T'he Natural History of Se I borne 93 



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

 tamed, of mankind." * 



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 whose seat Cressi Hall is, and near what town it 

 lies.-f- I have often thought that those vast extents of fens 

 have never been sufficiently explored. If half a dozen gentle- 

 men, furnished with a good strength of water-spaniels, were 

 to beat them over a week, they would certainly find more 

 species. 



There is no bird, I believe, whose manners I have studied 

 more than that of the caprimulgus (the goat-suckers), 1 as it is 



* James, chap. iii. 7. t Cressi Hall is near Spalding, in Lincolnshire. 

 } More commonly known nowadays as the night-jar. ED. 



