X y g, . White Owl. w sa D IT OF LONDON. PVBI.ISHF/.D HY JOHN JOSEPH GRTFF1N,AND C, AND "RICHARD GRIFF IN, AND C^, GLASGOW . 1855. T1IE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE: OBSERVATIONS ON VARIOUS FARTS OF NATURE, THE NATURALIST'S CALENDAR, BY THE LATE REV GILBERT WHITE, A.M., FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD. WITH EXTENSIVE ADDITIONS, BY CAPTAIN THOMAS BROWN, F.L.S., &c. ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS. NINTH EDITION. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY JOHN JOSEPH GRIFFIN AND CO. 53 BAKER-STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE; AND KIOHARD GRIFFIN AND CO. GLASGOW. 1853. PREFACE. GILBERT WHITE was the eldest son of John White, of Selborne, Esq. and of Anna, the daughter of the Rev. Thomas Holt, rector of Streatham in Surrey. He was born at Selborne, on July 18, 1720, and received his school education at Basingstoke, under the Rev. Thomas War ton, vicar of that place, and father of those two distinguished literary characters, Dr Joseph Warton, master of Winchester school, and Mr Thomas Warton, poetry professor at Oxford. He was admitted at Oriel College, Oxford, in December, 1739, and took his degree of Bachelor of Arts in June, 1743. In March, 1744, he was elected Fellow of his College. He became Master of Arts in October, 1746, and was admitted one of the senior Proctors of the University in April, 1752. Being of an unambitious temper, and strongly attached to the charms of rural scenery, he early fixed his residence in his native village, where he spent the greater part of ^359^45 IV PREFACE. his life in literary occupations, and especially in the study of Nature. This he followed with patient assiduity, and a mind ever open to the lessons of piety and bene- volence, which such a study is so well calculated to afford. Though several occasions offered of settling upon a college living, he could never persuade himself to quit the beloved spot, which was indeed a peculiarly happy situation for an observer. Thus his days passed tranquil and serene, with scarcely any other vicissitudes than those of the seasons, till they closed at a mature age, on June 26, 1793. The above short sketch was prefixed to the edition of Mr White's work published after his death, by his friend Dr Aiken of Warrington. It is abundantly meagre, but except the many pleasing allusions to himself throughout his letters, it contains all that the public have ever known of our author's personal history. An enthusiastic admirer of his, who lately visited the village of Selborne, thus sums up his account : " Of Gilbert White himself, I could collect few personal reminiscences ; and all that an old dame, who had nursed several of the family, could tell me of the philo- sophical old bachelor was, that ' he was a still, quiet body/ and that < there wasn't a bit of harm in him, I'll assure ye, sir : there was'nt indeed.' " PREFACE. V Mr White is principally known to the world by his Natural History of Selborne, which, although purport- ing to be but the description of the natural objects of a single parish, is, nevertheless, a book of general interest, embracing, in its details, varied and extensive inquiries into the phenomena of Nature. It originated in a series of letters, written to Thomas Pennant, Esq. and the Honourable Daines Barrington, gentlemen of high literary and scientific acquirements in their day, the former, the well-known author of \}\Q British Zoology, History of Quadrupeds, Tour in Scotland, and many other esteemed works. The Natural History of Selborne was first published in quarto, in 1789, along with what Mr White considered as essential in parochial history, namely, its Antiquities. This last, however, although of sufficient local interest, can offer few attractions to the general reader. The originality and instructive details of his chief work soon commanded general attention, and attracted even continental notice ; and, we believe, it was trans- lated into more than one foreign language. We know that a translation of it was printed in Germany, so early as 1792, and published at Berlin in that year. This work is written in an unconnected form, without any attempt at scientific arrangement, with which, how- ever, Mr White shews himself well acquainted ; and the minute exactness of his facts the good taste displayed A 2 VI PREFACE. in their selection and the elegance and liveliness with whicli they are described, render this one of the most amusing books of the kind ever published, and it has gained for the author a high and just reputation. Mr White's long series of observations were skilfully and attentively repeated, and have tended greatly to enlarge and correct our knowledge of those departments of natural history of which he has treated. He may be esteemed a worthy successor to Ray and Derham ; while his remarks, being almost exclusively original, are, in some measure, even better entitled to our attention than the writings of these celebrated naturalists. It has been thought proper to insert in the present edition the author's Poems, partly on account of their intrinsic merit, which is not inconsiderable, but prin- cipally because they are upon local subjects, and therefore naturally connected with the present work. They are also valuable and appropriate, as illustrating the author's strong attachment to the study of Nature. EDINBURGH, January 2f>, 1833 i POEMS. THE INVITATION TO SELBORNE. SEE, Selhorne spreads her boldest beauties round The varied valley, and the mountain ground, Wildly majestic ! What is all the pride Of flats, with loads of ornament supplied ? Unpleasing, tastleless, impotent expense, Compared with Nature's rude magnificence. Arise, my stranger, to these wild scenes haste ; The unfinish'd. farm awaits your forming taste : Plan the pavilion, airy, light, and true ; Through the high arch call in the lengthening views; Expand the forest sloping up the hill; Swell to a lake the scant, penurious rill ; Extend the vista ; raise the castle mound In antique taste, with turrets ivy-crown'd ; O'er the gay lawn the flow'ry shrub disprea.d, Or with the blending garden mix the mead ; Bid China's pale, fantastic fence delight ; Or with the mimic statue trap the sight. Oft on some evening, sunny, soft, and still. The Muse shall lead thee to the beech-grown hill, To spend in tea the cool, refreshing hour, Where nods in air the pensile, nest-like bower : * Or where the hermit hangs the straw-clad cell,f Emerging gently from the leafy dell, By Fancy plann'd ; as once th' inventive maid Met the hoar sage amid the secret shade : * A kind of arbour on the side of a hill, f A grotesque building, contrived by a young gentleman, who used on occasion to appear in the character of a hermit. VI11 POEMS. Romantic spot ! from whence in prospect lies Whate'er of landscape charms our feasting eyes, The pointed spire, the hall, the pasture plain, The russet fallow, or the golden grain, The breezy lake that sheds a gleaming light, Till all the fading picture fail the sight. Each to his task ; all different ways retire : Cull the dry stick ; call forth the seeds of fire ; Deep fix the kettle's props, a forky row, Or give with fanning hat the breeze to blow. Whence is this taste, the furnish'd hall forgot, To feast in gardens, or th' unhandy grot ? Or novelty with some new charms surprises, Or from our very shifts some joy arises. Hark, while below the village bells ring round, Echo, sweet nymph, returns the soften'd sound ; But if gusts rise, the rushing forests roar, Like the tide tumbling on the pebbly shore. Adown the vale, in lone, sequestered nook, Where skirting woods imbrown the dimpling brook> The ruin'd convent lies : here wont to dwell The lazy canon midst his cloistered cell,* While Papal darkness brooded o'er the land, Ere Reformation made her glorious stand : Still oft at eve belated shepherd swains See the cowl'd spectre skim the folded plains. To the high Temple f would my stranger go The mountain-brow commands the woods below : In Jewry first this order found a name, When madding Croisades set the world in flame ; When western climes, urged on by pope and priest, Pour'd forth their millions o'er the deluged East : Luxurious knights, ill-suited to defy To mortal fight Turcestan chivalry. Nor be the parsonage by the Muse forgot The partial bard admires his native spot ; Smit with its beauties, loved, as yet a child, Unconscious why, its capes, grotesque and wild. * The ruins of a Priory, founded by Peter de Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester. f The remains of a Preceptory of the Knights Templars ; at least it was a farm dependent upon some preceptory of that order. I find it was a preceptoiy, called the Preceptory of Suddington ; now called Southington. High on a mound th' exalted gardens stand, Beneath, deep valleys, scoop'd by Nature's hand. A Cobham here, exulting in his art, Might blend the general's with the gardener's part ; Might fortify with all the martial trade Of rampart, bastion, fosse, and palisade ; Might plant the mortar with wide threat'ning bore, Or bid the mimic cannon seem to roar. Now climb the steep, drop now your eye below Where round the blooming village orchards grow ; There, like a picture, lies my lowly seat, A rural, shelter'd, unobserved retreat. Me far above the rest Selbornian scenes, The pendent forests, and the mountain greens, Strike with delight ; there spreads the distant view, That gradual fades till sunk in misty blue : Here Nature hangs her slopy woods to sight, Rills purl between and dart a quivering light. SELBORNE HANGER. A WINTER PIECE. TO THE MISS B****S. THE bard, who sang so late in blithest strain Selbornian prospects, and the rural reign, Now suits his plaintive pipe to sadden'd tone, While the blank swains the changeful year bemoan. How fallen the glories of these fading scenes ! The dusky beach resigns his vernal greens ; The yellow maple mourns in sickly hue, And russet woodlands crowd the dark'ning view. Dim, clust'ring fogs involve the country round, The valley and the blended mountain ground Sink in confusion ; but with tempest-wing Should Boreas from his northern barrier spring, The rushing woods with deaf 'ning clamour roar, Like the sea tumbling on the pebbly shore. When spouting rains descend in torrent tides, See the torn zigzag weep its channel'd sides : Winter exerts its rage ; heavy and slow, From the keen east rolls on the treasured snow ; Sunk with its weight the bending boughs are seen, And one bright deluge whelms the works of men. Amidst this savage landscape, bleak and bare, Hangs the chill hermitage in middle air ; Its haunts forsaken, and its feasts forgot, A leaf-strown, lonely, desolated cot ! Is this the scene that late with rapture rang, Where Delphy danced, and gentle Anna sang? With fairy step where Harriet tripp'd so late, And, on her stump reclined, the musing Kitty sate ? Return, dear nymphs ; prevent the purple spring, Ere the soft nightingale essays to sing ; Ere .the first swallow sweeps the fresh'ning plain, Ere love-sick turtles breathe their amorous pain ; Let festive glee th 51 enlivenM village raise. Pan's blameless reign, and patriarchal days ; With pastoral dance the smitten swain surprise, And bring all Arcady before our eyes. Return, blithe maidens ; with you bring along Free, native humour ; all the charms of song ; The feeling heart, and unaffected ease ; Each nameless grace, and ev'ry power to please. November 1, 1763. ON THE RAINBOW. Look upon the Rainbow, and praise him that made it : very beautiful is it in the brightness thereof. Eccles. xliii. 11. ON morning or on evening cloud impress'd, Bent in vast curve, the watery meteor shines Delightfully, to th' levePd sun opposed : Lovely refraction ! while the vivid brede In listed colours glows, th' unconscious swain, With vacant eye, gazes on the divine Phenomenon, gleaming o'er the illumined fields, Or runs to catch the treasures which it sheds. Not so the sage : inspired with pious awe, He hails the federal arch ;# and, looking up, Adores that God, whose fingers form'd this bow Magnificent, compassing heaven about With a resplendent verge : " Thou mad'st the cloud Maker omnipotent, and thou the bow ; And by tnat covenant graciously hast sworn * Genesis, ix. 1217. Never to drown the world again : * henceforth, Till time shall be no more, in ceaseless round, Season shall follow season : day to night, Summer to winter, harvest to seed-time, Heat shall to cold in regular array Succeed." Heav'n-taught, so sang the Hebrew bard.f A HARVEST SCENE. WAKED by the gentle gleamings of the morn Soon clad, the reaper, provident of want, Hies cheerful-hearted to the ripen' d field ; Nor hastes alone : attendant by his side His faithful wife, sole partner of his cares, Bears on her breast the sleeping babe ; behind, With steps unequal, trips her infant train : Thrice happy pair, in love and labour join'd ! All day they ply their task ; with mutual chat. Beguiling each the sultry, tedious hours. Around them falls in rows the sever'd corn, Or the shocks rise in regular array. But when high noon invites to short repast, Beneath the shade of sheltering thorn they sit, Divide the simple meal, and drain the cask : The swinging cradle lulls the whimpering babe Meantime ; while growling round, if at the tread Of hasty passenger alarm'd, as of their store Protective, stalks the cur with bristling back, To guard the scanty scrip and russet frock. ON THE DARK, STILL, DRY, WARM WEATHER, Occasionally happening in the Winter Months. TH' imprison'd winds slumber within their caves, Fast bound : the fickle vane, emblem of change, Wavers no more, long settling to a point. All Nature nodding seems composed : thick steams, From land, from flood up-drawn, dimming the day, " Like a dark ceiling stand ;" slow through the air *Gen. viii. 22: f Moses. XU POEMS. Gossamer floats, or stretch'd from blade to blade, The wavy network whitens all the field. Push'd by the weightier atmosphere, up springs The ponderous mercury, from scale to scale Mounting 1 , amidst the Torricellian tube.* While high in air, and poised upon his wings, Unseen, the soft, enamour'd wood-lark runs Through all his maze of melody ; the brake, Loud with the blackbird's bolder note, resounds. Sooth' d by the genial warmth, the cawing rook Anticipates the spring, selects her mate, Haunts her tall nest-trees, and with sedulous care Repairs her wicker eyrie, tempest-torn. The ploughman inly smiles to see upturn His mellow glebe, best pledge of future crop : With glee the gardener eyes his smoking beds : E'en pining sickness feels a short relief. The happy schoolboy brings transported forth His long-forgotten scourge, and giddy gig : O'er the white paths he whirls the rolling hoop, Or triumphs in the dusty fields of taw. Not so the museful sage : abroad he walks Contemplative, if haply he may find What cause controls the tempest's rage, or whence, Amidst the savage season, Winter smiles. For days, for weeks, prevails the placid calm. At length some drops prelude a change : the sun, With ray refracted, bursts the parting gloom, When all the chequer'd sky is one bright glare. Mutters the wind at ere ; th' horizon round With angry aspect scowls : down rush the shower?, And float the deluged paths, and miry fields. * The barometer. NATURAL HISTORY OF S E L B O B, N E. LETTER I. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 1 HE parish of Selborne lies in the extreme eastern corner of the county of Hampshire, bordering on the county of Sussex, and not far from the county of Surrey ; is about fifty miles south-west of London, in latitude 51, and near midway between the towns of Alton and Petersfield. Being verj large and extensive, it abuts on twelve parishes, two of which are in Sussex, viz. Trotton and Rogate. If you begin from the south, and proceed westward, the adjacent parishes are Emshot, Newton, Valence, Faringdon, Harteley, Mauduit, Great Ward-le-ham, Kingsley, Hedleigh, Bramshot, Trotton, Rogate, Lysse, and Greatham. The soils of this district are almost as various and diversified as the views and aspects. The high part to the south-west consists of a vast hill of chalk, rising three hundred feet above the village; and is divided into a sheep down, the high wood, and a long hanging wood called the Hanger. The covert of this eminence is altogether beech, the most lovely of all forest trees, whether we consider its smooth rind, or bark, its glossy foliage, or graceful pendulous boughs.* The down, or sheep-walk, is a * While the beech is admitted to be one of the most beautiful trees of the forest, it must yield in grandeur, dignity, and picturesque beauty, to the oak, which, in these respects, stands pre-eminent in the British sylva : like the lion amongst animals, it is the unquestionable king of the forest. Beauty of a sublime kind, united with strength, is characteristic of the oak. ED. VILLAGE OF SELBOIINE. pleasing park-like spot, of about one mile by half that space, jutting out on the verge of the hill country, where it begins to break down into the plains, and commanding a very engaging view, being an assemblage of hill, dale, woodlands, heath, and water. The prospect is bounded to the south-east and east by the vast range of mountains called the Sussex Downs, by Guild-down near Guildford, and by the Downs round Dork- ing, and Ryegate in Surrey, to the north-east, which altogether, with the country beyond Alton and Farnham, form a noble and extensive outline. At the foot of this hill, one stage, or step, from the uplands, lies the village, which consists of one single straggling street, three quarters of a mile in length, in a sheltered vale, and running parallel with the Hanger. The houses are divided from the hill by a vein of stiff clay, (good wheat land,) yet stand on a rock of white stone, little in appearance removed from chalk ; but seems so far from being calcareous, that it endures extreme heat. Yet that the freestone still preserves somewhat that is analogous to chalk, is plain from the beeches, which descend as low as those rocks extend, and no farther, and thrive as well on them, where the ground is steep, as on the chalks. The cart-way of the village divides, in a remarkable manner, two very incongruous soils. To the south-west is a rank clay, that requires the labour of years to render it mellow; while the gardens to the north-east, and small enclosures behind, consist of a warm, forward, crumbling mould, called black malm, which seems highly saturated with vegetable and animal manure ; and these may perhaps have been the original site of the town ; w r hile the woods and coverts might extend down to the opposite bank. At each end of the village, which runs from south-east to north-west, arises a small rivulet ; that at the north-west end frequently fails ; but the other is a fine perennial spring, little influenced by drought or wet seasons, called Wellhead.* This breaks out of some high grounds adjoining to Nore Hill, a noble chalk promontory, remarkable for sending forth two streams into two different seas. The one to the south becomes * This spring produced, September 14, 1781, after a severe hot summer, and a preceding dry spring and winter, nine gallons of water in a minute, which is five hundred and forty in an hour, and twelve thousand nine hundred and sixty, or two hundred and sixteen hogsheads, in twenty-four hours, or one natural day. At this time many of tlie wells failed, and all the ponds in the vales were dry. STREAMS SOILS. a branch of the Arun, running to Arundel, and so falling into the British Channel ; the other to the north. The Selborne stream makes one branch of the Wey ; and, meeting the Black-down stream at Hedleigh, and the Alton and Farnham stream at Tilfordbridge, swells into a considerable river, navigable at Godalming ; from whence it passes to Guildford, and so into the Thames at Weybridge ; and thus at the Nore into the German Ocean. Our wells, at an average, run to about sixty-three feet, and when sunk to that depth, seldom fail ; but produce a fine limpid water, soft to the taste, and much commended by those who drink the pure element, but which does not lather well with soap.* To the north-west, north and east of the village, is a range of fair enclosures, consisting of what is called a white malm, a sort of rotten or rubble stone, which, when turned up to the frost and rain, moulders to pieces, and becomes manure to itself, f Still on to the north-east, and a step lower, is a kind of white land, neither chalk nor clay, neither fit for pasture nor for the plough, yet kindly for hops, which root deep into the freestone, and have their poles and wood for charcoal growing just at hand. This white soil produces the brightest hops. As the parish still inclines down towards Wolmer Forest, at the juncture of the clays and sand, the soil becomes a wet sandy loam, remarkable for timber, and infamous for roads. The oaks of Temple and Blackmoor stand high in the estima- tion of purveyors, and have furnished much naval timber ; while the trees on the freestone grow large, but are what workmen call shakey, and so brittle as often to fall to pieces in sawing. J Beyond the sandy loam the soil becomes an hungry lean sand, till it mingles with the forest ; and will produce little without the assistance of lime and turnips. * This hardness of the water is occasioned by the great proportion of earthy salts which it holds in solution, the most common of which is sulphate of lime. These salts have the property of decomposing common soap. Their acids unite with the alkali of the soap, while the earthy basis forms with the oil of the soap a substance not soluble in water, which envelopes the soap and gives it a greasy feel. These waters may general be cured by dropping into them an alkaline carbonate. ED. This soil produces good wheat and clover. The larch does not thrive on land with a substratum of sandstone, hen the roots get deep, and approach the sandstone, the tree makes no progress, and grows crooked. This is probably from the porous nature of the sandstone absorbing the moisture. En. BROAD LEAVED ELM. LETTER II. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. IN the court of Norton farm-house, a manor farm to the north-west of the village, on the white malms, stood, within these twenty years, a broad-leaved elm, or wych hazel, ulmus folio latissimo scabro of Ray, which, though it had lost a considerable leading bough in the great storm in the year 1 703, equal to a moderate tree, yet, when felled, contained eight loads of timber ; and being too bulky for a carriage, was sawn off at seven feet above the but, where it measured near eight feet in the diameter. * This elm I mention, to shew to what a bulk planted elms may attain ; as this tree must certainly have been such from its situation, f In the centre of the village, and near the church, is a square piece of ground, surrounded by houses, and vulgarly called the Plestor. J In the midst of this spot stood, in old times, a vast oak, with a short squat body, and huge horizontal arms, extending almost to the extremity of the area. This venerable tree, surrounded with stone steps, and seats above them, was the delight of old and young, and a place of much resort in summer evenings ; where the former sat in grave debate, while the latter frolicked and danced before them. Long might it have stood, had not * In Evelyn's Sylva, vol. ii. p. 189, we are informed of a witch elm that grew in the park of Sir Walter Baggot, Staffordshire, which was seventeen feet diameter at the base, and extended, when felled, one hundred and twenty feet. Its timber was estimated at the amazing quantity of ninety-seven tons. En. f It is a well established fact, that planted trees do not in general attain the size of natural wood. ED. | The Plestor was left by Sir Adam Gordon, a gentleman of Scottish extraction, who was leader of the Mountfort faction during the reign of Henry III, and is thus described by Mr White in the Antiquities of Selborne, " As Sir Adam began to advance in years, he found his mind influenced by the prevailing opinion of the reasonableness and efficacy of prayers for the dead ; and, therefore, in conjunction with his wife Constantia, in the year 1271, granted to the prior and convent of Selborne all his right and claim to a certain place, placea, called La Pleystow, in the village aforesaid, ' in liberam, puram, et perpetuam elemosinam.' This pleystow locus ludorum, or play-place is in a level area near the church, of about forty-four yards by thirty-six, and is known now by the name of the Plestor. It continues still, as it was in old times, to be the scene of recreation for the youths and children of the neighbourhood ; and impresses an idea on the mind, that this village, even in Saxon times, could not be the most abject of places, when the inhabitants thought proper to assign so spacious a spot for the sports and amusements of its young people." ED. THE PLESTOR LARGE OAKS. 5 the amazing tempest in 1703 overturned it at once, to the infinite regret of the inhabitants, and the vicar, who bestowed several pounds in setting it in its place again ; but all his care could not avail ; the tree sprouted for a time, then withered and died. * This oak I mention, to shew to what a bulk planted oaks also may arrive ; and planted this tree must certainly have been, as appears from what is known concerning the antiquities of the village.