THE NATURAL HISTORY [LETT. 



LETTER XXII. 



m THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 



As to the peculiarity of jackdaws building with us under 

 the ground in rabbit-burrows, you have, in part, hit upon the 

 reason ; for, in reality, there are hardly any towers or steeples 

 in all this country. And perhaps, Norfolk excepted, Hampshire 

 and Sussex are as meanly furnished with churches as almost- 

 any counties in the kingdom. We have many livings of two 

 or three hundred pounds a year whose houses of worship make 

 little better appearance than dove-cots. When I first saw North- 

 amptonshire, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire, and the 

 fens of Lincolnshire, I was amazed at the number of spires 

 which presented themselves from every point of view. As an 

 admirer of prospects, I have reason to lament this want in my 

 own country ; for such objects are very necessary ingredients 

 in an elegant landscape. 



What you mention with respect to reclaimed toads raises my 

 curiosity. An ancient author, though no naturalist, has well 

 remarked that, " Every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of ser- 

 pents, and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed, of 

 mankind " (James iii. 7). 



It is a satisfaction to me to find that a green lizard has 

 actually been procured for you in Devonshire; because it corro- 

 borates my discovery, which I made many years ago, of the 

 same sort, on a sunny sandbank near Farnharn in Surrey. I 

 am well acquainted with the south hams of Devonshire ; and 

 can suppose that district, from its southerly situation, to be a 

 proper habitation for such animals in their best colours. 



Since the ring-ousels of your vast mountains do certainly not 

 forsake them against winter, our suspicions that those which 

 visit this neighbourhood about Michaelmas are not English birds, 

 but are driven from the more northern parts of Europe by the 

 frosts, are still more reasonable ; and it will be worth your pains 



