64 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
pilaris), which. I think is particular enough ; this bird, though it sits 
on trees in the day-time, and procures the greatest part of its food from 
white-thorn hedges ; yea, moreover, builds on very high trees, as may 
be seen by the fauna suecica ; yet always appears with us to roost on 
the ground.* They are seen to come in flocks just before it is dark, and 
to settle and nestle among the heath on our forest. And besides, the 
larkers in dragging their nets by night, frequently catch them in the 
wheat stubbles ; while the bat-fowlers, who take many red-wings in the 
hedges, never entangle any of this species. Why these birds, in the 
matter of roosting, should differ from all their congeners, and from 
themselves also with respect to their proceedings by day, is a fact for 
which I am by no means able to account. 
I have somewhat to inform you of concerning the laoose-deer ; but 
in general foreign animals fall seldom in my way; my little intel- 
ligence is confined to the narrow sphere of my own observations 
at home. 
LETTEE XXVIIL 
TO THE SAME. 
Selborne, March, 1770. 
On Michaelmas-day 1768 I managed to get a sight of the female 
moose belonging to the Duke of Eichmond, at Goodwood ; but was 
greatly disappointed, when I arrived at the spot, to find that it died, 
after having appeared in a languishing way for some time, on the 
morning before. However, understanding that it was not stripped, I 
proceeded to exa- 
mine this rare quad- 
ruped; 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 distinc- 
tion 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. 1 measured 
HEAD OF MOOSE DEER, 
* See also Letter XXVI. They generally sleep on the ground, but sometimes 
also in low pine trees, or evergreen bushes. 
