NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 5: 



fcr:.T TO, tora." " Alcmseon does not advance what is true, when 

 he avers that goats breathe through their ears." " History of 

 Animals." Book I. chap, xi. 1 



NOTE TO LETTER XIV. 



Naturalists seem now agreed that the curious slits referred to in the fore- 

 going chapter are not and cannot be used for breathing, but for some other 

 sense of which we can but guess the nature. 



LETTER XV. 



SELBORNE, March 30^, 1768. 



DEAR SIR, Some intelligent country people have a notion that 

 we have in these parts, a species of the genus mustelinum y besides 



WEASEL. 



the weasel, stoat, ferret, and polecat ; a little reddish beast, not 

 much bigger than a field-mouse, but much longer, which they 



4 



