LETTERS TO MERRETT. "J-J 



written above] of the upper bill & small recurvitie of the 

 lower is not discerned, the wings are very short, & it is 

 finne footed, the bill is strong & sharp, if you name it 

 not I am uncertaine what to call it pray consider this 

 Anatula or mergulus melanoleucus rostro acuto. 



\Fol. 107.J I send you also the heads of mustela or 

 mergus mustelaris mas. et fsemina \see Note 21] called a 

 wesel from some resemblance in the head especially of 

 the female wch is brown or russet not black & white like 

 the male. & from their praying quality upon small fish. 

 I have found small eeles small perches & small muscles 

 in their stomacks. Have you a sea phaysant \see Note 

 22] so comonly calld from resemblance of an hen phaisant 

 in the head & eyes & spotted marks on the wings & back. 

 & wth a small bluish flat bill, tayle longer than other 

 ducks, long winges crossing over the tayle like those 

 of a long winged hawke. 



Have you taken notice of a breed of porci solidi 

 pedes.™ I first obserued them above xx yeares ago 

 & they are still among us. [See also p. 80 infra.] 



Our nerites or neritse are litle ones [^see Note 83]. 



I queried whether you had dentalia [see Note 83] 

 becaus probably you might haue met with them in 



^18 Mr. Darwin writes ("Anim. and Plants under Domestication," i., 

 p. 78), that from the time of Aristotle to the present day, Solid-hoofed 

 Swine have been occasionally observed in various parts of the world. 

 Dr. Coues also says that this variety seems to be persistent in a Texas 

 breed. See also Professor Struthers in the " Edin. New Phil. Journal," 

 April, 1863. The two distal phalanges of the two great toes, both front 

 and back, in the examples described by Professor Struthers, were joined 

 together, forming a single hoof-bearing bone. The next two phalanges 

 were separate, and sometimes kept widely apart from each other by the 

 introduction of a special ossicle. I have been told that about the year 

 1827, a breed of solid-footed swine existed at or near Upwell. By some it 

 was thought that their flesh was not good for food because they were 

 " uncloven." Dr. Wren, in a note to Browne's Pseudodoxia (book vi., 

 chap. X.), says, "About Aug., 1625, at a farm 4 miles from Winchester, I 

 beheld with wonder a great heard of swine, whole-footed, and taller than 

 any other that ever I sawe.'' 



