72 NATUP. AL HISTORY 
day cluiing the breeding-time, imitating the note of a fparrow, a 
Iwallow, a fky-lark ; and has a ftrange hurrying manner in it's 
ibng. My fpeciraens correfpond moft minutely to the defcrip- 
tion of your fep. faliavia fhot near Revejby. Mr. Ray has given an 
excellent chara6feriftic of it when he fays, " Roji'mm & pedes in 
hdc avicuU multo majores funt quam pro corporis ratioue" See letter 
Miiy 29, 1 769. 
1 have got }'ou the egg of an oedicnemus, or flone-curlew, which 
was picked up in a fallow on the naked ground : there v.'ere two ; 
but the finder inadvertently crufhed one with his foot before he 
law them. 
When I wrote to you laft year on reptiles, I willi I had not 
forgot to mention the faculty that fnakes have of ftinking fi 
dcfcndendo. I knew a gentleman who kept a tame fnake, which 
was in it's perfon as fweet as any animal while in good humour 
and unalarmed ; but as foon as a ftranger, or a dog or cat, came 
in, it fell to hiffing, and filled the room with fuch naufeous 
effluvia as rendered it hardly fupportable. Thus the fqunck, 
or ftonck, of Ray's Synnp. ^ladr. is an innocuous and fweet animal ; 
but, when prefled hard by dogs and men, it can ejedt fuch a mofl: 
peftilent and fetid fmell and excrement, that nothing can be 
more horrible. 
A gentleman fent me lately a fine fpecimen of the lanius minor 
chierafcens cum maculi in fcapidis albdy Raii; which is a bird that, 
at the time of your publifhing your two firft volumes of Britijh 
Zoology, I find you had not feen. You have defcribed it well 
from Edwards's drawing. 
LETTER 
