50* NATURAL HISTORY 



have been better pleased to have heard that I had sent 

 you a bird that you had never seen before ; but that, I 

 find, would be a difficult task 2 . 



I have procured some of the mice mentioned in my 

 former letter 3 , a young one and a female with young, 







THK JMRVtST MOl'SE. 



both of which I have preserved in brandy. From the 

 colour, shape, size, and manner of nesting, I make no 

 doubt but that the species is nondescript. They are 

 much smaller, and more slender, than the Mus domesticus 

 medius of Ray ; and have more of the squirrel or dor- 

 mouse colour : their belly is white ; a straight line along 



under side of the body of a dirty deep yellow ; but the black bars were 

 the same in both." Pennant, Brit. Zoo!., 1768, p. 560.] 



The Falco peregrinus, sent by Mr. White to Mr. Pennant, is a rare bird. 

 One of them was caught some years ago in Norfolk, in a trap baited with 

 a woodcock. Another was killed in January, 1812 (this present month), 

 in Sussex, while fighting with a raven. This falcon breeds in Glenmore, 

 and other rocks in the Highlands. See Pennant's Scotland, vol. i. p. 277. 



MlTFORD. 



2 The specimen of the peregrine falcon mentioned in the text was killed 

 in Faringdon, the parish adjoining on the north-west to Selborne. Another 

 individual, shot at a much later period, on Wolmer Forest, is described 

 in Letter LVII. to Daines Harrington. E. T. B. 



3 [Letter X.] 



