74 NATURAL HISTORY 



forgot to mention the faculty that snakes have of stinking se 

 defendendo. I knew a gentleman who kept a tame snake, 

 which was in it's person as sweet as any animal while in a good 

 humour and unalarmed; but as soon as a stranger, or a dog 

 or cat, came in, it fell to hissing, and filled the room with such 

 nauseus effluvia as rendered it hardly supportable. Thus the 

 squnck, or stonck, of Ray's Synop. Quadr. is an innocuous and 

 sweet animal ; but, when pressed hard by dogs and men, it 

 can eject such a most pestilent and fetid smell and excrement, 

 that nothing can be more horrible. 



A gentleman sent me lately a fine specimen of the lanius 

 minor cinerascens cum macula in scapulis alba. Rail ; which is 

 a bird that, at the time of your publishing your two first vo- 

 lumes of British Zoology, I find you had not seen. You 

 have described it well from Edwards 's drawing. 



LETTER XXVI. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne, December 8, 1769. 

 DEAR SIR, 



I WAS much gratified by your communicative letter on your 

 return from Scotland, where you spent, I find, some consider- 

 able time, and gave yourself good room to examine the natural 

 curiosities of that extensive kingdom, both those of the islands, 

 as well as those of the highlands. The usual bane of such ex- 

 peditions is hurry ; because men seldom allot themselves half 

 the time they should do : but, fixing on a day for their return, 

 post from place to place, rather as if they were on a journey 

 that required dispatch, than as philosophers investigating the 

 works of nature. You must have made, no doubt, many dis- 

 coveries, and laid up a good fund of materials for a future 

 edition of the British Zoology ; and will have no reason to 

 repent that you have bestowed so much pains on a part of 

 Great-Britain that perhaps was never so well examined 

 before. 



