NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. a8 
agrestis capite grandi brachyuros,”’ * of Ray, is widely different from 
the water-rat, both in size, make, and manner of life. 
WATER-RAT. 
As to the falco, which I mentioned in town, I shall take the 
liberty to send it down to you into Wales; presuming, on your 
candour, that you will excuse me if it should appear as familiar to 
you as it is strange to me. Though mutilated “gualem dices. . . 
antehac futsse, tales cum sint religuie !” 
It haunted a marshy piece of ground in quest of wild-ducks and 
snipes ; but, when it was shot, had just knocked down a rook, which 
it was tearing in pieces. I cannot make it answer to any of our 
English hawks ; neither could I find any like it at the curious exhi- 
bition of stuffed birds in Spring Gardens, I found it nailed up at 
the end of a barn, which is the countryman’s museum. 
The parish I live in is a very abrupt, uneven country, full of hills 
and woods, and therefore full of birds. 
* Tn the short-tailed field-mouse, or field-vole, Avwvicola agrestis of Fleming and Ball. 
The Rev. Leonard Jenyns has given the distinctions of the British arvicolz in ‘‘ Annals 
of Natural History,” vol. vii. 
