Why these birds, in the matter of roosting, should differ from all
their congeners, and from themselves also with respect to their
proceedings by day, is a fact for which I am by no means able to
account.
I have somewhat to inform you of concerning the moose-deer; but
in general foreign animals fall seldom in my way; my little
intelligence is confined to the narrow sphere of my own
observations at home.
Letter XXVIII
To Thomas Pennant, Esquire
Selborne, March, 1770.
On Michaelmas-day 1768 I managed to get a sight of the female
moose belonging to the Duke of Richmond, at Goodwood; but was
greatly disappointed, when I arrived at the spot, to find that it died,
after having appeared in a languishing way for some time, on the
morning before. However, understanding that it was not stripped, I
proceeded to examine this rare quadruped: I found it in an old
green-house, slung under the belly and chin by ropes, and in a
standing posture; but, though it had been dead for so short a time, it
was in so putrid a state that the stench was hardly supportable.
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