NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



I have been told some arrive at ten feet and a half! This poor 

 creature had at first a female companion of the same species, 

 which died the spring before. In the same garden was a young 

 stag, or red deer, between whom and this moose it was hoped 

 that there might have been a breed ; but their inequality of height 

 must have always been a bar to any commerce of the amorous 

 kind. I should have been glad to have examined the teeth, 

 tongue, lips, hoofs, &c., minutely ; but the putrefaction precluded 

 all further curiosity. This animal, the keeper told me, seemed 

 to enjoy itself best in the extreme frost of the former winter. In 

 the house they showed me the horn of a male moose, which had 

 no front-antlers, but only a broad palm with some snags on the 

 edge. The noble owner of the dead moose proposed to make a 

 skeleton of her bones. 



Please to let me hear if my female moose corresponds with 

 that you saw ; and whether you think still that the American 

 moose and European elk are the same creature.* I am, 



With the greatest esteem, &c. 



LETTER XXIX. To. T. PENNANT, ESQ. 



DEAR SIR, Selborne May 12, 1770. 



LAST month we had such a series of cold turbulent weather, 

 such a constant succession of frost, and snow, and hail, and 

 tempest, that the regular migration or appearance of the summer 

 birds was much interrupted. Some did not show themselves (at 

 least were not heard) till weeks after their usual time ; as the 

 blackcap and whitethroat ; and some have not been heard yet, 

 as the grasshopper-lark and largest willow-wren. As to the fly- 

 catcher, I have not seen it ; it is indeed one of the latest, but 

 should appear about this time and yet, amidst all this meteorous 

 strife and war of the elements, two swallows discovered them- 

 selves as long ago as the eleventh of April, in frost and snow ; 

 but they withdrew quickly, and were not visible again for many 

 days. House-martins, which are always more backward than 

 swallows, were not observed till May came in. 



Among the monogamous birds several are to be found, after 

 pairing-time, single, and of each sex : but whether this state of 



* Naturalists are still divided in opinion respecting the identity of the above animals. ED. 



