THE FALCON. 
27 
says, and Linnaeus after him, that the water-rat is web- 
footed behind. Now I have discovered a rat on the banks 
of our httle stream that is not web-footed, and yet is an 
excellent swimmer and diver : it answers exactly to the mus am- 
phibius of Linnxus (See Syst. Nat J which he says, natat in fos- 
sis et urinatur." I should be glad to procure one plan- 
tis palmatis." Linnaeus seems to be in a puzzle about his mus 
amphihius, and to doubt whether it differs from his mus terrestris, 
which, if it be, as he allows, the "mw^ agrestis capite grandi bra- 
chyuros^' of Ray, is widely different from the water-rat, both in 
size, make, and manner of life. 
As to the falco, which I mentioned in town, I shall take the li- 
berty to send it down to you in Wales, presuming on your can- 
dour, that you will excuse me if it should appear as familiar to 
you as it is strange to me. Though mutilated " qualem dices 
. . . antehac fuisse, tales cum sint reliquice 
It haunted a marshy piece of ground in quest of wild ducks 
and snipes : but, when it was shot, had just knocked down a 
rook, which it was tearing in pieces. I cannot make it answer to 
any of our English hawks ; neither could I find any like it at the 
curious exhibition of stuffed birds in Spring-gardens. I found it 
nailed up at the end of a barn, which is the countryman^s 
museum. 
The parish I live in is a very abrupt, uneven country, full of 
hills and woods, and therefore full of birds. 
LETTER XL To T. PENNANT, Esq. 
Selborne, September 9, 1767' 
It will not be without impatience that I shall wait for your 
thoughts with regard to the falco, as to its weight, breadth, &c. 
I wish I had set them down at the time : but, to the best of my 
remembrance, it weighed two pounds and eight ounces, and 
measured, from wing to wing, thirty-eight inches. Its cere and 
feet were yellow, and the circle of its eyelids a bright yellow. As 
Both these little animals feed almost exclusively on green herbage, and in their habits much 
resemble the large species. In Surrey they are both denominated *' grass-mice." The common 
" water-rat," or (more appropriately) water-campagnol, is very much pre3'ed on by the stoai., and 
other members of the weasel genus, by which it is often pursued to its very inmost retreats, and 
there destroyed. I have repeatedly found its remains in the burrows of those animals. — Ed. 
