50 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



are as meanly furnished with churches as almost any counties 

 in the kingdom. We have many livings of two or three hundred 

 pounds a year, whose houses of worship make little better appear- 

 ance than dovecots. When I first saw Northamptonshire, Cam- 

 bridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, 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 ". l 



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.^ 1 I am well 

 acquainted with the south hams of Devonshire ; and can suppose 

 that district, from its southerly situation, to be a proper habi- 

 tation for such animals in their best colours. 



Since the ring-ousels of your vast mountains do certainly not 

 forsake them against winter, our suspicions that those which 

 visit this neighbourhood about Michaelmas are not English birds, 

 but driven from the more northern parts of Europe by the frosts, 

 are still more reasonable ; and it will be worth your pains to 

 endeavour to trace from whence they come, and to inquire why 

 they make so very short a stay. 3 



In your account of your error with regard to the two species 

 of herons, you incidentally gave me great entertainment in your 

 description of the heronry at Cressi-hall ; which is a curiosity 

 I never could manage to see. Fourscore nests of such a bird on 

 one tree is a rarity which I would ride half as many miles to 

 have a sight of. Pray be sure to tell me in your next whose seat 

 Cressi-hall is, and near what town it lies. 4 I have often thought 



1 James, chap. Hi. 7. 



2 [The green lizards of this and the following letter were no doubt sand lizards 

 (Lacerta agilis, L.). The green lizard of Guernsey and Southern Europe (L. 

 viridis, L.) has not been found in Great Britain or Ireland.] 



3 [Pennant was wrong in supposing that the ring-ouzels wintered in the "vast 

 mountains " (i.e. , of North Wales and Scotland) ; and thus for a time misled White 

 in his speculations on the migration of this species.] 



4 Cressi-hall is near Spalding, in Lincolnshire 



