OF 8ELB0ENE, 
93 
never entangle any of this species. Why these birds, in 
the matter of roosting, should differ from all their con- 
gen ers, and from themselves also with respect to their pro- 
ceedings by day, is a fact for which I am by no means able 
to account. 
I have somewhat to inform you of concerning the moose 
deer; but in general foreign animals fall seldom in my 
way % my little intelligence is confined to the narrow sphere 
of my own observations at home. 
LETTER XXVIII. 
TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 
Selborne, March, 1770. 
N Michaelmas-day, 1768, I managed to get a 
sight of the female moose belonging to the 
Duke of Richmond, at Goodwood ; but was 
greatly disappointed, when I arrived at the 
spot, to find that it died, after having ap- 
peared in a languishing way for some time, on the morning 
before. However, understanding that it was not stripped, 
I proceeded to examine this rare quadruped. I found it in 
an old green-house, slung under the belly and chin by ropes, 
and in a standing posture ; but though it had been dead for 
so short a time, it was in so putrid a state that the stench 
was hardly supportable. The grand distinction between 
this deer, and any other species that I have ever met with, 
consisted in the strange length of its legs, on which it was 
tilted up much in the manner of the birds of the Grallce 
order. I measured it, as they do a horse, and found that, 
from the ground to the wither, it was just five feet four 
inches ; which height answers exactly to sixteen hands, a 
growth that few horses arrive at : but then, with this length 
of legs, its neck was remarkably short, no more than twelve 
inches ; so that, by straddling with one foot forward, and the 
