Lord Breadalbane's seat and beautiful policy are too
curious and extraordinary to be omitted.
The seat of the Earl of Eglintoun, near Glasgow, is worthy of
notice. The pine plantations of that nobleman are very grand and
extensive indeed.
I am, etc.
Letter XLIII
To Thomas Pennant, Esquire
Dear Sir,
A pair of honey-buzzards, buteo opivorus, sive vespivorus Raii,
built them a large shallow nest, composed of twigs and lined with
dead beechen leaves, upon a tall slender beech near the middle of
Selborne-hanger, in the summer of 1780. In the middle of the
month of June a bold boy climbed this tree, though standing on so
steep and dizzy a situation, and brought down an egg, the only one
in the nest, which had been sat on for some time, and contained the
embrio of a young bird. The egg was smaller, and not so round as
those of the common buzzard; was dotted at each end with small
red spots, and surrounded in the middle with a broad bloody zone.
The hen-bird was shot, and answered exactly to Mr.
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