Bullfinch 



LETTER XV. 



To the same. 



SELBORNE, March y>th, 1768. 

 EAR SIR, Some intelligent country people 

 have a notion 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 intelligence can be little 

 depended on ; but farther inquiry may be made. 1 



A gentleman in this neighbourhood had two milk-white 

 rooks in one nest. A booby of a carter, finding them before 

 they were able to fly, threw them down and destroyed them, 

 to the regret of the owner, who would have been glad to have 

 preserved such a curiosity in his rookery. I saw the birds 

 myself nailed against the end of a barn, and was surprised to 

 find that their bills, legs, feet, and claws were milk-white. 



1 There is no such animal known to science in Britain, though game- 

 keepers and others still stoutly assert its existence in many places. Female 

 weasels and the young, when attempting to escape, have a habit of 

 shrinking into themselves, so as to look very small a peculiarity which 

 doubtless has given rise to the persistent delusion. ED. 



