(54 NATURAL HISTORY 



saw Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire^ 

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

 spires which presented themselves in 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 ingre- 

 dients 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 serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been 

 " tamed, of mankind" z 



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

 actually been procured for you in Devonshire; because it 

 corroborates my discovery, which I made many years ago, of 

 the same sort, on a sunny sandbank near Farnham, 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 driven from the more northern parts of 

 Europe by the frosts, are still more reasonable : and it will be 

 worth your pains to endeavour to trace from whence they come, 

 and to inquire why they make so very short a stay. 



In your account of your error with regard to the two species 

 of herons, you incidentally gave me great entertainment in your 

 description of the heronry at Cressi-hall ; which is a curiosity 

 I never could manage to see. Fourscore nests of such a bird 

 on one tree is a rarity which I would ride half as many miles 

 to have a sight of. Pray be sure to tell me in your next 



z James, chap. iii. 7. 



* [The green lizard here spoken of, which was found by Gilbert 

 White and by the Rev. Revett Shepherd near Farnham, was doubtless the 

 Lacerta stirpium of Daudin and Jenyns, now known to be a British spe- 

 cies. It has been repeatedly found by myself in the Isle of Purbeck, and 

 Poole Heath in Dorsetshire. It is doubtless the true L. agilis of Linnaeus 

 (< Brit. Reptiles,' p. 17). T. B.] 



