often told me that foon after harveft he has frequently taken fmall
coveys of partridges, cohfifting of cock-birds alone; foefe he
pleafantly ufed to call old bachelors.
There is a propenfity belonging to common houfe-cats that is
"very remarkable; I mean their violent fondnefs for fifh, which
appears to be their moft favourite food: and yet nature in this
inftance feems to have planted in them an appetite that, unaffifted,
they know not how to gratify: for of all quadrupeds cats are
the leaf!: difpofed towards water ; and will not, when they can
avoid it, deign to wet a foot, much lefs to plunge into that
element.
Quadruped's that prey on filh are amphibious: fueh is the
otter, which by nature is fo Well formed for diving, that it makes
greathavock among the inhabitants of the waters. Not fuppofing
that We had any ofthofe beafts in our foalloW brooks, 1 was much
pleafed to fee a male otter brought to me, weighing twenty-one
pounds, that ‘had been Slot on the bank of our ftrearn below the
priory, "Where the armlet divides the parffh o f Belborne from
MarteleyAvoo'd.
L E T T E R X X X .
to Vue sam e.
D-E-AR SIR, Sm.eorne, Aug.*,*??».
T he Jrenth, I'think, in general are ftrangdly prolix ‘in their
natural hiftory. What Linnaus fays with refpedt ‘to in'fefts holds
good lh eViffy Other btandh : Ferfrojifas prafefttrs Jkcifti, wlamitas
Trits.” Pray
Pray how do you approve of Scopoli’s new work ? as I admire
his Entomologia, I long to fee it.
I, forgot to mention in my laft letter (and had not room to
infert in the former) that the male moofe, in rutting time, fwims
from ifland to ifland, in the lakes and rivers of North-America, m
purfuit of the females. My friend, die chaplain, faw one killed
in the water as it was on that errand in the river St. Lawrence it
was a monftrous bead, he told me; but he did npt take the
dimenfions.
When I was laft ip town our friend Mr, Barrington- moft
obligingly carried ms to fee many curious fights. As you were
then writing -to him about horns, he earned me to fee many
ftrange and wonderful fpepuuens,. "JFlieie. is, I remember, at Lord
Pembroke’s, at '$ $$& 2$ horn r°P.m furniflied with more than
thirty different pairs ; but I have not ,fepn that fioufe lately.
hlr. Barrington fhewccl rue .many aftoniihing (^plledtions of Huffed
and living birds from all quarters of the world. After I had
ftudied over the latter for a time, I remarked that every fpecies
almoft that came from diftant regions, fuch as South America, the
coaft of Guinea, &c. \ve.re fofok-bifted birds of foe loxia and
fringiUa genera; and no motacillre, or mufcicapre, were to be met
with. When I came to confider, the reafon was obvious
enough; for the hard-billed birds fubfift on feeds which are eafily
carried on board; while die foft-billed birds, which are fopported
by worms and infects, or, what -is a Juceed(tnettm for them, frefh
raw meat, can meet with neither in long and tedious voyages.' It
is from this defeft of food that our collections (curious as they are)
are defe&ive, and we are deprived of I'ome .of the moft delicate
and lively genera. I am, "foe.