As to the falco, which I mentioned in town, I shall take the liberty
to send it down to you into Wales; presuming on your candour, 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 religuiae!'
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 XI
To Thomas Pennant, Esquire
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, etc., 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.
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