THE CANE. 59 



that goats breathe at their ears, whereas he asserts just the 



contrary : 'A\Kp.aia)V yap OVK akr)6r) Ae'yei, (^dfifvos avairvfiv ras 



alyas WTO. TO. o>ra. " Alcmseon does not advance what is true, 

 when he avers that goats breathe through their ears." 

 History of Animals, Book i. chap. xi. 



LETTEE XY. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, March 30, 1768. 



DEAB SIE, Some intelligent country people have a no- 

 tion that we have, in these parts, a species of the genus 

 mustelinum, besides the weasel, stoat, ferret, and polecat ; a 

 little reddish beast, not much bigger than a field mouse, but 

 much longer, which they call a cane. This piece of intel- 

 ligence can be little depended on ; but farther inquiry may 

 be made.* 



also on account of some other and peculiar attraction. The same cause which 

 induced the retention by this individual of the immature colours, and which 

 arrested the perfect growth of the horns, has also, I do not hesitate in believ- 

 ing, checked the development of the suborbital sinuses and rendered them 

 useless. 



I am not disposed, on this occasion, to enter farther into the speculations 

 which might be founded on the facts just recorded with respect to the subor- 

 bital sinus in the Indian antelope ; and I quit the subject, for the present, with 

 the remark that they seem to me to justify the observation with which I 

 commenced. More numerous facts, and more full consideration of them, will 

 determine before long the degree of value that should be attached to this view 

 of the subject. 



By a letter which I have just received from Mr. Hodgson, I find that he has 

 has had his attention excited by the observation of the antelopes which he has 

 kept alive in Nepaul; and that he also has been led to the conclusion that 

 there exists a relation between these sinuses and their secretions and the other 

 functions referred to. His continued observation, favourably as he is circum- 

 stanced for the acquisition of information on all subjects of Nepaulese zoology, 

 will doubtless tend to elucidate this yet unsettled point, on which Dr. Jacob, 

 at the meeting of the British Association in Dublin, in 1835, laid before the 

 members assembled some valuable observations. E. T. B.] 



* The cane is the common weasel. It is the provincial name for it. ED. 



