the aforesaid T. Fair-
wise to be prior. A citation was ordered as above for gainsayers
to appear October 4th, before the bishop or his commissaries at
South Waltham ; but none appearing, the commissaries admitted
the said Thomas, ordered him to be installed, and sent the usual
letter to the convent to render him due obedience.

Thus did the bishop of Winchester a second time appoint a
stranger to be prior of Selborne, instead of one chosen out of the
chapter. For this seeming irregularity the visitor had no doubt
good and sufficient reasons, as probably may appear hereafter.

LETTER XXI.

WHATEVER might have been the abilities and disposition of
prior Fairwise, it could not have been in his power to have
brought about any material reformation in the Priory of Sel-
borne, because he departed this life in the month of August
14/2, before he had presided one twelvemonth.

As soon as their governor was buried the chapter applied to
their visitor for leave to choose a new prior, which being granted,
after deliberating for a time, they proceeded to an election by a
scrutiny. But as this mode of voting has not been described but
by the mere form in the Appendix, an extract from the bishop's
register, representing the manner more fully, may not be dis-
agreeable to several readers.

WAYNE FLETE REG. torn. II. pars ima, fol. 15.

"Reverendo &c. ac nostro patrono graciosissimo vestri hu-
miles, et devote obedientie filii," &c.

To the right reverend Father in God, and our most gracious
patron, we, your obedient and devoted sons, William Wyndesor,
president of the chapter of the Priory of Selborne, and the con-
vent of that place, do make known to your lordship, that our
priorship being lately vacant by the death of Thomas Fairwise,
our late prior, who died August llth, 1472, having committed

382 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

his body to decent sepulture, and having requested, according to
custom, leave to elect another, and having obtained it under your
seal, we, William Wyndesor, president of the convent, on the
29th of August, in our chapter-house assembled, and making a
chapter, taking to us in this business Richard ap Jenkyn, and
Galfrid Bryan, chaplains, that our said Priory might not by
means of this vacancy incur harm or loss, unanimously agreed
on August the last for the day of election; on which day, having
first celebrated mass, " De sancto spiritu," at the high altar, and
having called a chapter by tolling a bell about ten o' the clock,
we, William Wyndesor, president, Peter Berne, Thomas London,
and William Stratfeld, canons, who alone had voices, being the
only canons, about ten o? the clock, first sung " Veni Creator,"
the letters and license being read in the presence of many per-
sons there. Then William Wyndesor, in his own name, and
that of all the canons, made solemn proclamation, enjoining all
who had no right to vote to depart out of the chapter-house.
When all were withdrawn except Guyllery de Lacuna, in de-
cretis Baccalarius, and Robert Peverell, notary-public, and also
the two chaplains, the first was requested to stay, that he might
direct and inform us in the mode of election, the other, that he
might record and attest the transactions ; and the two last that
they might be witnesses to them.

Then, having read the constitution of the general council
" Quia propter," and the forms of elections contained in it being
sufficiently explained to them by De Lacuna, as well in Latin as
the vulgar tongue, and having deliberated in what mode to pro-
ceed in this election, they resolved on that of scrutiny. Three
of the canons, Wyndesor, Berne, and London, were made scru-
tators : Berne, London, and Stratfeld, choosing " Wyndesor ;
Wyndesor, London, and Stratfeld, choosing Berne ; Wyndesor,
Berne, and Stratfeld, choosing London.

They were empowered to take each other's vote, and then that
of Stratfeld; "et ad inferiorem partem angularem" of the
chapter-house, "juxta ostium ejusdem declinentes," with the
other persons, (except Stratfeld, who staid behind) proceeded to
voting, two swearing, and taking the voice of the third, in
succession, privately. Wyndesor voted first : " Ego credo Petrum
Berne meliorem et utiliorem ad regimen istius ecclesie, et in
ipsum consentio, ac eum nomino, &c. Berne was next sworn,
and in like manner nominated Wyndesor ; London nominated

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 383

Berne: Stratfeld was then called and sworn, and nominated
Berne.

" Quibus in scriptis redactis," by the notary-public, they re-
turned to the upper part of the chapter-house, where by Wynde-
sor " sic purecta fecerunt in communi," and then solemnly, in
form written, declared the election of Berne : when all, " ante-
dicto nostro electo excepto, approbantes et ratificantes, cepimus
decantare solemniter 'Te Deum Laudamus,' et sic canentes
dictum electum ad majus altare ecclesie deduximus, ut apud nos
est moris. Then Wyndesor electionem clero et populo infra
chorum dicte ecclesie congregatis publicavit, et personam electi
publice et personaliter ostendit." We then returned to the
chapter-house, except our prior ; and Wyndesor was appointed
by the other two their proctor, to desire the assent of the elected,
and to notify what had been done to the bishop ; and to desire
him to confirm the election, and do whatever else was necessary.
Then their proctor, before the witnesses, required Berne's assent
in the chapter-house : " qui quidem instanciis et precibus multi-
plicatis devictus," consented, " licet indignus electus," in writing.
They therefore requested the bishop's confirmation of their elec-
tion " sic canonice et solemniter celebrata," &c. &c. Sealed with
their common seal, and subscribed and attested by the notary.
Dat. in the chapter-house September 5th, 1472.

In consequence, September llth, 1472, in the bishop's chapel
at Esher, and before the bishop's commissary, appeared W.
Wyndesor, and exhibited the above instrument, and a mandate
from the bishop for the appearance of gainsayers of the election
there on that day : — and no one appearing, the absentees were
declared contumacious, and the election confirmed; and the
vicar of Aulton was directed to induct and install the prior in the
usual manner.

Thus did canon Berne, though advanced in years, reassume
his abdicated priorship for the second time, to the no small satis-
faction, as it may seem, of the bishop of Winchester, who pro-
fessed, as will be shown not long hence, an high opinion of his
abilities and integrity.

384 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORXE

LETTER XXII.

As prior Berne, when chosen in 1454, held his priorship only
to 1468, and then made a voluntary resignation, wearied and
disgusted, as we may conclude, by the disorder that prevailed
in his convent ; it is no matter of wonder that, when re-chosen
in 1472, he should not long maintain his station ; as old age was
then coming fast upon him, and the increasing anarchy and mis-
rule of that declining institution required unusual vigour and
resohition to stem that torrent of profligacy which was hurrying
it on to its dissolution. We find, accordingly, that in 1 478 he
resigned his dignity again into the hands of the bishop.

WAYNFLETE REG. fol. 55.

Resignatio Prioris de Seleborne.

May 14, 1478. Peter Berne resigned the priorship. May 16
the bishop admitted his resignation "in manerio suo de Waltham,
and declared the priorship void ; " et priorat. solacio destitutum
esse ;" and granted his letters for proceeding to a new election :
when all the religious, assembled in the chapter-house, did
transfer their power under their seal to the bishop, by the follow-
ing public instrument.

"In Dei nomine Amen," &c. A. D. 1478, Maii 19. In the
chapter-house for the election of a prior for that day, on the free
resignation of Peter Berne, having celebrated in the first place
mass at the high altar " De spiritu sancto," and having called a
chapter by tolling a bell, ut moris est ; in the presence of a
notary and witnesses appeared personally Peter Berne, Thomas
Ashford, Stephen Clydgrove, and John Ashton, presbyters, and
Henry Canwood,* in chapter assembled ; and after singing the
hymn " Veni Creator Spiritus," " cum versiculo et oratione
' Deus qui corda ;' declarataque licentia Fundatoris et patroni ;
futurum priorein eligendi concessa, et constitutione cbnsilii
generalis que incipit ' Quia propter' declaratis ; viisque per quas
possent ad hanc electionem procedere," by the decretorum docto-

* Here we see that all the canons were changed in six years ; and that there was quite a new
chapter, Berne excepted, between 1472 and 1473; for, instead of Wyndesor, London, and Strat-
feld, we find Ashford, Clydgrove, Ashton, and Canwood, all new men, who were soon gone in
their turn off the stage, and are heard of no more. For, in six years after, there seem to have
been no canons at all.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 385

rem, whom the canons had taken to direct them — they all and
every one " dixerunt et affirmarunt se nolle ad aliquam viam
procedere:" — but, for this turn only, renounced their right, and
unanimously transferred their power to the bishop, the ordinary
of the place, promising to receive whom he should provide ; and
appointed a proctor to present the instrument to the bishop under
their seal ; and required their notary to draw it up in due form,
&c. subscribed by the notary.

After the visitor had fully deliberated on the matter, he pro-
ceeded to the choice of a prior, and elected, by the following
instrument, John Sharp, alias Glastenbury.

Fol. 56. PROVISIO PRIORIS per EPM.

Willmus, &c. to our beloved brother in CHRIST, John Sharp,
alias Glastenbury, Ecclesie conventualis de Bruton, of the order
of St. Austin, in the diocese of Bath and Wells, canon-regular —
salutem, &c. " De tue circumspectionis industria plurimum con-
fidentes, te virum providum et discretum, literarum scientia, et
moribus merito commendandum," &c. — do appoint you prior —
under our seal. " Dat. in manerio nostro de Suthwaltham, May
20, 1478, et nostre Consec. 31."

Thus did the bishop, three times out of the four that he was
at liberty to nominate, appoint a prior from a distance, a stran-
ger to the place, to govern the convent of Selborne, hoping by
this method to have broken the cabal, and to have interrupted
that habit of mismanagement that had pervaded the society : but
he acknowledges, in an evidence lying before us, that he never
did succeed to his wishes with respect to those late governors, —
" quos tamen male se habuisse, et inutiliter administrare, et ad-
ministrasse usque ad presentia tempora post debitam investiga-
tionem, &c. invenit." The only time that he appointed from
among the canons, he made choice of Peter Berne, for whom he
had conceived the greatest esteem and regard.

When prior Berne first relinquished his priorship, he returned
again to his former condition of canon, in which he continued
for some years : but when he was re-chosen, and had abdicated
a second time, we find him in a forlorn state, and in danger of
being reduced to beggary, had not1 the bishop of Winchester in-
terposed in his favour, and with great humanity insisted on a
provision for him for life. The reason for this difference seems

2 c

386 ANTIQUITIES OP SELBORNE.

to have been, that, in the first case, though in years, he might
have been hale and capable of taking his share in the duty of the
convent ; in the second, he was broken with age, and no longer
equal to the functions of a canon.

Impressed with this idea the bishop very benevolently in-
terceded in his favour, and laid his injunctions on the new-
elected prior in the following manner.

Fol. 56. "In Dei nomine Amen. Nos Willmus, &c. consi-
derantes Petrum Berne/' late prior "in administratione spiri-
tualium et temporalium prioratus laudabiliter vixisse et rexisse ;
ipsumque senio et corporis debilitate confractum ; ne in oppro-
brium religionis mendicari cogatur ; — eidem annuam pensionem
a Domino Johanne Sharp, alias Glastonbury, priore moderno,"
and his successors, and, from the Priory or church, to be paid
every year during his life, "de voluntate et ex consensu ex-
pressis" of the said John Sharp, " sub ea que sequitur forma
verborum — assignamus :"

1st. That the said prior and his successors, for the time
being, honeste exhibebunt of the fruits and profits of the prior-
ship, "eidem esculenta et poculenta," while he remained in the
Priory " sub consimili portione eorundem prout convenienter
priori," for the time being, ministrari contigerit; and in like
manner uni famulo, whom he should choose to wait on him,
as to the servientibus of the prior.

Item. "Invenient seu exhibebunt eidem unam honestam
cameram," in the Priory, " cum focalibus necessariis seu oppor-
tunis ad eundem."

Item. We will, ordain, &c.~ to the said P. Berne an annual
pension of ten marks, from the revenue of the Priory, to be paid
by the hands of the prior quarterly.

