94 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



of serpents, and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been 

 tamed, of mankind." 1 



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? I am well acquainted with the south hams of 

 Devonshire ; and can suppose that district, from it's southerly 

 situation, to be a proper habitation for such animals in 

 their best colours. 



Since the ring-ousels of your vast mountains do certainly 

 not forsake them against winter, 3 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. 



[In your letter of June 28th 1768 I could but admire 

 with how much frankness you acknowledged several mis- 

 takes in your zoology with respect to some birds of the 

 Grallcs order. Candor is a very essential part of a Naturalist, 

 and this accomplishment our great countryman M r - Ray 

 possessed in an eminent degree ; & that rendered him so 

 excellent. ... If a man was never to write on natural 

 knowledge 'til he knew every thing, he would never write 

 at all : & therefore a readiness to acknowledge mistakes on 

 due conviction is the only certain path to perfection.] 



In your account of your error with regard to the two 

 species of herons, you incidentally gave me great entertain- 



1 James, chap. iii. 7. [G. W.] 



2 " The green lizard here spoken of," writes Professor Bell, " which was found 

 by Gilbert White and by the Rev. Revett Shepherd near Farnham, was doubtless 

 the Lacerta stirpium of Daudin and Jenyns, now known to be a British species. 

 It has been repeatedly found by myself in the Isle of Purbeck and Poole Heath, 

 in Dorsetshire. It is doubtless the true L. agilis of Linnaeus ('Brit. Reptiles,' 

 p. 17)," (ed. " Selborne," vol. i. p. 64). 



3 This statement of Pennant's is quite erroneous. The Ring-ousel does not 

 pass the winter in Britain. [R. B. S.] 