-f- On the Blackmoor estate there is a small wood, called Losel's, of a few acres, that was lately furnished with a set of oaks of a peculiar growth and great value : they were tall and taper like firs, but, standing near together, had very small heads only * It is very probable that this great oak was planted, in the year 1271, by the prior mentioned in the preceding note ; so that it must have been four hundred and thirty-two years old when blown down. ED. f The Shire Oak, so named from its peculiar local situation, standing on a spot where the counties of Derby, Nottingham, and York join, is one of the largest in the kingdom. The area which it covers is seven hundred and seven square yards. In February, 1828, an ash tree was felled in Blackburn Hollows, near Shires Green, Yorkshire, containing seven hundred and fifty feet of solid timber : it was ten feet six inches across the stool. An oak was also felled in Shining Cliff, neai Crich, Derbyshire, containing nine hundred and sixty-five feet, and was thirteen feet four inches across the stool. One of the most gigantic and venerable trees of this species is the celebrated Cowthorpe Oak, which stands on the extremity of the village of that name, near Wetherby, county of York. The late Dr Hunter, while describing an oak of extraordinary size, which decorates Sheffield Park, notices this majestic production of nature, in his edition of Evelyn's Sylva, in the following terms : " Neither this, nor any of the oaks mentioned by Mr Evelyn, bears any proportion to one now growing at Cowthorpe. The dimensions are almost incredible. Within three feet of the ground it measures sixteen yards, and close to the ground twenty-six yards. Its height, in its present ruinous state, (1776,) is almost eighty-five feet, and its principal limb extends sixteen yards from the bole. Throughout the whole tree the foliage is extremely thin ; so that the anatomy of the ancient branches may be distinctly seen in the height of summer. When compared to this, all other trees are but children of the forest." Book iii. p. 500. The description here given answers as nearly as possible to the present condition of the tree, as may be seen by comparing it with the accom- panying cut. The common oak is the quercus robur of botanists. The girth of our largest forest trees sinks into comparative insignifi- cance, when contrasted with that of some which are to be met with in the equinoctial regions of America. Mr Exter, in 1827, measured a cypress tree in the churchyard of Santa Maria de Tesla, two leagues and a half west of Oaxaca, whose trunk was one hundred and twenty-seven English feet in circumference, and one hundred and twenty feet in height. It appeared in the prime of its growth, and had not a single dead branch. _ED. D THE RAVEN TREE. a little brush, without any large limbs. About twenty years ago the bridge at the Toy, near Hampton Court, being much decayed, some trees were wanted for the repairs that were fifty feet long without bough, and would measure twelve inches diameter at the little end. Twenty such trees did a purveyor find in this little wood, with this advantage, that many of them answered the description at sixty feet. These trees were sold for twenty pounds a-piece.* In the centre of this grove there stood an oak, which, though shapely and tall on the whole, bulged out into a large excres- cence about the middle of the stem. On this a pair of ravens had fixed their residence for such a series of years, that the oak was distinguished by the title of the Raven Tree. Many were the attempts of the neighbouring youths to get at this eyry: the difficulty whetted their inclinations, and each was ambitious of surmounting the arduous task. But when they arrived at the swelling, it jutted out so in their way, and was so far beyond their grasp, that the most daring lads were awed, and acknowledged the undertaking to be too hazardous. So the ravens built on, nest upon nest, in perfect security, till the fatal day arrived in which the wood was to be levelled. It was in the month of February, when those birds usually sit. The saw was applied to the but, the wedges were inserted into the opening, the w r oods echoed to the heavy blows of the beetle, or mallet, the tree nodded to its fall ; but still the dam sat on. At last, when it gave way, the bird was flung from her nest ; and, though her parental affection deserved a better fate, was whipped down by the twigs, which brought her dead to the ground.f * In the hall of Dudly Castle there is an oak table, seventy-five feet long, and three feet broad, which grew in the park of that estate. En. f During the time of incubation, the natural timidity of birds is greatly lessened ; and, in many instances, the females will allow themselves to be taken rather than desert their nests. The following instance, recorded by William Henry Hill, Esq. of Newland, Gloucestershire, in 1828, finely illustrates this : He says, " Some time since, a pair of blue titmice (parus cceruleus} built their nest in the upper part of an old pump, fixing on the pin on which the handle worked. It happened that, during the time of building, and laying the eggs, the pump had not been in use ; when again set going, the female was sitting, and it was naturally expected the motion of the pump-handle would drive her away. The young brood were hatched safely, however, without any other misfortune than the loss of part of the tail of the sitting bird, which was rubbed off by the friction of the pump-handle ; nor did they appear disturbed by the visitors who were frequently looking at her." Magazine of Natural History, ii. p. 64. FOSSIL SHELLS. 1 LETTER III. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. THE fossil shells of this district, and sorts of stone, such as have fallen within my observation, must not be passed over in silence. And first, I must mention, as a great curiosity, a specimen that was ploughed up in the chalky fields, near the side of the Down, and given to me for the singularity of its appearance, which, to an incurious eye, seems like a petrified fish, of about four inches long, the cardo passing for a head and mouth. It is in reality a bivalve of the Linnaean genus of mytilus and the species ofcristagalli; called by Lister, rastellum; by Rumphius, ostreum plicatum minus ; by D' Argenville, auris porci, crista galli; and by those who make collections, cock's comb.* Though I applied to several such in London, I never could meet with an entire specimen ; nor could I ever find in books any engraving from a perfect one. In the superb museum at Leicester House, permission was given me to examine for this article ; and, though I was disappointed as to the fossil, I was highly gratified with the sight of several of the shells themselves, in high preservation. This bivalve is only known to inhabit the Indian Ocean, where it fixes itself to a zoophyte, known by the name gorgonia. Cornua ammonis are very common about this village. As we were cutting an inclining path up the Hanger, the labourers found them frequently on that steep, just under the soil, in the chalk, and of a considerable size. In the lane above Well- head, in the way to Emshot, they abound in the bank in a darkish sort of marl ; and are usually very small and soft ; but in Clay's Pond, a little farther on, at the end of the pit, where the soil is dug out for manure, I have occasionally observed them of large dimensions, perhaps fourteen or sixteen inches * Ostrea carinata, or keeled oyster, of Lamark. It is met with in the department of Sarthe, and other places of France. The author is mis- taken in supposing that this species is found in a recent state. It has been satisfactorily proved, that there are no living species of those fossil shells discovered in the old limestone formations, although there are some existing individuals nearly allied to them. Petrifactions occur in three states ; sometimes they are a little altered, sometimes they are converted into stone, and at other times the impres- sions only of them, or the moulds in which they have been enclosed, remain. EC. tf FOSSIL SHELLS. in diameter. But as these did not consist of firm stone, but were formed of a kind of terra lapidosa, or hardened clay, as soon as they wei e exposed to the rains and frost, they mouldered away. These seemed as if they were a very recent production. In the chalk-pit, at the north-west end of the Hanger, large nautili are sometimes observed.* In the very thickest strata of our freestone, and at consider- able depths, well-diggers often find large scallops, or pectines, having both shells deeply striated, and ridged and furrowed alternately. They are highly impregnated with, if not wholly composed of, the stone of the quarry, f LETTER IV. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. As, in last letter, the freestone of this place has been only mentioned incidentally, I shall here become more particular. This stone is in great request for hearth-stones, and the beds of ovens ; and in lining of lime-kilns it turns to good account ; for the workmen use sandy loam instead of mortar, the sand * Modern naturalists have constituted twenty genera of those fossil shells, known by the general appellation of cornu ammonis. The con- clusions which geologists have come to regarding them, are these: 1st, That they are first found in the formation called the lias, and appear in most of the succeeding strata, but seem to have become extinct in the ocean which deposited the hard chalk. The division here alluded to, is what has been named the ammonacea by Lamark, which are shells with a sinuous septa, lobed and cut at the margin, meeting together upon the inner wall of the shell, and articulated by jagged sutures. 2d, The orthocerata appear in the early strata, and are continued upwards to the soft chalk stratum, after which they are not seen. These shells are straight, or nearly so, and not spiral. 3d, The oval ammonitaz are not known in the early strata, but m the hard chalk only, and are not seen afterwards, as if they had been created at a comparatively late period, and had been soon suffered to become extinct. The shells alluded to by our author, which mouldered away, had been the impressions only of these cornua ammonis. ED. f In Corncockle Moor, Dumfries-shire, there is a sandstone quarry, oil the slabs of which are distinctly imprinted the tracks of the foot marks of animals. These were discovered in the year 1812. They differ in size from that of a hare's paw to the hoof of a pony. On a slab, which forms part of the wall of a summer-house, in Dr Duncan's garden, at the Manse of Ruthwell, there are twenty-four impressions, twelve of the right, and as many of the left foot. Professor Buckland considers that the animals must have been crocodiles or tortoises. En. FREESTONE. 9 of which fluxes,* and runs, by the intense heat, and so cases over the whole face of the kiln with a strong vitrified coat like glass, that it is well preserved from injuries of weather, and endures thirty or forty years. When chiselled smooth, it makes elegant fronts for houses, equal in colour and grain to the Bath stone, and superior in one respect, that, when sea- soned, it does not scale. Decent chimneypieces are worked from it, of much closer and finer grain than Portland ; and rooms are floored with it ; but it proves rather too soft for this purpose. It is a freestone, cutting in all directions ; yet has something of a grain parallel with the horizon, and therefore should not be surbedded, but laid in the same position that it grows in the quarry.f On the ground abroad this firestone will not succeed for pavements, because, probably some degree of salt- ness prevailing within it, the rain tears the slabs to pieces. J Though this stone is too hard to be acted on by vinegar, yet both the white part, and even the blue rag, ferment strongly in mineral acids. Though the white stone will not bear wet, yet in every quarry, at intervals, there are thin strata of blue rag, which resist rain and frost, and are excellent for pitching of stables, paths, and courts, and for building of dry walls against banks, a valuable species of fencing, much in use in this village, and for mending of roads. This rag is rugged and stubborn, and will not hew to a smooth face, but is very durable ; yet, as these strata are shallow, and lie deep, large quantities cannot be procured but at considerable expense. Among the blue rags turn up some blocks, tinged with a stain of yellow, or rust colour, which seem to be nearly as lasting as the blue ; and every now and then balls of a friable substance, like rust of iron, called rust balls. In Wolmer Forest I see but one sort of stone, called by the workmen sand, or forest stone. This is generally of the colour of rusty iron, and might probably be worked as iron ore ; is * May not the fact here noticed shew the possibility of what are called vitrified forts being produced by fires lighted for signals, or some other purpose, as an instance is here given of heat causing sand to flux ED. There may probably be also in the chalk itself that is burnt for lime a proportion of sand ; for few chalks are so pure as to have none. f To surled stone is to set it edgewise, contrary to the posture it had , in the quarry, says Dr Plot, Oxfordshire, p. 77. But surbedding does not succeed in our dry walls ; neither do we use it so in ovens, though he says it is best for Teynton stone. 1 " Firestone is full of salts, and has no sulphur ; must be close-grained, and have no interstices. Nothing supports fire like salts ; saltstone perishes exposed to wet and frost." Plot's Staff, p. 152. 10 MANOR OF SELBORNE. very hard and heavy, and of a firm, compact texture, and com posed of a small roundish crystalline grit, cemented together by a brov/n, terrene, ferruginous matter ; will not cut without difficulty, nor easily strike fire with steel. Being often found in broad flat pieces, it makes gooa pavement for paths about houses, never becoming slippery in frost or rain ; is excellent for dry walls, and is sometimes used in buildings. In many parts of that waste it lies scattered on the surface of the ground ; but is dug on Weaver's Down, a vast hill on the eastern verge of that forest, where the pits are shallow, and the stratum thin. This stone is imperishable. From a notion of rendering their work the more elegant, and giving it a finish, masons chip this stone into small fragments about the size of the head of a large nail ; and then stick the pieces into the wet mortar along the joints of their freestone walls. This embellishment 'carries an odd appearance, and has occasioned strangers sometimes to ask us pleasantly," Whether we fastened our walls together with tenpenny nails?" LETTER V. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. AMONG the singularities of this place, the two rocky hollow lanes, the one to Alton, and the other to the forest, deserve our attention. These roads, running through the malm lands, are, by the traffic of ages, and the fretting of water, worn down through the first stratum of our freestone, and partly through the secor d ; so that they look more like watercourses than roads, and are bedded with naked rag for furlongs together. In many places they are reduced sixteen or eighteen feet beneath the level of the fields ; and after floods, and in frosts, exhibit very grotesque and wild appearances, from the tangled roots that are twisted among the strata, and from the torrents rushing down their broken sides ; and especially when those cascades are frozen into icicles, hanging in all the fanciful shapes of frostwork. These rugged gloomy scenes affright the ladies when they peep down into them from the paths above, and make timid horsemen shudder while they ride along them ; but delight the naturalist with their various botany, and particularly with their curious filices, with which they abound. The manor of Selborne, were it strictly looked after, with all its kindly aspects, and all its sloping coverts, would swarm KAIN POPULATION. 11 with game ; even now, hares, partridges, and pheasants abound ; and in old days woodcocks were as plentiful. There are few quails, because they more affect open fields than enclosures. After harvest, some few land-rails are seen. The parish of Selborne, by taking in so much of the forest, is a vast district. Those who tread the bounds are employed part of three days in the business, and are of opinion that the outline, in all its curves and indentings, does not comprise less than thirty miles. The village stands in a sheltered spot, secured by the Hanger from the strong westerly winds. The air is soft, but rather moist, from the effluvia of so many trees ; yet perfectly healthy and free from agues. The quantity of rain that falls on it is very considerable, as may be supposed in so woody and mountainous a district. As my experience in measuring the water is but of short date, I am not qualified to give the mean quantity.* I only know that, Inch. Hund. From May 1, 1779, to the end of the year, there fell . . 28 37 ! From January 1, 1780, to January " From January 1, 1781, to January From January 1, 1782, to January From January I, 1783, to January From January 1 784, to January From January 1785, to January From January 1786, to January 1781 . . . 27 32 1782 . . . 30 71 J783 . . . 50 26! 1784 . . . 33 71 1785 ... 33 80 1786 . . . 31 55 1787 ... 39 57 The village of Selborne, and large hamlet of Oakhanger, with the single farms, and many scattered houses along the verge of the forest, contain upwards of six hundred and seventy inhabitants. We abound with poor, many of whom are sober and industrious, and live comfortably, in good stone or brick cottages, which are glazed, and have chambers above stairs : mud buildings we have none. Besides the employment from husbandry, the men work in hop gardens, of which we have many, and fell and bark timber. In the .spring and summer * A very intelligent gentleman assures me, (and he speaks from upwards of forty years' experience,) that the mean rain of any place cannot be ascertained till a person has measured it for a very long period. " If 1 had only measured the rain," says he, " for the four first years, from 1740 to 1743, I should have said the mean rain at Lyndon was 16kj inches for the year ; if from 1740 to 1750, 18% inches. The moan rain before 1763, was 20 14 ; from 1763 and since, 25% ; from 1770 to 1780,26. If only 1773, 1774, and 1775, had been measured, Lyndon mean rain would have been called 32 inches, increasing from 16.6 to 32." 12 FOREST OJf WOLMER. the women weed the corn, and enjoy a second harvest in September by hop-picking. Formerly, in the dead months, they availed themselves greatly by spinning wool, for making of barragons, a genteel corded stuff, much in vogue at that time for summer wear, and chiefly manufactured at Alton, a neighbouring town, by some of the people called Quakers. The inhabitants enjoy a good share of health and longevity, and the parish swarms with children LETTER VI. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SHOULD I omit to describe with some exactness the Forest of Wolmer, of which three-fifths perhaps lie in this parish, my account of Selborne would be very imperfect, as it is a district abounding with many curious productions, both animal and vegetable ; and has often afforded me much entertainment both as a sportsman and as a naturalist. The royal Forest of Wolmer is a tract of land of about seven miles in length, by two and a half in breadth, running nearly from north to south, and is abutted on, to begin to the south, and so to proceed eastward, by the parishes of Greatham, Lysse, Rogate, and Trotton, in the county of Sussex ; by Bramshot, Hedleigh, and Kingsley. This royalty consists entirely of sand, covered with heath and fern ; but is somewhat diversified with hills and dales, without having one standing tree in the whole extent. In the bottoms, where the waters stagnate, are many bogs, which formerly abounded with subterraneous trees ; though Dr Plot says positively,* that " there never were any fallen trees hidden in the mosses of the southern counties." But he was mistaken ; for I myself have seen cottages on the verge of this wild district, whose timbers consisted of a black hard wood, looking like oak,^ which the owners assured me they procured from the bogs by probing the soil with spits, or some such instruments, but the peat is so much cut out, and the moors have been so well examined, that none has been found of late.f Besides the * See his History of Staffordshire. f Old people Lave assured me, that on a winter's morning they have discovered these trees, in the bogs, by the lioar frost, which lay longer over the space where they were concealed, than on the surrounding morass. Nor does this seem to be a fanciful notion, but consistent with true philosophy. Dr Hales saith, " That the warmth of the earth, at GAME IN WOLMER FOREST. 13 oak, I have also been shewn pieces of fossil wood, of a paler colour, and softer nature, which the inhabitants called fir ; but, upon a nice examination, and trial by fire, I could discover nothing- resinous in them ; and therefore rather suppose that they were parts of a willow, or alder, or some such aquatic tree.* This lonely domain is a very agreeable haunt for many sorts of wild fowls, which not only frequent it in the winter, but breed there in the summer ; such as lapwings, snipes, wild- ducks, and, as I have discovered within these few years, teals. Partridges in vast plenty are bred in good seasons on the verge of this Forest, into which they love to make excur- sions ; and in particular, in the dry summer of 1740 and 1741, and some years after, they swarmed to such a degree, that parties of unreasonable sportsmen killed twenty and sometimes thirty, brace in a day. But there was a nobler species of game in this forest, now extinct, which I have heard old people say abounded much before shooting flying became so common, and that was the heath-cock, or black game. When I was a little boy, I recollect one coming now and then to my father's table. The last pack remembered \vas killed about thirty-five years ago ; and within these ten years, one solitary gray-hen was sprung by some beagles in beating for a hare. The sportsman cried out, " A hen pheasant ! " but a gentleman present, who had often seen black game in the north of England, assured me that it was a gray-hen.