The bishop decrees further, that John Sharp, and his succes-
sors, shall take an oath to observe this injunction, and that
before their installation.

" Lecta et facta sunt haec in quodam alto oratorio," belonging
to the bishop at Suthwaltham, May 25, 1478, in the presence of
John Sharp, who gave his assent, and then took the oath before
witnesses, with the other oaths before the chancellor, who
decreed he should be inducted and installed ; as was done that
same day.

How John Sharp, alias Glastonbury, acquitted himself in his
priorship, and in what manner he made a vacancy, whether by

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 387

resignation, or death, or whether he was removed by the visitor
does not appear; we only find that some time in the year 1484
there was no prior, and that the bishop nominated canon Ash-
ford to fill the vacancy.

LETTER XXIII.

THIS Thomas Ashford was most undoubtedly the last prior of
Selborne ; and therefore here will be the proper place to say
something concerning a list of the priors, and to endeavour to
improve that already given by others.

At the end of bishop Tanner's Notitia Monastica, the folio
edition, among Brown Willis's Principals of Religious Houses
occur the names of eleven of the priors of Selborne, with dates.
But this list is imperfect, and particularly at the beginning ; for
though the Priory was founded in 1232, yet it commences with
Nich de Cantia, elected in 1262 ; so that for the first thirty years
no prior is mentioned ; yet there must have been one or more.
We were in hopes that the register of Peter de Rupibus would
have rectified this omission ; but, when it was examined, no in-
formation of the sort was to be found. From the year 1410 the
list is much corrected and improved ; and the reader may depend
on its being thence forward very exact.

A LIST OF THE PRIORS OF SELBORNE PRIORY, FROM BROWN
WILLIS'S PRINCIPALS OF RELIGIOUS HOUSES, WITH AD-
DITIONS WITHIN [ ] BY THE AUTHOR.

[John was prior, sine dat.]*

Nich. de Cantia el. 1262.

[Peter was prior in 1271.]

[Richard was prior in 1280.]

Will. Basing was prior in - 1 299.

Walter de Insula el. in 1324.
[Some difficulties, and a devolution; but the election
confirmed by bishop Stratford.]

John de Winton - .... 1339.

Thomas Weston 1377.

* See, in Letter XI. of these Antiquities, rhe reason why prior John , who had transactions

with the Knights-Templars, is placed in the list before the year 1262.

2 c 2

388 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

John Winchester, [Wynchestre] - - - - 1410.
[Elected by bishop Beaufort "per viam vel formam

simplicis compromissi."]

[John Stype, alias Stepe, in - 1411.]

Peter Bene [alias Berne or Bernes, appointed keeper,

and, by lapse to bishop Wayneflete, prior] in - - 1454.
[He resigns in 1468.]

John Morton, [Prior of Reygate] in 1468.

[The canons by compromise transfer the power of

election to the bishop.]
Will. Winsor [Wyndesor, prior for a few days] - - 1471.

[but removed on account of an irregular election.]
Thomas Farwill [Fairwise, vicar of Somborne] 1471-

[by compromise again elected by the bishop.]
[Peter Berne, re-elected by scrutiny in - 1472,]

[resigns again in 1478.]

John Sharper [Sharp] alias Glastonbury 1478.

[Canon-reg, of Bruton, elected by the bishop by com-

promisec]
[Thomas Ashford, canon of Selborne, last prior elected

by the bishop of Winchester, some time in the year - 1484,
and deposed at the dissolution.]

LETTER XXIV.

BISHOP Wayneflete's efforts to continue the Priory still proved
unsuccessful ; and the convent, without any canons, and for some
time without a prior, was tending swiftly to its dissolution.

When Sharp's, alias Glastonbury 's, priorship ended does not
appear. The bishop says that he had been obliged to remove
some priors for mal-administration : but it is not well explained
how that could be the case with any, unless with Sharp ; because
all the others, chosen during his episcopate, died in their office,
viz. Morton and Fairwise ; Berne only excepted, who relinquished
twice voluntarily, and was moreover approved of by Wayneflete
as a person of integrity. But the way to show what ineffectual
pains the bishop took, and what difficulties he met with, will be
to quote the words of the libel of his proctor Radulphus Langley,
who appeared for the bishop in the process of the impropriation

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 389

of the Priory of Selborne. The extract is taken from an attested
copy.

" Item — that the said bishop — dicto prioratui et personis ejus-
dem pie compatiens, sollicitudines pastorales, labores, et diligen-
tias gravissimas quam plurimas, tarn per se quam per suos, pro
reformatione premissorum impendebat: et aliquando illius loci
prioribus, propter malam et inutilem administrationem, et dis-
pensationem bonorum predict! prioratus, suis demeritis exigen-
tibus, amotis ; alios priores in quorum circumspectione et
diligentia confidebat, prefecit : quos tamen male se habuisse ac
inutiliter administrare, et administrasse, usque ad presentia
tempora post debitam investigationem, &c. invenit." So that he
despaired with all his care — " statum ejusdem reparare vel
restaurare : et considerata temporis malicia, et preteritis timendo
et conjecturando futura, de aliqua bona et sancta religione ejus-
dem ordinis, &c. juxta piam intentionem primevi fundatoris
ibidem habend. desperatur."

William Wainfleet, bishop of Winchester, founded his college
of Saint Mary Magdalene, in the university of Oxford, in or
about the year 1459; but the revenues proving insufficient for
so large and noble an establishment, the college supplicated the
founder to augment its income by putting it in possession of the
estates belonging to the Priory of Selborne, now become a de-
serted convent, without canons or prior. The president and
fellows state the circumstances of their numerous institution and
scanty provision, and the ruinous and perverted condition of the
Priory. The bishop appoints commissaries to enquire into the
state of the said monastery ; and, if found expedient, to confirm
the appropriation of it to the college, which soon after appoints
attorneys to take possession, September 24, 1484. But the way
to give the reader a thorough insight respecting this transaction,
will be to transcribe a further proportion of the process of the
impropriation from the beginning, which will lay open the
manner of proceeding, and show the consent of the parties.

IMPROPRIATIO SELBORNE, 1485.

" Universis sancte matris ecclesie filiis, &c. Ricardus Dei
gratia prior ecclesie conventualis de Novo Loco, &c.* ad univer-

* Kcclesia Conventualis de Novo Loco was the monastery afterwards called the New Minster,
or Abbey of Hyde, in the city of Winchester. Should any intelligent reader wonder to see that
the prior of Hyde Abbey was commissary to the bishop of Winton, and should conclude that

390 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

sitatem vestre notitie deducimus, &c. quod coram nobis coimnis-
sario predicto in ecclesia parochial! Sei. Georgii de Essher, diet.
Winton. dioc. 3°. die Augusti, A. D. 1485. Indictione tertia
pontificat. Innocentii 8vi. ann. lmo. judicialiter comparuit vene-
rabilis vir Jacobus Preston, S. T. P. infrascriptus, et exhibuit
literas commissionis — quas quidem per magistrum Thomam
Somercotes notarium publicum, &c. legi fecirnus, tenorem se-
quentem in se continentes." The same as N°. 103, but dated
— " In manerio nostro de Essher, Augusti, l^o. A. D. 1485, et
nostre consec. anno 39." [N° 103 is repeated in a book contain-
ing the like process in the preceding year by the same commis-
sary, in the parish church of St. Andrew the apostle, at Farnham,
Sept. 6th, anno 1484.] "Post quarum literarum lecturam —
dictus magister Jacobus Preston, quasdam procuratorias literas
mag. Richardi Mayewe presidentis, ut asseruit, collegii beate
Marie Magdalene, &c. sigillo rotundo communi, &c. in cera

rubea impresso sigillatas realiter exhibuit, &c. et pro eisdem dnis
suis, &c. fecit se partem, ac nobis supplicant ut juxta formam in
eisdem traditam procedere dignaremur, &c." After these pro-
clamations no contradictor or objector appearing — "ad instantem
petitionem ipsius mag. Jac. Preston, procuratoris, &c. proceden-
dum fore decrevimus vocatis jure vocandis ; nee non mag. Tho .
Somercotes, &c. in actorum nostrorum scribam nominavimus.
Consequenter et ibidem tune comparuit magister Michael Clyff,
&c. et exhibuit in ea parte procuratorium suum," for the prior
and convent of the cathedral of Winton, " et fecit se partem pro
eisdem. — Deinde comperuit coram nobis, &c. honestus vir

Willmus Cowper," proctor for the bishop as patron of the Priory
of Selborne, and exhibited his " procuratorium, &c." After these
were read in the presence of Clyff and Cowper, " Preston, viva
voce," petitioned the commissary to annex and appropriate the
Priory of Selborne to the college — " propter quod fructus, reddi-
tus, et proventus ejusdem coll. adeo tenues sunt, et exiles, quod
ad sustentationem ejus, &c. non sufficiunt." — The commissary,
" ad libellandum et articulandum in scriptis" — adjourned the
court to the 5th of August, then to be held again in the parish
church of Esher.

there was a mistake in titles, and that the abbot must have been here meant; he will be pleased
to recollect that this person was the second in rank ; for, " next under the abbot, in every abbey,
was the prior." Pref. to Notit. Monast. p. xxix. Besides, abbots were great personages, and
too high in siatiou to submit to any office under the bishop.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 3Q1

W. Cowper being then absent, Radulphus Langley appeared
for the bishop, and was admitted his proctor. Preston produced
his libel or article in scriptis for the union, &c. " et admitti petiit
eundem cum effectu; cujus libelli tenor sequitur. — In Dei no-
mine, Amen. Coram nobis venerabili in Christo patre Richardo,
priore, &c. de Novo Loco, &c. commissario, &c." Part of the
college of Magd. dicit. allegat. and in his "scriptis proponrt, &c."

"Imprimis — that said college consists of a president and
eighty scholars, besides sixteen choristers, thirteen servientes
inibi altissimo famulantibus, et in scientiis plerisque liberalibus,
presertim in sacra theologia studentibus, nedum ad ipsorum pre-
sidentis et scholarium pro presenti et imposterum, annuente dec,
incorporandorum in eodem relevamen ; verum etiam ad omnium
et singulorum tarn scholarium quam religiosorum cujuscunque
ordinis undequaque illuc confluere pro salubri doctrina volentium
utilitatem multiplicem ad incrementa virtutis fideique catholice
stabilimentum. Ita videlicet quod omnes et singuli absque per-
sonarum seu nationum delectu illuc accedere volentes, lecturas
publicas et doctrinas tarn in grammatica loco ad collegium con-
tiguo, ac philosophiis morali et naturali, quam in sacra theologia
in eodem collegio perpetuis temporibus continuandas libere atque
gratis audire valeant et possint ad laudem gloriam et honorem
Dei, &c. extitit fundatuin et stabilitum."

For the first item in this process see the beginning of this
letter. Then follows item the second — " that the revenues of the
college non sufficiunt his diebus." " Item — that the premisses
are true, &c. et super eisdem laborarunt, et laborant publica vox
et fama. Unde facta fide petit pars eorundem that the Priory be
annexed to the college : ita quod dicto prioratu vacante liceat iis
ex tune to take possession, &c." This libel, with the. express
consent of the other proctors, we, the commissary, admitted, and
appointed the sixth of August for proctor Preston to prove the
premisses.

