LETTER XXIV 



TO THE SAME 



SELBORNE, May 2gtk, 1769. 



DEAR SIR, [When your agreable but tardy letter of 

 April 22 nd arrived at this place, I was in London : but it 

 was sent up after me. It gave me concern to hear you 

 had been a good while indisposed ; & satisfaction to find 

 that you are recovered. 



The great honours that have befallen you at Drontheim 

 call for my congratulations. You must heartily believe 

 now in the accounts given by Pontopidon of the kraken, 

 & sea-snake : if you should express any disrespect towards 

 these two remarkable animals, I don't know but they may 

 remove you from y e society as an unworthy brother.] 



The scarabceus fullo I know very well, having seen it in 

 collections ; but have never been able to discover one wild 

 in its natural state. Mr. Banks told me he thought it 

 might be found on the sea-coast 1 



On the thirteenth of April I went to the sheep-down, 

 where the ring-ousels have been observed to make their 

 appearance at spring and fall, in their way perhaps to the 

 north or south ; and was much pleased to see these birds 

 about the usual spot. We shot a cock and a hen ; they 

 were plump and in high condition. The hen had but very 

 small rudiments of eggs within her, which proves they are 

 late breeders ; whereas those species of the thrush kind 

 that remain with us the whole year have fledged young 

 before that time. In their crops was nothing very dis- 



1 This handsome Cockchafer (Melontka, or Polyphylla, fullo) is not a British 

 species, but a few have been captured on the coast of Kent evidently stragglers 



from the Continent. [R. I. P.] 



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