NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 43 
each eye, having a communication with the nose.* Here seems to 
be an extraordinary provision of nature worthy our attention ; and 
which has not, that I know of, been noticed by any naturalist. For 
it looks as if these creatures would not be suffocated, though both 
their mouths and nostrils were stopped. This curious formation of 
the head may be of singular service to beasts of chase, by affording 
them free respiration: and no doubt these additional nostrils are 
thrown open when they are hard run.t Mr. Ray observed that at 
Malta the owners slit up the nostrils of such asses as were hard 
worked : for they, being naturally straight or small, did not admit 
air sufficient to serve them when they travelled, or laboured, in that 
hot climate. And we know that grooms, and gentlemen of the turf, 
think large nostrils necessary, and a perfection, in hunters and 
running horses. 
Oppian, the Greek poet, by the following line, seems to have had 
some notion that stags have four spiracula: 
“Terpadupor pivec, Tiovpeg Tvoinar C.avro.”’ 
‘‘ Quadrifide nares, quadruplices ad respirationem canales.” 
Opp. Cyn. Lib. ii. 1. 181. 
Writers, copying from one anotaer, make Aristotle say that goats 
breathe at their ears ; whereas he asserts just the contrary :—“‘ AAk- 
pawy yap ove adnOn dEyet, PamEevog avamvety Tag atyag KaTa Ta wat.” 
“ Alcmzeon does not advance what is true, when he avers that goats 
breathe through their ears.”—‘“‘ History of Animals.” Book I. 
chap. xi. 
* This short letter is devoted entirely to one subject, to which White’s attention was 
most probably directed by his visits to the deer in Wolmer Forest ; it is one of those which 
requires explanation, especially in a popular work so much read as “‘ Selborne,” and the 
very error into which White has fallen with his remarks will lead to the future explana- 
tion of a structure which even at this time is not completely understood. The statement 
in the letter, ‘‘ When deer are thirsty,” &c., is quite correct so far as “ they plunge their 
noses,” but the nostril is then not used, and the whole will is exerted in quenching a thirs’ 
at the time excessive. These other orifices are glandular cavities, and so far as we know 
or can judge, have reference to the season of rutting, and have no connexion whatever 
with respiration. They exist in greater or less development in all the deer and antelopes, 
and also in the common sheep, and a peculiar secretion may be seen to exude from it, 
having also a peculiar odour. Some animals have glandular secretions in other parts of 
the body—musk, civet, zibet, &c.—known as perfumes, and the peculiar utilities of these 
glands, except in secreting a strong scent, is unknown. 
+ In answer to this account, Mr. Pennant sent me the following curious and pertinent 
reply. ‘‘ I was much surprised to find in the antelope something analogous to what you 
mention as so remarkable in deer. This animal also has a long slit beneath each eye, 
which can be opened and shut at pleasure. On holding an orange to one, the creature 
made as much use of those orifices as of his nostrils, applying them to the fruit, and seeming 
to smell it through them.” 
