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This curious formation of the head may be of singular service

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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 shut 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 smell it through them."-Note. Both White, however, and his friend Pennant were here misled by appearances, for it turns out, upon antaomical 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 I 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 some 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 I have no doubt that the fact stated is correct, the air which escapes passing, not through the infra-orbital sacs, but through the lachrymal passages, which are 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 can without difficulty force a current of air or water through the nasal duct [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 outh were immersed in water."-ED.

up the nostrils of such asses as were hard worked: for they, being naturally straight or small, did not admit air sufficient to serve 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 :

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“ Τετράδυμοι ῥινες, πισυρες πνοιησι διαυλοι.”

"Quadrifidæ nares, quadruplices ad respirationem canales."

Opp. Cyu. Lib. ii. 1. 181.

Writers, copying from one another, make Aristotle say that goats breathe at their ears; whereas he asserts just the contrary :-" Αλκμαιων γαρ ουκ αληθη λεγει, φαμευος αναπνειν τας "Alcmæon does not advance what is true, when he avers that goats breathe through their ears."-History of Animals. Book I. chap. xi.

αιγας κατα τα ώτα.

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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 intelligence can be little depended on; but further enquiry may be made.*

Weasel.

That a fourth species of the subgenus putorius (subordinate to mustela), the group to which Mr. White here refers, exists in England, I 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 have but three species, nor does western Europe produce more: the fitchweasel, "polecat," or "foumart" (mustela-putorius furo), which in its domesticated state is termed the "ferret," the stoat-weasel or "ermine" (mustela-putorius erminus), and the "common," or (as it might be better termed), the dwarf-weasel (mustela-putorius vulgaris), all of which are plentiful throughout the country. Of the typical mustele we have the white-breasted marten

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 preserved 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.*

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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 the 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 suspect, 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.

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

I had remarked, for years, that the root of the cuckoopint (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 yellowgreen colour that belongs to the salicaria kind, and, I think, was softbilled. It was no parus; and was too long and too big for the golden-crowned wren, appearing most like the largest willowwren. It hung sometimes with its back downwards, but never

They are difficult to tame. Another species, the lark-heeled snow-fleck (P. lapponica), which approximates still more towards the lark genus, 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 "bullfinch" (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? mihi, fringilla amandava Linnæus), of the bird-shops, to become wholly black when fed entirely on Canary-seed.-ED.

+ 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 (lepus montanus), “is lichened rock in summer, hoar frost in autumu, 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 When creatures are them with some means of eluding the piercing ken of their winged enemies. 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 accommodate 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 whitewashed, 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 resembles 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 I may here further observe, in conclusion, that, were Jacob's curious experiments to be tried again at the present day, they would doubtless be attended with very similar results.-ED.

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

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European Thicknee.

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

LETTER XVI. To T. PENNANT, Esa.

DEAR SIR, Selborne, April 18, 1768. THE history of the stone curlew, charadrius ædicnemus, 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 salicaria, 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.

+ European thicknee, adicnemus 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 "landrail" (crex pratensis). In the stomachs of the adicnemi I have chiefly found the remains of various beetles.-ED.

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