36 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
to beasts of chase, by affording them free respiration : and no doubt these 
additional nostrils are thrown open when they are hard run.* Mr. Ray 
observed that at Malta, the owners slit up the nostrils of such asses as 
were hard worked : for they, being naturally straight or small, did not 
admit air sufficient to serve them when they travelled, or laboured, in 
that hot climate. And we know that grooms, and gentlemen of the 
turf, think large nostrils necessary, and a perfection, in hunters and 
running horses. 
Oppian, the Greek poet, by the following line, seems to have had 
some notion that stags have four spiracula : ^ 
"TsT^aJyja.fi; pint';, trtirv^is 7s'votYi<ri dixvXot." 
" Quadrifidse nares, quadruplices ad respirationem canales," 
0pp. Cyn. Lib. ii. 1. 181. 
Writers, copying from one another, make Aristotle say that goats 
breathe at their ears ; whereas he asserts just the contrary : — ''A\k- 
fiaicau yap ovk aXrjdrj Xeyei, (pafx^vos auairpeiv Tas aiyas Kara ra ojTa." 
" Alcmseon does not advance what is true, when he avers that goats 
breathe through their ears." — History of Animals." ^ Book I. 
chap. xi. 
LETTEE XV. 
TO THE SAME. 
Selborne, March SOth, 1768. 
Dear Sir, — Some intelligent country people have a notion that we 
have, in these parts, a species of the genus musteUnum, besides the 
weasel, stoat, ferret, and polecat ; a little reddish beast, not much 
bigger than a fieid-mouse, but much longer, which they call a cane. 
This piece of intelligence can be little depended on ; but farther inquiry 
may be made.+ 
are thirsty," &c., is quite correct so far as *'they plunge their noses," but the 
nostril is then not used, and the whole will is exerted in quenching a thirst at the 
time excessive. These other orifices are glandular cavities, and so far as we know 
or can judge, have reference to the season of rutting, and have no connexion 
whatever with respiration. They exist in greater or less development in all 
the deer and antelopes, and also in the common sheep, and a peculiar secretion 
may be seen to exude from it, having also a peculiar odour. Some animals have 
glandular secretions in other parts of the body — musk, civet, zibet, &c. — known 
as perfumes, and the peculiar utilities of these glands, except in secreting a strong 
scent, is unknown. 
* In answer to this account, Mr. Pennant sent me the following curious and 
pertinent reply. * ' I was much surprised to find in the antelope something 
analogous to what you mention as so remarkable in deer. This animal also has 
a long slit beneath each eye, which can be opened and shut at pleasure. On 
holding an orange to one, the creature made as much use of those orifices 
as of his nostrils, applying them to the fruit, and seeming to smell it through 
them." 
t Such is the case at the present time. Most game-keepers insist that there is 
another beast different from the weasel or stoat ; young and female weasels appear 
very small when running, and in reality look scarcely bigger than a large mouse, 
