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THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. — : 55 
of two or three hundred pounds a year, whose houses of wor- 
ship make little better appearance than dovecots. When I first 
saw Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire, 
and the fens of Lincolnshire, I was amazed at the number of 
spires which presented themselves in every point of view. As 
an admirer of prospects, I have reason to lament this want in 
my own county; for such objects are very necessary ingre- 
dients in an elegant landscape. 
What you mention with respect to reclaimed toads raises my 
curiosity. An ancient author, though no naturalist, has well 
remarked that “every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of 
serpents, and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed, 
of mankind.” ! 
It is a satisfaction to me to find that a green lizard has 
actually been procured for you in Devonshire; because it 
corroborates my discovery, which I made many years ago, of 
the same sort, on a sunny sandbank near Farnham, in Surrey. 
I am well acquainted with the South Hams of Devonshire ; 
and can suppose that district, from its southerly situation, to 
be a proper habitation for such animals in their best colors. 
Since the ring-ousels of your vast mountains do certainly 
not forsake them against winter, our suspicions that those 
which visit this neighborhood about Michaelmas are not 
English birds, but driven from the more northern parts of 
Europe by the frosts, are still more reasonable; and it will be 
worth your pains to endeavor to trace from whence they come, 
and to inquire why they make so very short a stay. 
In your account of your error, with regard to the two species 
of herons, you incidentally gave me great entertainment in 
_ your description of the heronry at Cressi Hall; which is a 
curiosity I never could manage to see. Fourscore nests of 
such a bird on one tree is a rarity which I would ride half as 
many miles to have a sight of. Pray be sure to tell me in 
1 James iii. 7. 
