114 NATURAL HISTORY 



LETTER XXII. 



TO THE SAME. 

 DEAR SIR, SELBORNE, Jan. 2, 17G9. 



As to the peculiarity of jackdaws building with us under 

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

 upon the reason; 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 hun- 

 dred pounds a year whose houses of worship make 

 little better appearance than dove-cots. When I first 

 saw Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, and Hunting- 

 donshire, and the fens of Lincolnshire, I was amazed 

 at the number of spires which presented 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 serpents, and things in the 

 sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed, of mankind 1 ." 



It is a satisfaction to me to find that a green lizard 

 has actually been procured for you in Devonshire ; 

 because it corroborates my discovery, which I made 

 many years ago, of the same sort, on a sunny sandbank 

 near Farnham, in Surrey. I am well acquainted with 

 the south hams of Devonshire ; and can suppose that 

 district, from its southerly situation, to be a proper 

 habitation for such animals in their best colours 2 . 



1 James, iii. 7. 



2 These were probably unusually bright and large individuals of 

 Lacerta stirpium, now ascertained to be indigenous to this country. See 

 Jenyns, Brit. Vert. p. 291. T. B. 



