an half below the freezing point, within doors. The tender evergreens
were injured pretty much. It was very providential that
the air was ftill, and the ground well covered with fnow, elfe
vegetation in general muft have fuffered prodigioufly. There is
reafon to believe that fome days were more fevere than any lince
the year 1739-40.
I am, &C.-&C.
L E T T E R XIV.
T O THE S AM E .
D E A R S IR , Se l borne, March 12, 176S,
I f lome curious gentleman would procure the head of a fallow-
deer, and have it diffedted, he would find it furnifhed with.two
fpiracuia, or breathing-places, befides the noftrils; probably
analogous to the punBa lachrymalia in the human head. When
deer are thirfty they plunge their nofes, like fome horfes, very
deep under water, while in the adt of drinking, and continue them
in that fituation for a confiderable time : but, to obviate any incon-
veniency, they can open two vents, one at the inner corner of
each eye, having a communication with the nofe. Here feems to
be an extraordinary provifion of nature worthy our attention;
and which has not, that I know of, been noticed by any naturalift.
For it looks as if thefe creatures would not be fuffocated, though
both their mouths and noftrils were flopped. This curious formation
of the head may be of Angular fervice to beafts of chafe, by
affording
O F S E L B O R N E . 41
affording them free refpiration: and no doubt thefe additional
noftrils are thrown open when they are hard run1. Mr. Ray
■ obferved that, at Malta, the owners flit up the noftrils of fuch afles
as were hard worked : for they, being naturally ftrait or fmall,
did not admit air fufficient to ferve them when they travelled, or
laboured,, in that hot climate. And we know that grooms, and
gentlemen of the turf, think large noftrils neceffary, and a perfection,
in hunters and running horfes.
• Oppian, the Greek poet, by the following line, feems to have
had fome notion that flags have four fpiracuia .-
• te Terfct^VfjLQi epweg9 WitrvDeq urvoiycrt
Quadrifidse nares, quadruplices ad refpirationem canales;”
Opp. Cyni. Lib. ii. 1. i8 t .
Writers, copying from one another, make Arijlotle fay that
goats hreathe at their ears; whereas he afferts juft the contrary
: ■--- c£ AXxpaiuu yocg ouk x/.rkr teysi, (pufAsvoc awjrvuv Tut aiyac
f t xxtx toc utoc.” “ Akmaon does not advance what is true, when
he avers that goats breathe through their ears.” — Hiftory of
Animals. Book I. chap. xi.
x In anfwer to this account, Mr. Pennant fent me the following curious and pertinent
reply. “ I was much furprifed to find in the antelope fomething analogous to what you
J| mention as fo remarkable in deer. T h is animal alfo has a long, flit beneath each eye,
“ which can be opened and fliut at pleafure. On holding an orange to one, the creature
*f made as much ufe o f thofe orifices as o f his noftrils, applying them to the fruit, and
feeming to Imell it through them,”