The natural history of Selborne . great entertainment in your description of the her-onry at Cressi Hall, which is a curiosity I nevercould manage to see. Fourscore nests of such abird on one tree is a rarity which I would ridehalf as many miles to have a sight of. Pray besure to tell me in your next whose seat Cressi Hall OF SELBORNE. 63 is, and near what town it lies.* I have oftenthought that those vast extent of fens have neverbeen sufficiently explored. If half a dozen gentle-men, furnished with a good strength of water-spaniels, were to beat them over for a week, theywould certainly find
The natural history of Selborne . great entertainment in your description of the her-onry at Cressi Hall, which is a curiosity I nevercould manage to see. Fourscore nests of such abird on one tree is a rarity which I would ridehalf as many miles to have a sight of. Pray besure to tell me in your next whose seat Cressi Hall OF SELBORNE. 63 is, and near what town it lies.* I have oftenthought that those vast extent of fens have neverbeen sufficiently explored. If half a dozen gentle-men, furnished with a good strength of water-spaniels, were to beat them over for a week, theywould certainly find more species. There is no bird, I believe, whose manners Ihave studied more than that of the caprimulgus(the Goat-sucker), as it is a wonderful and curiouscreature ; but I have always found that thoughsometimes it^may chatter as it flies, as I know itdoes, yet in general it utters its jarring note sit-ting on a bough; and I have for many a half hour. watched it as it sat with its under mandible quiver-ing, and particularly this summer. It perches usu-ally on a bare twig, with its head lower than itstail, in an attitude well expressed by your draughts,man in the folio British Zoology. This bird ismost punctual in beginning its song exactly at theclose of day; so exactly, that I have known it* Cressi Hall is near Spalding, in Lincolnshire. H 86 NATURAL HISTORY Strike up more than once or twice just at the reportof the Portsmouth evening gun, which we can hearwhen the weather is still. It appears to me pastall doubt that its notes are formed by organic im-pulse, by the powers of the parts of its windpipe,formed for sound, just as cats purr. You will cred-it me, I hope, when I assure you that, as my neigh-bours were assembled in an hermitage, on the sideof a steep hill, where we drank tea, one of thesechurn-owls came and settled on the cross of thatlittle straw edifice, and began to chatter, and con-tinued his note for many minutes ;
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