Preston produced witnesses, W. Gyfford, S. T. P. John Nele?
A. M. John Chapman, chaplain, and Robert Baron, literatus,
who were admitted and sworn, when the court was prorogued to
the 6th of August; and the witnesses, on the same 5th of
August, were examined by the commissary, "in capella infra
manerium de Esher situata, secrete et singillatim." Then follow
the "literae procuratoriae :" first that of the college, appointing
Preston and Langport their proctors, dated August 30th, 1484 ;

3Q2 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

then that of the prior and convent of the cathedral of Winton,
appointing David Husband and Michael Cleve, dated September
4th, 1484 : then that of the bishop, appointing W. Gyfford,
Radulphus Langley, and Will. Cowper, dated September 3d,
1484. Consec. 38°. — "Quo die adveniente in dicta ecclesia
" parochiali," appeared " coram nobis" James Preston to prove
the contents of his libel, and exhibited some letters testimonial
with the seal of the bishop, and these were admitted ; and con-
sequenter Preston produced two witnesses, viz. Dominum Tho-
mam Ashforde nuper priorem dicti prioratus, et Willm. Rabbys
literatum, who were admitted and sworn, and examined as the
others, by the commissary; "tune et ibidem assistente scriba
secrete et singillatim ;" and their depositions were read and made
public, as follows : —

Mr. W. Gyfford, S. T. P. aged 57, of the state of Magd. Coll.
&c. &c. as before :

Mr. John Nele, aged 57, proves the articles also :

Robert Baron, aged 56 :

Johannes Chapman, aged 35, also affirmed all the five articles:

Dompnus Thomas Ashforde, aged 72 years — " dicit 2dum 3um
4lim articulos in eodem libello contentos, concernentes statum
dicti prioratus de Selebourne, fuisse et esse veros."

W. Rabbys, aetat 40 ann. agrees with Gyfford, &c.

Then follows the letter from the bishop, " in subsidium pro-
bationis," above mentioned — " Willmus, &c. salutem, &c. nove-
rint universitas vestra, quod licet nos prioratui de Selebourne, &c.
pie compacientes sollicitudines pastorales, labores, diligentias
quam plurimas per nos et commissarios nostros pro reformatione
status ejus impenderimus, justicia id poscente ; nihilominus
tamen," &c. as in the article — to " desperatur," dated " in ma-
nerio nostro de Esher, Aug. 3d, 1485, et consec. 39." Then, on
the 6th of August, Preston, in the presence of the other proctors,
required that they should be compelled to answer ; when they all
allowed the articles " fuisse et esse vera ;" and the commissary,
at the request of Preston, concluded the business, and appointed
Monday, August 8th, for giving his decree in the same church of
Esher ; and it was that day read, and contains a recapitulation,
with the sentence of union, &c. witnessed and attested.

As soon as the president and fellows of Magdalen college had
obtained the decision of the commissary in their favour, they

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 393

proceeded to supplicate the pope, and to entreat his holiness that
he would give his sanction to the sentence of union. Some dif-
ficulties were started at Rome ; but they were surmounted by the
college agent, as appears by his letters from that city. At length
pope Innocent VIII. by a bull* bearing date the 8th day of June,
in the year of our Lord 1468, and in the second year of his
pontificate, confirmed what had been done, and suppressed the
convent.

Thus fell the considerable and well-endowed Priory of Sel-
borne after it had subsisted about two hundred and fifty-four
years : about seventy-four years after the suppression of Priories
alien by Henry V. and about fifty years before the general disso-
lution of monasteries by Henry VIII. The founder, it is pro-
bable, had fondly imagined that the sacredness of the institution,
and the pious motives on which it was established, might have
preserved it inviolate to the end of time — yet it fell,

" To teach us that God attributes to place
No sanctity, if none be thither brought
By men, who there frequent, or therein dwell."

MILTON'S Paradise Lost.

LETTER XXV.

WAINFLEET did not long enjoy the satisfaction arising from
this new acquisition ; but departed this life in a few months after
he had effected the union of the Priory with his late founded
college ; and was succeeded in the see of Winchester by Peter
Courtney, some time towards the end of the year 1486.

In the beginning of the following year the new bishop released
the president and fellows of Magdalen College from all actions
respecting the Priory of Selborne ; and the prior and convent of
Saint Swithun, as the chapter of Winchester cathedral, confirmed
the release.f

N. 293. " Relaxatio Petri epi Winton Ricardo Mayew, Presi-
denti omnium actionum occasione indempnitatis sibi debite pro

* There is nothing remarkable in this bull of pope Innocent except the statement of the animal
revenue of the Priory of Selborne, which is therein estimated at 160 flor. auri ; whereas bishop
Godwin sets it at 337/. 15j. 6\d. Now a floren, so named, says Camden, because made by Flo-
rentines, was a gold coin of king Edward III. in value 6S. whereof 160 is not one seventh part ol
3371- 15*. &\d.

f The bishops of Winchester were patrons of the Priory.

3Q4 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBOBNE.

unione Prioratus de Selborne dicto collegio. Jan. 2, 1487, et
translat. anno 1°."

N. 374. " Relaxatio prioris et conventus Sti Swithini Winton
confirrnans relaxationem Petri ep. Winton." 1487. Jan. 13.

Ashforde, the deposed prior, who had appeared as an evidence
for the impropriation of the Priory at the age of seventy-two
years, that he might not be destitute of a maintenance, was pen-
sioned by the college to the day of his death ; and was living on
till 1490, as appears by his acquittances.

REG. A. ff. 46.

" Omnibus Christi fidelibus ad quos presens scriptum per-
venerit, Richardus Mayew, presidens, &c. et scolares, salutem in
Domino."

" Noveritis nos prefatos presidentem et scolares dedisse, con-
cessisse, et hoc presenti scripto confirmasse Thome Ashforde,
capellano, quendam annualem redditum sex librarum tresdecim
solidorum et quatuor denariorum bone et legalis monete Anglic
— ad terminum vite prefati Thorne" — to be paid from the posses-
sions of the college in Basingstoke. — " In cujus rei testimonium
sigillum nostrum commune presentibus apponimus. Dat. Oxon.
in coll. nostro supra dicto primo die mensis Junii anno regis
Ricardi tertii seucndo," viz. 1484. The college, in their grant to
Ashforde, style him only capellanus ; but the annuitant very
naturally, and with a becoming dignity, asserts his late title in
his acquittances, and identifies himself by the addition of nuper
priorem, or late prior.

As, according to the persuasion of the times, the depriving
the founder and benefactors of the Priory of their masses and
services would have been deemed the most impious of frauds,
bishop Wainfleet, having by statute ordained four obits for him-
self to be celebrated in the chapel of Magdalen College, enjoined
in one of them a special collect for the anniversary of Peter de
Rupibus, with a particular prayer — " Deus Indulgentiarum."

The college also sent Nicholas Langrish, who had been a
chantry priest at Selborne, to celebrate mass for the souls of all
that had been benefactors to the said Priory and college, and for
all the faithful who had departed this life.

N. 356. Thomas Knowles, presidens, &c. — "damus et con-
cedimus Nicholao Langrish quandum capellaniam, vel salarium,
give alio quocunque nomine censeatur, in prioratu quondam de

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 39^

Selborne pro termino 40 annorum, si tarn diu vixerit. Ubi
dictus magr. Nicholaus celebrabit pro animabus omnium bene-
factorum dicti prioratus et coll. nostri, et omnium fidelium
defunctorum. Insuper nos, &c. concedimus eidem ibidem cele-
branti in sustentationem suam quandam annualem pensionem
sive annuitatem octo librarum &c.— in dicta capella dicti prioratus.
— concedimus duas cameras contiguas ex parte boreali dicte
capelle, cum una coquina, et cum uno stabulo conveniente pro
tribus equis, cum pomerio eidem adjacente voc. le Orcheyard —
Preterea 26s. 8d. per ann. ad inveniendum unum clericum ad
serviendum sibi ad altare, et aliis negotiis necessariis ejus." — His
wood to be granted him by the president on the progress. — He
was not to absent himself beyond a certain time ; and was to
superintend the coppices, wood, and hedges. — "Dat. 5to. die
Julii. an". Hen. VIIIvi. 36°." [viz. 1546.]

Here we see the Priory in a new light, reduced as it were to
the state of a chantry, without prior and without canons, and
attended only by a priest, who was also a sort of bailiff or wood-
man, his assistant clerk, and his female cook. Owen Oglethorpe,
president, and Magd. Coll. in the fourth year of Edward VI.
viz. 1551, granted an annuity of ten pounds a year for life to
Nich. Langrish, who, from the preamble, appears then to have
been fellow of that society ; but, being now superannuated for
business, this pension is granted him for thirty years, if he should
live so long. It is said of him—" cum jam sit provectioris etatis
quam ut," &c.

Laurence Stubb, president of Magd. Coll. leased out the Priory
lands to John Sharp, husbandman, for the term of twenty years,
as early as the seventeenth year of Henry VIII. — viz. 1526 : and
it appears that Henry Newlyn had been in possession of a lease
before, probably towards the end of the reign of Henry VII.
Sharp's rent was vi11. per ann. — Regist. B. p. 43.

By an abstract from a lease lying before me, it appears that
Sharp found a house, two barns, a stable, and a duf-house, [dove-
house] built, and standing on the south side of the old Priory,
and late in the occupation of Newlyn. In this abstract also are
to be seen the names of all the fields, many of which continue
the same to this day.* Of some of them I shall take notice,
where any thing singular occurs.

* It may not be amiss to mention here that various names of tithings, farms, fields, woods, &c.
which appear in the ancient deeds, and evidences of several centuries standing:, are still preserved
in common use with little or no variation :— as Norton, Southington, Durton, Achangre, Black-

396 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

And here first we meet with Paradyss [Paradise] mede. Every
convent had its Paradise; which probably was an enclosed
orchard, pleasantly laid out, and planted with fruit trees. Tyle-
house grove, so distinguished from having a tiled house near it.*
Butt-wood close ; here the servants of the Priory and the village-
swains exercised themselves with their long bows, and shot at a
mark against a butt, or bank.f Cundyth [conduit] wood : the
engrosser of the lease not understanding this name has made a
strange barbarous word of it. Conduit-wood was and is a steep,
rough cow-pasture, lying above the Priory, at about a quarter of
a mile to the south-west. In the side of this field there is a spring
of water that never fails ; at the head of which a cistern was built
which communicated with leaden pipes that conveyed water to
the monastery. When this reservoir was first constructed does
not appear, we only know that it underwent a repair in the epis-
copate of bishop Wainfleet, about the year 1462.J Whether
these pipes only conveyed the water to the Priory for common
and culinary purposes, or contributed to any matters of ornament
and elegance, we shall not pretend to say ; nor when artists and
mechanics first understood any thing of hydraulics, and that
water confined in tubes would rise to its original level. There is
a person now living who had been employed, formerly in digging
for these pipes, and once discovered several yards, which they
sold for old lead.

There was also a plot of ground called Tan-house garden : and
"Tannaria sua," a tan-yard of their own, has been mentioned
in Letter XVI. This circumstance I just take notice of, as an
instance that monasteries had trades and occupations carried on
within themselves. §

Registr. B. pag. 112. Here we find a lease of the parsonage
of Selborne to Thomas Sylvester and Miles Arnold, husbandmen
— of the tythes of all manner of corne pertaining to the parsonage

more, Bradshot, Hood, Plestor, &c. &c. At the same time it should be acknowledged that other
places have entirely lost their original titles, as le Buri and Trucstede in this village; and la
Liega, or la Lyge, which was the name of the original site of the Priory, Sec.

* Men at first heaped sods, or fern, or heath, on their roofs to keep off the inclemencies of
weather: and then by degrees laid straw or haum. The first .refinements on roofing were
shingles, which are very ancient. Tiles are a very late and imperfect covering, and were not
much in use till the beginning of the sixteenth century. The first tiled house at Nottingham
was in 1503.

t There is also a Butt-close just at the back of the village.

t N. 381. " Clausure terre abbatie ecclesie parochiali de Seleburne, ix«. iiiirf. Reparacionibus
domorum predicti prioratus iiii. lib. xi s. Aque conduct, ibidem, xxiii d-"

§ There is still a wood near the Priory called Tanner's wood.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 397

— with the offerings at the chapel of Whaddon belonging to the
said parsonage. Dat. June 1. 27th. Hen. 8th. [viz. 1536.]