-(- some depth under ground, has an influence in promoting a thaw, as well as the change of the weather from a freezing to a thawing state, is mani- fest from this observation; viz. November 29, 1731, a little snow having fallen in the night, it was, by eleven the next morning, mostly melted away on the surface of the earth, except in several places in Bushy Park, where there were drains dug and covered with earth, on which, the snow continued to lie, whether those drains were full of water or dry ; as also where elm-pipes lay under ground : a plain proof this, that those drains intercepted the warmth of the earth from ascending from greater depths below them ; for the snow lay where the drain had more than four feet depth of earth over it. It continued also to lie on thatch, tiles, and the tops of walls." See Hales's H&mastatics, p. 360. Quere, Might not such observations be reduced to domestic use, by promoting the discovery of old obliterated drains and wells about houses ; and in Roman stations and camps, lead to the finding of pavements, baths, and graves, and oth--r hiddeu relics of curious antiquity ? * Fossils of this kind, including oaks and pines, are common in most marshes and bogs of Europe En. j- It is very doubtful whether the black grouse ever was plentiful in the less mountainous counties of England. At present they are very 14 RED DEER. Nor does the loss of our black game prove the only gap in the Fauna Selborniensis ; for another beautiful link in the chain of beings is wanting, I mean the red deer, which toward the beginning of this century amounted to about five hundred head, and made a stately appearance. There is an old keeper, now alive, named Adams, whose great-grandfather (mentioned in a perambulation taken in 1635), grandfather, father, and self, enjoyed the head keepership of Wolmer Forest in succes- sion far more than an hundred years. This person assures me, that his father has often told him that Queen Anne, as she was journeying on the Portsmouth road, did not think the Forest of Wolmer beneath her royal regard ; for she came out of the great road at Lippock, which is just by, and, reposing herself on a bank smoothed for that purpose, lying about half a mile to the east of Wolmer Pond, and still called Queen's Bank, saw, with great complacency and satisfaction, the whole herd of red deer brought by the keepers along the vale before her, consisting then of about five hundred head. A sight this, worthy the attention of the greatest sovereign ! But he farther adds, that, by means of the Waltham Blacks, or, to use his own expression, as soon as they began blacking, they were reduced to about fifty head, and so continued decreasing, till the time of the late Duke of Cumberland. It is now more than thirty years ago, that his Highness sent down an huntsman, and six yeomen prickers, in scarlet jackets laced with gold, attended by the stag-hounds ; ordering them to take every deer in this forest alive, and to convey them in carts to Windsor. In the course of the summer, they caught every stag, some of which shewed extraordinary diversion ; but in the following winter, when the hinds were also carried off, such fine chases were scarce in the southern counties ; a few are to be met with in the New Forest, Hampshire, Dartmore, and Sedgemore, in Devonshire, and in some of the heathy hills of Somersetshire, which lie contiguous to Devon- shire ; and in Staffordshire and North Wales. They abound in the south and north of Scotland. The Earl of Fife has procured a breed of that splendid bird the capercalzie, or cock of the woods, which promises to increase. It is his Lordship's intention to turn them out at Marr Lodge, and endeavour to naturalize them ; in which project there can be little doubt of his succeeding, as they were formerly plentiful in Scotland. The Virginian partridge has been successfully introduced into Stafford- shire, and has become abundant, and spread over part of the adjoining counties. The red-legged partridge, a native of France, has lately been introduced into preserves in England with great success. Wherever it obtains ground, it drives the common species out of the preserves, and threatens in time, like the Norway rat, to exterminate the aboriginal race ED. DEER STEALING. 15 exhibited, as served the country people for matter of talk and wonder for years afterwards. I saw myself one of the yeomen prickers single out a stag from the herd, and must confess that it was the most curious feat of activity I ever beheld, superior to any thing in Mr Astley's riding-school. The exertions made by the horse and deer much exceeded all my expecta- tions, though the former greatly excelled the latter in speed. When the devoted deer was separated from his companions, they gave him, by their watches, law, as they called it, for twenty minutes ; when, sounding their horns, the stop-dogs were permitted to pursue, and a most gallant scene ensued. LETTER VII. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. THOUGH large herds of deer do much harm to the neigh- bourhood, yet the injury to the morals of the people is of more moment than the loss of their crops. The temptation is irresistible ; for most men are sportsmen by constitution, and there is such an inherent spirit for hunting in human nature, as scarce any inhibitions can restrain. Hence, towards the beginning of this century, all this country was wild about deer- stealing. Unless he was a hunter, as they affected to call themselves, no young person was allowed to be possessed of manhood or gallantry. The Waltham Blacks at length com- mitted such enormities, that government was forced to interfere with that severe and sanguinary act called the Black Act,* which now comprehends more felonies than any law that ever was framed before. And, therefore, a late bishop of Win- chester, when urged to re-stock Waltham Chase, refused, from a motive worthy of a prelate, replying, that " It had done mischief enough already." f Our old race of deer-stealers are hardly extinct yet. It was but a little while ago that, over their ale,* they used to recount the exploits of their youth ; such as watching the pregnant hind to her lair, and, when the calf was dropped, paring its feet, with a penknife, to the quick, to prevent its escape, till it was large and fat enough to be killed ; the shooting at one of their neighbours with a bullet, in a turnip field by moonshine, mistaking him for a deer ; and the losing a dog in the following * Statute 9 Geo. I, c. 22. f This Chase remains unstocked to this day : the bishop was Dr Hoadley. 16 ROYAL FORESTS. extraordinary manner : Some fellows, suspecting that a calf new fallen was deposited in a certain spot of thick fern, went with a lurcher to surprise it ; when the parent hind rushed out of the brake, and, taking a vast spring, with all her feet close together, pitched upon the neck of the dog, and broke it short in two.* Another temptation to idleness and sporting, was a number of rabbits, which possessed all the hillocks and dry places ; but these being inconvenient to the huntsmen, on account of their burrows, when they came to take away the deer, they permitted the country people to destroy them all. Such forests and wastes, when their allurements to irre- gularities are removed, are of considerable service to neigh- bourhoods that verge upon them, by furnishing them with peat and turf for their firing; with fuel for the burning their lime; and with ashes for their grasses ; and by maintaining their geese and their stock of yciung cattle at little or no expense. The manor farm of the parish of Greatham has an admitted claim, I see, (by an old record taken from the Tower of London,) of turning all live stock on the forest, at proper seasons, bidentibus exceptis.^ The reason, I presume, why sheep | are excluded is, because, being such close grazers, they would pick out all the finest grasses, and hinder the deer from thriving. Though (by statute 4th and 5th William and Mary, c. 23) " to burn on any waste, between Candlemas and Midsummer, any grig, ling, heath, and furze, goss or fern, is punishable with whipping, and confinement in the house of correction j " yet, in this forest, about March or April, according to the dryness of the season, such vast heath-fires are lighted up, that they often get to a masterless head, and, catching the hedges, have sometimes been communicated to the under- woods, woods, and coppices, where great damage has ensued. * The hind will expose herself to the fury of the hounds, and suffer all the terrors of the chase, in order to draw off the dogs from the hiding- place of the calf. She is exceedingly bold in the protection of her offspring, defends herself with great courage, and frequently obliges the dog and wolf to give way upon these occasions. William Duke of Cumberland caused a stag and tiger to be enclosed in the same area, to see the result ; and the stag made so bold a defence, that the tiger was obliged to give up the contest ED. f For this privilege, the owner of that estate used to pay to the king annually seven bushels of oats. \ In the Holt, where a full stock of fallow deer has been kept up till lately, no sheep are admitted to this day. ATLS. F. 22 MIGRATION!?. LETTER X. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. Auyu&t 4, 1767. IT has been my misfortune never to have had any neigh- bours whose studies have led them towards the pursuit of natural knowledge ; so that, for want of a companion to quicken my industry and sharpen my attention, I have made but slender progress in a kind of information to which I have been attached from my childhood. As to swallows (hirundines rustled) being found in a torpid state during the winter in the Isle of Wight, or any part of this country, I never heard any such account worth attending to. But a clergyman, of an inquisitive turn, assures me that, when he was a great boy, some workmen, in pulling down the battlements of a church tower early in the spring, found two or three swifts (kirundines apodes) among the rubbish, which were, at first appearance, dead ; but, on being carried towards the fire, revived. He told me that, out of his great care to preserve them, he put them in a paper bag, and hung them by the kitchen fire, where they were suffocated. Another intelligent person has informed me that, while he was a schoolboy at Brighthelmstone, in Sussex, a great fragment of the chalk cliff fell down one stormy winter on the beach, and that many people found swallows among the rubbish ; but, on my questioning him whether he saw any of those birds himself, to my no small disappointment he answered me in the negative, but that others assured him they did.* Young broods of swallows began to appear this year on July the llth, and young martens (Jiirundmes urbicGe) were * That a few solitary instances of swallows remaining in this country, in a state of torpidity, have occurred, there can be little doubt ; but that they generally hybernate is out of the question. Charles Lucian Bona- parte, in a letter to the Secretary of the Linneen Society, dated from on board the Delaware, near Gibraltar, March 20, 1828, says, " A few days ago, being five hundred miles from the coasts of Portugal, four hundred from those of Africa, we were agreeably surprised by the appearance of a few swallows, (hirundo urbica and rustica.) This, however extraordinary, might have been explained by an easterly gale, which might have cut off the swallows migrating from the main to Madeira, only two hundred miles distant from us ; but what was my surprise in observing several small warblers popping about the deck and rigging. These poor little strangers were soon caught and brought to me." These warblers were the sylvia trochilvs, or hay bird, &c. En. MARTENS. 2 then fledged in their nests. Both species will breed again once; for I see by my fauna of last year, that young broods came forth so late as September the 1 8th. Are not these late hatchings more in favour of hiding than migration ? Nay, some young martens remained in their nests last year so late as September the 29th ; and yet they totally disappeared with us by the 5th of October. How strange it is, that the swift, which seems to live exactly the same life with the swallow and house-marten, should leave us before the middle of August invariably ! while the latter stay often till the middle of October ; and once I saw numbers of house-martens on the 7th of November. * The martens and red-wing fieldfares were flying in sight together, an uncom- mon assemblage of summer and winter birds ! A little yellow bird (it is either a species of the alauda trivialis, -j- or rather, perhaps, of the tnotacilla trochilus^) still continues to make a sibilous shivering noise in the tops of tall woods. The stoparola of Ray (for which we have as yet no name in these parts) is called, in your Zoology, the fly- catcher. There is one circumstance characteristic of this bird, which seems to have escaped observation ; and that is, it takes its stand on the top of some stake or post, from whence it springs forth on its prey, catching a fly in the air, and hardly ever touching the ground, but returning still to the same stand for many times together. * The latest time which the swift has been known to remain in this country was till September 15, in the year 181 7. Two or three were seen sporting about with the large assemblies of swallows and martens, by the sea side, near Penzance, to the eastward. These birds, there can be little doubt, were on their passage from this country to a more southern climate. The swallow (H. rustica) was seen, by the Rev. W. T. Bree, in the year 1806, so late as November 20 j and Mr Sweet mentions having seen one pass over his garden, near London, November 23, 1828. The day was fine, and flies plentiful ; but, he asks, how did it subsist during the severe frosty days that were past ? The earliest period noticed by that keen observer of nature is on the 3d April, 1803 ; while he records having seen the sand-marten (H. riparia) on the 31st March, in the years 1818 and 1822, the former at Penzance, and adds, " I have been informed by an intelligent friend, that a house-swallow once took up its residence late in the autumn within St Mary's Church at Warwick, and was regularly observed there by the congregation until Christmas eve, after which it disappeared, and was seen no more." These birds arrive in the following order: The sand-marten, the house-swallow, house-marten, swift. ED. fr The grasshopper lark. ED. \ The yellow willow-wren. En, 24 WATER-RATS. I perceive there are more than one species of the motacilla trochilus ; Mr Derham supposes, in Ray's Philosophical Letters, that he has discovered three. In these, there is again an instance of some very common birds that have as yet no English name.* Mr Stillingfleet makes a question whether the black-cap (motacilla atricapilla) be a bird of passage or not. I think there is no doubt of it ; for, in April, in the first fine weather, they come trooping in all at once into these parts, but are never seen in the winter.f They are delicate songsters. Numbers of snipes breed every summer in some moory ground on the verge of this parish. It is very amusing to see the cock bird on wing at that time, and to hear his piping and humming notes. I have had no opportunity yet of procuring any of those mice which I mentioned to you in town. The person that brought me the last says they are plenty in harvest, at which time I will take care to get more ; and will endeavour to put the matter out of doubt whether it be a nondescript species or not. I suspect much there may be two species of water-rats. Ray says, and Linnaeus after him, that the water-rat is web- footed behind. Now, I have discovered a rat on the banks of our little stream that is not web-footed, and yet is an excellent swimmer and diver : it answers exactly to the mus amphibius of Linnaeus, (see SysL Nat.) which, he says, " natat infossis et urinaturr I should be glad to procure one " plantis palmatu." Linnaeus seems to be in a puzzle about his mus amphibius y and to doubt whether it differs from his mus terrestris ; which, if it be, as he allows, the " mus agrestis capite grandi brachyuros" of Ray, is widely different from the water-rat, both in size, make, and manner of life. As to the//. * Various experiments have been tried to naturalize Canary birds in Britain, but they have all proved abortive. ED. f- Our author seems strongly inclined to the doctrine of tJie submersion of the swallow tribe during winter ; but the temperature of places situated at great depths below the surface of the land and water, is sufficient objection to the circumstance of birds remaining in a torpid state, during the winter, in solitary caverns, or at the bottom of deep lakes, as many authors have affirmed. It is an established fact, that all places situated eighty feet below the surface of the earth are constantly of the same temperature. In these MIGRATION. 81 An observing gentleman in London writes me word, that he saw a house-marten, on the 23d of last October, flying in and out of its nest in the Borough ; and I myself, on the 29th of last October, (as I was travelling through Oxford,) saw four or five swallows hovering round and settling on the roof of the County Hospital. Now, is it likely that these poor little birds (which, perhaps, had not been hatched but a few weeks) should, at that late season of the year, and from so midland a county, attempt a voyage to Goree or Senegal, almost as far as the equator?* I acquiesce entirely in your opinion, that, though most of the swallow kind may migrate, yet some do stay behind and hide with us during the winter. As to the short-winged soft-billed birds, which come trooping in such numbers in the spring, I am at a loss even what to suspect about them. I watched them narrowly this year, and saw them abound till about Michaelmas, when they appeared no longer. Subsist they cannot openly among us, and yet elude the eyes of the inquisitive ; and as to their hiding, no man pretends to have found any of them in a torpid state in the winter. But with regard to their migration, what difficulties attend that supposition! that such feeble bad fliers (who the summer long never flit but from hedge to hedge) should be able to traverse vast seas and continents, in order to enjoy milder seasons amidst the regions of Africa! LETTER XIII. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, January 22, 1768. As, in one of your former letters, you expressed the more satisfaction from my correspondence on account of my living in the most southerly county ; so now I may return the com- pliment, and expect to have my curiosity gratified by your living much more to the north. For many years past I have observed that, towards Christmas, vast flocks of chaffinches have appeared in the fields many more, I used to think, than could be hatched in any one situations, therefore, the sun can have no influence ; and what else would call forth the dormant organs of these birds into action? It is but reasonable to conclude that cold, which kept them benumbed by its sleepy torpor, would evidently perpetuate their slumbers. En. * See Adamson's Voyage to Senega^,, 32 CHAFFINCHES. neighbourhood. But, when I came to observe them much more narrowly, I was amazed to find that they seemed to me to be almost all hens. I communicated my suspicions to some intelligent neighbours, who, after taking pains about the matter, declared that they also thought them all mostly females ; at least fifty to one. This extraordinary occurrence brought to my mind the remark of Linnaeus, that, " before winter, all their hen chaffinches migrate through Holland into Italy." Now, I want to know, from some curious person in the north, whether there are any large flocks of these finches with them in the winter, and of which sex they mostly consist ? For, from such intelligence, one might be able to judge whether our female flocks migrate from the other end of the island, or whether they come over to us from the Continent.* We have, in the winter, vast flocks of the common linnets, more, I think, than can be bred in any one district. These, I observe, when the spring advances, assemble on some tree in the sunshine, and join all in a gentle sort of chirping, as if they were about to break up their winter quarters, and betake themselves to their proper summer homes. It is well known, at least, that the swallows and the fieldfares do congregate with a gentle twittering before they make their respective departures.f You may depend on it, that the bunting, emberiza miliaria, does not leave this country in the winter. In January, 1767 I saw several dozens of them, in the midst of a severe frost, among the bushes on the downs near Andover ; in our wood- land enclosed districts it is a rare bird. J * Mr Selby says, that Ct in Northumberland and Scotland, this separating takes place about the month of November; and from that period till the return of spring, few females are to be seen, and these few in distinct societies." To this, however, there are exceptions, as we have met them of both sexes during the depths of winter. We can say confidently, that during several years' residence in the county of Fife, the females in our shrubbery and garden were as plentiful as the males ; and that the sexes were not separated into distinct societies. ED. f Linnets in a state of captivity do not acquire the fine colours with which they are adorned during the summer months while at freedom ; the fine red tinge of the nuptial season never appearing. " At once brilliant and soft," says Bechstein, " the song of the linnet consists of many irregular notes, tastefully put together, in a clear and sonorous tone, which continues the whole year, except in the moulting season.*' ED. | The common buntings congregate during winter, but do not migrate. We, however, receive accessions of them at the fall, from more SHORT WINGED BIRDS. 33 Wagtails, both white and yellow, are with us all the winter. Quails crowd to our southern coast, and are often killed in numbers by people that go on purpose.* Mr Stillingfleet, in his Tracts, says, that, " if the wheatear (cenanthe) does not quit England, it certainly shifts places ; for, about harvest, they are not to be found where there was before great plenty of them." This well accounts for the vast quantities that are caught about that time on the south downs near Lewes, where they are esteemed a delicacy. There have been shepherds, I have been credibly informed, that have made many pounds in a season by catching them in traps. And though such multitudes are taken, I never saw (and I am well acquainted with those parts) above two or three at a time ; for they are never gregarious.f They may perhaps migrate in feneral ; and, for that purpose, draw towards the coast of ussex in autumn ; but that they do not all withdraw I am sure, because I see a few stragglers in many counties, at all times of the year, especially about warrens and stone quarries. I have no acquaintance at present among the gentlemen of the navy, but have written to a friend, who was a sea chaplain in the late war, desiring him to look into his minutes, with respect to birds that settled on their rigging during their voyage up or down the Channel. What Hasselquist says oil northerly climates, which probably leave us again in the spring. In vvinter they become familiar, and often visit farm-yards in large flocks. Mr Knapp says, " I witnessed this morning a rick of barley entirely stripped of its thatching, which the buntings had effected, by seizing the end of the straw, and deliberately drawing it out, to search for any grain that might yet remain. The sparrow and other birds will burrow in the stack, and pilfer the corn ; and the deliberate operations of unroofing the edifice appears to be peculiar to the bunting." There is considerable difficulty in conceiving how short-winged birds, which must be bad flyers, should be able to cross extensive tracts of water. St Pierre says, " Towards the end of September, the quails avail themselves of a northerly wind to take their departure from Europe, and flapping one wing, while they present the other to the gale, half sail, half oar, they graze the billows of the Mediterranean with their feathered rumps, and bring themselves to the sands of Africa, that they may serve as food to the famished inhabitants of Zara." ED. * The spring wag-tail is migratory ; it visits us in May, and departs in September. It is said to be found in Siberia and Russia in summer, "t continues in France the whole year. f Our author is wrong in stating that this species is never gregarious ; r we are informed by Montagu, that on the 24th of March, 1804, a vast ick of these birds, consisting entirely of males, made their appearance on the south Devon coast, near Kingsbridge, and continued m flocks during the day, busied in search of food. ED. 34 HARVEST MOUSE. that subject is remarkable : there were little short-winged birds frequently coming on board the ship all the way from our Channel quite up to the Levant, especially before squally weather. What you suggest with regard to Spain is highly probable. The winters of Andalusia are so mild, that, in all likelihood, the soft-billed birds that leave us at that season may find insects sufficient to support them there. Some young man, possessed of fortune, health, and leisure, should make an autumnal voyage into that kingdom, and should spend a year there, investigating the natural history of that vast country. Mr Willughby passed through that kingdom on such an errand; but he seems to have skirted along in a superficial manner, arid an ill humour, being much disgusted at the rude, dissolute manners of the people. I have no friend left now at Sunbury to apply to about the swallows roosting on the aits of the Thames ; nor can I hear any more about those birds which I suspected were meruke torquatce. As to the small mice,* I have farther to remark, that though they hang their nests for breeding up amidst the straws of the standing corn, above the ground, yet I find that, in the winter, they burrow deep in the earth, and make warm beds of grass ; but their grand rendezvous seems to be in corn ricks, into which they are carried at harvest. A neighbour housed an oat rick lately, under the thatch of which were assembled near a hundred, most of which were taken ; and some I saw. I measured them, and found that, from nose to tail, they were just two inches and a quarter, and their tails just two inches long. Two of them, in a scale, weighed down just one copper halfpenny, which is about the third of an ounce avoirdupois ; so that I suppose they are the smallest quadrupeds in this island. A full grown mus medius domesticus w r eighs, I find, one ounce lumping weight, which is more than six times as much as the mouse above, and measures, from nose to rump, four inches and a quarter, and the same in its tail. We have had a very severe frost and deep snow this month. My thermometer was one day fourteen degrees and a half below the freezing point, -within doors. The tender evergreens were injured pretty much. It was very providential that the air was still, and the ground well covered with snow, else * This is the harvest mouse, or mus messorius, of Shaw's and first discovered by White. ED. SPIRACULA IN DEER. 35 vegetation in general must have suffered prodigiously. There is reason to believe that some days were more severe than any since the year 1739-40. LETTER XIV. