36 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORXE. 



to beasts of chase, by affording them free respiration : and no doubt these 

 additional nostrils are thrown open when they are hard run.* Mr. Ray 

 observed that at Malta, the owners slit up the nostrils of such asses as 

 were hard worked : for they, being naturally straight or small, did not 

 admit air sufficient to serve them when they travelled, or laboured, in 

 that hot climate. And we know that grooms, and gentlemen of the 

 turf, think large nostrils necessary, and a perfection, in hunters and 

 running horses. 



Oppian, the Greek poet, by the following line, seems to have had 

 some notion that stags have four spiracula : 



" Quadrifidse nares, quadruplices ad respirationem canales." 



OPP. CYN. Lib. ii. 1. 181. 



Writers, copying from one another, make Aristotle say that goats 

 breathe at their ears; whereas he asserts just the contrary: "AA/e- 

 jj.auav yap OVK oA7j0rj \"yfi, <pa.fj.fvos avairvtiv ras aiyas Kara ra ami." 

 " Alcmaeon does not advance what is true, when he avers that goats 

 breathe through their ears." " History of Animals." ; Book I. 

 chap. xi. 



LETTEE XV. 



TO THE SAME. 



SKLBORNE, March SQtk, 1768. 



DEAR SIR, Some intelligent country people have a notion that we 

 have, in these parts, a species of the genus mustelinum, besides the 

 weasel, stoat, ferret, and polecat ; a little reddish beast, not much 

 bigger than a field-mouse, but much longer, which they call a cane. 

 This piece of intelligence can be little depended on ; but farther inquiry 

 may be made.t 



are thirsty," &c., is quite correct so far as "they plunge their noses, "but the 

 nostril is then not used, and the whole will is exerted in quenching a thirst at the 

 time excessive. These other orifices are glandular cavities, and so far as we know 

 or can judge, have reference to the season of rutting, and have no connexion 

 whatever with respiration. They exist in greater or less development in all 

 the deer and antelopes, and also in the common sheep, and a peculiar secretion 

 may be seen to exude from it, having also a peculiar odour. Some animals have 

 glandular secretions in other parts of the body musk, civet, zibet, <fec. known 

 as perfumes, and the peculiar utilities of these glands, except in secreting a strong 

 scent, is unknown. 



* In answer to this account, Mr. Pennant sent me the following curious and 

 pertinent reply. "I was much surprised to find in the antelope something 

 analogous to what you mention as so remarkable in deer. This animal also has 

 a long slit beneath each eye, which can be opened and shut at pleasure. On 

 holding an orange to one, the creature made as much use of those orifices 

 as of his nostrils, applying them to the fruit, and seeming to smell it through 

 them." 



t Such is the case at the present time. Most game-keepers insist that there is 

 another beast different from the weasel or stoat ; young and female weasels appeal- 

 very small when running, and in reality look scarcely bigger than a large mouse. 



