MOOSE-DEEE. 119 



tie cHef external sexual distinction in many birds, these 

 colours do not take place till sexual attachments begin to 

 obtain. And tbe case is tbe same in quadrupeds, among 

 wbom, in tbeir younger days, the sexes differ but little ; but, 

 as they advance to maturity, horns and shaggy manes, beards 

 and brawny necks, &c., &c., strongly discriminate the male 

 from the female. We may iastance still farther in our own 

 species, where a beard and stronger features are usually 

 characteristic of the male sex ; but this sexual diversity does> 

 not take place in earlier life ; for a beautiful youth shall be 

 so like a beautiful girl, that the difference shall not be 

 discernible : — 



Quern si puellarum inaereres cioro, 

 Mire sagaoes falleret liospites 

 Discrimen obsourum, solutis 



Crinibus, ambigudque vultu."— HoK. 



If he were by girls surrounded, 

 Strangers soon would be confounded : 

 Manhood's form could no one trace 

 la his beardless female face. 



LETTEE XXXVI. 



TO THOMAS PENNAJSTT, ESQ. 



Selbobne, Aug. 1, 1770. 

 Deab, Sib,- — ^The French, I think, ia general, are strangely 

 prolix ia their natural history. What Linnaeus says with 

 respect to insects holds good ia every other branch : " Ver- 

 iositas prmsentis smculi, calamitas artisP 



Pray how do you approve of ScopoU's new work ? As I 

 admire his Mntomologia, I long to see it. 



I forgot to mention ia my last letter (and had not room 

 to insert in the former) that the male moose, in rutting 

 time, swims from island to island, ia the lakes and rivers of 

 North America, in pursuit of the females. My friend, the 

 chaplain, saw one killed ia the water, as it was on that 

 errand, in the river St. Lawrence : it was a monstrous beast,, 

 he told me : but he did not take the dimensions. 



