106 MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 



us, is so majestic a bird, that it would grace our 

 fauna much. I never was informed before where 

 wild geese are known to breed. 



You admit, I find, that I have proved your fen 

 salicaria to be the lesser reed- sparrow of Ray ; and I 

 think you may be secure that I am right ; for I took 

 very particular pains to clear up that matter, and had 

 some fair specimens ; but, as they were not well pre- 

 served, they are decayed already. You will, no 

 doubt, insert it in its proper place in your next 

 edition. Your additional plates will much improve 

 your work. 



De Buffon, I know, has described the water shrew- 

 mouse ; but still I am pleased to find you have dis- 

 covered it in Lincolnshire, for the reason I have 

 given in the article of the white hare.J 



As a neighbour was lately ploughing in a dry chalky 

 field, far removed from any water, he turned out a 

 water-rat, that was curiously laid up in an hyberna- 

 culum artificially formed of grass and leaves. At one 

 end of the burrow lay about a gallon of potatoes, re- 

 gularly stowed, on which it was to have supported 

 itself for the winter. But the difficulty with me is 

 how this amphibius mus came to fix its winter station 

 at such a distance from the water. Was it deter- 

 mined in its choice of that place by the mere accident 

 of finding the potatoes which were planted there? 

 or is it the constant practice of the aquatic rat to for- 

 sake the neighbourhood of the water in the colder 

 months ? 



Though I delight very little in analogous reason- 

 ing, knowing how fallacious it is with respect to na- 

 tural history ; yet, in the following instance, T cannot 

 help being inclined to think it may conduce towards 

 the explanation of a difficulty that I have mentioned 



* Lepus variabilis. W. J. 



