Volume I Part 7 (1/2)

Another instance I remember of a sportsman, whose zeal for the increase of his game being greater than his humanity, after pairing-time he always shot the c.o.c.k-bird of every couple of partridges upon his grounds; supposing that the rivalry of many males interrupted the breed: he used to say, that, though he had widowed the same hen several times, yet he found she was still provided with a fresh paramour, that did not take her away from her usual haunt.

Again; I knew a lover of setting, an old sportsman, who has often told me that soon after harvest he has frequently taken small coveys of partridges, consisting of c.o.c.k-birds alone; these he pleasantly used to call old bachelors.

There is a propensity belonging to common house-cats that is very remarkable; I mean their violent fondness for fish, which appears to be their most favourite food: and yet nature in this instance seems to have planted in them an appet.i.te that, una.s.sisted, they know not how to gratify; for of all quadrupeds cats are the least disposed towards water, and will not, when they can avoid it, deign to wet a foot, much less to plunge into that element.

Quadrupeds that prey on fish are amphibious: such is the otter, which by nature is so well formed for diving, that it makes great havoc among the inhabitants of the waters. Not supposing that we had any of those beasts in our shallow brooks, I was much pleased to see a male otter, brought to me, weighing twenty-one pounds, that had been shot on the bank of our stream below the Priory, where the rivulet divides the parish of Selborne from Harteley Wood.

LETTER x.x.x.

SELBORNE, _Aug. 1st_, 1770.

Dear Sir,--The French, I think, in general are strangely prolix in their natural history. What Linnaeus says with respect to insects holds good in every other branch: ”_Verbositas praesentis saeculi_, _calamitas artis_.”

Pray how do you approve of Scopoli's new work? As I admire his ”Entomologia,” I long to see it.

I forgot to mention in my last letter (and had not room to insert in the former) that the male moose, in rutting time, swims from island to island, in the lakes and rivers of North America, in pursuit of the females. My friend, the chaplain, saw one killed in the water as it was on that errand in the river St. Lawrence: it was a monstrous beast, he told me; but he did not take the dimensions.

When I was last in town, our friend Mr. Barrington most obligingly carried me to see many curious sights. As you were then writing to him about horns, he carried me to see many strange and wonderful specimens.

There is, I remember, at Lord Pembroke's at Wilton, a horn room furnished with more than thirty different pairs; but I have not seen that house lately.

Mr. Barrington showed me many astonis.h.i.+ng collections of stuffed and living birds from all quarters of the world. After I had studied over the latter for a time, I remarked that every species almost that came from distant regions, such as South America, the coast of Guinea, etc., were thick-billed birds of the _loxia_ and _fringilla_ genera; and no _motacillae_, or _muscicapae_, were to be met with. When I came to consider, the reason was obvious enough, for the hard-billed birds subsist on seeds which are easily carried on board, while the soft-billed birds, which are supported by worms and insects, or, what is a _succedaneum_ for them, fresh raw meat, can meet with neither in long and tedious voyages. It is from this defect of food that our collections (curious as they are) are defective, and we are deprived of some of the most delicate and lively genera.

I am, etc.

LETTER x.x.xI.

SELBORNE, _Sept. 14th_, 1770.

Dear Sir,--You saw, I find, the ring-ousels again among their native crags, and are farther a.s.sured that they continue resident in those cold regions the whole year. From whence then do our ring-ousels migrate so regularly every September, and make their appearance again, as if in their return, every April? They are more early this year than common, for some were seen at the usual hill on the fourth of this month.

An observing Devons.h.i.+re gentleman tells me that they frequent some parts of Dartmoor, and breed there, but leave those haunts about the end of September, or beginning of October, and return again about the end of March.

Another intelligent person a.s.sures me that they breed in great abundance all over the peak of Derby, and are called there tor-ousels, withdraw in October and November, and return in spring. This information seems to throw some light on my new migration.

Scopoli's new work (which I have just procured) has its merit in ascertaining many of the birds of the Tirol and Carniola. Monographers, come from whence they may, have, I think, fair pretence to challenge some regard and approbation from the lovers of natural history; for, as no man can alone investigate the works of nature, these partial writers may, each in their department, be more accurate in their discoveries, and freer from errors, than more general writers; and so by degrees may pave the way to an universal correct natural history. Not that Scopoli is so circ.u.mstantial and attentive to the life and conversation of his birds as I could wish: he advances some false facts; as when he says of the _hirundo urbica_ that ”_pullos extra nidum non nutrit_.” This a.s.sertion I know to be wrong from repeated observation this summer; for house-martins do feed their young flying, though it must be acknowledged not so commonly as the house-swallow; and the feat is done in so quick a manner as not to be perceptible to indifferent observers. He also advances some (I was going to say) improbable facts; as when he says of the woodc.o.c.k that ”_pullos rostro portat fugiens ab hoste_.” But candour forbids me to say absolutely that any fact is false, because I have never been witness to such a fact. I have only to remark that the long unwieldy bill of the woodc.o.c.k is perhaps the worst adapted of any among the winged creation for such a feat of natural affection.

I am, etc.

LETTER x.x.xII.

SELBORNE, _October 29th_, 1770.

Dear Sir,--After an ineffectual search in Linnaeus, Brisson, etc., I begin to suspect that I discern my brother's _hirundo hyberna_ in Scopoli's new discovered _hirundo rupestris_, p. 167. His description of ”_Supra murina_, _subtus albida_; _rectrices macula ovali alba in latere interno_; _pedes nudi_, _nigri_; _rostrum nigrum_; _remiges obscuriores quam plumae dorsales_; _rectrices remigibus concolores_; _cauda emarginata_, _nec forc.i.p.ata_,” agrees very well with the bird in question: but when he comes to advance that it is ”_statura hirundinis urbicae_,” and that ”_definitio hirundinis ripariae Linnaei huic quoque conveniit_,” he in some measure invalidates all he has said; at least, he shows at once that he compares them to these species merely from memory: for I have compared the birds themselves, and find they differ widely in every circ.u.mstance of shape, size, and colour. However, as you will have a specimen, I shall be glad to hear what your judgment is in the matter.