70 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



which visit us. You will be sure, I hope, not to omit to make 

 enquiry whether your ring-ousels leave your rocks in the autumn. 

 What puzzles me most, is the very short stay they make with 

 us ; for in about three weeks they are all gone. I shall be very 

 curious t<5 remark whether they will call on us at their return in 

 the spring, as they did last year. 



I want to be better informed with regard to icthyology. If 

 fortune had settled me near the sea-side, or near some great 

 river, my natural propensity would soon have urged me to have 

 made myself acquainted with their productions : but as I have 

 lived mostly in inland parts, and in an upland district, my know- 

 ledge of fishes extends little further than to those common sorts 

 which our brooks and lakes produce. I am, &c. 



LETTER XXII. To T. PENNANT, ESQ. 

 DEAR SIR, Selborne, Jan. 2, 1769- 



As to the peculiarity of jackdaws building with us under the 

 ground in rabbit-burrows, you have, in part, hit upon the rea- 

 son ; for, in reality, there are hardly any towers or steeples in 

 all this country. And perhaps, Norfolk excepted, Hampshire 

 and Sussex are as meanly furnished with churches as almost any 

 counties in the kingdom. We have many livings of two or three 

 hundred pounds a year, whose houses of worship make little 

 better appearance than dovecots. When I first saw Northamp- 

 tonshire, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire, and the fens of 

 Lincolnshire, I was amazed at the number of spires which pre- 

 sented themselves in every point of view. As an admirer of 

 prospects, I have reason to 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 ser- 

 pents, 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 



* There have been many instances related of tamed toads, some of which have been known to 

 attain a considerable age. One is mentioned by Mr. Arscott which lived upwards of thirty-five 

 years. The most curious fact, however, connected with the history of this animal, is its capa- 



