42 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



up the nostrils of such asses as were hard worked: for they, 

 being naturally straight or small, did not admit air sufficient to 

 s^rve them when they travelled, or laboured, in that hot climate. 

 And we know that grooms, and gentlemen of the turf, think 

 large nostrils necessary, and a perfection, in hunters and running 

 horses. 



Oppian, the Greek poet, by the following line, seems to have 

 had some notion that stags have four spiracula : 



" Terpaou/iot pives, iricrvpes irvoir)(Ti dtauAot." 



" Quadrifidae nares, quadruplices ad re&pirationem canales." 



Opp. Cyn. Lib. ii. 1. 181. 



Writers, copying from one another, make Aristotle say thai 

 goats breathe at their ears ; whereas he asserts just the con- 

 trary : " A\KfJLaitt)V yap OVK a\rj9r] Xfyet, ^afjievog avairveiv rag 

 aiyae Kara ra (ora" " Alcmseon does not advance what is true, 

 when he avers that goats breathe through their ears." History 

 of Animals. Book I. chap. xi. 



LETTER XV. To T. PENNANT, ESQ. 

 DEAR SIR, Selborne, March 30, 1768. 



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 intelli- 

 gence can be little depended on; 

 but further enquiry may be made.* 



* That a fourth species of the subgenus putorius (subordinate to mustela)> the group to which 

 Mr. White here refers, exists in England, 1 have found to be a very common opinion in the 

 southern counties. I have repeatedly heard of it in Surrey, where it is denominated a kine, and 

 it has often been described to me as being -very similar to the common weasel, but much smaller, 

 the usual argument adduced for its distinctness being, that it has frequently been observed with 

 young ones. The fact is, there is considerable disparity of size between the sexes of the common 

 weasel, the female being much smaller than the male, so much so as to have given rise to the 

 above supposition. We ha*e but three species, nor does western Europe produce more : the fitch- 

 weasel, "polecat," or "foumart" (mustela-putorius furo) > which in its domesticated state i 

 termed the "ferret," the stoat-weasel or " ermine" (mustela-putorius erminus}, and the " com- 

 mon," or (as it might be better termed), the dwaif-weasel (mustela-putorius milgttfii)t all of which 

 are plentiful throughout the country. Of the typical muslelae we have the white-breasted marten 



