78 NATURAL HISTORY 
among the heath on our foreft. And befides, the larkers, in 
dragging their nets by night, frequently catch them in the wheat- 
ftubbles ; while the bat-fowlers, who take many red-wings in the 
hedges, never entangle any of this fpecies. Why thefe birds, in 
the matter of roofting, fhould differ from all their congeners, 
and from themfelves alfo with refpeft to their proceedings by day, 
is a fad for which I am by no means able to account. 
I have fomewhat to inform you of concerning the moo fe- deer \ 
but in general foreign animals fall feldom in my w^ay : my little 
intelligence is confined to the narrow fphere of my owa 
obfervations at liome^ 
LETTER XXVIIL 
TO THE SAME. 
Seleorne, March 1770. 
O N Michaelmas- day 1768 I managed to get a fight of the female 
moofe belonging to the duke of Richmond, at Goodwood ; but was 
greatly difappolnted, when I arrived at the fpot, to find that it 
died, after having appeared in a languifliing way for fome time, 
on the morning before. However, underftanding that it was not 
ftripped, I proceeded to examine this rare quadruped : I found 
it in an old green-houfe, flung under the belly and chin by ropes, 
and in a ftanding pofture ; but, though it had been dead for fo 
fliort a time, it was in fo putrid a ftate that the ftench was hardly 
2 fupportable. 
