SEIiB. '55 



and their tails just two iQches long. Two of them, in a 

 scale, weighed down just one copper halfpenny, which is 

 about the third of an ounce ayoirdupois ; so that I sup- 

 pose they are the smallest quadrupeds in this island. A 

 full-grown mtts medius domesticus weighs, I find, one ounce 

 lumping weight, which is more than sis times as much as the 

 mouse above, and measures, from nose to rump, four inches 

 and a quarter, and the same in its tail. We have had a very 

 severe frost and deep snow this month. My thermometer 

 was one day fourteen degrees and a half below the freezing 

 point, within doors. The tender evergreens were injured 

 pretty much. It was very providential that the air was 

 still, and the ground well covered with snow, else vegetation 

 in general must have suffered prodigiously. There is reason 

 to believe that some days were more severe than any since 

 the year 1739-40.* 



LETTEE XIV. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne, March 12, 1768. 

 Deae Sie, — ^If some curious gentleman would procure the 

 head of a fallow deer and' have it dissected, he would 

 find it furnished 'with two spiracula, or breathing-places,* 

 besides the nostrils ; probably analogous to the puncta 

 laohrymalia, " lachrymal ducts," t in the human head. When 

 deer are thirsty, they plunge their noses, like some horses, 

 very deep under water, while in the act of drinking, and 

 continue them in that situation for a considerable time ; but, 

 to obviate any inconveniency, they can open two vents, one 

 at the inner corner of each eye, having a communication 

 ■with the nose. Here seems to be an extraordinary pro'vi- 

 sion of nature worthy our attention, and which has not, 



* See Letter LXI. 

 •f" The slits beneath the eyes of deer are certainly to facilitate breathing, as 

 all keepers know. The separation of the nerves and blood vessels on the 

 cheeks of deer does not affect the horns in any great degree, or even the 

 cutting of the spermatic cord. Any injury, however, to the testicles in all 

 cases either retards or alters the growth of the horns. — £d. 