As the chapel of Whaddon has never been mentioned till now,
and as it is not noticed by bishop Tanner in his Notitia Monas-
tica, some more particular account of it will be proper in this
place. Whaddon was a chapel of ease to the mother church of
Selborne, and was situated in the tithing- of Oakhanger, at about
two miles distance from the village. The farm and field whereon
it stood are still called chapel-farm and field :* but there are no
remains or traces of the building itself, the very foundations
having been destroyed before the memory of man. In a farm
yard at Oakhanger we remember a large hollow stone of a close
substance, which had been used as a hog-trough, but was then
broken. This stone, tradition said, had been the baptismal font
of Whaddon chapel. The chapel had been in a very ruinous
state in old days ; but was new-built at the instance of bishop
Wainfleet, about the year 1463, during the first priorship of
Berne, in consequence of a sequestration issued forth by that
visitor against the Priory on account of notorious and shameful
dilapidations. f

The Selborne rivulet becomes of some breadth at Oakhanger,
and, in very wet seasons, swells to a large flood. There is a
bridge over the stream at this hamlet of considerable antiquity
and peculiar shape, known by the name of Tunbridge : it consists
of one single blunt Gothic arch, so high and sharp as to render
the passage not very convenient or safe. Here was also, we find,
a bridge in very early times; for Jacobus de Hochangre, the
first benefactor to the Priory of Selborne, held his estate at
Hochangre by the service of providing the king one foot-soldier
for forty days, and by building this bridge. " Jacobus de Hoch-
angre tenet Hochangre in com. Southampton, per Serjantiam,}
inveniendi unum valectum in exercitu Domini regis [scil. Hen-
rici III*".] per 40 dies ; et ad faciendum pontem de Hochangre :
et valet per ann. C. s."

Blount's Ancient Tenures, p. 84.

* This is a manor-farm, at present the propert)' of Lord Stawell; and belonged prpbably in
ancient times to Jo. de Venur, or Venuz, one of the first benefactors to the Priory.

t See Letter XIX. of these Antiquities.— " Summa total, solut. de uovis edificationibus, et
reparacionibus per idem tempus, ut patet per comput."

" Videlicet de nova edificat. Capelle Marie de Wadden. xiiii lib. v s. viii d.— Repsracionibus
ecclesie Prioratus, canceller, ct capellar. ecclcsiarum et capellarum de Selborne, et Estworhlam."
— &c. &c.

t Sargentia, a sort of tenure of doing something for the king.

398 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

A dove-house was a constant appendant to a manorial dwell-
ing : of this convenience more will be said hereafter.

A corn-mill was also esteemed a necessary appendage of every
manor ; and therefore was to be expected of course at the Priory
of Selborne.

The prior had secta molendini, or ad molendinum :* a power
of compelling his vassals to bring their corn to be ground at his
mill, according to old custom. He had also, according to bishop
Tanner, secta molendini de Strete : but the purport of Strete, we
must confess, we do not understand. Strete, in old English,
signifies a road or highway, as Watling Strete, &c. therefore the
prior might have some mill on a high road. The Priory had
only one mill originally at Selborne ; but, by grants of lands, it
came possessed of one at Durton, and one at Oakhanger, and
probably some on its other several manors.f The mill at the
Priory was in use within the memory of man, and the ruins of
the mill-house were standing within these thirty years : the
pond and dam, and miller's dwelling, still remain. As the stream
was apt to fail in very dry summers, the tenants found their
situation very distressing, for want of water, and so were forced
to abandon the spot. This inconvenience was probably never
felt in old times, when the whole district was nothing but wood-
lands : and yet several centuries ago there seem to have been
two or three mills between Well-head and the Priory. For the
reason of this assertion, see Letter XXIX. to Mr. Barrington.

Occasional mention has been made of the many privileges
and immunities enjoyed by the convent and its priors ; but a more
particular statement seems to be necessary. The author there-
fore thinks this the proper place, before he concludes these
antiquities, to introduce all that has been collected by the ju-
dicious bishop Tanner, respecting the Priory and its advantages,
in his Notitia Monastica, a book now seldom seen, on account
of the extravagance of its price ; and being but in a few hands
cannot be easily consulted. I He also adds a few of its many
privileges from other authorities : — the account is as follows.
Tanner, page 166.

* " Servitium, quo feudatorii grana sua ad Domini molendinum, ibi molenda perfcrre, ex-
cotisuetadine, astringuntur."

t Thomas Knowles, president, Sec. ann. Hen. 8vi. xxiii.o [viz. 1532.] demised to J. Whitelie
their mills, &cc. for twenty years. Rent xxiii $• iiii d. — Accepted Frewen, president, &cc. ann.
Caroli xv. [viz. 1640.] demised to Jo. Hook and Elizabeth, his wife, the said mills. Rent as above.

t A few days after this was written a new edition of this valuable work was announced, in the
month of April of the year 1787, as published by Mr. Nasmith.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 399

SELEBURNE.

A priory of black canons, founded by the often-mentioned
Peter de Rupibus, bishop of Winchester, A. D. 1233, and dedi-
cated to the blessed Virgin Mary: but was suppressed — and
granted to William Wainfleet, bishop of Winchester, who made
it part of the endowment of St. Mary Magdalene College in Ox-
ford. The bishops of Winchester were patrons of it. [Pat. 17.
Edw. II.] Vide in Mon. Angl. torn. II. p. 343. " Cartam fun-
dationis ex ipso autographo in archivis Coll. Magd. Oxon. ubi
etiam conservata sunt registra, cartse, rentalia et alia munimenta
ad hunc prioratum spectantia.

" Extracta quaedam e registro MSS. in Bibl. Bodl. Dodsworth,
vol. 89. f. 140."

"Cart, antiq. N. N. n. 33. P. P. n. 48. et 71. Q. Q. n. 40.
plac. coram justit. itin. [Southampton] 20 Hen. rot. 25. De
eccl. de Basing, & Basingstoke. Plac. de juratis apud Winton.
40 Hen. III. rot. — Prosecta molendini de Strete. Cart. 54. Hen.
III. m. 3. [De mercatu, & feria apud Seleborne, a mistake.]
Pat. 9- Edw. I. m.— Pat. 30. Edw. I. m.— Pat. 33. Edw. I. p. 1.
m.— Pat. 35. Edw. I. m.— Pat. 1. Edw. II. p. 1. m. 9- Pat. 5.
Edw. II. p. 1, m. 21. De terris in Achanger. Pat. 6. Edw. II.
p. 1. m. 7- de eisdem. Brev. in Scacc. 6. Edw. II. Pasch. rot. 8.
Pat. 17- Edw. II. p. 1. m.— Cart. 10. Edw. III. n. 24. Quod
terrae suse in Seleburn, Achangre, Norton, Basings, Basingstoke,
and Nately, sint de afforestatae, and pro aliis libertatibus. Pat.
12. Edw. III. p. 3,m. 3.— Pat. 13. Edw. III. p. 1. m.- Cart. 18.
Edw. III. n. 24."

"N. N. 33. Rex concessit quod prior, et canonici de Sele-
burn habeant per terras suas de Seleburne, Achangre, Norton,
Brompden, Basinges, Basingstoke, & Nately, diversas libertates.

" P. P. 48. Quod prior de Seleburne, habeat terras suas
quietas de vasto, et regardo." — Extracts from Ayloffe's Calen-
dars of Ancient Charters.

"Placita de juratis & assis coram Salom de Ron0, & sociis suis
justic. itiner. apud Wynton in comitatu Sutht. — anno regni R.
Edvardi filii reg. Henr. octavo. — Et Por de Seleborn ht in Selebr.
fure. thurset. pillory, emendasse panis, & suis." [cerevisiag.] —
Chapter-house, Westminster.

" Placita Foreste apud Wynton in com. Sutham, — Anno reg.

400 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

Edwardi octavo coram Rog. de Clifford.— &c. Justic. ad eadem
placita audienda et tminand. assigtis.

" Carta Pror de Seleburn, H. Dei gra. rex. angl. &c. Con-
cessim, prior, see. Marie de Seleburn. et canonicis ibidem Deo

servient. q ipi et oes hoies sui in pdcis terris suis et

tenementis manentes sint in ppetum quieti de sectis Swanemotor.
et omnium, alior. placitor. for. et de espeltamentis canum. et de
omnibus submonitoibz. placitis querelis et exaccoibus et occoibz.
ad for. et for. et viridar. et eor. ministros ptinentibz." — Chapter-
house, Westminster.

" Plita Forestarum in com. Sutht. apud Suthamton anno

regni regis Edwardi tcii post conquestum quarto coram Johe
Mantvers, &c. justic. itiriand. &c."

De hiis qui clamant libtates infra Forestas in com. Sutht.

" Prior de Selebourne clamat esse quietus erga dnm regem de
omnibus finibus et amerciamentis p tnsgr. et omnibus exaccoibz
ad Dom. regem vel hered. suos ptinent. pret. plita corone reg.

" Item clamat qd si aliquis hominum suorum de terris et ten.
p. delicto suo vitam aut membrum debeat amittere vel fugiat, &
judico stare noluerit vel aliud delictum fecit pro quo debeat
catella sua amittere, ubicunq ; justitia fieri debeat omnia catella
ilia sint ptci Prioris et successor, suor. Et liceat eidem priori et
ballis suis ponere se in seisinam in hujusmodi catall. in casibus
pdcis sine disturbacone ballivor. dni reg. quorumcunque.

" Item clam, quod licet aliqua libtatum p dnm regem conces-
sar. pcessu temporis quocunq ; casu contingente usi non fuerint,
nlominus postea eadm libtate uti possit. Et pdcus prior quesitus
p justic. quo waranto clamat omn. terr. et ten. sua in Seleburne,
Norton, Basynges, Basyngestoke, & Nattele, que prior domus
pdte huit & tenuit Xmo. die April anno regni dni Hen. reg. pavi
dni reg. nue XVIII. imppm esse quieta de vasto et regardo, et
visu forestarior. et viridarior. regardator. et omnium ministrorum
foreste." &c. &c. — Chapter-house, Westminster.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 401

LETTER XXVI.

THOUGH the evidences and documents of the Priory and parish
of Selborne are now at an end, as yet, the author has still several
things to say respecting the present state of that convent and its
Grange, and other matters, he does not see how he can acquit
himself of the subject without trespassing again on the patience
of the reader by adding one supplementary letter.

No sooner did the Priory (perhaps much out of repair at the
time) become an appendage to the cottage, but it must at once
have tended to swift decay. Magdalene College wanted now
only two chambers for the chantry priest and his assistant ; and
therefore had no occasion for the hall, dormitory, and other
spacious apartments belonging to so large a foundation. The
roofs neglected, would soon become the possession of daws and
owls ; and, being rotted and decayed by the weather, would fall
in upon the floors ; so that all parts must have hastened to speedy
dilapidation and a scene of broken ruins. Three full centuries
have now passed since the dissolution ; a series of years that
would craze the stoutest edifices. But, besides the slow hand of
time, many circumstances have contributed to level this vener-
able structure with the ground ; of which nothing now remains
but one piece of a wall of about tea feet long,* and as many feet
high, which probably was part of an out-house. As early as the
latter end of the reign of Hen. VII. we find that a farm-house
and two barns were built to the south of the Priory, and un-
doubtedly out of its materials. Avarice again has much con-
tributed to the overthrow of this stately pile, as long as the
tenants could make money of its stones or timbers. Wanton-
ness, no doubt, has had a share in the demolition ; for boys love
to destroy what men venerate and admire. A remarkable instance
of this propensity the writer can give from his own knowledge.
When a schoolboy, more than fifty years ago, he was eye-wit-
ness, perhaps a party concerned, in the undermining of a portion
of that fine old ruin at the north end of Basingstoke town, well

* This wall has at last shared the fate of the other portions of the Priory. The farmer who
rents the place wanted a few stones, and down went the wall. The site of the Priory is still
covered with fragments of the building, amongst which I observed some fine specimens of tes-
selated pavements, fragments of pilasters, &c. In digging amongst the foundations, a few years
ago, two stone-coffins were discovered, in one of which was a skeleton tolerably perfect. The
coffins are now in the farm-yard, but have nothing about them to distinguish them from other
similar memorials of mortality.— D.

