LIZARD. 73 



cats pur. You will credit me, I hope, when I assure you that, as 

 my neighbours were assembled in an hermitage* on the side of a 

 steep hill where we drink tea, one of these churn-owls came and 

 settled on the cross of that little straw edifice and began to 

 chatter, and continued his note for many minutes : and we were 

 all struck with wonder to find that the organs of that little ani- 

 mal, when put in motion, gave a sensible vibration to the whole 

 building ! This bird also sometimes makes a small squeak, re- 

 peated four or five times ; and I have observed that to happen 

 when the cock has been pursuing the hen in a toying way through 

 the boughs of a tree. 



It would not be at all strange if your bat, which you have pro- 

 cured, should prove a new one, since five species have been found 

 in a neighbouring kingdom. The great sort that I mentioned is 

 certainly a non-descript : I saw but one this summer, and that I 

 had no opportunity of taking. 



Your account of the Indian-grass was entertaining. I am no 

 angler myself ; but enquiring of those that are, what they sup- 

 posed that part of their tackle to be made of ? they replied " of 

 the intestines of a silk-worm." 



Though I must not pretend to great skill in entomology, yet 

 I cannot say that I am ignorant of that kind of knowledge : I 

 may now and then perhaps be able to furnish you with a little 

 information. 



The vast rains ceased with us much about the same time as 

 with you, and since we have had delicate weather. Mr. Barker, 

 who has measured the rain for more than thirty years, says, in a 

 late letter, that more has fallen this year than in any he ever at- 

 tended to; though, from July 1763 to January 1764, more fell 

 than in any seven months of this year. 



LETTER XXIII. To T. PENNANT, ESQ. 

 DEAR SIR, Selborne, February 28, 1769. 



IT is not improbable that the Guernsey lizard and our green 

 lizards may be specifically the same ; all that I know is, that, 

 when some years ago many Guernsey lizards were turned loose 

 in Pembroke college garden, in the university of Oxford, they 



* See the vignette in this book. 



