quihloh.)

I am, etc.



Letter LIX
To The Honourable 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 butt-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 asking the carpenter for
what purpose he had procured it, he told 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 oedicnemus). Some of
them 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 watchwords to