2 D

402 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

known by the name of Holy Ghost Chapel. Very providentially
the vast fragment, which these thoughtless little engineers en-
deavoured to sap, did not give way so soon as might have been
expected ; but it fell the night following, and with such violence
that it shook the very ground, and, awakening the inhabitants
of the neighbouring cottages, made them start up in their beds
as if they had felt an earthquake. The motive for this dangerous
attempt does not so readily appear : perhaps the more danger the
more honour, thought the boys ; and the notion of doing some
mischief gave a zest to the enterprize. As Dryden says upon
another occasion,

" It look'd so like a sin it pleas'd the more."

Had the Priory been only levelled to the surface of the ground
the discerning eye of an antiquary might have ascertained its
ichnography, and some judicious hand might have developed its
dimensions. But, besides other ravages, the very foundations
have been torn up for the repair of the highways : so that the
site of this convent is now become a rough, rugged pasture-field,
full of hillocks and pits, choked with nettles, and dwarf-elder,
and trampled by the feet of the ox and the heifer.

As the tenant at the Priory was lately digging among the
foundations, for materials to mend the highways, his labourers
discovered two large stones, with which the farmer was so pleased
that he ordered them to be taken out whole. One of these proved
to be a large Doric capital, worked in good taste ; and the other
a base of a pillar ; both formed out of the soft freestone of this
district. These ornaments, from their dimensions, seem to have
belonged to massive columns ; and show that the church of this
convent was a large and costly edifice. They were found in the
space which has always been supposed to have contained the
south transept of the Priory church. Some fragments of large
pilasters were also found at the same time. The diameter of the
capital was two feet three inches and a half ; and of the column,
where it had stood on the base, eighteen inches and three quar-
ters.

Two years ago some labourers digging again among the ruins,
found a sort of rude thick vase or urn of soft stone, containing
about two gallons in measure, on the verge of the brook, in the very
spot which tradition has always pointed out as having been the
site of the convent kitchen. This clumsy utensil,* whether in-

* A iudicious antiquary «ho saw this vase observed that it possibly might have been

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 403

tended for holy water, or whatever purpose, we were going to
procure, but found that the labourers had just broken it in
pieces, and carried it out on the highways.

The Priory of Selborne had possessed in this village a Grange,
an usual appendage to manorial estates, where the fruits of their
lands were stowed and laid up for use, at a time when men took
the natural produce of their estates in kind. The mansion of this
spot is still called the Grange, and is the manor-house of the
convent-possessions in this place. The author has conversed
with very ancient people who remembered the old original
Grange ; but it has long given place to a modern farm-house.
Magdalen College holds a court-leet and court-baron* in the
great wheat-barn of the said Grange annually, where the Pre-
sident usually superintends, attended by the bursar and steward
of the college. f

The following uncommon presentment at the court is not un-
worthy of notice. There is on the south side of the king's field,
(a large common-field so called) a considerable tumulus, or
hillock, now covered with thorns and bushes, and known by the
name of Kite's Hill, which is presented, year by year, in court
as not ploughed. Why this injunction is* still kept up respecting
this spot, which is surrounded on all sides by arable land, may
be a question not easily solved, since the usage has long survived
the knowledge of the intention thereof. We can only suppose
that as the prior, besides thurset and pillory, had also furcas, a
power of life and death, that he might have reserved this little
eminence as the place of execution for delinquents. And there
is the more reason to suppose so, since a spot just by is called
Gaily [Gallows] hiU.

The lower part of the village next the Grange, in which is a
pond and a stream, is well known by the name of Gracious-street,
an appellation not at all understood. There is a lake in Surrey,
near Chobham, called also Gracious-pond • and another, if we
mistake not, near Hedleigh, in the county of Hants. This strange
denomination we do not at all comprehend, and conclude that it
may be a corruption from some Saxon word, itself perhaps for-
gotten.

standard measure between the monastery and its tenants. The priory we have mentioned
claimed the assize of bread and beer in Selborne manor, and probably the adjustment of dry
measures for grain, &c.

* The time when this court is held is the mid-week between Easter and Whitsuntide.

t Owen Oglethorp, president, &c. an.lEdw. Sexti, primo [viz. 1547.] demised to Robert Arden
Selborne Grange for twenty years. Rent vil>. — Index of Leases.

2 D 2

404 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE.

It has been observed already, that bishop Tanner was mistaken
when he refers to an evidence of Dodsworth, " De mercatu et
FERIA de Seleburne." Selborne never had a chartered fair ; the
present fair was set up since the year 1681, by a set of jovial
fellows, who had found in an old almanack that there had been
a fair here in former days on the first of August ; and were de-
sirous to revive so joyous a festival. Against this innovation the
vicar set his face, and persisted in crying it down, as the proba-
ble occasion of much intemperance. However the fair prevailed ;
but was altered to the twenty-ninth of May, because the former
day often interfered with wheat-harvest. On that day it still
continues to be held, and is become an useful mart for cows and
calves. Most of the lower housekeepers brew beer against this
holiday, which is dutied by the exciseman ; and their becoming
victuallers for the day without a license is overlooked.

Monasteries enjoyed all sorts of conveniences within them-
selves. Thus at the Priory, a low and moist situation, there were
ponds and stews for their fish : at the same place also, and at the
Grange in Culver-croft,* there were dove-houses ; and on the
hill opposite to the Grange the prior had a warren, as the names
of the Coney-crofts anV. Coney-croft Hanger plainly testify.f

Nothing has been said as yet respecting the tenure or holding
of the Selborne estates. Temple and Norton are manor farms
and freehold ; as is the manor of Chapel near Oakh anger, and
also the estate at Oakhanger-house and Black-moor. The Priory
and Grange are leasehold under Magdalen-college, for twenty-
one years, renewable every seven : all the smaller estates in and
round the village are copyhold of inheritance under the college,
except the little remains of the Gurdon-manor, which had been
of old leased out upon lives, but have been freed of late by their
present lord, as fast as those lives have dropped.

Selborne seems to have derived much of its prosperity from
the near neighbourhood of the Priory. For monasteries were of
considerable advantage to places where they had their sites and
estates, by causing great resort, by procuring markets and fairs,
by freeing them from the cruel oppression of forest laws, and by
letting their lands at easy rates. But, as soon as the convent
was suppressed, the town which it had occasioned began to de-
cline, and the market was less frequented ; the rough and se-

* Culver, as has been observed before, is Saxon for a pigeon,
f A warren was an usual appendage to a manor.

ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 405

questered situation gave a check to resort, and the neglected
roads rendered it less and less accessible.

That it had been a considerable place for size formerly appears
from the largeness of the church, which much exceeds those of
the neighbouring villages ; by the ancient extent of the burying
ground, which, from human bones occasionally dug up, is found
to have been much encroached upon ; by giving a name to the
hundred ; by the old foundations and ornamented stones, and
tracery of windows that have been discovered on the north-east
side of the village ; and by the many vestiges of disused fish-
ponds still to be seen around it. For ponds and stews were
multiplied in the times of popery, that the affluent might enjoy
some variety at their tables on fast days ; therefore the more
they abounded the better probably was the condition of the
inhabitants.

407

THE

INVITATION TO SELBORNE,

SEE Selborne spreads her boldest beauties round
The varied valley, and the mountain ground,
Wildly majestic ! what is all the pride
Of flats, with loads of ornament supplied ?
Unpleasing, tasteless, impotent expense,
Compar'd with nature's rude magnificence.

Arise, my stranger, to these wild scenes haste ;
The unfinished farm awaits your forming taste :
Plan the pavilion, airy, light, and true ;
Thro' the high arch call in the length'ning view ;
Expand the forest sloping up the hill ;
Swell to a lake the scant penurious rill ;
Extend the vista, raise the castle mound
In antique taste, with turrets ivy-crown'd ;
O'er the gay lawn the flow'ry shrub dispread,
Or with the blending garden mix the mead ;
Bid China's pale fantastic fence delight,
Or with the mimic statue trap the sight.

Oft on some evening, sunny, soft, and still,
The Muse shall lead thee to the beech-grown hill,
To spend in tea the cool, refreshing hour,
Where nods in air the pensile, nest-like bower ;*
Or where the hermit hangs the straw-clad cell,f
Emerging gently from the leafy dell ;
By fancy plann'd ; as once th' inventive maid
Met the hoar sage amid the secret shade ;
Romantic spot ! from whence in prospect lies
Whate'er of landscape charms our feasting eyes ;

* A kind of an arbour on the side of a hill.

f A grotesque building, contrived by a young gentleman, who used on occasion to appear in
the character of a hermit.

408 POEMS.

The pointed spire, the hall, the pasture-plain,

The russet fallow, or the golden grain,

The breezy lake that sheds a gleaming light,

Till all the fading picture fail the sight.
Each to his task ; all different ways retire,

Cull the dry stick ; call forth the seeds of fire ;

Deep fix the kettle's props, a forky row,

Or give with fanning hat the breeze to blow.
Whence is this taste, the furnish' d hall forgot,

To feast in gardens, or th' unhandy grot ?

Or novelty with some new charms surprizes,

Or from our very shifts some joy arises.

Hark, while below the village -bells ring round,

Echo, sweet nymph, returns the soften'd sound ;

But if gusts rise, the rushing forests roar,

Like the tide tumbling on the pebbly shore.
Adown the vale, in lone, sequester' d nook,

Where skirting woods imbrown the dimpling brook,

The ruin'd Convent lies ; here wont to dwell

The lazy canon midst his cloister 'd cell ;*

While papal darkness brooded o'er the land,

Ere reformation made her glorious stand :
Still oft at eve belated shepherd-swains
See the cowl'd spectre skim the folded plains.
To the high temple would my stranger go ?t
The mountain-brow commands the woods below ;
In Jewry first this order found a name,
When madding Croisades set the world in flame ;
When western climes, urg'd on by Pope and priest,
Pour'd forth their millions o'er the deluged east ;
Luxurious knights, ill suited to defy
To mortal fight Turcestan chivalry.

Nor be the Parsonage by the muse forgot ;
The partial bard admires his native spot ;
Smit with its beauties, loved, as yet a child,
(Unconscious why) its scapes grotesque, and wild.
High on a mound th' exalted gardens stand,
Beneath, deep valleys scoop' d by nature's hand.
A Cobham here, exulting in his art,
Might blend the General's with the Gardener's part ;

* The ruin» of a priory, founded by Peter de Rupibus Bishop of Winchester.

f The remains of a preceptory of the Knights Templars; at least it was a farm dependant
«p6n some preceptory of that order. I find it was a preceptory, called the preceptory of Suding-
tnn ; now called Soutlrington.

POEMS. 409

Might fortify with all the martial trade
Of rampart, bastion, fosse, and palisade ;
Might plant the mortar with wide threat'ning bore,
Or bid the mimic canon seem to roar.

Now climb the steep, drop now your eye below,
Where round the blooming village orchards grow ;
There, like a picture, lies my lowly seat,
A rural, shelter'd, unobserv'd retreat.

