It is very reasonable to suppose, that this creature supports itself chiefly by browsing of trees, and by wading after water plants, towards which way of livelihood the length of legs and great lip must contribute much. I have read somewhere, that it delights in eating the nymphæa, or water lily. From the fore-feet to the belly, behind the shoulder, it measured three feet and eight inches; the length of the legs before and behind consisted a great deal in the tibia, which was strangely long; but, in my haste to get out of the stench, I forgot to measure that joint exactly. Its scut seemed to be about an inch long; the colour was a grizzly black; the mane about four inches long; the fore-hoofs were upright and shapely, the hind flat and splayed. The spring before, it was only two years old, so that most probably it was not then come to its growth. What a vast tall beast must a full-grown stag be! I have been told some arrive at ten feet and a half! This poor creature had at first a female companion of the same species, which died the spring before. In the same garden was a young stag, or red-deer, between whom and this moose it was hoped that there might have been a breed; but their inequality of height must have always been a bar to any commerce of the amorous kind. I should have been glad to have examined the teeth, tongue, lips, hoofs, &c. minutely; but the putrefaction precluded all farther curiosity. This animal, the keeper told me, seemed to enjoy itself best in the extreme frost of the former winter. In the house, they shewed me the horn of a male moose, which had no front antlers, but only a broad palm, with some snags on the edge. The noble owner of the dead moose proposed to make a skeleton of her bones.

Please to let me hear if my female moose corresponds with that you saw; and whether you think still that the American moose and European elk are the same creature.

LETTER XXXIII.

TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

SELBORNE, April 12, 1770.

DEAR SIR, I heard many birds of several species sing last year after midsummer; enough to prove that the summer solstice is not the period that puts a stop to the music of the woods. The yellow-hammer, no doubt, persists with more steadiness than any other; but the woodlark, the wren, the

red-breast, the swallow, the white-throat, the goldfinch, the common linnet, are all undoubted instances of the truth of what I advanced.

If this severe season does not interrupt the regularity of the summer migrations, the black-cap will be here in two or three days. I wish it was in my power to procure you one of those songsters; but I am no bird catcher; and so little used to birds in a cage, that I fear, if I had one, it would soon die for want of skill in feeding.

Was your reed-sparrow, which you kept in a cage, the thick billed reed-sparrow of the Zoology, p. 320? or was it the less reed-sparrow of Ray, the sedge-bird of Mr Pennant's last publication, p. 16?

As to the matter of long billed birds growing fatter in moderate frosts, I have no doubt within myself what should be the reason. The thriving at those times appears to me to arise altogether from the gentle check which the cold throws upon insensible perspiration. The case is just the same with blackbirds, &c. ; and farmers and warreners observe, the first, that their hogs fat more kindly at such times, and the latter, that their rabbits are never in such good case as in a gentle frost. But, when frosts are severe, and of long continuance, the case is soon altered; for then a want of food soon overbalances the repletion occasioned by a checked perspiration. I have observed, moreover, that some human constitutions are more inclined to plumpness in winter than in summer.

When birds come to suffer by severe frost, I find that the first that fail and die are the red-wing field-fares, and then the song-thrushes.

You wonder, with good reason, that the hedge-sparrows, &c. can be induced at all to sit on the egg of the cuckoo, without being scandalized at the vast disproportioned size of the supposititious egg; but the brute creation, I suppose, have very little idea of size, colour, or number.† For, the

* Sir William Jardine supposes that the black-cap of Britain migrates to Madeira, having received specimens from that island; but Dr Heineken, who resided there, informs us that it is resident all the year round. Mr Lewin shot one in Kent, in January.-ED.

The egg of the cuckoo is less than that of the hedge-sparrow; thus proving the fitness of all natural bodies to the ends for which they are intended. Were we unacquainted with the fact, that cuckoos do not, like other birds, incubate their own eggs, we would marvel at their great disproportion compared with the size of the bird. There is, no doubt, some wise end to be fulfilled in this singular economy in the habits of the cuckoo, which has yet eluded human scrutiny. - ED.

common hen, I know, when the fury of incubation is on her, will sit on a single shapeless stone, instead of a nest full of eggs that have been withdrawn; and, moreover, a hen turkey, in the same circumstances, would sit on, in the empty nest, till she perished with hunger.