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, March 12, 1768. DEAR SIR, If some curious gentleman would procure the head of a fallow deer, and have it dissected, he would find it furnished with two spiracula, or breathing places, besides the nostrils ; probably analogous to the puncta laclirymalia in the human head.* When deer are thirsty, they plunge their noses, like some horses, very deep under water, while in the act of drinking, and continue them in that situation for a considerable time ; but, to obviate any inconveniency, they can open two vents, one at the inner corner of each eye, having a communi- cation with the nose. Here seems to be an extraordinary provision of nature worthy our attention, and which has not, that I know of, been noticed by any naturalist : for it looks as if these creatures would not be suffocated, though both their mouths and nostrils were stopped. This curious formation of the head may be of singular service to beasts of chase, by affording them free respiration ; and no doubt these additional nostrils are thrown open when they are hard run. f Mr Ray observed, that at Malta the owners slit up the nostrils of such asses as were hard worked ; for they, being naturally strait or small, did not admit air sufficient to serve them when they travelled or laboured in that hot climate. And we know that grooms and gentlemen of the turf, think large nostrils neces- r , and a perfection, in hunters and running horses, ppian, the Greek poet, by the following line, seems to have some notion that stags have four spiracula : * This is termed the lachrymal sinus, is common to the whole of the genus cervus, and exists in many of the antelopes. ED. f* In answer to this account, Mr Pennant sent me the following curious and pertinent reply : "I was much surprised to find in the antelope something analogous to what you mention as so remarkable in deer. This animal also has a long slit beneath each eye, which can be opened and shut at pleasure. On holding an orange to one, the creature made as much use of those orifices as of his nostrils, applying them to the fruit, and seeming to smell it through them." glUU r? WHITE ROOKS AND BLACKBIRDS. i givzg, Quadrifidse nares, quadruplices ad respirationem canales. OP. Cyn. Lib. ii. 1. 181. Writers, copying from one another, make Aristotle say, that goats breathe at their ears, whereas he asserts just the contrary : AXK/Aaitov yap OVK aXrjQq Xzyst, pa/Asvog avatfvziv rag ar/ag Kara ra ura. " Alcmaeon does not advance what is true, when he avers that goats breathe through their ears." History of Animals, Book i. chap. xi. LETTER XV. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, March 30, 1768. DEAR SIR, Some intelligent country people have a notion that we have, in these parts, a species of the genus mustelinum y besides the weasel, stoat, ferret, and polecat ; a little reddish beast, not much bigger than a field mouse, but much longer, which they call a cane. This piece of intelligence can be little depended on ; but farther inquiry may be made.* A gentleman in this neighbourhood had two milk-white rooks in one nest. A booby of a carter, finding them before they were able to fly, threw them down, and destroyed them, to the regret of the owner, who would have been glad to have preserved such a curiosity in his rookery. I saw the birds myself nailed against the end of a barn, and was surprised to find that their bills, legs, feet, and claws, were milk-white. A shepherd saw, as he thought, some white larks on a down above my house this winter : were not these the emberiza nivalis, the snow-flake of the British Zoology ? No doubt they were.-f- * The cane has been satisfactorily proved to be the common weasel. It is called in Suffolk the mouse-hunt. ED. f We can see no reason why the bird referred to may not have been a white lark, as well as a snow-bunting. We have seen white birds of many British species. There was a white lark shot in the neighbourhood of Kingston Rectory, near Canterbury, in October, 1828. In the Natural History Magazine there is a notice of a blackbird's nest found at St Anstell, Cornwall, containing two birds, one of them perfectly white. In the summer of 1831, a blackbird's nest was found at Newbottle, near Edinburgh, containing four young ; two of which were of the ordinary colour, and two perfectly white. The former turned out females, and the latter were both male birds. On. the grounds of Drtimsheugh, the property of our friend Sir Patrick Walker, there was, some years ago, a beautifully mottled blackbird, which became so tame that it fed along EFFECT OF FOOD ON THE COLOUR OF BIKDS. 37 A few years ago, I saw a cock bullfinch in a cage, which had been caught in the fields after it was come to its full colours. In about a year, it began to look dingy, and, black- ening every succeeding year, it became coal-black at the end of four. Its chief food was hempseed. Such influence has food on the colour of animals! The pied and mottled colours of domesticated animals are supposed to be owing to high, various, and unusual food.* I had remarked, for years, that the root of the cuckoo-pint (arum) was frequently scratched out of the dry banks of hedges, and in severe snowy weather. After observing, with some exactness, myself, and getting others to do the same, we found it was the thrush kind that searched it Out. The root of the arum is remarkably warm and pungent. Our flocks of female chaffinches have not yet forsaken us. The blackbirds and thrushes are very much thinned down by that fierce weather in January. In the middle of February, I discovered, in my tall hedges, a little bird that raised my curiosity : it was of that yellow- green colour that belongs to the salicaria kind, and, I think, was soft-billed. It was no parus, and was too long and too big for the golden-crowned wren, appearing most like the largest willow-wren. It hung sometimes with its back down- wards, but never continuing one moment in the same place. I shot at it, but it was so desultory that I missed my aim.f with the domestic fowls. It continued at Drumsheugh for some years, and was shot by a gentleman from a back window in Melville Street, who had not heard of it, and supposed it a bird of some very uncommon species. It is now in the museum of Sir Patrick. Another mottled blackbird was some years ago kept in a cage by Mr Veitch, the distin- guished optician, at Inchbonny, near Jedburgh. We have seen white crows very often ; a white robin, with red eyes ; a white sparrow, and a white jack-daw. These accidental varieties, we believe, have existed in almost every species of birds. Sir William Jardine mentions a pair of magpies of a cream colour, which were hatched at a farm-steading in Eskdale, Dumfriesshire. In the Natural History Magazine it is stated, that a greenfinch was shot in the neighbourhood of Ross, Herefordshire, the prevailing colour of which was a rich yellow, mottled with green, yellow, and dirty white. ED. * Food, climate, and domestication, have a great influence in changing the colour of animals. Hence the varied plumage of almost all our domestic birds. In a wild state, the dark colour of most birds is a great safeguard to them against their enemies. Naturalists suppose that this is the reason why birds, which have a very varied plumage, seldom assume their gay attire till the second or third year, when they have acquired cunning and strength to avoid their enemies. ED. f In all probability the bearded titmouse. ED. E 38 STONE CURLEW. I wonder that the stone curlew, charadrius oedicnemus. should be mentioned by the writers as a rare bird : it abounds in all the champaign parts of Hampshire and Sussex, and breeds, 1 think, all the summer, having young ones, I know, very late in the autumn. Already they begin clamouring in the evening. They cannot, I think, with any propriety, be called, as they are by Mr Ray, "circa aquas versantes ;" for with us (by day at least) they haunt only the most dry, open, upland fields and sheep-walks, far removed from water : what they may do in the night 1 cannot say. Worms are their usual food, but they also eat toads and frogs. I can shew you some good specimens of my new mice, Linnseus, perhaps, w r ould call the species mus minimus. LETTER XVI. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, April 18, 1768. DEAR SIR, The history of the stone curlew, charadrius oedicnemus, is as follows : It lays its eggs, usually two, never more than three, on the bare ground, without any nest, in the field, so that the countryman, in stirring his fallows, often destroys them. The young run immediately from the egg like partridges, &c. and are withdrawn to some flinty field by the dam, where they skulk among the stones, which are their best security ; for their feathers are so exactly of the colour of our grey spotted flints, that the most exact observer, unless he catches the eye of the young bird, may be eluded. The eggs are short and round, of a dirty white, spotted with dark bloody blotches. Though I might not be able, just when I pleased, to procure you a bird, yet I could shew you them almost any day ; and any evening you may hear them round the village ; for they make a clamour which may be heard a mile. Oedicnemus is a most apt and expressive name for them, since their legs seem swollen like those of a gouty man. After harvest, I have shot them before the pointers in turnip fields. I make no doubt but there are three species of the willow- wrens ;* two I know perfectly, but have not been able yet to * These are the wood-wren, s. sibilatrix, the hay bird, s. trochilus, and the chiff-chaff, s. hippolais, the latter of which generally appears in this country in the end of April. Mr Sweet says, the chiff-chaff soon becomes familiar in confinement! ; so much so, that one he captured took a fly out of his hand in three or four days, and " learnt to drink milk out GRASSHOPPER LARK. 39 procure the third. No two birds can differ more in their notes, and that constantly, than those two that I am acquainted with j for the one has a joyous, easy, laughing note, the other a harsh loud chirp. The former is every way larger, and three quarters of an inch longer, and weighs two drachms and a half, while the latter weighs but two ; so that the songster is one-fifth heavier than the chirper. The chirper (being the first summer bird of passage that is heard, the wryneck some- times excepted) begins his two notes in the middle of March, and continues them through the spring and summer, till the end of August, as appears by my journals. The legs of the larger of these two are flesh-coloured ; of the less, black. The grasshopper lark began his sibilous note in my fields last Saturday.* Nothing can be more amusing than the whisper of this little bird, which seems to be close by, though at an hundred yards' distance ; and, when close at your ear, is scarcely any louder than when a great way off. Had I not been a little acquainted with insects, and known that the grasshopper kind is not yet hatched, I should have hardly believed but that it had been a locusta whispering in the bushes. The country people laugh when you tell them that it is the note of a bird. It is a most artful creature, skulking in the thickest part of a bush, and will sing at a yard distance, provided it be concealed. I was obliged to get a person to go on the other side of the hedge where it haunted ; and then it would run, creeping like a mouse before us for an hundred yards together, through the bottom of the thorns ; yet it would not come into fair sight ; but in a morning early, and when undisturbed, it sings on the top of a twig, gaping, and shivering with its wings. Mr Ray himself had no knowledge of this bird, but received his account from Mr Johnston, who apparently confounds it with the reguli non cristati, from which it is very distinct. See Ray's Philosophical Letters, p. 108. The fly-catcher (stoparola) has not yet appeared : it usually breeds in my vine. The redstart begins to sing : its note is of a tea-spoon, of which it was so fond, that it would fly after it all round the room, and perch on the hand that held it, without shewing the least symptoms of fear ; it would fly up to the ceiling, and bring down a fly in its mouth every time. At last it got so tame, that it would sit on my knee at the fire, and sleep." ED. * The grasshopper warbler, sylvia locustella of Latham. It is quite distinct in habits and character from the lark genus ; it is destitute of the long claw behind ; it resides in thickets, and is incapable of running on the ground like a lark ; its progressive movement consists of hopping. It frequents low and damp situations, ED. 40 SUMMER BIRDS OF PASSAGE. short and imperfect, but is continued till about the middle of June.* The willow-wrens (the smaller sort) are horrid pests in a garden, destroying the pease, cherries, currants, &c. and are so tame that a gun will not scare them. A. List of the Summer Birds of Passage discovered in this neighbour- hood, ranged somewhat in the order in which they appear. LINNJEI NOMINA. Smallest willow-wren, . . Motacilla trochilus. Wry-neck, . . . Yunx torquilla. House-swallow, . . Hirundo rustica. Marten, . . Hirundo urbica. Sand-marten, . . Hirundo riparia. Cuckoo, . . . Cuculus canorusy Nightingale, . . . Motacilla luscinia. Black-cap, . . . Motacilla atricapilla, White-throat, . . . Motacilla sylvia. Middle willow-wren, . . Motacilla trochilus. Swift, . . . Hirundo apus. Stone-curlew ? . . Charadrius oedicnemus ? Turtle-dove? . . . Turtur aldrovandi 9 f Grasshopper lark, . . . Alauda trivialis. Landrail, . . . Rallus crex. Largest willow-wren, . Motacilla trocMua. Redstart, . . . Motacilla phcenicurus. Goat-sucker, or fern-owl, . Caprimulyus europmus. Fly-catcher, . . . Muscicapa grisola. My countrymen talk much of a bird that makes a clatter with its bill against a dead bough, or some old pales, calling it ajar-bird. I procured one to be shot in the very fact ; it proved to be the sitta europcea (the nuthatch.) Mr Ray says, * Bechstein says the song of the redstart, sylvia phcemcurus, is lively and agreeable. " One which had built its nest under my house," says he, " imitated very exactly the note of a chaffinch I had in a cage in the window ; and my neighbour had another in his garden, which repeated all the notes of the fauvette." It arrives in this country early in April, and o^iits us again in the end of September ; an instance is, however, recorded, in LOUDON*S Magazine, of a female having been seen on the cliff "called Dumpton Stairs, in the Isle of Thanet, on Christmas day, 1830. En. f Our author, in placing a note of interrogation after this species, seems to doubt its being one of our migratory birds. The turtle dove, Columba turtur, of Linnaeus, is common enough in the southern counties of England ; arriving in the end of April or beginning of May, and departing in September. It has lately been met with as far north as Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Bewick mentions a flock of them which visited NUTHATCH. 41 that the less spotted woodpecker does the same. This noise may be heard a furlong or more. * Now is the only time to ascertain the short-winged summer birds ; for, when the leaf is out, there is no making any remarks on such a restless tribe ; and, when once the young begin to appear, it is all confusion ; there is no distinction of genus, species, or sex. In breeding time, snipes play over the moors, piping and humming ; they always hum as they are descending. Is not their hum ventriloquous, like that of the turkey ? Some suspect that it is made by their wings, f This morning, I saw the golden-crowned wren, whose crown Prestwick Car, near Newcastle, in 1794; and Selby has one, which was shot at North Sunderland, in 1818. Under the craw of the turtle dove, are placed glands, which secrete a lacteal fluid, probably common to all the genus. ED. * A nuthatch, which had been accidentally winged by a sportsman, was kept in a small cage of plain oak wood and wire. During a night and a day in which he was in captivity, his tapping labour was incessant ; and after occupying his prison for that short time, he left the wood-work pierced and worn like worm-eaten timber. He manifested extreme impatience at his situation ; he was unremitting in his endeavours to effect his escape, and in these efforts exhibited much intelligence and cunning. He was fierce, fearlessly bold, and eat voraciously of food which was placed before him. At the close of the third day, he sank under the combined effects of vexation, assiduous labour, and voracious appetite. This nuthatch was peculiarly laborious under his confinement, and pecked in a manner different from all other birds ; " grasping hard with his immense feet, he turned upon them as upon a pivot, and struck with the whole weight of his body." Mr Bree informs us, that having caught a nuthatch in the common brick trap used by boys, he was struck with the 4 singular appearance of its bill. It was so obliquely obtuse at the point, that it had the appearance of being cut off, which he had no doubt was produced by its efforts to escape. No persecution will force this bold little bird from its nest during 'incubation. It defends it with determined courage; strikes the intruder with its bill and wings, making all the while a loud hissing noise, and will allow itself to be taken in the hand rather than yield. ED. j* The sound proceeds from the throat, and not the wings. Montagu says, " in the breeding season the snipe changes its note entirely from that it makes in winter. The male will keep on the wing for an hour together, mounting like a lark, uttering a shrill piping noise; it then descends with great velocity, making a bleating sound, not unlike an old goat, which is repeated alternately round the spot possessed by the female, especially while she is sitting on her nest." En. 5 3/./|T. o/Kat. Hist. i. p. 328 ; ii. 213 42 TITMOUSE. glitters like "burnished gold. It often hangs, like a titmouso with its back downwards. * LETTER XVII. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, June 18, 1768. DEAR SIR, On Wednesday last, arrived your agreeable letter of June the 10th. It gives me great satisfaction to find that you pursue these studies still with such vigour, and are in such forwardness with regard to reptiles and fishes. The reptiles, few as they are, I am not acquainted with, so well as I could wish, with regard to their natural history. There is a degree of dubiousness and obscurity attending the propagation of this class of animals something analogous to that of the cryptogamia in the sexual system of plants ; and the case is the same with regard to some of the fishes, as the eel, &c.f * This elegant little species is the smallest of British birds ; its weight seldom exceeds eighty grains. This minute bird braves the severest winter of our climates. Two remarkable instances of its being migra- tory are recorded by Selby. He says, on the 24th and 25th October, 1822, " after a very heavy gale and thick fog from the north-west, thousands of these birds were seen to arrive upon the sea shore and sand- banks of the Northumbrian coast." " A more extraordinary circumstance in the economy of this bird took place during the same winter, viz. the total disappearance of the whole tribe, natives as well as strangers, throughout Scotland and the north of England. This happened towards the conclusion of the month of January, 1 823, and a few days previous to the long continued snow-storm, so severely felt through the northern counties of England, and along the eastern parts of Scotland. The range and point of this migration are unascertained, but it must probably have been a distant one, from the fact, that not a single pair returned to breed or pair the succeeding summer, in the situations they had been known always to frequent ; nor was one of the species to be seen till the following October." * ED. f Many absurd opinions have prevailed regarding the propagation of eels, such as their originating from the hairs of the mane and tail of horses thrown into rivers, with various other theories equally unfounded. These have arisen from the circumstance that the roe of the eel does not present the same appearance as that of other fishes. On this intricate subject Mr Couch makes the following observations : " The generation of eels has been involved in extraordinary obscurity, notwithstanding the attention which eminent naturalists have paid to the subject. I have no doubt that the pcnrly substance which lies along the course of the spine * irrrncrian Memoirs, v. p. IW. EELS TOADS VIPERS. 