OF SELBORNE 43 



This morning I saw the golden-crowned wren, whose 

 crown glitters like burnished gold. It often hangs like a 

 titmouse, with its back downwards. 



Yours, etc. etc. 



LETTER XVII 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE 



Selborne, June 18, 1768. 



Dear Sir, 

 On Wednesday last arrived your agreeable letter of June 

 the loth. It gives me great satisfaction to find that you 

 pursue these studies still with such vigour, and are in such 

 forwardness with regard to reptiles and fishes. 



The reptiles, few as they are, I am not acquainted with, 

 so well as I could wish, with regard to their natural 

 history. There is a degree of dubiousness and obscurity 

 attending the propagation of this class of animals, some- 

 thing analogous to that of the cryptogamia in the sexual 

 system of plants : and the case is the same as regards some 

 of the fishes : as the eel, etc. 



The method in which toads procreate and bring forth 

 seems to be very much in the dark. Some authors say 

 that they are viviparous : and yet Ray classes them among 

 his oviparous animals ; and is silent with regard to the 

 manner of their bringing forth. Perhaps they may be 

 fc'o-o) fxev oooroKoi, e^oo Se ^wotokoi, as is known to be the case 

 with the viper. 



The copulation of frogs (or at least the appearance of it; 

 for Swammerdam proves that the male has no penis mtrans) 

 is notorious to every body : because we see them sticking 

 upon each other's backs for a month together in the spring : 

 and yet I never saw, or read, of toads being observed in 

 the same situation. It is strange that the matter with 

 regard to the venom of toads has not yet been settled. 