Me far above the rest Selbornian scenes,
The pendent forests, and the mountain -greens
Strike with delight ; there spreads the distant view,
That gradual fades till sunk in misty blue :
Here nature hangs her slopy woods to sight,
Rills purl between and dart a quivering light.

SELBORNE HANGER.

A WINTER PIECE.

TO THE MISS BATTIES.

THE Bard, who sang so late in blithest strain
Selbornian prospects, and the rural reign,
Now suits his plaintive pipe to sadden' d tone,
While thQ blank swains the changeful year bemoan.

How fall'n the glories of these fading scenes !
The dusky beech resigns his vernal greens ;
The yellow maple mourns in sickly hue,
And russet woodlands crowd the dark'ning view.

Dim, clust'ring fogs involve the country round,
The valley, and the blended mountain -ground
Sink in confusion ; but with tempest-wing
Should Boreas from his northern barrier spring,
The rushing woods with deaf'ning clamour roar,
Like the sea tumbling on the pebbly shore.
When spouting rains descend in torrent tides,
See the torn zigzag weeps its channel' d sides :
Winter exerts its rage ; heavy, and slow,
From the keen east rolls on the treasur'd snow ;
Sunk with its weight the bending boughs are seen,
And one bright deluge whelms the works of men.
Amidst this savage landscape, bleak and bare,

410 POEMS.

Hangs the chill hermitage in middle air ;
Its haunts forsaken, and its feasts forgot,
A leaf-strown, lonely, desolated cot !

Is this the scene that late with rapture rang,
Where Delphy danc'd, and gentle Anna sang ;
With fairy-step where Harriet tripp'd so late,
And on her stump reclined the musing Kitty sate ?

Return, dear nymphs ; prevent the purple spring,
Ere the soft nightingale essays to sing ;
Ere the first swallow sweeps the fresh'ning plain,
Ere love-sick turtles breathe their amorous pain ;
Let festive glee th' enliven' d village raise,
Pan's blameless reign, and patriarchal days :
With pastoral dance the smitten swain surprize,
And bring all Arcady before our eyes.

Return, blithe maidens ; with you bring along
Free, native humour, all the charms of song ;
The feeling heart, and unaffected ease,
Each nameless grace, and ev'ry power to please.

Nov. 1, 1763.

ON THE RAINBOW.

' Look upon the Rainbow, and praise him that made it : very beautiful is it in
the brightness thereof."

ON morning or on evening cloud impress'd,
Bent in vast curve, the wat'ry meteor shines
Delightfully, to the levell' d sun oppos'd :
Lovely refraction ! while the vivid brede
In listed colours glows, th' unconscious swain
With vacant eye gazes on the divine
Phenomenon, gleaming o'er th' illumin'd fields,
Or runs to catch the treasure which it sheds.
Not so the sage, inspir'd with pious awe ;
He hails the federal arch ;* and looking up
Adores that God, whose fingers form'd this bow
Magnificent, compassing heav'n about
With a resplendent verge. " Thou mad'st the cloud,
Maker omnipotent, and thou the bow ;
And by that covenant graciously hast sworn
Never to drown the world again : henceforth,

* Gen. ix. 12—17.

411

Till time shall be no more, in ceaseless round,

Season shall follow season ; day to night,

Summer to winter, harvest to seed time,

Heat shall to cold in regular array

Succeed."* — Heav'n taught, so sang the Hebrew bard.f

Feb. 13, 1783,

A HARVEST SCENE.

WAK'D by the gentle gleamings of the morn,
Soon clad, the reaper, provident of want
Hies cheerful hearted to the ripen' d field ;
Nor hastes alone ; attendant by his side
His faithful wife, sole partner of his cares,
Bears on her breast the sleeping babe ; behind
With steps unequal trips her infant train :
Thrice happy pair, in love and labour join'd ! —

All day they ply their task ; with mutual chat
Beguiling each the sultry tedious hours :
Around them falls in rows the sever' d corn,
Or the shocks rise in regular array.

But when high noon invites to short repast
Beneath the shade of shelt'ring thorn they sit,
Divide the simple meal, and drain the cask :
The swinging cradle lulls the whimp'ring babe,
Meantime ; while growling round, if at the tread
Of hasty passenger alarm' d, as of their store
Protective, stalks the cur with bristling back,
To guard the scanty scrip and russet frock.

ON THE EARLY AND LATE BLOWING OF THE VERNAL
AND AUTUMNAL CROCUS.

SAY, what impels amidst surrounding snow
Congeal' d the Crocus' flamy bud to grow ;
Say, what retards amidst the summer's blaze
Th' autumnal bulb ; till pale declining days ? ;
The God of Seasons! whose pervading power
Controls the sun, or sheds the fleecy shower ;
He bids each flower his quick'ning word obey,
Or to each lingering bloom enjoins delay.

* Gen. viii. 22. t Moses.

412

ON THE DARK, STILL, DRY, WARM WEATHER,
OCCASIONALLY HAPPENING IN THE WINTER MONTHS.

TH' imprison'd winds slumber within their caves
Fast bound : the fickle vane, emblem of change,
Wavers no more, long- settling to a point.

All nature nodding seems compos 'd : thick steams
From land, from flood up-drawn, dimming the day,
" Like a dark ceiling stand :" slow thro' the air
Gossamer floats, or stretch' d from blade to blade
The wavy net-work whitens all the field.

Push'd by the weightier atmosphere, up springs
The ponderous Mercury, from scale to scale
Mounting, amidst the Torricellian tube.*

While high in air, and pois'd upon his wings
Unseen, the soft, enamour'd wood-lark runs
Thro' all his maze of melody ; — the brake
Loud with the black -bird's bolder note resounds.

Sooth'd by the genial warmth, the cawing rook
Anticipates the spring, selects her mate,
Haunts her tall nest-trees, and with sedulous care
Repairs her wicker eyrie, tempest torn.

The plough-man inly smiles to see upturn
His mellow glebe, best pledge of future crop :
With glee the gardener eyes his smoking beds :
E'en pining sickness feels a short relief.

The happy school -boy brings transported forth
His long-forgotten scourge, and giddy gig :
O'er the white paths he whirls the rolling hoop,
Or triumphs in the dusty fields of taw.

Not so the museful sage : — abroad he walks
Contemplative, if haply he may find
What cause controls the tempest's rage, or whence
Amidst the savage season winter smiles.

For days, for weeks, prevails the placid calm.
At length some drops prelude a change : the sun
With ray refracted bursts the parting gloom ;
When all the chequer' d sky is one bright glare.

Mutters the wind at eve : th' horizon round
With angry aspect scowls : down rush the showers,
And float the delug'd paths, and miry fields.

* The barometer.

INDEX

NATURAL HISTORY.

Page.

Aberdevine siskin, 136

Adder 56, 192

Additional observations 261

Alpine, variable, or mountain hare 82
Alpine, or white-bellied swift . . 91
Amelioration of the condition of

poorer classes .. 200

American animals 97

American and Siberian plants, ill
adapted for our variable climate 248

Ai/TKrYop-yn of animals 206

Ants 292

Aphides, smother-flies, or plant

lice 233, 250, 256, 291

drum maculatum, or cuckoo pint 44

Ash trees 298

,, shrew and rupture ashes . .187-8

Ash coloured shrike 101

Asses 198

Auk, little 103

Auks' and divers' mode of walking 213

Aurora borealis 305

Bacon fly 95

Bank swallow 167, 177, 212, 275

Barn owl 30, 89, 150, 211, 214

Barragons (a woollen manufacture) 11

Bats 30, 73, 149

,, common, or pipistrelle . . 30, 84
,, great, or noctule .... 73, 84, 98

,, long-eared 30

Bees, management of 248

„ wild 288

,, set cucumbers 301

Bee-eater 139

Bee-moth 290

Beeches 1, 2,298

Beech timber much bored by in-
sects 285

Birds, number of British 109

, , agency of, in sowing acorns,

&c 300

Blackbird 44, 105, 129, 142

Blackcap 26, 30, 88, 107, 129, 131, 262

Black game, or black grouse 13

,, hybrid do 267

„ spring 305

Page.

Black thorn 299

Blindworm 56, 59

Blue-throated fantail 213

Blue tit Ill, 112

Boar , 193

,, wild 23

Bog timber 12, 244

Bohemian waxwing, or chatterer 33

Bombylius medius 290

Botany of Selborne 208

,, philosophic 206

Bramble-finch 36

Breeds of sheep 150

British birds, number of, 109

,, reptiles 57

Brittling (slow-worm or blind-
worm) 56, 59

Brown owl . 29, 30, 142, 151, 214, 263

Bullfinch 43, 103

Bullhead, or miller's thumb (a

small fish) 29

Bunting, corn 37

reed 129, 131,136

,, snow 42, 82

,, yellow, or yellowham-

mer 125, 128

Bustards 124, 134

Butcher-bird 101

Buzzard, common 211, 260

honey . . 133, 263

Cage management of insectivor-
ous birds 125

Calculi in the stomachs of animals 97

Campagnol, bank * 26

,, meadow 26

water 26, 83, 149

Canary birds 34

Cane (a supposed quadruped) .... 42

Carp 107

,, golden 233

Carrion crow 101, 201, 214, 251

Castration 193

Cats 89, 255, 266, 280

Chafiers, fern 284

„ May 142, 284

Chaffinch , . 35, 103, 137, 238

414

Pago.
Chat,fallow,or wheatear 37,103,1 12,159

,, stone 102

,, whin 102, 112

Chatterer 33

Chestnut timber 298

Chiffchaff pettychaps 65, 273

Chimney swallow 24, 34, 74, 88, 99, 102,

104,128,138, 145,177, 197,214,241,276

Chough, Cornish 101

Cimex Linearis 287

Clouds, morning 304

Coccus vini 231

Cockroaches 285

Cock's comb (fossil so called) . . 6

Cole tit Ill

Colours of animals 44

Common bat 30, 84

„ buzzard 211,260

or hen harrier . 104, 211, 270
,, or meadow pipit 25, 213, 261

Coots 213

Corn or common bunting 37

„ crake 9, 268

, Cornua ammonis 7

Cowthorpe oak 22

Cranes 213, 214

Creeper, tree 212

Cricket, field 220

,, house 222,286

„ mole 224

Crocuses 210

Crossbill 29, 134, 160

Crows, common or carrion 101, 201,
214, 251

,, hooded, royston, or gray, 141

Cucumbers set by bees 301

Cuckoo .... 78, 126, 130, 133, 142, 190

Cuckoo pint 44

Curlew genus 84

„ stone 45, 68, 80, 84, 94, 245, 272

Cushat pigeon, or ring-dove 212

Currants eaten by birds 262

Dabchick 213

Darkfooted or chiffchaff petty-
chaps 65, 273

Daw 69, 70, 21i

Deer, fallow or buck 23

,, moose 87,90

,, red, stag, or hart 14, 23

,, and antelopes, infra-or-
bital cavities of 41

,, stealers 16

Dew 190, 305

Dipper 91, 134

Divers 213

,, great speckled 270

Dogs, Chinese, &c 242

Domestic poultry 214-5, 251, 262, 265

Doves 214

Drinking, birds mode of 106

Dripping weather after drought. . 305

Ducks 266

Dunnock , 105, 110, 129

Eagles 148, 214

Eagle owl 82

Page. •

Earth worms. 196, 213

Echoes 202, 246

Eels 29, 51, 104

Eft 53, 54, 62, 67

Elm, wych or mountain 4

European howler 82

Evejar,72,74, 99, 106, 191, 212, 214, 273

Evergreens 247

Eyed hawkmoth 288

Fairy rings 302

Falcon, kestrel 211, 268

,, peregrine 31.241

Fallen stars (so called) 302

Fallow chat or wheatear 37, 103, 112, 159

deer 23

Fan tail, blue-throated 213

Fauvet, blackcapt 26, 30, 88, 107, 129,
131, 262

,, garden 240

,, white-breasted, or lesser

whitethroat 108, 239

„ white-throated 30,88, 104, 107,
128, 131, 213

Fen reedling, or reed wren 99

Fern chaffer 284

„ owl 72,74,99, 106,191,212,214,273

Field cricket 220

Fieldfare thrush 25, 82, 86, 137-8, 261

Field mouse 26, 149, 238

Fish 19, 29, 59, 233

Flies 291

,, ichneumon , 290

Flight of birds 211

Flowing of sap 297

Flusher shrike J56

Fly-catcher, gray, 25, 30, 38, 48, 108,
131,148

„ pied "T09

Fog, reflection of 304

Foreign cage birds 91

Forest-fly 152

,, stone 8

Fossils 6

Fossil wood 12, 2^4

Fowls, common 214-5, 251, 262, 265

Frogs : 51

Frost, partial 303

,, severe 246

Frozen sleet 304

Fruit-eating birds 48

Furze killed by severe frost 255

Gallinae 133,212

Gallinule or moorhen 213

Galls on poplar trees 298

Garden fauvet 240

Geese 215, 266

German silktail 33

Glow-worm 79, 293

Gnats 261

Goat-sucker 72, 74, 99, 106, 191,212,
214, 273

Gold and silver fish 233

Gold-crest, or golden crowned

wren . 38, 51, 109, 124

Goldliiich 128

INDEX.