43 The method in which toads procreate and bring forth, seems to be very much in the dark. Some authors say that they are viviparous ; and yet Ray classes them among his oviparous animals, and is silent with regard to the manner of their bringing forth. Perhaps they may be sVw psv dtorbxoi, s%u ds fywroxoi, as is known to be the case with the viper. * The copulation of frogs (or at least the appearance of it for Swammerdam proves that the male has no penis intrans) is notorious to every body ; because we see them sticking upon each other's backs, for a month together, in the spring ; and of this fish (the situation of the roe in most fishes) is the roe. Contrary to what is found in most species of fish, this roe contains a large quantity of fine oil, so free from fishy flavour, as to be commonly employed (at least -emarkably i cold; it feels every change of temperature. There are no eels in the Danube, nor in any of its tributary streams. The rivers of Siberia, though large and numerous, are destitute of them." It appears pretty evident that eels are not viviparous, although this opinion has long prevailed amongst naturalists. That snakes are oviparous there can be little doubt. A correspondent in the Magazine of Natural History, iv. p. 268, having killed an adder in Essex, opened it, and " discovered a string of eggs, fourteen in number, in each of which was a young adder, perfectly formed, and enveloped in a glutinous fluid. These little creatures, although they had never seen the light, were lively, and, I thought, even evinced an incli- nation to bite. I took some of" them out of the eggs, and they soon died ; but those which were laid on a piece of paper, with their envelope unbroken, were alive and active many hours afterwards. As may be supposed, the present animal was now in nearly an empty state ; but, on examining its heart, I perceived that it was still strongly convulsed. I removed it with a penknife ; and, laying it on a piece of white paper, was much interested in watching its motions. It continued to beat, with little abatement of force, for an hour, when its palpitations, though strong, became less rapid j and ceased in half an hour more." ED. * Toads procreate exactly in the same manner as frogs, and are also oviparous. The eggs are imbued by the spermatic fluid of the male, at the time of their extrusion. The eggs of frogs are deposited in water, in irregular congeries, while those of the toad are extruded in catinated strings. Schneider, a zealous observer of nature, affirms, that toads eat the skin which they cast periodically. This fact has been confirmed by Mr Bell, in a paper in the Zoological Journal. The manner in which a frog takes his prey is very curious. When he first notices a worm or fly, ne makes a point at it, like a pointer dog setting game. After a pause of some seconds, the frog makes a dart at the worm, endeavouring to seize it with his mouth ; m which attempt he frequently fails more than once, and generally waits for a phort interval before he renews the attack. EP. 44 SHOWERS OF FROGS. yet I never saw, or read of toads being- observed in the same situation. It is strange that the matter with regard to the venom of toads has not been yet settled. That they are not noxious to some animals is plain ; for ducks, buzzards, owls, stone-curlews, and snakes, eat them, to my knowledge, with impunity. And I well remember the time, but was not eye- witness to the fact, (though numbers of persons were,) when a quack, at this village, ate a toad to make the country people stare : afterwards he drank oil. I have been informed also, from undoubted authority, that some ladies (ladies, you will say, of peculiar taste) took a fancy to a toad, which they nourished, summer after summer, for many years, till he grew to a monstrous size, with the maggots which turn to flesh flies. The reptile used to come forth, every evening, from a hole under the garden steps ; and was taken up, after supper, on the table to be fed. But at last a tame raven, kenning him as he put forth his head, gave him such a severe stroke with his horny beak, as put out one eye. After this accident, the creature languished for some time, and died, I need not remind a gentleman of your extensive reading, of the excellent account there is from Mr Derham, in Ray's Wisdom of God in the Creation, p. 365, concerning the migration of frogs from their breeding ponds. In this account, he at once subverts that foolish opinion, of their dropping from the clouds in rain ; shewing, that it i? from the grateful coolness and moisture of those showers that they are tempted to set out on their travels, which they defer till those fall.* Frogs * The following paragraph is extracted from a late number of the Belfast Chronicle: " As two gentlemen were sitting conversing on a causey pillar, near Bushmills, they were very much surprised by an unusually heavy shower of frogs, half formed, falling in all directions ; some of which are preserved in spirits of wine, and are now exhibited to the curious by the two resident apothecaries in Bushmills." Mr Loudon says, " When at Rouen, in September, 1828, I was assured by an English family, resident there, that, during a very heavy thunder shower, accompanied by violent wind, and almost midnight darkness, an innumerable multitude of young frogs fell on and around the house. The roof, the window-sills, and the gravel walks, were covered with them ; they were very small, but perfectly formed ; all dead ; and the next day being excessively hot, they were dried up to so many points, or pills, about the size of the heads of pins. The most obvious way of accounting for this phenomenon, is by supposing the water and frogs of some adjacent ponds to have been taken up by wind in a sort of whirl, or tornado." Mag. of Nat. Hist. ii. p. 103. We have records of this kind, in all ages; and 1 have selected the above WATER NEWT. 45 are as yet in their tadpole state ; but, in a few weeks, our lanes, paths, fields, will swarm, for a few days, with myriads of those emigrants, no larger than my little finger nail. Swammerdam gives a most accurate account of the method and situation in which the male impregnates the spawn of the female. How wonderful is the economy of Providence with regard to the limbs of so vile a reptile ! While it is an aquatic, it has a fish- like tail, and no legs ; as soon as the legs sprout, the tail drops off as useless, and the animal betakes itself to the land ! Merret, I trust, is widely mistaken when he advances that the rana arborea is an English reptile ; it abounds in Germany and Switzerland.* It is to be remembered that the salamandra aquatica of Ray, (the water newt, or eft,) will frequently bite at the angler's bait, and is often caught on his hook. I used to take it for granted, that the salamandra aquatica was hatched, lived, and died, in the water. But John Ellis, Esq. F. R. S. (the Coralline Ellis) asserts, in a letter to the Royal Society, dated June the oth, 1766, in his account of the mud inguana, an amphibious bipes from South Carolina, that the water eft, or newt, is only the larva of the land eft, as tadpoles are of frogs. Lest I should be suspected to misunderstand his meaning, I shall give it in his own words. Speaking of the opercula, or coverings to the gills of the mud inguana, he proceeds to say, that " the form of these pennated coverings approaches very near to what I have some time ago observed in the larva, or aquatic state, of our English laccrta, known by the name of eft, or newt, which serve them for coverings to their gills, and for fins to swim with while in this state ; and which they lose, as well as the fins of their tails, when they change their state, and two recent instances, to prove that our author is wrong. A shower of young herrings fell in Kinross-shire, about ten years ago, many of which were picked up, in the fields around Loch Leven, by persons with whom I am acquainted. The reason why frogs go abroad during showers, is thus accounted for by Dr Townson, founded on certain experiments which he instituted regarding them. He says, " That frogs take in their supply of liquid through the skin alone, all the aqueous fluids which they imbibe being absorbed by the skin, and all they reject being transpired through it. One frog, in an hour and a half, absorbed nearly its own weight of water." ED. * It has never been verified that the tree-frog is a native of Britain. But Mr Don discovered the edible frog, rana esculenta, in the neighbour- hood of lakes in Forfarshire. This species is principally distinguished from the common one, by its larger size, and having three longitudinal yellow lines on its back. ED. 46 VIPERS, become land animals, as I have observed, by keeping them alive for some time, myself." * Linnaeus, in his Systema Natures, hints at what Mr Ellis advances more than once. Providence has been so indulgent to us as to allow of but one venomous reptile of the serpent kind in these kingdoms, and that is the viper. As you propose the good of mankind to be an object of your publications, you will not omit to mention common salad oil as a sovereign remedy against the bite of the viper. As to the blind worm, (anguis fragilis, so called because it snaps in sunder with a small blow,) I have found, on examination, that it is perfectly innocuous. A neighbouring yeoman (to whom I am indebted for some good hints) killed and opened a female viper about the 27th of May : he found her filled w r ith a chain of eleven eggs, about the size of those of a blackbird ; but none of them were advanced so far towards a state of maturity as to contain any rudiments of young. Though they are oviparous, yet they are viviparous also, hatching their young within their bellies, and then bringing them forth. Whereas snakes lay chains of eggs every summer in my melon beds, in spite of all that my people can do to prevent them ; which eggs do not hatch till the spring following, as I have often experienced. Several intelligent folks assure me, that they have seen the viper open her mouth and admit her helpless young down her throat on sudden surprises, just as the female opossum does her brood into the pouch under her belly, upon the like emergencies ; and yet the London viper catchers insist on it, to Mr Barrington, that no such thing ever happens. The serpent kind eat, I believe, but once in a year ; or, rather, but only just at one season of the year.-)' Country people talk much of a water snake, but, I am pretty sure, without any reason ; for the common snake (coluber natrix) delights much * In an excellent paper on this subject, in the seventeenth numoer of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, the metamorphoses of these animals are well described ; from which it would appear, that the aquatic salamander is three years of being capable of reproducing ; that its first change from the egg is to the tadpole state, and that it undergoes several changes in progressing to maturity. ED. f All the snake tribe eat only periodically, but it is a mistake to suppose they feed but once a year, or at a particular time of the year. After having gorged their prey, they are overcome by a sleepy torpor, and remain for days, and sometimes even weeks, in this state, when they again become lively, and crawl abroad in quest of prey. Most of the tribe, like nearly the whole amphibia, cast their skins periodically. ED. REPTILES. 47 to sport in the water, perhaps with a view to procure frogs, and other food. * I cannot well guess how you are to make x out your twelve species of reptiles, unless it be by the various species, or rather varieties, of our lacerti, of w r hich Ray enumerates five. ) 1 have not had opportunity of ascertaining these, but remember well to have seen, formerly, several beautiful green lacerti on the sunny sandbanks near Farnham, in Surrey ; and Ray admits there are such in Ireland. LETTER XVIII. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, July 27, 1768. DEAR SIR, I received your obliging and communicative letter of June the 28th, while I was on a visit at a gentleman's house, where I had neither books to turn to, nor leisure to sit down, to return you an answer to many queries, which 1 wanted to resolve in the best manner that I am able. A person, by my order, has searched our brooks, but could find no such fish as the gasterosteus pungitius ; he found the gasterosteus aculeatus in plenty. ^ This morning, in a basket, I packed a little earthen pot full of wet moss, and in it some sticklebacks, male and female, the females big with spawn ; some lamperns ; some bull-heads ; but I could procure no minnows. This basket will be in Fleet Street by eight this evening ; so I hope Mazel will have them fresh and fair * The whole of the snake tribe take the water : we nave numerous records of this fact. They swim with much ease, and in America fre- quently cross the great rivers. The natives say they catch fish. Mr Murray mentions a curious instance of an adder having seized the artificial fly of an individual fishing in one of the lakes of Scotland, on trie verge of the estuary of a river. It was finally drowned by dragging it into the current against the stream. On the 2d August, 1828, a fisherman caught a specimen of the ringed- snake, (coluber natrix of Linnaeus,) while fishing in Haslar Lake, one. of the branches of Portsmouth Harbour; and, on the following morning, a seaman caught another at the same place, both of which were brought to Mr Slight, surgeon, Portsmouth. ED. f There have been just twelve species of reptiles discovered in Britain up to the present time. ED. \ The gasterosteus pungitius, or ten-spined stickleback, is very common in our rivers and in estuaries ; few British species have been ascertained. Besides the above two, there are the g. trachurus, g. semiarmatvs, and g. hiurus. See note at page 26. En. 48 LOACHES CANCER. to-morrow morning. I gave some directions, in a letter, to what particulars the engraver should be attentive. Finding, while I was on a visit, that I was within a reason- able distance of Ambresbury, I sent a servant over to that town, and procured several living specimens of loaches, which he brought, safe and brisk, in a glass decanter. They were taken in the gulleys that were cut for watering the meadows. From these fishes (which measured from two to four inches in length) I took the following description : The loach, in its general aspect, has a pellucid appearance ; its back is mottled with irregular collections of small black dots, not reaching much below the linea lateralis, as are the back and tail fins ; a black line runs from each eye down to the nose ; its belly is of a silvery white ; the upper jaw projects beyond the lower, and is surrounded with six feelers, three on each side; its pectoral fins are large, its ventral much smaller j the fin behind its anus small ; its dorsal fin large, containing eight spines ; its tail, where it joins to the tail fin, remarkably broad, without any taperness, so as to be characteristic of this genus ; the tail fin is broad, and square at the end. From the breadth and muscular strength of the tail, it appears to be an active nimble fish. * In my visit I was not very far from Hungerford, and did not forget to make some inquiries concerning the wonderful method of curing cancers by means of toads. Several intelli- gent persons, both gentry and clergy, do, I find, give a great deal of credit to what was asserted in the papers ; and I myself dined with a clergyman who seemed to be persuaded that what is related is matter of fact; but, when I came to attend to his account, I thought I discerned circumstances which did not a little invalidate the woman's story of the manner in which she came by her skill. She says of herself, that, " labouring under a virulent cancer, she went to some church where there was a vast crowd ; on going into a pew, she was accosted by a strange clergyman, who, after expressing compassion for her situation, told her, that if she would make such an application of living toads as is mentioned, she would be well." Now, is it likely that this unknown gentleman should express so much tenderness for this single sufferer, and not feel any for the many thousands that daily languish under this terrible disorder ? Would he not have made use of * The species above described is the cobitis barbatula, or bearded loach : there is another specios found in most of the streams of Britain, c. tania. ED, WATER-EFT WILLOW-LARK. 49 this invaluable nostrum for his own emolument ; or, at least, by some means of publication or other, have found a method of making it public for the good of mankind ? In short, this woman, as it appears to me, having set up for a cancer doctress, finds it expedient to amuse the country with this dark and mysterious relation. The water-eft has not, that I can discern, the least appear- ance of any gills ; for want of which it is continually rising to the surface of the water to take in fresh air. I opened a big- bellied one, indeed, and found it full of spawn. Not that this circumstance at all invalidates the assertion that they are larvcs ; for the larvce of insects are full of eggs, which they exclude the instant they enter their last state. The water-eft is continually climbing over the brim of the vessel, within which we keep it in water, and wandering away ; and people every summer see numbers crawling out of the pools w r here they are hatched, upon the dry banks. There are varieties of them, differing in colour ; and some have fins up their tail and back, and some have not. * LETTER XIX. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, August 17, 1768. DEAR SIR, I have now, past dispute, made out three distinct species of the willow-wrens, motadllce trochili, which constantly and invariably use distinct notes. But, at the same time, I am obliged to confess that I know nothing of your willow-lark, f In my letter of April the 18th, I had told you peremptorily that I knew your willow-lark, but had not s'een it then; but, when I came to procure it, it proved, in all respects, a very motacilla trochilus ; only that it is a size larger than the two other, and the yellow green of the whole upper part of the body is more vivid, and the belly of a clearer white. I have specimens of the three sorts now lying before me, and can discern that there are three gradations of sizes, and that the least has black legs, and the other two flesh-coloured ones. The yellowest bird is considerably the largest, and has its quill feathers and secondary feathers tipped with white, The eft is liable to a change in the size of its fins during the season ove ; at which time the membranes of the tail and back increase con- jrably. ED. I Brit. Zool. edit, 177G, octavo, p. 381. 50 SANDPIPER BU'K'HER-BIRD which the others have not. This last haunts only the tops of trees in high beechen \voods, and makes a sibilous grasshopper- like noise now and then, at short intervals, shivering a little with its wings when it sings ; and is, I make no doubt now, the regulus non cristatus of Ray ; which he says, " cantat voce stridula locustce" Yet this great ornithologist never suspected that there were three species. * LETTER XX. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, October 8, 1768. IT is, I find, in zoology as it is in botany : all nature is so full, that that district produces the greatest variety which is the most examined. Several birds, which are said to belong to the north only, are, it seems, often in the south. I have discovered this summer three species of birds with us, which writers mention as only to be seen in the northern counties. The first that was brought me, on the 14th of May, was the sandpiper, tringa hypoleucus : it was a cock bird, and haunted the banks of some ponds near the village ; and, as it had a companion, doubtless intended to have bred near that water. Besides, the owner has told me since, that, on recollection, he has seen some of the same birds round his ponds in former summers, f The next bird that I procured, on the 21st of May, was a male red backed butcher-bird, lanms collurio. My neighbour, who shot it, says that it might easily have escaped his notice, had not the outcries and chattering of the white-throats and other small birds drawn his attention to the bush where it was : its craw was filled with the legs and wings of beetles. J * See our note at page 24. ED. f- This bird is the totanus hypoleucus of Temminck. It visits Britain in the spring, and chiefly frequents our lakes and rivers ; on the borders of which it makes a nest composed of moss and dried leaves. Great numbers breed in Scotland. This bird is found in most parts of Europe, even as far north as Siberia. It migrates in October to the shores of Asia and Africa ED. \ This is rather a local species, although not uncommon in Gloucester- shire and Somersetshire. It visits us in May, and departs in September. The species is very voracious, preying on small birds, and transfixing them to a thorn to feed on. Montagu mentions having found young ones, " which lived in amity for about two months, when violent battles ensued, and two out of the four were killed. The other two were chained IUNGOUSEL. 51 The next rare birds (which were procured for me last week) were some ringousels, turdi torquati. This week twelvemonths a gentleman from London, being with us, was amusing himself with a gun, and found, he told us, on an old yew hedge, where there were berries, some birds like blackbirds, with rings of white round their necks ; a neighbouring farmer also at the same lime observed the same ; but, as no specimens were procured, little notice was taken. I mentioned this circumstance to you in my letter of November the 4th, 1767 ; you, however, paid but small regard to what I said, as I had not seen these birds myself : but last week the aforesaid farmer, seeing a large flock, twenty or thirty of these birds, shot two cocks and two hens ; and says, on recollection, that he remembers to have observed these birds again last spring, about Ladyday, as it were, on their return to the north. Now, perhaps these ousels are not the ousels of the north of England, but belong to the more northern parts of Europe ; and may retire before the excessive rigour of the frosts in those parts ; and return to breed in spring, when the cold abates. If this be the case, here is discovered a new bird of winter passage, concerning whose migrations the writers are silent ; but if these birds should prove the ousels of the north of England, then here is a migration disclosed within our own kingdom never before remarked. It does not yet appear whether they retire beyond the bounds of our island to the south ; but it is most probable that they usually do, or else one cannot suppose that they would have continued so long unnoticed in the southern counties.* The ousel is larger than a blackbird, and feeds on haws ; but last autumn (when there were no haws) it fed on yew-berries ; in the spring it feeds on ivy-berries, which ripen only at that season, in March and April. in the manner goldfinches frequently are ; they were extremely docile ; would come to the call for the sake of a fly, of which they were extremely fond ; when raw meat was given them, would endeavour to fasten it to some part of their cage in order to tear it ; would eat mice and small birds cut in pieces, feathers, fur, and bones, disgorging the refuse like the hawk tribe. One was killed by swallowing too large a quantity of mouse fur, which it could not eject ED. * The ring-blackbird, as Selby informs us, is a bird of passage. It arrives in this country in the spring, and immediately resorts to its breeding quarters in the mountainous districts of England and Scotland, preferring the most barren retreats. It migrates in the end of October to France and Germany, but is said to be found in Africa and Asia under different degrees of latitude. ED. 52 LIZARD STONE-CURLEW. 1 must not omit to tell you (as you have been so lately on the study of reptiles) that my people, every now and then, of late, draw up, with a bucket of water from my well, which is sixty-three feet deep, a large black warty lizard, with a fin tail, and yellow belly. How they first came down at that depth, and how they were ever to have got out thence without help, is more than I am able to say.* My thanks are due to you for your trouble and care in the examination of a buck's head. As far as your discoveries reach at present, they seem much to corroborate my suspicions; and I hope Mr may find reason to give his decision in rny favour ; and then, I think, we may advance this extraor- dinary provision of nature as a new instance of the wisdom of God in the creation. As yet I have not quite done with my history of the oedicnemus, or stone-curlew ; for I shall desire a gentleman in Sussex, near whose house these birds congregate in vast flocks in the autumn, to observe nicely when they leave him, (if they do leave him,) and when they return again in the spring : I was with this gentleman lately, and saw several single birds.j- LETTER XXI. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, November 28, 1768. DEAR SIR, With regard to the oedicnemus, or stone- curlew, I intend to write very soon to my friend near Chichester, in whose neighbourhood these birds seem most to abound ; and shall urge him to take particular notice when they begin to congregate, and afterward to watch them most narrowly, whether they do not withdraw themselves during the dead of * We found a very large specimen of this animal in an old wooden conduit at Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, which had been stopped at both ends for upwards of twenty years. So that the animal must have been, at least, that age, as it was not possible that it could obtain access from the time the conduit was stopped. ED. j- This is the oedicnemus crepitans of Tcmminck, the stone-curlew of British authors. It is a migratory species, appearing in the latter end of April, or beginning of May, and leaving Britain early in October. It makes no nest, but lays two eggs on the bare ground ; these are of a light brown colour, blotched and streaked with dusky. This bird confines its range to the southern counties, never having been noticed except in .Norfolk, Hampshire, Sussex, and Dorsetshire. En. JACKDAWS. 