NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 77 



emolument ; or at least, by some means of publication or 

 other, have found a method of making it public for the good 

 of mankind ? In short, this woman (as it appears to me) 

 having set up for a cancer-doctress, finds it expedient to 

 amuse the country with this dark and mysterious relation. 



The water-eft has not, that I can discern, the least 

 appearance of any gills ; for want of which it is continually 

 rising to the surface of the water to take in fresh air. I 

 opened a big-bellied one indeed, and found it full of spawn. 

 Not that this circumstance at all invalidates the assertion 

 that they are larva: for the larva of insects are full of eggs, 

 which they exclude the instant they enter their last state. 

 The water-eft is continually climbing over the brims of the 

 vessel, within which we keep it in water, and wandering 

 away : and people every summer see numbers crawling, out 

 of the pools where they are hatched, up the dry banks. 

 There are varieties of them, differing in colour ; and some 

 have fins up their tail and back, and some have not. 1 



[I am not certain that the stone curlew, cedicnemus, stays 

 with us quite in the dead of winter. I had often seen them 

 late in the autumn and early in spring. It is probable they 

 may depart for a time : for they have been seen in this 

 neighbourhood & in Sussex near Chichester, 30 & 40, nay 

 100 in a flock towards winter. They are not usually brought 

 to table : but a Gent : told me he dressed one last summer, 

 & it proved a juicy, well-flavoured bird. I have been en- 

 deavouring all the summer to procure you some of their 

 eggs, but without success. 



First young swallows appeared on July the 4 th - Martins 

 (perhaps the new-flown young ones) began to congregate 

 on the top of our may-pole July 23. 



My heart & inclinations will be with you when you 

 climb the rocks of Snowdon, & traverse the shores of 

 Anglesea and Caernarvon, but there are insuperable diffi- 

 culties between us. That romantic and Alp-like country 

 must afford much of entertainment for a naturalist. 



1 The fins or membranes upon the tail and back are an appendage to the males 

 only, and are developed at the season of their breeding. [W. J.] 



