end of the upper mandible on each side: its tail, or train, was short
in proportion to the bulk of its body: yet the wings, when closed,
did not extend to the end of the train. From its large and fair
proportions it might be supposed to have been a female; but I was
not permitted to cut open the specimen. For one of the birds of
prey, which are usually lean, this was in high case: in its craw were
many barley-corns, which probably came from the crop of the
wood-pigeon, on which it was feeding when shot: for voracious
birds do not eat grain; but when devouring their quarry, with
undistinguishing vehemence swallow bones and feathers, and all
matters, indiscriminately. This falcon was probably driven from the
mountains of North Wales or Scotland, where they are known to
breed, by rigorous weather and deep snows that had lately fallen.
(* See my tenth and eleventh letter to that gentleman. )

I am, etc.



Letter LVIII
To The Honourable Daines Barrington

My near neighbour, a young gentleman in the service of the East-
India Company, has brought home a dog and a bitch of the Chinese
breed from Canton; such as are fattened in the country for the
purpose of being eaten: they are about the size of a moderate
spaniel; of a pale yellow colour, with coarse bristling hairs on their
backs; sharp upright ears, and peaked heads, which give them a
very fox-like appearance. Their hind legs are unusually straight,
without any bend at the hock or ham, to such a degree as to give