Letter XXIII
To Thomas Pennant, Esquire
Selborne, February 28, 1769.
Dear Sir,
It is not improbable that the Guernsey lizard and our green lizard
may be specifically the same; all that I know is, that, when some
years ago many Guernsey lizards were turned loose in Pembroke
college garden, in the University of Oxford, they lived a great
while, and seemed to enjoy themselves very well, but never bred.
Whether this circumstance will prove anything either way I shall
not pretend to say.
I return you thanks for your account of Cressi-hall; but recollect,
not without regret, that in June 1746 I was visiting for a week
together at Spalding, without ever being told that such a curiosity
was just at hand. Pray send me word in your next what sort of tree
it is that contains such a quantity of herons' nests; and whether the
heronry consists of a whole grove or wood, or only of a few trees.
It gave me satisfaction to find that we accorded so well about the
caprimulgus: all I contended for was to prove that it often chatters
sitting as well as flying; and therefore the noise was voluntary, and
from organic impulse, and not from the resistance of the air against
the hollow of its mouth and throat.
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