53 the winter When I have obtained information with respect to this circumstance, I shall have finished my history of the stone-curlew, which I hope will prove to your satisfaction, as it will be, I trust, very near the truth. This gentleman, as he occupies a large farm of his own, and is abroad early and late, will be a very proper spy upon the motions of these birds ; and besides, as I have prevailed on him to buy the Naturalisfs Journal, (with which he is much delighted,) I shall expect that he will be very exact in his dates. It is very extraordinary, as you observe, that a bird so common with us should never straggle to you. And here will be the properest place to mention, while 1 think of it, an anecdote which the above mentioned gentleman told me when I was last at his house ; which was, that in a warren joining to his outlet, many daws, corvi monedulce, build every year in the rabbit burrows under ground. The way he and his brothers used to take their nests, while they were boys, was by listening at the mouths of the holes, and if they heard the young ones cry, they twisted the nest out with a forked stick. Some water fowls (viz. the puffins) breed, I know, in this manner ; but I should never have suspected the daws of building in holes on the flat ground.* Another very unlikely spot is made use of by daws as a place to breed in, and that is Stonehenge. These birds deposit their nests in the interstices between the upright and the impost stones of that amazing work of antiquity ; which circumstance alone speaks the prodigious height of the upright stones, that they should be tall enough to secure those nests from the annoyance of shepherd boys, who are always idling round that place. One of my neighbours last Saturday, (November the 26th,) * This is a curious illustration of an animal departing from its ordinary habits. There is in the trans-Mississippian states of America, a bird which is habitually a day owl the burrowing owl, strix cunicularia of Bonaparte. This bird, unlike its congeners, burrows in the ground, and the nest is always kept in the neatest repair, and frequently inhabited by several individuals. When alarmed, they invariably fly to their subterranean abodes for refuge. These birds take up their residence in burrows dug by the marmot in the locality above referred to ; but in other situations, they dig excavations for themselves. Unlike the tribe in general, they are seen only during the day, flying rapidly along, in search of food or pleasure. There is no direct evidence that these owls and the marmot live habitually in one burrow, although they are well known to fly to the same excavation, under the impulse of fear ; even rattlesnakes and lizards have been found in the same retreat. ED. 54 RINGOUSEL. saw a marten in a sheltered bottom ; the sun shone warm, and the bird was hawking briskly after flies. I am now perfectly satisfied that they do not all leave this island in the winter. You judge very right, I think, in speaking with reserve and caution concerning the cures done by toads ; for, let people advance what they will on such subjects, yet there is such a propensity in mankind towards deceiving and being deceiv ed, that one cannot safely relate any thing from common repo rt, especially in print, without expressing some degree of dou bt and suspicion. Your approbation with regard to my new discovery of the migration of the ringousel, gives me satisfaction ; and I find you concur with me in suspecting that they are foreign birds which visit us. You will be sure, I hope, not to omit to make inquiry \vhether your ringousels leave your rocks in the autumn. What puzzles me most, is the very short stay they make with us ; for in about three weeks they are all gone. I shall be very curious to remark whether they will call on us at their return in the spring, as they did last year.* I want to be better informed with regard to ichthyology. If fortune had settled me near the sea-side, or near some great river, my natural propensity would soon have urged me to have made myself acquainted with their productions ; but as I have lived mostly in inland parts, and in an upland district, my knowledge of fishes extends little farther than to those common sorts which our brooks and lakes produce. LETTER XXII. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, January 2, 1769. DEAR SIR, As to the peculiarity of jack-daws building with us under the ground, in rabbit burrows, you have, in part, hit upon the reason ; for, in reality, there are hardly any towers or steeples in all this country. And perhaps, Norfolk excepted, Hampshire and Sussex are as meanly furnished with churches as almost any counties in the kingdom. We have many livings of two or three hundred pounds a-year, whose houses of worship make little better appearance than * The ring blackbirds invariably remain a week or two in the cultivated districts of the country previous to their migration, and commit great havock amongst fruits; seemingly to make up for their more meagre repasts during incubation. ED. TOADS. 55 dovecots. When I first saw Northamptonshire, Cambridge- shire, and Huntingdonshire, and the Fens of Lincolnshire, I was amazed at the number of spires which presented themselves in every point of view. As an admirer of prospects, I have reason to lament this want in my own country, for such objects are very necessary ingredients in an elegant landscape. What you mention with respect to reclaimed toads raises my curiosity.* An ancient author, though no naturalist, has * There have been many instances of toads being tamed. Mr Arscott mentions one which lived upwards of thirty-five years. Not the least wonderful part of the history of the toad, is the circumstance of its being frequently found alive in the heart of solid rocks, and internal cavities of trees. In 1777, Herissant undertook some experiments to ascertain the truth of what has been related on this point. He shut up three toads in sealed boxes in plaster, and they were deposited in the Academy of Sciences. At the end of eighteen months, the boxes were opened, and one of these toads was dead, but the other two were still living. Nobody could doubt the authenticity of this fact; yet the experiments were severely criticised, as well as the observations which they seemed to confirm. It was contended that the air must have come to these animals through some imperceptible hole, which escaped the notice of the observer. Some probability was given to this supposition by the researches of Dr Edwards, published in 1817. He has observed, that roads shut up totally in plaster, and absolutely deprived of air, lived for a greater number of days, and much longer than those which were forced to remain under water. This certainly is one of the most extra- ordinary phenomena which the history of the physiology of reptiles can furnish, and seems to be an exception to the rule that air is indispensable to animal life. It appears, however, that in the above instance, some air did penetrate the plaster, as Dr Edwards afterwards proved by the fact, that as soon as the plaster which enclosed them was placed under water, the toads perished. The opponents of Herissant were therefore justified tc a certain extent in their scepticism. Still the facts of animals existing so long a time under such circumstances, even with a little air, is most surprising, and calculated to produce very strange reflections. If these reptiles lived in this manner longer than they would have done in the open dry air, the reason must be, that they had lost less by transpiration ; and if they died much later than they would have done in water, it was because the air certainly had some access to them. Professor Buckland has recently made some experiments, in order to throw light on this obscure subject. Two blocks of stone were taken, one of porous oolite limestone, and one of a compact silicious sand- stone ; twelve cells, five inches wide, and six inches deep, were cut in the sandstone, and .twelve others, five inches wide, and twelve inches deep, in the limestone. In November, 1825, one live toad was placed in each of the twenty-four cells, its weight being previously ascertained with care. A glass plate was placed over each cell as a cover, with a circular slate above to protect it ; and the two blocks of stone, with the immured toads, were buried in Dr Buckland's garden under three feet of earth. They were uncovered after the lapse of a year, 58 TOADS. well remarked, that " Every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind." (St James, chap. iii. 7.) in December, 1826. All the toads in the small cells of compact sand* stone were dead, and their bodies so much, decayed as to prove that they had been dead for some months. The greater number of the toads in the larger cells of porous limestone were alive ; but they were all a good deal emaciated, except two, which had increased in weight, the one from one thousand one hundred and eighty-five grains to one thousand two hundred and sixty-five, the other from nine hundred and eighty-eight to one thousand one hundred and sixteen. With regard to these two, Dr Buckland thinks they had both been nourished by insects, which had got into the one cell through a crack found in the glass cover, and into the other probably by some small aperture in the luting, which was not carefully examined. No insects were found in either cell, but an assemblage of insects was found on the outside of another glass, and a number within one of the cells whose cover was cracked, and where the animal was dead. Of the emaciated toads, one had diminished in weight from nine hundred and twenty-four grains to six hundred and ninety- eight, and one from nine hundred and thirty-six to six hundred and fifty- two. ' The results of the experiments," says Dr Buckland, " amount to this : All the toads, both large and small, enclosed in the sandstone, and the small toads enclosed in the limestone also, were dead at the end of thirteen months. Before the expiration of the second year, all the large ones also were dead. These were examined several times, during the second year, through the glass covers of the cells, but without removing them to admit air. They appeared always awake, with their eyes open, and never in a state of torpor, their meagreness increasing at each interval, until at length they were found dead. Those which had gained an increase of weight at the end of the first year, and were then carefully closed up again, were emaciated and dead before the expiration of the second year." Four toads, enclosed in cavities cut in the trunk of an apple tree, and closed up by plugs so tightly as to exclude insects, and " apparently air," were found dead at the end of a year. The phenomena, then, of live toads enclosed in rocks, he explains in this way. The young toad, as soon as it leaves its tadpole state, and emerges from the water, seeks shelter in holes and crevices of rocks and trees. One may thus enter a small opening in a rock, and when there find food, by catching the insects which seek shelter in the same retreat ; and its increase of size may prevent it from getting out again by the same opening. It is probable that there are some small apertures in all the etones in which toads are found, though they escape the notice of the workmen, who have no motive to induce them to make a narrow exami- nation. In other cases, there may have been an opening, which had been closed up, after the animal was immured, by stalactitic incrustation. Deprived of food and air, it might fall into that state of torpor, or sus- pended animation, to which certain animals are subject in winter ; but how long it might continue in this state is uncertain. The Rev. George Young, in his Geological Survey of the Yorkshire Coast, second edition, 1828, mentions several recent instances of living toads having been found within solid blocks of sandstone. " We are the HERONRY GOAT-SUCKER. 57 It is a satisfaction to me to find that a green lizard has actually been procured for you in Devonshire, because it corroborates my discovery, which I made many years ago, of the same sort, on a sunny sand-bank near Farnham, in Surrey. I am well acquainted with the south hams of Devonshire, and can suppose that district, from its southerly situation, to be a proper habitation for such animals in their best colours. Since the ringousels of your vast mountains do certainly not forsake them against winter, our suspicions that those which visit this neighbourhood about Michaelmas are not English birds, but driven from the more northern parts of Europe by the frosts, are still more reasonable ; and it will be worthy your pains to endeavour to trace from whence they come, and to inquire why they make so short a stay. In your account of your error with regard to the two species of herons, you incidentally gave me great entertainment in your description of the heronry at Cressi-hall, which is a curiosity I never could manage to see. Fourscore nests of such a bird on one tree is a rarity which I would ride half as many miles to have a sight of. Pray be sure to tell me in your next whose seat Cressi-hall is, and near what town it lies.* I have often thought that those vast extents of fens have never been sufficiently explored. If half-a-dozen gentle- men, furnished with a good strength of water spaniels, were to beat them over for a week, they would certainly find more species. There is no bird, I believe, whose manners I have studied more than that of the caprimulgus, the goat-sucker, as it is a wonderful and curious creature ; but I have always found, that though sometimes it may chatter as it flies, as I know it does, yet in general it utters its jarring note sitting on a bough ; and I have for many a half hour watched it as it sat with its under mandible quivering, and particularly this .summer. It perches usually on a bare twig, with its head lower than its tail, in an attitude well expressed by your draughtsman in the folio British Zoology. This bird is most punctual in beginning its more particular in recording these facts," he observes, " because some modern philosophers have attempted to explode such accounts as wholly fabulous." Mr Jesse informs us, that he knew a gentleman who put a toad into a small flower-pot, and secured it, so that no insect could pene- trate it, and then buried it so deep in his garden that it was secured against the influence of frost. At the end of twenty years, he took it up, and found the toad increased in bulk, and healthy. ED. * Cressi-hall is near Spalding, in Lincolnshire. 58 GOAT-SUCKER BATS. song exactly at the close of day ; so exactly, that I have known it strike up more than once or twice just at the report of the Portsmouth evening gun, which we can hear when the weather is still. It appears to me past all doubt, that its notes are formed by organic impulse, by the powers of the parts of its windpipe formed for sound, just as cats pur. You will credit me, I hope, when I assure you, that, as my neighbours were assembled in an hermitage on the side of a steep hill where we drink tea, one of these churn-owls came and settled on the cross of that little straw edifice, and began to chatter, and continued his note for many minutes ; and we were all struck with wonder to find that the organs of that little animal, when put in motion, gave a sensible vibration to the whole building ! This bird also sometimes makes a small squeak, repeated four or five times ; and I have observed that to happen when the cock has been pursuing the hen in a toying manner through the boughs of a tree. It would not be at all strange if your bat, which you have procured, should prove a new one, since five species have been found in a neighbouring kingdom. The great sort that I mentioned is certainly a nondescript : I saw but one this summer, and that I had no opportunity of taking. Your account of the Indian grass was entertaining. I am no angler myself ; but inquiring of those that are, what they supposed that part of their tackle to be made of, they replied, " of the intestines of a silk-worm." Though I must not pretend to great skill in entomology, yet I cannot say that I am ignorant of that kind of knowledge : I may now and then, perhaps, be able to furnish you with a little information. The vast rain ceased with us much about the same time as with you, and since, we have had delicate weather. Mr Barker, who has measured the rain for more than thirty years, says, in a late letter, that more rain has fallen this year than in any he ever attended to ; though, from July, 1763, to January, 1764, more fell than in any seven months of this year.* * At Joyeuse, in the department of the Ardeche, during October, 1827, thirty-six inches of rain in depth fell within eleven days; and, on the 9th of that month, twenty-nine inches and a half fell within the space of two hours. During this excessive fall of rain, the barometer remained nearly stationary, at two or three lines below the mean altitude, notwith- standing the continuance of the most violent thunder and lightning during the whole time. ED. GOAT-SUCKER. 59 LETTER XXIII. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, February 28, 1769. DEAR SIR, It is not improbable that the Guernsey lizard and our green lizards 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 univer- sity of Oxford, they lived a great while, and seemed to enjoy themselves very well ; but never bred. Whether this circum- stance will prove any thing 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, 1 746, 1 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 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.* * This is a common species in the United States of America, and is called by the natives whip-poor-will, from the similarity of his cry to out at the same time, as is often the case in the pairing season, and at no great distance from each other, the noise, mingling with the echoes from the mountains, is really surprising. Strangers, in parts of the country where these birds are numerous, find it almost impossible for some time to sleep; while, to those long acquainted with them, the sound often serves as a lullaby to assist their repose. " These notes seem pretty plainly to articulate the words which have been generally applied to them, whip-poor-will, the first and last syllables being uttered with great emphasis, and the whole in about a second to each repetition; but when two or more males meet, their whip-poor-will altercations become much more rapid and incessant, as if each were straining to overpower or silence the other. When near, you often hear an introductory cluck between the notes. At these times, as well as at almost all others, they fly low, not more than a few feet from the surface, skimming about the house and before the door, alighting on the woed 60 MIGRATION. If ever I saw any thing like actual migration, it was last Michaelmas-day. I was travelling, and out early in the morn- ing : at first there was a vast fog, but, by the time that I was got seven or eight miles from home towards the coast, the sun broke out into a delicate warm day. We were then on a large heath, or common, and I could discern, as the mist began to break away, great numbers of swallows, hirundines rusticce, clustering on the stunted shrubs and bushes, as if they had roosted there all night. As soon as the air became clear and pleasant, they all were on the wing at once ; and, by a placid and easy flight, proceeded on southward, towards the sea : after this I did not see any more flocks, only now and then a straggler. I cannot agree with those persons that assert, that the swallow kind disappear some and some, gradually, as they come ; for the bulk of them seem to withdraw at once ; only some stragglers stay behind a long while, and do never, there is the greatest reason to believe, leave this island. Swallows seem to lay themselves up, and to come forth in a warm day, as bats do continually of a warm evening, after they have disappeared for weeks. For a very respectable gentleman assured me, that, as he was walking with some friends, under Merton-wall, on a remarkably hot noon, either in the last week in December, or the first week in January, he espied three or four swallows huddled together on the moulding of one of the windows of that college. I have frequently remarked that swallows are seen later at Oxford than elsewhere : is it owing to the vast, massy buildings of that place, to the many waters round it, or to what else ? When I used to rise in a morning last autumn, and see the swallows and martens clustering on the chimneys and thatch of the neighbouring cottages, I could not help being touched with a secret delight, mixed with some degree of mortification : with delight, to observe with how much ardour and punctuality those poor little birds obeyed the strong impulse towards migration, or hiding, imprinted on their minds by their great Creator ; and with some degree of mortification, when I reflected that, after all our pains and inquiries, we are yet not quite certain to what regions they do migrate ; and are still farther embarrassed to find that some actually do not migrate at all. pile, or settling on the roof. Towards midnight, they genei ally become silent, unless in clear moonlight, when they are heard, with little inter- mission, till morning." ED. SALICARJA. 61 These reflections made so strong an impression on my imagination, that they became productive of a composition, that may perhaps amuse you for a quarter of an hour when next I have the honour of writing to you. LETTER XXIV. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, May 29, 1769. DEAR SIR, The scarab&us fullo I know very well, having seen it in collections ; but have never been able to discover one wild in its natural state. Mr Banks told me he thought it might be found on the sea-coast. On the 1 3th of April, I went to the sheep-down, where the ringousels have been observed to make their appearance at spring and fall, in their way, perhaps, to the north or south ; and was much pleased to see three birds about the usual spot. We shot a cock and a hen ; they were plump and in high condition. The hen had but very small rudiments of eggs within her, which proves they are late breeders ; whereas those species of the thrush kind that remain with us the whole year have fledged young before that time. In their crops was nothing very distinguishable, but somewhat that seemed like blades of vegetables nearly digested. In autumn they feed on haws and yew-berries, and in the spring on ivy-berries. I dressed one of these birds, and found it juicy and well-flavoured. It is remarkable that they make but a few days' stay in their spring visit, but rest near a fortnight at Michaelmas. These birds, from the observations of three springs and two autumns, are most punctual in their return ; and exhibit a new migration unnoticed by the writers, who supposed they never were to be seen in any of the southern counties. One of my neighbours lately brought me a new salicaria, which, at first, I suspected might have proved your willow- lark,* but on a nicer examination, it answered much better to the description of that species which you shot at Revesby, in Lincolnshire. My bird I describe thus : It is a size less than the grasshopper-lark ; the head, back, and coverts of the wings, of a dusky brown, without the dark spots of the grass- pper-lark ; over each eye is a milk-white stroke ; the chin 1 throat are white, and the under parts of a yellowish white; * For this salicaria, see Letter XXVI. G 62 ANIMALS OF AMERICA. the rump is tawny, and the feathers of the tail sharp pointed j the bill is dusky and sharp, and the legs are dusky, the hinder claw long and crooked."