415

Page.

Golden oriole 139

,, wren 64

Gossamer 179

Grasshopper-bird .... 25, 48, 88, 104
Gray flycatcher 25,30,38,48,108,131,148

Grebe, little, or dabchick, 213

greater and lesssr crested 272
Greeariousness of animals . . 145, 181

Great bat 73,84,98

, speckled diver 270

"L tit HI, US, 195, 249

Greenfinch, or green grosbeak . . 212

Green lizard 58, 70, 73

„ wren 25,63,88

Grosbeak, green 212

„ haw 28,154,279

Grouse, black 13

hybrid , 267

„ red 14

Grove pettychaps 25, 63, 88

Growth of trees 296

Guinea fowl 265

Gypsies 182

Hare, common 251

,, mountain 82

Hart or stag 14, 23

Harvest mite 95

mouse 32, 39, 105

Harrier, common 104, 211, 270

Hawfinch, or haw grosbeak 28, 154, 279

Hawks 214

Hawk-sparrow 104, 216

Haws 33

Heath fires, and their effects 17

Hedge dunnock 105, 110, 129

Hedgehog 85

Hedge-sparrow 105, 110, 129

"Heliotrope 216

Hen harrier 104, 21 1 , 270

Heron 72, 212

Holt 19,21

Honey buzzard 133, 236

„ dew 256,304

H*ooded crow 141

Hoopoe 28, 139

Hops 3, 290

Horse 181,281,289

Hound -.... 281

House cricket 222, 286

martin 30, 69, 88, 92,99, 100, 102,
106,152,161,177,229,235,238,276

,, sparrow 89, 105, 153, 284

. swallow 24, 34, 74, 88,99, 102, 104
128,138,145,177,197,214,241,276

Howler, European 82

Humming-bird hawkmoth 288

Humming in the air 284

Hibernation of swallows (sup-
posed) 24, 30, 34, 69, 100, 139, 146,
159, 198, 229

Hybrid bird r. . . 15, 267

Ichneumon flies 290

Idiot boy 185

Indian grass 73

Page.
Infra-orbital cavities in deer and

antelopes 41

Insects, noxious 95

,, parasitic, on the swallow

tribe 152

,, observations on 283

,, wood boring 285

Instinct 192, 237, 267

Ireland, productions of 112

Ivy killed by severe frost 255

„ berries 299

Jackdaw 69, 70, 211

Jay 212

Juniper mouse 26, 149, 238

Kestrel falcon 21 1 , 263

Kingfisher 212

Kinglet, golden crowned 38, 51, 109, 1 24

Kites 211,263

Lampreys 29, 60

Landrail 9, 268

Landslip 218

,, springs, called lavants .... 166

Lapwings 1 03

Larks 157,212,213,269

„ sky 133, 251, 261, 212

, tit .. 103, 125, 126, 141,213, 262

„ wood 79,105,128,213

Lavants (land springs so called) 166

Leaves, ca-der oi falling 296

renovation of 298

Leprosy 199

Lesser whitethroat 108,239

Lime blossoms 299

Linnets 36, 128, 137

Lizards 57

,, green 70,73

Loach 61

Locustelle 25, 46, 88, 104

Loon 213

London fog (mist so called) .... 304

Longevity of a sow 194

Long-eared bat 30

Long-legged plover 226

Longlegs (tipula) 291

Long- tailed tit, or bottle tit .... HI

Macroglossa stellatarum 288

Magpies 89, 178, 212, 265

Management of bees 248

Marsh tit 106, 111, 113

Martin 30, 69, 88, 92, 99, 100, 102, 106,
152, 161, 177, 229, 235, 238, 276

May-fly f ephemera} 78, 287

Meadow campagnol 26

crake 9, 268

pipit 25, 213, 261

Melolontha (or scarabceus) falls . . 75
Meteorological observations .... 303

Mezzotinto engraving 21

Migration 35, 37, 38, 67, 74, 88, 99, 117,
129, 131, 139, 140,143, 159
Migratory birds, ranged in the

order of their appearance .... 49
Miller's thumb, or river bullhead 29
Minnow roach 60

416

INDEX.

Page.
Missel thrush .. 25, 82, 86, 137-8, 261

Mist, called London fog 304

Mistiness in the air 257

Moles 104, 249

Mole cricket 224

Moor-hen 213

Moose deer 87, 90

Motheater (fern owl or goatsucker) 72,
74, 99, 106, 191, 212, 214, 273

Mountain hare 82

Mouse, common or house 106

,, grass 26

harvest 32, 39, 105

„ jumper, or field 26, 149, 238

short-tailed field 26

Mufflin, rose Ill

Music, effects of 239

Nautili (fossil) 7

Newts 53, 54, 62, 67

Night singing birds 121

Nightingale 104, 141

Nightjar 72, 74, 99,106, 191, 212, 214,273

Noctule bat 30, 73, 149

Nose-fly 289

Noxious insects 94

Nuthatch 49, 238

Oaks 3, 5, 21,22, 297

Oak moth (tortrix viridana) .... 287

CEstrusbovis 273

„ cumicawla 96, 289

nasalis 289

Oriole, golden 139

Osprey 101

Otter 90

Ousel, ring 34, 67, 69, 71, 75, 80, 82,

91, 99, 100, 102, 159

Owl, brown 29,30,142,151,214,263

„ white, or barn 30, 89, 150, 211,214

„ eagle 82

Partial frost 303

Partridges . . 13, 89, 133, 148, 266, 269

Peafowl 97,215,266

Peregrine falcon 31 , 241

Pern 133,263

Petrifactions 6

Pettychaps genus . . 26, 30, 46, 48, 63

„ -darkfooted.orchiffchaff 65,273

grove, or sibilant 25, 63, 88

„ song, or willow wren 64

,, suspected 239

Pheasants 266

• Pied fly-catcher 109

Pigeons 212

„ cushet, wood, or ring-dove 212

rock 115

stock 101, 114

Pipistrelle bat 30, 73, 1 49

Pipit genus 261

„ common, or meadow (called

" titlark" at p. 261) 25, 213, 261

„ great 262

„ shore or rock 213,262

,„ tree (called " titlark " in the
letters) 103 125,126,141,213,262

Page.
Plants in the vicinity of Selborne 208

Plestor 4

Poplar, galls of 298

Population of Selborne 10

Portugal laurels endure severe

frost 249

Poultry 214-15, 251, 262, 265

Ptarmigan genus 14

Pulveratrices 133

Quails 9, 37

Rabbits 17, 129, 280

Rain ^4g

Raven 5, 148, 211

Red-backed or flusher shrike 66, 101

Redbreast 106, 126, 128, 142

Red'deer, stag, or hart 14, 23

Redstart, common, or white fronted
30, 48, 105, 108, 131, 262

„ black 105

Redwing thrush 25, 82,129, 138, 249,261

Reed bunting, or reed sparrow 129,

131, 136

Reedling genus 76

,, fen, or reed wren 99

,, sedge (lesser reed-spar.

row of White) 76, 80, 83,
104, 125, 131

Renovation of leaves 298

Reptiles ." 51

British 57

Ring ousel 34, 67, 69, 71, 75, 80, 82, 91,
99, 100, 102, 159

,. pigeon, or ring-dove 212

River bullhead, or miller's thumb 29

Robin 106, 126, 128, 142

Rock pigeon H5

Rooks . . 145, 211, 214, 245, 251, 263-4

,, white 42

Rose mufflin, or long-tailed tit . . Ill

Ruff 14

Rupture ash : 187

Rush candles 183

Rust balls 8

Sand martin 167, 177, 212, 275

Sandpiper, common 65

Scallop shells, fossil 7

Scarabfeus (or melolontha) falls . . 7

Scorbutic affection 199

Sedge reedling 76, 80, 83, 104, 125, 131

Seeds lying dormant 301

Selborne streams 3

Sheep 280

„ breeds of 158

Short-winged migratory birds 35, 38,
50, 93, 134, 159, 262

Showers of frogs 53

Shrew ash 187-8

Shrews 187

,, water 83

Shrike, ash-coloured, or sentinel 101
„ flusher, or redbacked 66, 101

rufus, or woodchat 81

Siberian plants 24S

Sibilant, or grove pettychaps 25, 63, 88

417

Page.

Siskin 136

Skylark 133,214,251,261

Sleet, frozen 304

Slowwonn, or blindworm .... 56, 59

Slugs 293

Sincrinthus ocellatus 288

Smiter pigeon 212

Smother-flies 233, 250, 256, 291

Snails 229, 293

Snakes 56, 57, 59, 81

slough 294

Snipes 26, 50, 103, 126

Snow 250

Snowflecks 42, 82

Song petty chaps 64

Sora, speckled 10

Sow, longevity of a 194

Sparrow 89, 105, 153, 284

hawk 104, 216

Spotted, or gray flycatcher 25, 30, 38,
48, 108, 131, 148

„ crake ...., 10

Squirrel 238, 280

Stag or hart 14, 23

Starlings 145, 212

Statistics of Selborne 1]

Sticklebacks 29, 59

Stilt, black winged 226

Stoat weasel 27, 42

Stock dove, or stock pigeon 101, 114
Stone curlew 45, 68, 80, 84, 94, 245, 272

,, chat 102

Stonehenge 69

ZTOPYM 147, 195

,, perversion of 149

Summer birds of passage 117

Summer snipe 65

Superstition 187

Swallow 151,212,277

bank ..... 167, 177, 212, 275

„ chimney 24, 34, 74, 88, 99,

102, 104, 128, 138, 145, 177,

197,214,241,276

„ eave 30, 69, 88, 92, 99, 100,

102, 106, 152,161,177,229,

235, 238, 276

,, purple 237

rock 92, 166

Swift, common 24, 25, 30, 84, 99, 102,

103, 170, 177, 205, 212, 230

,, white-bellied, or alpine .. 94

Sycamore 298

Tamed toads 52

Tawney hooter 29, 30, 142, 151, 214, 263

Teal 20, 103, 150

Temperature of the air 246

Thaw 303

,, indications of 249

Thicknee 45, 68, 80, 84, 94, 245, 272

Thrush, black, or blackbird 44, 105,

129, 142

fieldfare 25, 82, 86, 137-8,261
missel 25, 102, 178, 212, 264-5

Page.

