OF SELBORNE. 



53 



LETTER XV, 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 



SELBORNE, March 30, 1768. 



OMB 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 intel- 

 ligence can be little depended on ; but farther inquiry may 

 be made. 1 



WEASEL. 



A gentleman in this neighbourhood had two milk-white 

 rooks in one nest. A booby of a carter, finding them be- 

 fore they were able to fly, threw them down and destroyed 

 them, to the regret of the owner, who would have been 

 glad to have preserved such a curiosity in his rookery. I 

 saw the birds myself nailed against the end of a barn, and 



1 Cane is a provincial name for the female of the common weasel, 

 which is usually one-fourth smaller than the male. ED. 



