NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 77 



NOTES TO LETTER XXII. 



1 White cannot have known much of Norfolk, for it is as thickly studded 

 with churches as it well can be, and many of them remarkably fine. 



2 The fens are now well drained and well explored. They were indeed 

 "happy hunting grounds " for the naturalist. The Norfolk Broads are still 

 left, and offer somewhat the same features as the fens. 



3 The goat-sucker or nightjar perches lengthwise on a bough instead of 

 across it as other birds do. The eggs, which it lays on the ground, in an 

 apology for a nest, are most beautifully marbled. 



4 The gut used by anglers is made from the silkworm, and is the substance 

 from which the silk would be spun if the caterpillar were allowed to continue 

 its existence. The Indian grass is of very little use for fishing, as it is brittle. 



LETTER XXIII. 



SELBORNE, Feb. 28M, 1769. 



DEAR SIR, It is not improbable that the Guernsey lizard and 

 our green lizards may be specifically the same ; all that I know 

 is, that, when some years ago many Guernsey lizards were turned 

 loose in Pembroke College garden, in the University of Oxford, 

 they lived a great while, and seemed to enjoy themselves very 

 well, but never bred. Whether this circumstance will prove any- 

 thing either way I shall not pretend to say. 



I return you thanks for your account of Cressi Hall ; but 

 recollect, not without regret, that in June 1746. 1 was visiting for 

 a week together at Spalding, without ever being told that such 

 a curiosity was just at hand. Pray send me word in your next 

 what sort of tree it is that contains such a quantity of herons' 

 nests; and whether the heronry consists of a whole grove of 

 wood, or only of a few trees. 



It gave me satisfaction to find we accorded so well about the 

 caprimulgus ; all I contended for was to prove that it often 

 chatters sitting as well as flying ; and therefore the noise was 

 voluntary, and from organic impulse, and not from the resistance 

 ot the air against the hollow of its mouth and throat. 



If ever I saw anything like actual migration, it was last Michael- 



