THE FALCON. 27 



says, and Linnaeus after him, that the water-rat is web- 

 footed behind. Now I have discovered a rat on the banks 

 of our little stream that is not web-footed, and yet is^ an 

 excellent swimmer and diver : it answers exactly to the mus am- 

 phibiusofLirmseus (See Syst. Nat.) which he says, " natat infos- 

 sis et urinatur" I should be glad to procure one " plan- 

 tis palmatis" Linnaeus seems to be hi a puzzle about his mus 

 amphibius, and to doubt whether it differs from his mus terrestris, 

 which, if it be, as he allows, the "mus agrestis capite grandi bra- 

 chyuros" of Ray, is widely different from the water-rat, both in 

 size, make, and manner of life. 



As to the falco, which I mentioned in town, I shall take the li- 

 berty to send it down to you in Wales, presuming on your can- 

 dour, that you will excuse me if it should appear as familiar to 

 you as it is strange to me. Though mutilated " qualem dices 

 . . . antehac fuisse, tales cum sint reliquice !" 



It haunted a marshy piece of ground in quest of wild ducks 

 and snipes : but, when it was shot, had just knocked down a 

 rook, which it was tearing in pieces. I cannot make it answer to 

 any of our English hawks ; neither could I find any like it at the 

 curious exhibition of stuffed birds in Spring-gardens. I found it 

 nailed up at the end of a barn, which is the countryman's 

 museum. 



The parish I live in is a very abrupt, uneven country, full of 

 hills and woods, and therefore full of birds. 



LETTER XL To T. PENNANT, ESQ. 



Selborne, September 9, 1767. 



IT will not be without impatience that I shall wait for your 

 thoughts with regard to the falco, as to its weight, breadth, &c. 

 I wish I had set them down at the time : but, to the best of my 

 remembrance, it weighed two pounds and eight ounces, and 

 measured, from wing to wing, thirty-eight inches. Its cere and 

 feet were yellow, and the circle of its eyelids a bright yellow. As 



Both these little animals feed almost exclusively on green herbage, and in their habits much 

 resemble the large species. In Surrey they are both denominated " grass-mice." The common 

 *' water-rat," or (more appropriately) water-campagnol, is very much preyed on by the stoat, and 

 other members of the weasel genus, by which it is often pursued to its very inmost retreats, and 

 there destroyed. I have repeatedly found its remains in the burrows of those animals. ED. 



