ging little round holes. It appears that beetles are no inconsiderable part of their food. In June last I procured a litter of four or five young hedgehogs, 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: 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 caution. 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 mus. cle that enables the creature to roll itself up in a ball was not then arrived at its full tone and firmness. Hedgehogs make a deep and warm hybernaculum with leaves and moss, in which they conceal themselves for the winter; but I never could find that they stored in any winter provision, as some quadrupeds certainly do.

I have discovered an anecdote with respect to the FIELDFARE (turdus pilaris) which I think is particular enough; this bird, though it sits on trees in the daytime, and procures the greatest part of its food from white-thorn hedges; yea, moreover, builds on very high trees, as may be seen by the Fauna Suecica, yet always appears with us to roost on the ground. 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 redwings 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.

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

LETTER XXVIII.

Selborne, March, 1770.

ON Michaelmas Day, 1768, I managed to get a sight of the female Moose belonging to the Duke

of Richmond, at Goodwood, but was greatly disap. pointed, 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 greenhouse, slung under the belly and chin by ropes, and in a standing posture. The grand distinction between this deer and any other species that I have ever met with consisted 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, the 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 nymphæ, 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 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! 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. I should have been glad to have examined the teeth, tongue, lips, hoofs, &c., minutely. 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 which you saw, and whether you think still that the American moose and European elk are the same creature.

LETTER XXIX.

Selborne, May 12, 1770. DEAR SIR,-LAST month [April] 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, amid all this meteorous strife and war of the elements, two swallows discovered themselves so 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; but whether this state of solitude is matter of choice or necessity, is not so easily discoverable. 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 following.