124 



IS^ATURAL HISTORY 



tiles, 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 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*sSynop. 

 Quadr. is an innocuous and sweet animal ; 

 but, when pressed hard by dogs and men, 

 it can eject such a most pestilent and fetid 

 smell and excrement, that nothing can be 

 more horrible. 



A gentleman sent me lately a fine speci- 

 men of the lanius minor cinerascens cum ma- 

 cula in scapulis alba, Raii ; which is a bird 

 that, at the time of your publishing your 

 two first volumes oi British Zoology, I find 

 you had not seen. You have described it 

 well from Edwards^ drawing. 