I think the matter might easily be determined whether a cuckoo lays one or two eggs, or more, in a season, by opening a female during the laying time. If more than one were come down out of the ovary, and advanced to a good size, doubtless then she would that spring lay more than one.*

I will endeavour to get a hen, and examine.

Your supposition, that there may be some natural obstruction in singing birds while they are mute, and that, when this is removed, the song recommences, is new and bold. I wish you could discover some good grounds for this suspicion.

I was glad you were pleased with my specimen of the caprimulgus, or fern-owl; you were, I find, acquainted with the bird before.

When we meet, I shall be glad to have some conversation with you concerning the proposal you make of my drawing up an account of the animals in this neighbourhood. Your partiality towards my small abilities persuades you, I fear, that I am able to do more than is in my power; for it is no small undertaking for a man, unsupported and alone, to begin a natural history from his own autopsia. Though there is endless room for observation in the field of nature, which is boundless, yet investigation (where a man endeavours to be sure of his facts) can make but slow progress; and all that one could collect in many years would go into a very narrow compass.

Some extracts from your ingenious "Investigations of the difference between the present temperature of the air in Italy," &c. have fallen in my way, and gave me great satisfaction. They have removed the objection that always arose in my mind whenever I came to the passages which you quote. Surely the judicious Virgil, when writing a didactic poem for the region of Italy, could never think of describing freezing rivers, unless such severity of weather pretty frequently occurred! P.S. Swallows appear amidst snows and frost.

* The fact we have recorded in our note, at page 81, shews that they produce more than one egg; and, if we may reason from analogy, it may be mentioned that the yellow-billed cuckoo of America lays three or four eggs, and the black-billed cuckoo of the same country lays from four to five eggs; and these birds are very closely allied in physical structure to the common cuckoo. -ED.

LETTER XXXIV.

TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ.

SELBORNE, May 12, 1770.

DEAR SIR,- Last month we had such a series of cold turbulent weather, such a constant succession of frost, and snow, and hail, and tempest, that the regular migration, or appearance of the summer birds, was much interrupted. Some did not shew themselves (at least were not heard) till weeks after their usual time, as the black-cap and white-throat; and soine have not been heard yet, as the grasshopper-lark and largest willow-wren. As to the fly-catcher, I have not seen it; it is indeed one of the latest, but should appear about this time; and yet, amidst all this meteorous strife and war of the elements, two swallows discovered themselves as long ago as the eleventh of April, in frost and snow; but they withdrew quickly, and were not visible again for many days. House-martens, which are always more backward than swallows, were not observed till May came in.

Among the monogamous birds, several are to be found, after pairing time, single, and of each sex: but whether this state of celibacy is matter of choice or necessity, is not so easily discoverable. When the house-sparrows deprive my martens of their nests, as soon as I cause one to be shot, the other, be it cock or hen, presently procures a mate, and so for several times following.

*

* The late Mr Jamieson, of Portobello, told us a remarkable circumstance of the swallow, which was equal to human sagacity. A pair of these birds built a nest in the corner of one of his windows at Portobello. They had scarcely finished their labour, when a pair of house-sparrows took forcible possession, and drove the rightful owners from their domicile. The swallows made several unsuccessful attempts to regain possession, being always beaten off by the sparrows, who defended the entrance with determined obstinacy. At last, finding their attempts fruitless, they departed, and, in a short time, returned with a host of their companions, who did not attempt to take the intruders by storm, but, in a very short time, by their united efforts, built up the entrance to the nest, determined seemingly to imprison, for life, the occupiers of the property which had been unlawfully acquired.

Male birds procure mates by the power of their song. Hence it has been inferred, that if a confined bird had acquired the song of another species, without retaining any notes of its own, and was set at liberty, the probability is, that it would never find a mate of its own species; and, even