* The person that shot it says, that it sung so like a reed-sparrow, that he took it for one ; and that it sings all night : but this account merits farther inquiry. For my part, I suspect it is a second sort of locustella, hinted at by Dr Derham in Ray's Letters : see p. 74. He also procured me a grasshopper-lark. The question that you put with regard to those genera of animals that are peculiar to America, namely, How they came there, and whence ? is too puzzling for me to answer ; and yet so obvious as often to have struck me with wonder. If one looks into the writers on that subject, little satisfaction is to be found. Ingenious men will readily advance plausible arguments to support whatever theory they shall choose to maintain ; but then the misfortune is, every one's hypothesis is each as good as another's, since they are all founded on conjecture. The late writers of this sort, in whom may be seen all the argu- ments of those that have gone before, as I remember, stock America from the western coast of Africa, and the south of Europe ; and then break down the isthmus that bridged over the Atlantic. But this is making use of a violent piece of machinery : it is a difficulty worthy of the interposition of a god ! " Incredulus odi" TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. THE NATURALIST'S SUMMER EVENING WALK. - equidem credo, quia sit divinitus illis Ingenium. VIRG. Gcorg. WHEN day, declining, sheds a milder gleam, What time the May-flyf haunts the pool or stream ; * The sedge bird, sylvia phragmitis, of Bechstein. Mr Sweet says, " It is almost constantly in song, both, by night and by day, and may be heard at a considerable distance, beginning with chit, chit, chiddy, chiddy, chiddy, chit, chit, chit. It is a very lively bird, and shews scarcely any symptoms of fear, approaching very near to any person who does riot drive or frighten it.** ED. f- The angler's May-fly, the ephemera vulgata, Linn, comes forth from its aurelia state, and emerges out of the water, about six in the evening, and dies about eleven at night, determining the date of its fly state in SUMMER EVENING WALK. 63 When the still owl skims round the grassy mead, What time the timorous hare limps forth to feed ? Then be the time to steal adown the vale, And listen to the vagrant cuckoo's* tale; To hear the clamorous curlew f call his mate, Or the soft quail his tender pain relate ; To see the swallow sweep the dark'ning plain, Belated, to support her infant train ; To mark the swift, in rapid giddy ring, Dash round the steeple, unsubdued of wing : Amusive birds ! say where your hid retreat, When the frost rages and the tempests beat ? Whence your return, by such nice instinct led, When Spring, soft season, lifts her bloomy head? Such baffled searches mock man's prying pride, The God of Nature is your secret guide ! While deep'ning shades obscure the face of day, To yonder bench, leaf-shelter'd, let us stray, Till blended objects fail the swimming sight, And all the fading landscape sinks in night ; To hear the drowsy dorr come brushing by With buzzing wing, or the shrill cricket J cry; To see the feeding bat glance through the wood ; To catch the distant falling of the flood ; While o'er the cliff th' awaken'd churn-owl hung, Through the still gloom protracts his chattering song; While, high in air, and poised upon his wings, Unseen, the soft enamour'd woodlark$ sings : These, Nature's works, the curious mind employ, Inspire a soothing, melancholy joy : As fancy warms, a pleasing kind of pain Steals o'er the cheek, and thrills the creeping vein ! Each rural sight, each sound, each smell, combine ; The tinkling sheep-bell, or the breath of kine ; about five or six hours. They usually begin to appear about the 4th of June, and continue in succession for near a fortnight. See Swammerdara, Derham, Scopoli, &c. * Vagrant cuckoo ; so called, because, being tied down by no incubation, or attendance about the nutrition of its young, it wanders without control. f Charadrius oedicnemus. | Gryllus campestris. In hot summer nights, woodlarks soar to a prodigious height, and bang singing in the air. G4 SUMMER BIRDS OF PASSAGE. The new-mown hay that scents the swelling breeze, Or cottage chimney smoking through the trees. The chilling night-dews fall : away, retire ; For see, the glow-worm lights her amorous fire! * Thus, ere night's veil had half obscured the sky, Th' impatient damsel hung her lamp on high ; True to the signal, by love's meteor led, Leander hasten'd to his Hero's bed.f LETTER XXV. TO THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. SELBORNE, June 30, 1769. DEAR SIR, When I was in town last month, I partly engaged that I would some time do myself the honour to write to you on the subject of natural history ; and I am the more ready to fulfill my promise, because I see you are a gentleman of great candour, and one that will make allow- ances, especially where the writer professes to be an out-door naturalist, one that takes his observations from the subject itself, and not from the writings of others. The following is a List of the Summer Birds of Passage which 1 have discovered in this neighbourhood, arranged somewhat in the order in which they appear : RAII NOMINA. USUALLY APPEARS ABOUT ). Wryneck, Yunx, *. torquOla. { ^"h' nt/ ^^ 2. Smallest willow- ( Regulus non crista- /March 23: chirps till wren, \ tus. \ September. 3. Swallow, Hirundo domestica. April 13. 4. Marten, Hirundo rustica. Ditto. 5. Sand-marten, Hirunda riparia. Ditto. 6. Black-cap, Atricapilla. Ditto : a sweet wild note. 7. Nightingale, JLuscinia. Beginning of April. 8. Cuckoo, Cuculus. ^Middle of April. 9. Middle willow- f Itegulus non crista- f Ditto : a sweet plaintive wren, \ tus. \ note. 10. White-throat, Ficed^ affinis. 11. Redstart, Ruticilla. ^ more a S reeabIe * The light of the female glow-worm (as she often crawls up the stalk of a grass to make herself more conspicuous) is a signal to the male, which is a slender, dusky scarabceus. f See the story of Hero and Leandei . SUMMER BIRDS OF PASSAGE. 65 12. Stone-curlew, 13. Turtle-dove, 14. Grasshopper- lark, 17. Landrail, End of March : loud nocturnal whistle. Oedicnemus. Turtur. f A , , . . T Middle of April: a small C Alauda minima J sibilous ^ till the \ locust* voce. ^ end of July. 15. Swift, Hirundo apus. About April 27. r ,. f A sweet polyglot, but 16. Less reed-spar- (Passer arundmaceus ] hurrying: it has the row, I minor. ^ notes of many birds. {A loud, harsh note, crex, crex. J Cantat voce stridula locusta : end of April, Ortygometra* wren, \ tus. 19. . Goat-sucker, or! Caprimu i gus . fern-owl, J * (Can . \ lo> } or ( be 20. Fly-catcher, Stoparola, { on the tops of high . beeches. r Beginning of May : chat- < ters by night with a (_ singular noise. ay 12. A very mute bird : this is the latest summer bird of pas- sage. This assemblage of curious and amusing birds belongs to ten several genera of the Linnsean system ; and are all of the ordo ofpasseres, save theyww^ and cuculus, which are piece, and the charadrius (oedicnemus) and rallus, (ortygometra?) which are grallce. These birds, as they stand numerically, belong to the follow- ing Linnaean genera : 1, Yunx, 13, Columba. 2, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 16, 18, Motacilla. 17, Rallus. 3, 4, 5, 15, Hirundo. 19, Caprimulgus. 8, Cuculus. 14, Alauda. 12, Charadrius. 20, Muscicapa. Most soft-billed birds live on insects, and not on grain and seeds, and therefore at the end of summer they retire ; but the following soft-billed birds, though insect eaters, stay with us the year round : d-breast, Vren, dge-sparrow, RAII NOMINA. Hubecula. Passer troglodytes. Curruca. G 2 f These frequent houses ; J and haunt out-build- J ings in the winter : eat V spiders. {Haunt sinks, for crumbs, and other sweepings. 66 White-wagtail, Yellow-wagtail^ Gray-wagtail, Wheatear, Whin-chat, Stone-chatter, Golden-crowned wren, WINTER BIRDS OF PASSAGE. Motacilla alba. Motacilla flava. Motacilla cinerea. Oenanthe. Oenanthe secunda. Oenanthe tertia. Regulus cristatus. ["These frequent shallow rivulets, near the spring heads, where they never 1 freeze : eat the aureliae of phryganea. The smallest birds that L walk. ("Some of these are to be tseen with us the winter through. This is the smallest Bri- tish bird : haunts the tops of tall trees ; stays the winter through. A List of the Winter Birds of Passage round this neighbourhood, ranged somewhat in the order in which they appear. RAIl NOMINA. 1. Ringousel, Merula torquata. 2. Redwing, Turdus iliacus. 3. Fieldfare, Turdus pilaris. -f 4. Royston-crow, Cornix cinerea. 5. Woodcock, Scolopax. { 6. Snipe, Gallinago minor. | 7. Jack-snipe, Gallinago minima. ( 8. Wood-pigeon, Oenas. { 9. Wild-swan, 10, Wild-goose. 11. Wild-duck, 12. Pochard, 13. Widgeon, 14. Teal, breeds with us in Wolmer Forest, Cy gnus ferns. Anser fer us. {Anas torquata mi- nor. Anas fer a fusca. Penelope. > Querquedula. \ } 15. Crossbeak, lf>. Crossbill, 17 Silk-tail, Coccothraustes. Loxia. {Garrulus Bohemi CMS. < This is a new migration, which I have lately dis- covered about Michael- mas week, and again about March the 14th. About old Michaelmas. Though a percher by day, roosts on the ground. Most frequently on downs. Appears about old Mi- chaelmas. Some snipes constantly breed with us. Seldom appears till late; not in such plenty as formerly. On some large waters. \- On our lakes and streams. "These are only wanderers that appear occasion- ally, and are not obser - vant of any regular migration. RINGOUSELS. 67 These birds, as they stand numerically, belong to the following Linnaean genera : 1, 2, 3, Turdus. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, Anas. 4, Corvus. 15, 16, Loxia. 5, 6, 7, Scolopax. 17, Ampdis. 8, Columba. Birds that sing in the night are but few : - T . , A . , r - . f " In shadiest covert hid. " Nightingale, Luscima. j MILTON. Woodlark, Alauda arborea. Suspended in mid air. ") Passer arundinaceus f Among reeds and wil- Less reed-sparrow, j ^.^ | low j I should now proceed to such birds as continue to sing after midsummer, but as they are rather numerous, they would exceed the bounds of this paper ; besides, as this is now the season for remarking on that subject, I am willing to repeat my observations on some birds, concerning the continuation of whose song I seem at present to have some doubt. LETTER XXVI. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, August 30, 1769. DEAR SIR, It gives me satisfaction to find that my account of the ousel migration pleases you. You put a very shrewd question, when you ask me how I know that their autumnal migration is southward ? Were not candour and openness the very life of natural history, I should pass over this query just as a sly commentator does over a crabbed passage in a classic ; but common ingenuousness obliges me to confess, not without some degree of shame, that I only reasoned in that case from analogy. For as all other autumnal birds migrate from the northward to us, to partake of our milder winters, and return to the northward again, when the rigorous cold abates, so I concluded that the ringousels did the same, as well as their congeners, the fieldfares ; and especially as ring- ousels are known to haunt cold mountainous countries ; but I have good reason to suspect since, that they may come to us from the westward ; because I hear, from very good authority, that they breed on Dartmoor : and that they forsake that wild district about the time that our visitors appear, and do not return till late in the spring. I have taken a great deal of pains about your salicaria and 68 SALICARIA REPTILES. mine, with a white stroke over its eye, and a tawny rump. 1 have surveyed it alive and dead, and have procured several specimens ; and am perfectly persuaded myself (and trust you will soon be convinced of the same) that it is no more or less than the passer arundinaceus minor of Ray. * This bird, by some means or other, seems to be entirely omitted in the British Zoology ; and one reason probably was, because it is so strangely classed in Ray, who ranges it among his pici affines. It ought, no doubt, to have gone among his aviculce caudd unicolore, and among your slender-billed small birds of the same division. Linnaeus might, with great propriety, have put it into his genus of motacilla ; and the motacilla salicaria of his fauna suecica seems to come the nearest to it. It is no uncommon bird, haunting the sides of ponds and rivers, where there is covert, and the reeds arid sedges of moors. The country people in some places call it the sedge-bird. It sings inces- santly, night and day, during the breeding time, imitating the note of a sparrow, a swallow, a skylark ; and has a strange hurrying manner in its song. My specimens correspond most minutely to the description of your fen salicaria shot near Revesby. Mr Ray has given an excellent characteristic of it when he says, " Rostrum el pcdes in hdc aviculd multo majores sunt qudm pro corporis rationed I have got you the egg of an oedicnemus, or stone-curlew, which was picked up in a fallow on the naked ground. There were two ; but the finder inadvertently crushed one with his foot before he saw them. When I wrote to you last year on reptiles, I wish I had not forgot to mention the faculty that snakes have of stinking se defendendo. I knew a gentleman who kept a tame snake, which was in its person as sweet as any animal, while in good humour and unalarmed ; but, as soon as a stranger, or a dog or cat, came in, it fell to hissing, and filled the room with such nauseous effluvia, as rendered it hardly supportable. Thus the squnck, or stonck, of Ray's Synop. Quadr. is an innocuous and sweet animal ; but, when pressed hard by dogs and men, it can eject such a most pestilent and fetid smell and excre- ment, that nothing can be more horrible. )* * See Letter XXIV. f The skunk (Mephitis Americanis of Desmarest) is an animal nearly allied to a weasel, and a native of South America. Professor Kalm mentions that a skunk was once perceived by a servant in a cellar. She attacked and killed it, without thinking of the effluvia which it would occasion j and the place was instantly filled with a horrid stench, SINGING BIRDS. 69 A gentleman sent me lately a fine specimen of the lanius minor cinerascens cum macula in scapulis alba, Rail ; which is a bird that, at the time of your publishing your two first volumes of British Zoology, I find you had not seen. You have described it well from Edward's drawing. * LETTER XXVII. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, November 2, 1 769. DEAR SIR, When I did myself the honour to write to you, about the end of last June, on the subject of natural history, I sent you a list of the summer birds of passage which I have observed in this neighbourhood, and also a list of the winter birds of passage : I mentioned, besides, those soft-billed birds that stay with us the winter through in the south of England, and those that are remarkable for singing in the night. According to my proposal, I shall now proceed to such birds (singing birds, strictly so called) as continue in full song till after midsummer, and shall range them somewhat in the order in which they first begin to open as the spring advances : RAII NOMiNA. in January, and con- 2. Song-thrush, 3. Wren, Passer troglodytes. 4. Red-breast, Rubecula* 5. Hedge-sparrow, Curuca. T Early in February, and 6. Yellow-hammer, Emberizajlava. < on through July to t August the 21st. which so affected the thoughtless woman, that she was taken seriously ill, in which state she continued for some considerable time. ED. * This is probably the wood-shrike, (lanius rutilus of Latham. ) It is amongst the rarest of our occasional visitants, but not so much so as some imagine, being often mistaken for the common butcher-bird. Mr Hoy mentions two having been killed near Canterbury, and another at Swaffham, Norfolk, within these few years. He says it places its nest invariably on trees, preferring the oak. One lately killed is in the collec- tion of the RL-V. R. Hammond, Swaffham. Ed. 70 SINGING BIRDS. A1 , , . fin February, and on to 7. Skylark, Alauda vulgaris. -^ October. 8. Swallow, Hirundo domestica. From April to September. ., . . (Beginning of April to 9. Black-cap, Atncapilla. J | u] jg^ f From middle of April to 10. Titlark, Alauda pratorum. | J u l y the 16th. B " Sometimes in February 11. Blackbird, Merula vulgaris. r f Sometimes in February J and March, and so J on to July the 23d; (^ re-assumes in autumn. 12. White-throat, Ficedulce affinis. In April, and to July 23. , s> im T. /-t j ? f April, and through to 13. Goldfinch, Carduehs. j September 16. 14. Greenfinch, Chloris. On to July and August 2d. 1 5. Less reed-spar- \ Passer arundinaceus f May, on to beginning of row, J minor. \ July. f Breeds and whistles on till August ; re-assumes its note when they 16 Common linnet, JLinaria vulgaris. 4 begin to congregate in October, and again early before the flocks separate. * The following circumstance, as to the imitative powers of the black- bird, is a new fact in natural history, and was recorded by the Rev. Barton Bouchier, of Wold Rectory, near Northampton, in April, 1831 . " Within half a mile of my residence," says he, " there is a blackbird which crows constantly, and as accurately as the common cock, and nearly as loud ; as it may, on a still day, be heard at the distance of several hundred yards. When first told of the circumstance, I conjectured that it must have been the work of a cock pheasant, concealed in a neighbouring brake ; but on the assurance that it was nothing more or less than a common blackbird, I determined to ascertain the fact with my own eyes and ears ; and this day I had the gratification of getting close to it, seated on the top bough of an ash-tree, and pursuing with unceasing zeal its unusual note. The resemblance to the crow of the domestic cock is so perfect, that more than one in the distance were answering to it, and the little fellow seemed to take delight in competing with its rivals of the dunghill. It occasion- ally indulged in its usual song ; but only for a second or two, resuming its more favourite note ; and once or twice it commenced with crowing, and broke off in the middle to its more natural whistle. I am not aware that the blackbird has even been included among those birds which could be taught to imitate sounds; such as the starling, jay, or magpie ; and in what way this bird has acquired its present propensity, I am unable to say, except that, as its usual haunt is near a mill where poultry are kept, it may have learnt the note from the common fowl." Blackbirds can be taught various airs, while in a state of captivity, but we consider the circumstance of this bird, in a wild state, imitating the crowing of a cock, as very remarkable. ED. SINGING BIRDS. 71 Birds that cease to be in full song, and are usually silent at. or before midsummer : 17. Middle willow- 1 Regulus non crista-f Middle of June; begins wren, ) tus. \ in April. 18. Redstart, Rutidlla. Ditto ; begins in May. 19. Chaffinch, Fringitta. 20. Nightingale. Luscinia. Birds that sing for a short time, and very early in the spring : 'January the 2d, 1 770, in January. Is called in Hampshire and Sus- sex the storm-cock, 21. Miesel-bird, Turdus viscivorus. { because its song is supposed to forebode windy wet weather ; it is the largest singing bird we have. * oo ro4. 4-' 4- ~ fl n Feb. March, April : &. ijrreat titmouse, I **, . . 77 ,. -s. I *' rm 9 l " a 9 o - "S re-assumes for a short t time in September. Birds that have somewhat of a note or song, and yet are hardly to be called singing birds : RAII NOMINA. 23. Golden -crowned) wren, fits note as minute as its D 7 ... 1 person: frequents tops of Regulus cnstatus. -j & gll oifc ^ ? firs : the V. smallest British bird.* ^ * Although our author has ranked this species amongst our singing birds, much variety of opinion prevails, up to the present day, whether or not it is a bird of song. Several articles, however, which have recently appeared in the Magazine of Natural History, places this beyond a doubt. The following are the facts recorded : One writer says, vol. iii. p. 193, " The note resembles that of the blackbird more than the common thrush, and is, I believe, generally mistaken for the former, but it is much louder, and less mellow, and free from that warbling nature so peculiar to the blackbird." Another correspondent, in Ayrshire, says, " It often happens that the woods resound, far and near, with its powerful melody, on a still day, or middle of winter, or early in the spring, when no other songster is heard." Mr J. D. Marshall, of Belfast, an authority which we highly respect, says, " This bird seems to have two kinds of song, one not unlike the notes of the blackbird, the other very sweet, though in a much lower tone, and more nearly resembling those of the common thrush. I have one which I reared from the nest ; and, having been kept a year near a canary, it has, to a certain degree, acquired its song, as, in several notes, it has imitated it almost to perfection." ED. 72 SINGING BIRDS. 24. Marsh titmouse, Pans pduslrit. i Haunts great woods ; two \ harsh, sharp notes. 25. Small willow- \ Regulus non crista- f Sings in March, and on wren, / tus. \ to September. C Cantat voce stridula lo- 26. Largest do. 7>o. -J custo ; from end of t April to August. . July. 28. M,,e E , ^,, B 7 j j. f Sometimes from bush to Wren,* Passer troglodytes. < ^ ^ Birds that breed most early in these parts : Raven, Corvus. < '* Song-thrush, Turdus. In March. Blackbird, Merula. In March. Rook, Comix frugilega. ^^^ be innin ^ Woodlark, Alauda arborea. Hatches in April. Ringdove, Palumbus torquatus. { La > f s ^ ril * he be ^ innin " All birds that continue in full song till after midsummer, appear to me to breed more than once. Most kinds of birds seem to me to be wild and shy, some- what in proportion to their bulk ; I mean in this island, where they are much pursued and annoyed ; but in Ascension Island, and many other desolate places, mariners have found fowls so unacquainted with a human figure, that they would stand still to be taken, as is the case with boobies, &c. As an example of what is advanced, I remark that the golden-crested wren, (the smallest British bird,) will stand unconcerned till you come within three or four yards of it, while the bustard, (o&,) the largest British land fowl, does not care to admit a person within so many furlongs. LETTER XXVIII. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, December 8, 1709. DEAR SIR, I was much gratified by your communicative letter on your return from Scotland, where you spent, I find, some * The missel-thrush occasionally sings on the wing. In London's Magazine, we have the following statement by a correspondent: " I have once in my life observed one to sing, whilst in the act of flying from one side of a field to the other ; " and the Rev. W. T. Bree remarks, in the above, " On the 3d of March, 1831, 1 was an eye and ear witness of the fact of a missel- thrush singing and singing in good style on the wing, flying over the Lammas Fields, between the village of Allesley and Coventry." Eo. H 74 FIELDFARES. considerable time, and gave yourself good room to examine the natural curiosities of that extensive kingdom, both those of the islands, as well as those of the Highlands. The usual bane of such expeditions is hurry, because men seldom allot themselves Jialf the time they should do ; but, fixing on a day for their return, post from place to place, rather as if they were on a journey that required despatch, than as philosophers investigating the works of nature. * You must have made, no doubt, many discoveries, and laid up a good fund of materials for a future edition of the British Zoology, and will have no reason to repent that you have bestowed so much pains on a part of Great Britain that perhaps was never so well examined before. It has always been matter of wonder to me, that fieldfares, which are so congenerous to thrushes and blackbirds, should never choose to breed in England : but that they should not think even the Highlands cold and northerly, and sequestered enough, is a circumstance still more strange and wonderful.