60 



NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORXE. 



hard 



by dogs and men, it can eject such a most pestilent and 



fetid smell and excrement, 

 that nothing can be more hor- 

 rible. 



A gentleman sent me lately 

 a fine specimen of the lanius 

 minor cinerascens cum maculd 

 in scajjulis alba, Rail ; * which 

 is a bird that, at the time of 

 your publishing your two first 

 volumes of " British Zoology," 

 I find you had not seen. You 

 have described it well from 

 Edwards's drawing. 



LETTER XXVI. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, December Sth, 1769. 



DEAR SIR, I was much gratified by your communicative letter on 

 your return from Scotland, where you spent some considerable time, 

 and gave yourself good room to examine the natural curiosities of that 

 extensive kingdom, both those of the islands, as well as those of the 

 highlands. The usual bane of such expeditions is hurry, because men 

 seldom allot themselves half the time they should do ; but, fixing on a 

 day for their return, post from place to place, rather as if they were on 

 a journey that required dispatch, than as philosophers investigating the 

 works of nature. You must have made, no doubt, many discoveries, 

 and laid up a good fund of materials for a future edition of the 

 " British Zoology ; " and will have no reason to repent that you have 

 bestowed so much pains on a part of Great Britain that perhaps was 

 never so well examined before. 



It b ; .i always been matter of wonder t9 me that fieldfares, which are 

 so co /enerous to thrushes and blackbirds, should never choose to breed 

 in England ; but that they should not think even the highlands cold 

 ap ^ northerly, and sequestered enough, is a circumstance still more 

 strange and wonderful. The ring-ousel, you find, stays in Scotland the 

 whole year round ; so that we have reason to conclude that those 

 migrators that visit us for a short space every autumn do not come 

 from thence, f 



* This is the Lanius rufus, or woodchat of British authors, and is extremely rare 

 as a British bird, resting upon the authority of a few straggling specimens being 

 procured. 



t How true is the opening to this letter. Even now the north of Scotland is 

 not known zoologically ; it would still require to be explored leisurely, and we 

 have no doubt that there is yet much in what are called the "lower departments " 

 to reward the care of a diligent investigation. 



We are not aware that the ring-ousel "stays in Scotland the whole year round." 



Mr. Yarnell states or rather mentions without stating authority, that Scotch in- 



