64 



NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



pilaris), which I think is particular enough ; this bird, though it sits 

 on trees in the day-time, anc 1 . procures the greatest part of its food from 

 white-thorn hedges ; yea, moreover, builds on very high trees, as may 

 be seen by the fauna suecica ; yet always appears with us to roost on 

 the ground.* They are seen to come in flocks just before it is dark, and 

 to settle and nestle among the heath on our forest. And besides, the 

 larkers in dragging their nets by night, frequently catch them in the 

 wheat stubbles ; while the bat-fowlers, who take many red-wings in the 

 hedges, never entangle any of this species. Why these birds, in the 

 matter of roosting, should differ from all their congeners, and from 

 themselves also with respect to their proceedings by day, is a fact for 

 which I am by no means able to account. 



I have somewhat to inform you of concerning the moose-deer ; but 

 in general foreign animals fall seldom in my way; my little intel- 

 ligence is confined to the narrow sphere of my own observations 

 at home. 



LETTER XXVIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBOENE, March, 1770. 



ON Michaelmas-day 1768 I managed to get a sight of the female 

 moose belonging to the Duke of Eichmond, at Goodwood ; but was 

 greatly disappointed, when I arrived at the spot, to find that it died, 

 after having appeared in a languishing way for some time, on the 

 morning before. However, understanding that it was not stripped, I 



proceeded to exa- 

 mine this rare quad- 

 ruped; I found it 

 in an old green- 

 house, slung under 

 the belly and chin 

 by ropes, and in a 

 standing posture ; 

 but, though it had 

 been dead for so 

 short a time, it was 

 in so putrid a state 

 that the stench was 

 hardly supportable. 

 The grand distinc- 

 tion between this 

 deer, and any other 

 species that I have 



ever met with, consisted in the strange length of its legs ; on which it was 

 tilted up much in the manner of the birds of the grallce order. I measured 



* See also Letter XXVI. They generally sleep on the ground, but sometimes 

 also in low pine trees, or evergreen bushes. 



HEAD OF MOOSE DEER. 



