60 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
hard by dogs and men, it can eject such a most pestilent and 
fetid smell and excrement, 
that nothing can be more hor- 
rible. 
A gentleman sent me lately 
a fine specimen of the lanius 
minor cmerascens cum macula 
in scapulis alba, Bail ; which 
is a bird that, at the time of 
j^our publishing j^our two first j 
volumes of " British Zoology," / 
I find you had not seen. You 
have described it well from 
Edwards's drawing. 
LETTEE XXVI. 
TO THE SAME. 
Selborne, December Sth, 1769. 
Dear Sir, — I was much gratified by your communicative letter on 
your return from Scotland, where you spent some considerable time, 
and gave yourself good room to examine the natural curiosities of that 
extensive kingdom, both those of the islands, as well as those of the 
highlands. The usual bane of such expeditions is hurry, because men 
seldom allot themselves half the time they should do ; but, fixing on a 
day for their return, post from place to place, rather as if they were on 
a journey that required dispatch, than as philosophers investigating the 
works of nature. You must have made, no doubt, many discoveries, 
and laid up a good fund of materials for a future edition of the 
" British Zoology ; " and will have no reason to repent that you have 
bestowed so much pains on a part of Great Britain that perhaps was 
never so well examined before. 
It b i always been matter of wonder to me that fieldfares, which are 
so CO j:enerous to thrushes and blackbirds, should never choose to breed 
in England ; but that they should not think even the highlands cold 
apr! r>ortherly, and sequestered enough, is a circumstance still more 
strange and wonderful. The ring-ousel, you find, stays in Scotland the 
whole year round ; so that we have reason to conclude that those 
migrators that visit us for a short space every autumn do not come 
from thence.f 
This is the Lanius rufus, or woodchat of British authors, and is extremely rare 
as a British bird, resting upon the authority of a few stragghng specimens being 
procured. 
t How true is the opening to this letter. Even now the north of Scotland is 
not known zoologically ; it would still requii^ to be explored leisurely, and we 
have no doubt that there is yet much in what are called the "lower departments " 
to reward the care of a diligent investigation. 
We are not aware that the ring-ousel "stays in Scotland the whole year round." 
Mr. Yarnell states or rather mentions without stating authority, that Scotch in- 
