OF SELBORNE. 93 



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

 the matter of roosting, should differ from all their con- 

 geners, and from themselves also with respect to their pro- 

 ceedings 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 intelligence is confined to the narrow sphere 

 of my own observations at home. 



LETTER XXVIII. 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 



SELBORNE, March, 1770. 



N Michaelmas-day, 1768, I managed to get a 

 sight of the female moose belonging to the 

 Duke of Richmond, at Goodwood ; but was 

 greatly disappointed, when I arrived at the 

 spot, to find that it died, after having ap- 

 peared in a languishing way for some time, on the morning 

 before. However, understanding that it was not stripped, 

 I proceeded to examine this rare quadruped. 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 distinction 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 it, as they do a horse, and found that, 

 from the ground to the wither, it was just five feet four 

 inches ; which height answers exactly to sixteen hands, a 

 growth that few horses arrive at : but then, with this length 

 of legs, its neck was remarkably short, no more than twelve 

 inches ; so that, by straddling with one foot forward, and the 



