48 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



Oppian, the Greek poet, by the following line, seems 

 to have had some notion that stags have four spiracula : 



" TerptiSvfiot ^rccy, iriffvpf^ irvoiyffi ZiavKoi'* 



" Quadrifldae nares, quadruplices ad respirationem canales." 



Opp. Cyn. Lib. ii. 1. 181. 



Writers, copying from one another, make Aristotle say 

 that goats breathe at their ears ; whereas he asserts just 

 the contrary : — " AXxfiaioiv yap ovk aXrjdfj \eyei, <f>ajjevo^- 

 avairveiv ra? air/a'; Kara ra wtu." " Alcmseon does not 

 advance what is true, when he avers that goats breathe 

 through their ears." — History of Animals. Book I. chao. 

 xl. 



LETTER XV 



Selborne, March 30, 1768. 

 Dear Sir, 



Some 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 

 intelhgence can be little depended on ; but farther 

 inquiry may be made. 



A gentleman in this neighbourhood had two milk- 

 white rooks in one nest. A booby of a carter, finding 

 them before 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 was surprised to find that their bills, legs, 

 feet, and claws were milkwhite. 



