My friend, the chaplain, saw one killed in the water as it
was on that errand in the river St. Lawrence: it was a monstrous
beast, he told me; but he did not take the dimensions.
When I was last in town our friend Mr. Barrington most obligingly
carried me to see many curious sights. As you were then writing to
him about horns, he carried me to see many strange and wonderful
specimens. There is, I remember, at Lord Pembroke's, at Wilton, an
horn room furnished with more than thirty different pairs; but I
have not seen that house lately.
Mr. Barrington showed me many astonishing collections of stuffed
and living birds from all quarters of the world. After I had studied
over the latter for a time, I remarked that every species almost that
came from distant regions, such as South America, the coast of
Guinea, etc., were thick-billed birds of the loxia and fringilla
genera; and no motacillae, or muscicapae, were to be met with.
When I came to consider, the reason was obvious enough; for the
hard-billed birds subsist on seeds, which are easily carried on
board; while the soft-billed birds, which are supported by worms
and insects, or, what is a succedaneum for them, fresh raw meat,
can meet with neither in long and tedious voyages.
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