OF SELBORNE. 73 



LETTER XV. 



TO THE SAME 

 DEAR SIR; Selborne, March 30, 1768. 



Some intelligent country people have a 

 notion that we have, in these parts, a species , 

 of the genus fuustelinum fhe&ides 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 intelligence can be little de^ 

 pended 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, 



