32 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
LET) hae 
TO THE SAME. 
SELBORNE, September oth, 1767. 
It will not be without impatience that I shall wait for your 
thoughts with regard to the fa/co, as to its weight, breadth, &c., I 
wish I had set them down at the time; but, to the best of my 
remembrance, it weighed two pounds and eight ounces, and 
measured, from wing to wing, thirty-eight inches. Its cere and 
feet were yellow, and the circle of its eyelids a bright yellow. As 
it had been killed some days, and the eyes were sunk, I could make 
no good observation on the colour of the pupils and the irides. * 
The most unusual birds I ever observed in these parts were a 
pair of hoopoes (wpufa), which came several years ago in the 
HOOPOE. 
summer, and frequented an ornamented piece of ground, which 
joins tomy garden, for some weeks. They used to marchabout ina 
stately manner, feeding in the walks, many times in the day; and 
* Mr. Bennet states that the falco proved to be the /. Zevegrinus, or peregrine 
falcon, and the authority given is W. Y. The yellow “circle of its eyelids” does not 
refer to the irides as we had imagined, when remarking upon this passage in another 
edition. White states he could not ‘‘make a good observation.” The irides of the 
British species of falcons (and we know of no foreign exception) are all dark-brown. Mr. 
Pennant states that it was a variety differing, in having the whole under-side of the body 
a dirty, deep yellow. 
