70 NATURAL HISTORY 
LETTER XVII. 
Selborne, June, 18, 1768. 
Dear Sir,—On Wednesday last arrived your 
agreeable letter of June the 10th. It gives me 
great satisfaction to find that you pursue these 
studies still with such vigour, and are in such for- 
wardness with regard to reptiles and fishes. 
The reptiles, few as they are, | am not acquaint- 
ed with, so well as I could wish, with regard to 
their natural history. 
It is strange that the matter with regard to the 
venom of roaps has not been yet settled. That 
they are not noxious to some animals is plain ; for 
ducks, buzzards, owls, stone curlews, and snakes 
eat them, to my knowledge, with impunity. And 
I well remember the time, but was not an eye- 
witness to the fact (though numbers of persons 
were), when a quack at this village ate a Toap to 
make the country people stare ; afterward he drank 
oil. be 
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