Raven 



LETTER XXX. 



To the same, 



SELBORNE, Aug. ist, 1770. 



EAR SIR, The French, I think, in general 

 are strangely prolix in their natural history. 

 What Linnaeus says with respect to insects 

 holds good in every other branch: "Verbosi- 

 tas prcesentis sceculi, calamitas artis." 



Pray how do you approve of Scopoli's new 

 work ? As I admire his " Entomologia," I 

 long to see it. 



I forgot to mention in my last letter (and had not room to 

 insert in the former) that the male moose, in rutting-time, 

 swims from island to island, in the lakes and rivers of North 

 America, in pursuit of the females. My friend, the chaplain, 

 saw one killed in the water as it was on that errand in the 

 river St. Lawrence : it was a monstrous beast, he told me ; 

 but he did not take the dimensions. 



When I was last in town our friend Mr, Barrington most 



