LIZARDS. 85 



letter, that more rain has fallen this year than in any 

 he ever attended to ; though, from July, 1763, to 

 January, 1764, more fell than in any seven months 

 of this year. 



LETTER XXIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, Feb. 28, 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 circum- 

 stance 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, I 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 heromy consists of a 

 whole grove, or 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 

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



