NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 39 



As to the falco, which I mentioned in town, I shall 

 take the liberty to send it down to you into Wales; pre- 

 suming on your candour, that you will excuse me if it 

 should appear as familiar to you as it is strange to me. 

 Though mutilated " qualem dices . . . antehac fut'sse, tales 

 cum sint reliquice ! " 



It haunted a marshy piece of ground in quest of wild- 

 ducks and snipes ; but, when it was shot, had just knocked 

 down a rook, which it was tearing in pieces. I cannot 

 make it answer to any of our English hawks ; neither 

 could I find any like it at the curious exhibition of stuffed 

 birds in Spring Gardens. 1 I found it nailed up at the end 

 of a barn, which is the countryman's museum. 



The parish I live in is a very abrupt, uneven country, 

 full of hills and woods, and therefore full of birds. 



belong, in structure as well as in habits ; and on the other, the hinder feet are 

 not webbed, though the toes are connected to a short distance from the base. 



" The Water-vole frequented both the streams of the village, near their junction, 

 a few years ago ; and I have repeatedly seen it sporting in that which runs 

 through the meadow below the vicarage. I have not, however, seen one for some 

 years past, and believe that it has become extinct, though its holes still remain 

 in the bank. The common brown rat, from its power of swimming well, 

 appears to have given rise to some mistakes among the inhabitants of the place, 

 who have occasionally confounded the two animals." (Bell's ed., vol. i. p. 30 note.) 

 See also Letter XXVI to Pennant (posiea, p. 113). [R. B. S.] 

 1 " In the Haymarket," says the original letter, which concludes 



" I am, with the greatest regard, 



"August I o, 1767, Your most humble servant 



at Selborne, GIL : WHITE. 



near Alton, 



Hants." [R. B. S.] 



