12G NATURAL HISTORY 



kept a tame snake, which was in its person as sweet as 

 any animal while in good humour and unalarmed ; but 

 as soon as a stranger, or a dog or cat, came in, it fell 

 to hissing, and tilled the room with such nauseous 

 effluvia as rendered it hardly supportable *. Thus the 

 squnck, or stonck, of Ray's Synopsis Quadrupedum is 

 an innocuous and sweet animal; but, when pressed 

 hard by dogs and men, it can eject such a most pesti- 

 lent and fetid smell and excrement that nothing can be 

 more horrible. 



A gentleman sent me lately a fine specimen of the 

 Lanius minor cinerascens cum macula in scapulis alba, 

 RAH 2 ; which is a bird that, at the time of your pub- 

 lishing your two first volumes of British Zoology, I 

 find you had not seen. You have described it well 

 from Edwards's drawing. 



LETTER XXVI. 



TO THE SAME. 



DEAR SIR, SELBORNE, Dec. 8, 17G9. 



I WAS much gratified by your communicative letter on 

 your return from Scotland, where you spent, I find, 

 some considerable time, and gave yourself good room 

 to examine the natural curiosities of that extensive 

 kingdom, both those of the islands, as well as those of 

 the highlands. The usual bane of such expeditions is 

 hurry; because men seldom allot themselves half the 

 time they should do ; but, fixing on a day for their re- 

 turn, post from place to place, rather as if they were on 

 a journey that required dispatch, than as philosophers 

 investigating the works of nature. You must have 



1 I have had tame snakes which were almost inodorous under ordinary 

 circumstances, but which became exceedingly offensive when alarmed or 

 irritated. T. B. 



* [Lanius rvftis, BRISS.] 



