32 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



LETTER XL 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, September gth, 1767. 



IT will not be without impatience that I shall wait for your 

 thoughts with regard to \hsfalcoj as to its weight, breadth, &c., I 

 wish I had set them down at the time ; but, to the best of my 

 remembrance, it weighed two pounds and eight ounces, and 

 measured, from wing to wing, thirty-eight inches. Its cere and 

 feet were yellow, and the circle of its eyelids a bright yellow. As 

 it had been killed some days, and the eyes were sunk, I could make 

 no good observation on the colour of the pupils and the irides.* 



The most unusual birds I ever observed in these parts were a 

 pair of hoopoes (upupa\ which came several years ago in the 



summer, and frequented an ornamented piece of ground, which 

 joins to my garden, for some weeks. They used to march about in a 

 stately manner, feeding in the walks, many times in the day ; and 



* Mr. Bennet states that the falco proved to be the F. pcregrinns, or peregrine 

 falcon, and the authority given is W. Y. The yellow " circle of its eyelids " does not 

 refer to the irides as we had imagined, when remarking upon this passage in another 

 edition. White states he could not " make* a good observation." The irides of the 

 British species of falcons (and we know of no foreign exception) are all dark-brown. Mr. 

 Pennant states that it was a variety differing, in having the whole under-side of the body 

 a dirty, deep yellow. 