Thrush, redwing 25, 82,129,138,249,261

„ ring, or ring ousel 34,. 67, 69,

71, 75, 80, 82, 91, 99, 100,

102, 159

,, song, or mavis 25, 44, 105,
129, 142, 264, 249

Thunder storms 258

Tipulce 291

Tit, blue 111,112

„ cole Hi

„ great Ill, 112,195,249

„ long-tailed Ill

,, marsh 106,111,112

Titlark .. 103, 125, 126, 141, 213, 262

Toads 51,52,61,70

Tomtit Ill, 112

Toy ousel 91

Torpidity 24, 30, 34, 69, 100, 139, 146,

159, 198, 229

Tortoise .. 135, 146, 160, 197, 228, 260

Tortrix viridana 287

Tree creeper 212

„ pipit 103, 125, 126, 141, 213, 262

Trees 21

,, order of losing their leaves 296

,, (flowing of sap in) 297

,, (renovation of leaves) .... 298

Tremella nostre 203

Tropical trees 21

Trout 29, 288

Truffles 301

Tumbler pigeon 212

Turkies 215, 265

Turnip fly 95

Unknown bird 44

Uses of the pectinated claw in

certain birds 99

Variable hare 82

Vegetables, observations on 296

Viper 56, 192

Wagtails 37, 103,105, 110,126, 212,278
Warbling, or song petty chaps .. 64

Wasps 256, 262, 289

Water rat 26, 83, 149

,, shrew 83

Waxwing, wandering 33

Weasel, common 104

,, genus 104

Weather 246—259

observations on 303

Wheatear 37,103,112,159

Whin chat 102,112

White-bellied, or alpine swift . . 91
„ breasted fauvet .... 108,239
„ owl .... 30,89,150,211,214

,, rooks 42

„ throated fauvet, or white-
throat 30, 88, 104, 107, 128,
131, 213

Widgeon 20

Wild bees 288

,, boar 23

„ fowl . . 13^ 19, 29, 213, 214, 269

418 IN

Page.

Wild geese 83, 213-14, 269

Willow wren 64

Winter birds of passage 120

Wolmer-forest 12, 19

Wood-boring insects 285

Wood, fossil 12,244

Woodchat, or rufous shrike .... 81
Woodcock . . 92, 126, 137-8, 140, 243

Wood lark 79, 105, 188,3

Woodpeckers 211, 214

Wood wren 25, 63, 88

Worms 196, 293

Wren 106,128,238

Wryneck 189, 278

Wych, or mountain elm 4

Yellow wren .„ 25, 63, 88

INDEX TO THE ANTIQUITIES.

Ancient importance of Selborne 405

Anecdote of Edward II 326

Charter of foundation 343

Conduit-wood 396

Decay of the priory buildings . . 402
Destructive propensities of boys 402

Dorton 353

Doomsday account of Selborne. . 324
Estates of the priory presented to

Magdalen-college 389 — 393

Form for election of the priors . . 369

Gally-hill 403

Gracious-street 403

Grange 403

Gurdon's (Sir Adam) connection
with Selborne 345, 347, 348, 350, 351,
352, 353, 358

Hartley-church 327

Kingsley-church 326

Knights Templars at Selborne 350,354

Plestor 349

Priors of Selborne 387, 388

,, form of election of 369

,, privileges of 344

Priory of Selborne .... 340, 359, 371

,, charter of foundation 343

revenues 377

„ mills 398

,, relics, vestments, &c. of 375
,, Bishop Tanner's account of

399, 400
„ sequestration of 376

Priory estates presented to Mag-
dalen-college 389—393

„ tenure of the estates 404

,, causes of the decay of the

buildings 401

Profligacy of the clergy 373

Remains discovered 402

Roman coins found near Selborne 323
Saxon names of places near Sel-
borne 324

Selborne-church 327

,, vicarai

irage

336

rivulet 397

fair 404

Tanner's (Bishop) account of Sel-
borne priory 399, 400

Temple manor-house 347

,, oratory or chapel 348

Vicars of Selborne 337—340

Virgin garlands 328

Well-head 325

Whaddon-chapel 397

William of Waynflete 374

Wykeham, bishop of Winchester

362—368
Wykeham's visitation and charge

363—368

Yew trees common in church-
yards 334

,, berries fatal to horses and

cows 334

WORKS PUBLISHED BY WM. S. ORR AND CO., LONDON.

In small 8vo. 2s. 6d. cloth boards, and 4s. 6d. bound in morocco.

ALPHABETS OP THE SCIENCES.

FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS A^7D SELF-INSTRUCTION.

This series of little Volumes was undertaken with the design of furnishing
young learners with plain, easy, short, and cheap introductions to the different
sciences, at the same time making them more substantial and trust-worthy in
fact and inference than has been usually done in introductory works. To attain
this object, it was necessary to exclude every unimportant detail, and to con-
dense into as small a compass as possible the valuable materials which had hi-
therto remained scattered through many volumes both British and Foreign. In
preparing these little volumes for the press, the aim of the Editor, and those
Gentlemen who have assisted him, has not been directed so much to originality
of information, as to present a fair epitome of the present state of knowledge
in the branches of science treated of, and a detail of such facts as seemed to bear
more immediately upon the principles of the science ; it has been laid down as
a rule to admit no technical terms in the text without a plain and intelligible
explanation of them, either as a foot-note or otherwise. This plan has been
strictly adhered to throughout the Series, and these little volumes will be found
highly useful both in schools and to those who wish to acquire the principles of
a science without the aid of a teacher.

The following volumes are now ready, and others are in preparation :— ,

THE ALPHABET OF INSECTS,

lanatory of the
Arrangement.

explanatory of their Structure, Physiology,
and

THE ALPHABET OF BOTANY,

explanatory of the Structure and Classifi-
cation of Plants.

THE ALPHABET OF GARDEN-
ING, explanatory of the Principles of Ve-
getable Physiology as applied to Cultivation.

THE ALPHABET OF CHEMIS-
TRY, explanatory of the Principles of
Chemical Combination, with numerous Ex-
periments.

THE ALPHABET OF ANGLING,

a brief Natural History of Fishes, and
instructions in the various modes of taking
them, founded on the basis of science.

THE ALPHABET OF MEDICAL
BOTANY, containing the Natural History
and Botanical Description of Plants used in
Medicine, with their Qualities.

THE ALPHABET OF ZOOLOGY,

explanatory of the Structure, Economy,
and Habits of Quadrupeds.

THE ALPHABET OF NATURAL

PHILOSOPHY, explanatory of the general
Structure and Laws of Matter.

THE ALPHABET OF NATURAL

THEOLOGY, explanatory of the Existence,
Character, and Attributes of God.

THE ALPHABET OF ELEC-
TRICITY, detailing the general Laws,
Experiments, and History of the Science.
By W. M. HiGGiNs.F.G.S.

THE ALPHABET OF PHYSI-
CAL GEOGRAPHY, explanatory of the
Constitution of Continents, Islands, and
Seas.

THE ALPHABET OF GEO-
LOGY, the Revolutions of the Globe, and
the Theories by which they are explained.
By W. M. HIGGINS, F.G.S.
These works may also be had arranged in four volumes, forming complete treatises on
BOTANY, NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, ZOOLOGY, COSMOGRAPHY, price 7s. 6d. each volume, cloth
lettered, 9s. 6d. embossed roan, and 10s. 6d. morocco.

EDUCATION.

In I2mo. price 4s. cloth,

THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDU-
CATION, with its Practical Application to a
System of Popular Instruction as a Na-
tional Object. By JAMES SIMPSON, Advo-
cate, Edinburgh.

In royal Svo. price 1 s. 6rf. sewed,
THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN, I
considered in relation to External Objects-
By GEORGE COMBE.

The People's edition.

Of this Edition upwards of 20,000 have
been sold.

WORKS PUBLISHED BY WM. S. ORR AND CO., LONDON.

NEW SCHOOL AND CLASS BOOKS.

In royal 18mo. Is. Qd. sheep, lettered,

WALL'S GRAMMATICAL

SPELLING-BOOK, intended to facilitate
the Simultaneous Acquirement of Ortho-
graphy and Grammar.

" A very good elementary work, well calculated to
shorten the first paths to learning, and likely to su-
persede «nany of the old-fashioned, quaint, and tedi-
ous spelling-books." — Metropolitan Magazine.

CORRALL'S DIAMOND EDITION.

In royal 32mo. 3s. roan lettered, 3s. 6d. em-
bossed, gilt edges, and 4s. &d. Turkey morocco,

JOHNSON'S DICTIONARY OF

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, with
WALKER'S PRONUNCIATION of all the diffi-
cult or doubtful words, and Marks to show
where to double the Consonant in the Par-
ticiple.

Uniform with the above, 3s. roan lettered, and
3s. 6d. embossed roan.

DIAMOND POCKET DIG-

TIONARY of the FRENCH LANGUAGE.
Edited, and the Pronunciation of the more
difficult words introduced, by J. Row-

BOTIIAM.

In \2rno. 5s. clothboards, or 5s. 6d. roan lettered,
a second edition revised and augmented, of

A PRACTICAL FRENCH
GRAMMAR, being a concise system of
French Accidence and Syntax, with copious
Examples, illustrative Exercises for Re-
ciprocal Translation, and Synoptic Tables
By L. E. PEITHMAN, M.D.

In 12mo. 3s. cloth boards, and 3s. 6d. roan let-
tered, a second edition, much enlarged, of

A PRACTICAL LATIN GRAM-

MAR, adapted to the natural operations of
the Mind, and developing the system on
which the Language is taught in the best
Schools of Germany, with instructive Read-
ing Lessons analytically explained. Bv L.
E. PEITHMAN, M.D.

CHEAP ATLASSES.

Imperial 4fo. half-bound, Russia il. Us. 6d.
plain, 21. 2s. coloured,

A GENERAL DESCRIPTIVE
ATLAS OF THE EARTH, containing 51
maps prepared from the latest and best au-
thorities, each map being accompanied by
descriptions of the Geographical Features,
Chief Towns and Cities, the Population,
General Statistic and Natural Productions.
By W. F. HIGGINS, F.G.S.

11. Is. full coloured, and half-bound roan,
A GENERAL ATLAS OF

MODERN GEOGRAPHY, containing 51
Maps compiled from the latest and best
authorities. By JOHN DOWER.
Imperial Svo. half-bound, 4s. plain, 5s. coloured,

A SHORT ATLAS OF MODERN

GEOGRAPHY, containing a selection of
12 Maps for the use of younger pupils, pre-
pared from the latest authorities- By JOHN
DOWER.

*„* The Proprietors feel much confidence in submitting the above Atlasses to the public, the
utmost care having been bestowed in preparing the drawings and engravings, as well as in the
colouring, and the prices being unprecedently low.

ORR AND CO.'S CABINET EDITIONS.

Price 2s. each Volume, cloth lettered, 3s. silk, and 5s. morocco.

The object of this series of the British Classics is to present a selection of our most popular
Authors in a neat form, and printed in a bold and readable type. In all instances the work will
be carefully compared with the best editions, and, where various readings occur, the latest cor-
rections of the author will be chosen. Nothing in the shape of comment or remark which has
not emanated from the author himself will be admitted. The following Authors have already
appeared :—

THE SEASONS AND CASTLE
OF INDOLENCE. By JAMES THOMSON.

THE SHIPWRECK, AND
OTHER POEMS. By WILLIAM FALCONER,
a sailor.

THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF

RELIGION IN THE SOUL, in a Course
of Serious Practical Addresses. By PHILIP

DODDRIDGE, D.D.

A COLLECTION OF THE PRO-
MISES OF SCRIPTURE, arranged under
proper heads. By SAMUEL CLAHKE, D.D.

THE POETICAL WORKS OF

HENRY KIRKE WHITE.

PARADISE LOST, a Poem. By
JOHN MILTON.

fit*

LOCKED
CAS*