n THE NATURAL HISTORY 



curlew, which was picked up in a fallow on the naked 

 ground : there were two ; but the finder inadvertently 

 crushed one with his foot before he saw them. 



When I wrote to you last year on reptiles, I wish I 

 had not forgot to mention the faculty that snakes have 

 of stinking se defendendo. I knew a gentleman who kept 

 a tame snake, which was in its person as sweet as any 

 animal while in a good humour and unalarmed ; but as 

 soon as a stranger, or a dog or cat, came in, it fell to 

 hissing, and filled the room with such nauseous effluvia 

 as rendered it hardly supportable. Thus the squnck, 

 or stonck, of Ray's Sgnop. Quadr. is an innocuous and 

 sweet animal ; but, when pressed hard by dogs and men, 

 it can eject such a pestilent and fetid smell and excrement, 

 that nothing can be more hbrrible. 



A gentleman sent me lately a fine specimen of the 

 lanius minor cinerascens cum macula in scapulis alba, 

 Rail ; which is a bird that, at the time of your publishing 

 your two first volumes of British Zoology, I find you had 

 not seen. You have described it well from Edwards's 

 drawing. 



LETTER XXVI 



Selborne, December 8, 1769. 

 Dear Sir, 



I was much gratified by your communicative letter on 

 your return from Scotland, where you spent, I find, some 

 considerable time, and gave yourself good room to 

 examine the natural curiosities of that extensive kingdom, 

 both those of the islands, as well as those of the highlands. 

 The usual bane of such expeditions is hurry ; because 

 men seldom allot themselves half the time they should 



