NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 129 



chaplain, saw one killed in the water as it was on that 

 errand in the river St. Lawrence : it was a monstrous beast, 

 he told me ; but he did not take the dimensions. 



When I was last in town our friend Mr. Barrington 

 most obligingly carried me to see many curious sights. As 

 you were then writing to him about horns, he carried me 

 to see many strange and wonderful specimens. There is, 

 I remember, at Lord Pembroke's, at Wilton, an horn room 

 furnished with more than thirty different pairs ; but I have 

 not seen that house lately. 



Mr. Barrington showed me many astonishing collections 

 of stuffed and living birds from all quarters of the world. 

 After I had studied over the latter for a time, I remarked 

 that every species almost that came from distant regions, 

 such as South America, the coast of Guinea, &c., were 

 thick-billed birds of the loxia and fringilla genera ; and no 

 motacillce, or muscicapcz, were to be met with. When I came 

 to consider, the reason was obvious enough ; for the hard- 

 billed birds subsist on seeds which are easily carried on 

 board ; while the soft-billed birds, which are supported by 

 worms and insects, or, what is a succedaneum for them, fresh 

 raw meat, can meet with neither in long and tedious 

 voyages. It is from this defect of food that our collections 

 (curious as they are) are defective, and we are deprived of 

 some of the most delicate and lively genera. 



[From repeated observation I find that the bank-martin 

 is the first of the swallow-genus in bringing out its young. 

 Young bank-martins were flyers this year (and very late are 

 all productions this year, both vegetable & animal) on 

 July 13 : but no young swallows appeared at all this year 

 'til July 17. Bank-martins build their nests with the crested- 

 dog-tail, & other fine grasses ; & line them with goose- 

 feathers. Their nests are strangely annoyed with fleas, the 

 pulex irritans. It is wonderful that these birds with their 

 very soft & feeble bills & claws should be able to terebrate 

 such deep holes in the stubborn sand-banks : & yet there is 

 no doubt but that these latebrce are bored in the manner 

 above mentioned. For on May 26 last I saw a pair of these 



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