-)- The ringousel, you find, stays in Scotland the whole year round ; so that we have reason to conclude that those migrators that visit us for a short space every autumn, do not come from thence. And here, I think, will be the proper place to mention, that those birds were most punctual again in their migration this autumn, appearing, as before, about the 30th of September ; but their flocks were larger than common, and their stay * The justice of this remark will be appreciated by every person of reflection, when it is considered that the examination of the parish of Selborne was the principal business of the intelligent White for nearly a lifetime, although he paid but little attention to the insects and botany of the parish. We remember an account of the geology of the country betwixt Cork and Dublin having been read before a certain learned society, from observations made by a certain learned and Reverend Doctor, from the top of a mail coach ! ED. f In the Nat. Hist. Mag. v. p. 276, the following remarkable circumstance is narrated: " Last week, (19th February, 1832,) as Mr Mitcalf, keeper to Lord Lowther, in Ravenstondale, was ranging the fields with his gun, he observed a hawk hovering near him ; and while preparing to give it a shot, a fieldfare flew in terror against his breast, and then perched upon his shoulder. He fired at the hawk with the first barrel, (while the fieldfare sat still,) but missed; the hawk, intent upon his prey, disregarded that shot ; with the second barrel he brought the bird down. The fieldfare left his shoulder, and fluttered for a short time around its fallen and dead enemy, uttering a chirp of joy, and then winged away from its friend and unexpected protector. There is something mere than instinct in such a circumstance. " ED. CHANGE OF COLOUR IN ANIMALS. 75 protracted somewhat beyond the usual time. If they came to spend the whole winter with us, as some of their congeners do, and then left us, as they do, in spring, I should not be so much struck with the occurrence, since it would be similar to that of the other winter birds of passage ; but when I see them for a fortnight at Michaelmas, and again for about a week in the middle of April, I am seized with wonder, and long to be informed whence these travellers come, and whither they go, since they seem to use our hills merely as an inn, or baiting place. Your account of the greater brambling, or snow-fleck, is very amusing; and strange it is, that such a short- winged bird should delight in such perilous voyages over the northern ocean !# Some country people in the winter time have every now and then told me that they have seen two or three white larks on our downs ; but, on considering the matter, I begin to suspect that these are some stragglers of the birds we are talking of, which sometimes, perhaps, may rove so far to the southward. It pleases me to find that white hares are so frequent on the Scottish mountains, and especially as you inform me that it is a distinct species ; for the quadrupeds of Britain are so fev.; that every new species is a great acquisition .-) * See note, page 36. The snow-fleck, plectrophanes nivalis, has been separated from the genus emberiza by Myer, on account of the length of its wings greatly exceeding those of other birds, which now form this natural genus. Hence they are fitted for more extensive excursions. ED. f This is the Alpine hare, lepus variabilis, of British naturalists. Its ears are shorter than the head, and black towards the tips ; the rest of the body, dusky in summer, and white in winter. There appears to be a correlative connection in the distribution of colour in animals as regards temperature. In tropical regions, the colour of man and animals exhibits more variety and intensity than in northern latitudes. In temperate climates, animals, in general, suffer little change from the vicissitudes of the seasons, although, in many cases, winter and summer clothing is very different in some species. In Britain, the white hare is an instance, whose fur is tawny gray in summer, but changes, in September or October, to a snowy white. This remarkable transition takes place in the following manner : About the middle of September, the gray feet begin to get white, and, before the end of the month, all the four feet are white, and the ears and muzzle are of a brighter colour. The white generally ascends the legs and thighs, and whitish spots are osberved under the gray hairs, which continue to increase till the end of October ; but still the back remains of a gray colour, while the eyebrows and ears are nearly white. From this period, the change of colour advances very rapidly, and, by the middle of November, the whole fur, with the excep- tion of the tips of the ears, which continue black, is of a shining white. 76 WATER-RAT. The eagle-owl,* could it be proved to belong to us, is so majestic a bird, that it would grace our fauna much. I never was informed before where wild geese are known to breed. You admit, I find, that I have proved your fen salicaria to be the lesser reed-sparrow of Ray ; and I think you may be secure that I am right ; for I took very particular pains to clear up that matter, and had some fair specimens ; but, as they were not well preserved, they are decayed already. You will, no doubt, insert it in its proper place in your next edition. Your additional plates will much improve your work. De Buffon, I know, has described the water shrew-mouse ;f but still I am pleased to find you have discovered it in Lincoln- The back becomes white within eight days. During the whole of this remarkable change in the fur, no hair falls from the animal. Hence it appears, that the hair actually changes its colour, and that there is no renewal of it. The fur continues white till the month of March, or even later, depending on the temperature of the atmosphere, and, by the middle of May, it has again assumed its gray colour. But the spring change is different from the winter, as the hair is completely shed. An instance of a similar change may be instanced in the ptarmigan, (tetrao lagopus. ) Its summer plumage is ash gray, mottled with dusky spots and bars. At the approach of winter, the dark colours disappear, and its feathers are then found to be pure white. We are naturally led to inquire what benefit the animals receive from this periodical change, as we know that the All-wise does nothing in vain. Colour has a great influence on the ratio at which bodies cool. It is an established law, that surfaces which reflect heat most readily, allow it to escape very slowly by radiation. White objects reflect most readily, consequently there will be a proportionate difficulty in its radiation of heat. If a black animal and a white one were placed in a higher temperature than that of their own body, the heat will enter the black one with the greatest rapidity, and soon elevate its temperature considerably above that of the other. These differences manifest themselves in wearing black and white coloured clothing during hot weather ; so that if these animals are placed in a temperature considerably lower than their own, the animal which is black will give out its heat by radiation to the surrounding objects sooner than itself, by which its temperature will speedily be reduced, while the white animal will part with its heat by radiation at a much slower rate. Hence it would appear that the clothing of animals is suited in colour to the temperature of the situations where they localize. Accidental variations, however, sometimes occur, as in some birds we have already mentioned at page 36. A black hare was shot at Combe, near Coventry, in February, 1828 ; and another was killed at Netley, Shropshire, by the Rev. F. W. Hope. ED. * The strix bubo has been killed in Yorkshire, Sussex, and Scotland, It is a native of Norway and other parts of Europe. ED. f- This quadruped has been found in many parts of Great Britain : it seems to have been long overlooked in this country. In Turton's British Fauna } there is a second species of water shrew mentioned by the name, GREAT LARGE BAT. // shire, for the reason I have given in the article of the white hare. As a neighbour was lately ploughing in a dry chalky field, far removed from any water, he turned out a water-rat, that was curiously laid up in an hybernaculum artificially formed of grass and leaves. At one end of the burrow lay above a gallon of potatoes, regularly stowed, on w r hich it was to have supported itself for the winter. But the difficulty with me is, how this amphibius mus came to fix its winter station at such a distance from the water. Was it determined in its choice of that place by the mere accident of finding the potatoes which were planted there ? or is it the constant practice of the aquatic rat to forsake the neighbourhood of the w r ater in the colder months ? Though I delight very little in analogous reasoning, knowing how fallacious it is with respect to natural history ; yet, in the following instance, I cannot help being inclined to think it may conduce towards the explanation of a difficulty that I have mentioned before, with respect to the invariable early retreat of the hirundo apus, or swift, so many weeks before its congeners ; and that not only with us, but also in Andalusia, where they begin to retire about the beginning of August. The great large bat* (which, by the by, is at present a nondescript in England, and what I have never been able yet to procure) retires or migrates very early in the summer it also ranges very high for its food, feeding in a different region of the air ; and that is the reason I never could procure one. ( Now, this is exactly the case with the swifts ; for they take their food in a more exalted region than the other species, and are very seldom seen hawking for flies near the ground, or over the surface of the water. From hence I would conclude, that these hirundines, and the larger bats, are supported by some sorts of high-flying gnats, scarabs, or phakence, that are of short continuance ; and that the short stay of these strangers is regulated by the defect of their food. the ciliatus, or fringe-tailed water-shrew : he says it is entirely black, with hardly any white underneath. In Loudon's Magazine, there is a description of a water shrew nearly double the size of thefodiens, and said to be of a darker colour. ED. * The little bat appears almost every month in the year ; but I have never seen the large ones till the end of April, nor after July. They are most common in June, but never in any plenty ; are a rare species with us. f This is the great bat, vespertilio noctula, of Turton's British Fauna, first noticed and described by our author. KD. n2 'O SINGING BIRDS AVIARIES. By my journal it appears, that curlews clamoured on to October the thirty-first ; since which, I have not seen or heard any. Swallows were observed on to November the third. LETTER XXIX. TO THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. SELBORNE, January 15, 1770. DEAR SIR, It was no small matter of satisfaction to me to find that you were not displeased with my little methodus of birds. If there was any merit in the sketch, it must be owing to its punctuality. For many months I carried a list in my pocket of the birds that w r ere to be remarked, and, as I rode or walked about my business, I noted each day the continuance or omission of each bird's song ; so that I am as sure of the certainty of my facts as a man can be of any transaction whatsoever. I shall now proceed to answer the several queries which you put in your tw r o obliging letters, in the best manner that I am able. Perhaps Eastwick, and its environs, where you heard so very few birds, is not a woodland country, and, therefore not stocked with such songsters. If you will cast your eye on my last letter, you wall find that many species continued to warble after the beginning of July. The titlark and yellow r -hammer breed late, the latter very late ; and, therefore, it is no wonder that they protract their song : for I lay it down as a maxim in ornithology, that as long as there is any incubation going on, there is music.* As * While we admit the truth of our author's remarks, we are inclined to believe that birds sing frequently from buoyancy of spirits and joy, as well as from rivalry. Every one must have observed, that birds in con- finement immediately commence singing whenever a noise is made in the room where they are situated. Mr Sweet, who has devoted much time to taming the musical genus sylvia, has, by diligent observation, and appropriate management, actually changed most of the species from annual to perennial songsters. In the month of March, these interesting choristers may be heard, pouring forth the familiar strains of midsummer. A little room, with a fire- place, serves as an aviary ; and in this he has two large cages, which contain the nightingale, white-throat, pettychaps, white-ear, whin-chat, stone-chat, redstart, black-cap, willow-wren, siskin, and other birds. The management of an aviary is a most interesting amusement to the lover of nature. If the apartment be sufficiently large, the little songsters feel none of the tedium of imprisonment, but sport about, with all the ardour manifested in their natural groves. The scene is greatly heightened WOODCOCKS AND SNIPES. 79 to the red-breast and wren, it is well known to the most incurious observer, that they whistle the year round, hard frost excepted ; especially the latter. It was not in my power to procure you a black-cap, or a .ess reed-sparrow, or sedge-bird, alive. As the first is, undoubt- edly, and the last, as far as I can yet see, a summer bird of passage, they would require more nice and curious manage- ment in a cage than I should be able to give them : they were both distinguished songsters. The note of the former has such a wild sweetness that it always brings to my mind those Jmes in a song in " As You Like It," And time his merry note Unto the wild bird's throat. The latter has a surprising variety ot notes, resembling the song of several other birds ; but then it has also a hurrying manner, not at all to its advantage. It is, notwithstanding, a delicate polyglot. It is new to me that titlarks in cages sing in the night ; per- haps only caged birds do so. I once knew a tame red-breast in a cage that always sang as long as candles were in the room ; but in their wild state no one supposes they sing in the night. I should be almost ready to doubt the fact, that there are to be seen much fewer birds in July than in any former month, notwithstanding so many young are hatched daily. Sure I am, that it is far otherwise with respect to the swallow tribe, which increases prodigiously as the summer advances ; and I saw, at the time mentioned, many hundreds of young wagtails on the banks of the Cherwell, which almost covered the mea- dows. If the matter appears, as you say, in the other species, may it not be owing to the dams being engaged in incubation, while the young are concealed fay the leaves ? Many times have I had the curiosity to open the stomachs of woodcocks and snipes ; but nothing ever occurred that helped to explain to me what their subsistence might be ; all that I could ever find was a soft mucus, among which lay many pellucid small gravels.* by the addition of orange trees and evergreens, where they will breed, as in a state of nature. Here they exhibit no signs of suffering captivity ; on the contrary, it is delightful to see them, ii; a stormy day, enjoying the warmth of summer, while their cheerful notes prove they have no heart-rending cares. ED. * The food of the woodcock and snipe has not yet been properly 80 LETTER XXX, TO THE 'HON. DAINES BARRING TON. SELBORNE, February 19, 1770. DEAR SIR, Your observation, that "the cuckoo does not deposit its egg indiscriminately in the nest of the first bird that comes in its way, but probably looks out a nurse in some degree congenerous, with whom to intrust its young," is per- fectly new to me ; and struck me so forcibly, that I naturally fell into a train of thought that led me to consider whether the fact were so, and what reason there was for it. When I came to recollect and inquire, I could not find that any cuckoo had ever been seen in these parts, except in the nest of the wagtail, the hedge-sparrow, the titlark, the white-throat, and the red-breast, all soft-billed insectivorous birds. The excel- lent Mr Willughby mentions the nest of the palumlus, (ring- dove,) and of the fringilla, (chaffinch,) birds that subsist on acorns and grains, and such hard food ; but then he does not mention them as of his own knowledge ; but says afterwards, that he saw himself a wagtail feeding a cuckoo. It appears hardly possible that a soft-billed bird should subsist on the same food with the hard-billed ; for the former have thin membranaceous stomachs suited to their soft food ; while the latter, the granivorous tribe, have strong muscular gizzards, which, like mills, grind, by the help of small gravels and pebbles, what is swallowed. This proceeding of the cuckoo, of dropping its eggs as it were by chance, is such a monstrous outrage on maternal affection, one of the first great dictates of nature, and such a violence on instinct, that, had it only been related of a bird in the Brazils, or Peru, it would never have merited our belief. But yet, should it farther appear that this simple bird, when divested of that natural crrogyv that seems to raise the kind in general above themselves, and inspire them with extraordinary degrees of cunning and address, may be still endued with a more enlarged faculty of discerning what species are suitable and congenerous nursing ascertained ; but we find from Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary, second edition, that they are very fond of worms, as stated in the following paragraph: " A woodcock, in our menagerie, very soon discovered and drew forth, every worm in the ground, which was dug up to enable it to be done ; and worms put into a large garden pot, covered with earth, five or six inches deep, are always cleared by the next morning, without one being left. ED." CUCKOO. 81 mothers for its disregarded eggs and young, and may deposit them only under their care, this would be adding wonder to wonder, and instancing, in a fresh manner, that the methods of Providence are not subjected to any mode or rule, but astonish us in new lights, and in various and changeable appearances. * * There exists much opposition of opinion among naturalists on this curious question. We give the following as the latest observations made by an attentive observer of nature, Mr Hoy, of Stoke Nayland, Suffolk, in 1831 : "A pair of wagtails (motacilla alba} fixed their nest, early in April, among the ivy which covers one side of my house, and reared and took off their young. A few days after the young birds had left the nest, I observed the old birds apparently collecting materials for building, and was much amused at seeing the young running after the parent birds, with imploring looks and gestures, demanding food ; but the old birds, with roots or pieces of grass in their bills, seemed quite heedless of them, and intent on their new habitation. Their motions were narrowly watched by a female cuckoo, which I saw constantly near the place ; but the wagtails had placed their second nest within a yard of the door, and so well concealed among some luxuriant ivy, that the cuckoo, being often frightened away, was not able to discover the nest. The intruder being thus thwarted in its design, the birds hatched their second brood, which was accidentally destroyed a few days after. In about ten days they actually commenced a third nest, within a few feet of the situation of the second, in safety. I have repeatedly taken the cuckoo's eggs from the wagtail's nest ; in this locality, it has a decided preference to it. I do not recollect finding it in any other, excepting in two instances, once in the hedge-warbler's, and another time in the redstart's nest. In this vicinity, whether the wagtail selects the hole of a pollard tree, a cleft in the wall, or a projecting ledge under a bridge, it does not often escape the prying eye of the cuckoo, as, in all these situations, I have frequently found either egg or young. The cuckoo appears to possess the power of retaining its egg for some time after it is ready for extrusion. On one occasion, I had observed a cuckoo during several days anxiously watching a pair of wagtails building ; I saw the cuckoo fly from the nest two or three times before it was half completed ; and at last the labour of the wagtails not going on, I imagine, so rapidly as might be wished, the cuckoo deposited its egg before the lining of the nest was finished. The egg, contrary to my expectation, was not thrown out ; and on the following day the wagtail commenced laying, and, as usual, the intruder was hatched at the same time as the rest, and soon had the whole nest to itself. I once observed a cuckoo enter a wagtail's nest, which I had noticed before to contain one egg ; in a few minutes the cuckoo crept from the hole, and was flying away with something in its beak, which proved to be the egg of the wagtail, which it dropped on my firing a gun at it. On examining the nest, the cuckoo had only made an exchange, leaving its own egg for the one taken. In May, 1829, 1 found two cuckoo's eggs in the same nest, and depended on witnessing a desperate struggle between the parties, but my hopes were frustrated by some person destroying it." This subject is still involved in great obscurity, notwithstanding the nbove striking facts. ED. 8:2 HEDGE-HOGS. What was said by a very ancient and sublime writer con- cerning the defect of natural affection in the ostrich, may be well applied to the bird we are talking of: " She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers : Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding."* Query, Does each female cuckoo lay but one egg in a season, or does she drop several in different nests, according us opportunity offers ? LETTER XXXI. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBOHNE, February 22, 1770. DEAR SIR, Hedge-hogs abound in my gardens and fields. The manner in which they eat the roots of the plantain in my grass walks is very curious : with their upper mandible, which is much longer than their lower, they bore under the plant, and so eat the root off upwards, leaving the tuft of leaves untouched. In this respect they are serviceable, as they destroy a very troublesome weed ; but they deface the walks in some measure, by digging little round holes. It appears, by the dung that they drop upon the turf, that beetles are no inconsiderable part of their food, f In June last, I procured a * Job, xxxix. 16, 17. f We are surprised to find that some naturalists of the present day deny the fact that hedge-hogs eat flesh. Buffon says, speaking of some tame ones, " They ate caterpillars, beetles, and worms, and were also very fond of flesh, which they devoured, boiled or raw." Later observations prove them to be predatory animals. We saw one in the possession of Mr Woodcock, surgeon, Bury, Lancashire, which he got from a peasant, who caught it in the act of eating a toad, and which it pertinaciously kept hold of when taken, rolling itself up, and keeping firm hold of the toad with its mouth. We attempted to pull the toad from it, but it held its victim the firmer. It had consumed the head and one of the legs, when discovered. Hedge-hogs also feed on eggs, and do considerable mischief to game during the breeding season. They have been known to enter a hen-house, drive the hen off her nest, and devour the eggs. In 1829, a labourer of the name of Copland, while abroad in the fields near Terraughty, Dumfriesshire, heard a sound which convinced him that a hare was at hand, and in jeopardy. The squeaking, however, soon ceased, and the man, after looking carefully round, came upon a leveret, which was lying dead by the side of a hedge-hog. The enemy had, by this time, coiled himself into a ball; but, as appearances indicated that he had both bit and smothered the leveret, Copland was so enraged at - HEDGE-HOG FIELDFARE. 8f> litter of four or five young hedge-hogs, which appeared to be about five or six days old : they, I find, like puppies, are born blind, and could not see when they came to my hands. No doubt their spines are soft and flexible at the time of their birth, or else the poor dam would have but a bad time of it in the critical moment of parturition : but it is plain that they soon harden ; for these little pigs had such stiff prickles on their backs and side as would easily have fetched blood, had they not been handled with caution. Their spines are quite white at this age ; and they have little hanging ears, which 1 do not remember to be discernible in the old ones. They can, in part, at this age, draw their skin down over their faces ; but are not able to contract themselves into a ball, as they do, for the sake of defence, when full grown. The reason, I suppose, is, because the curious muscle that enables the creature to roll itself up in a ball was not then arrived at its full tone and firmness. Hedge-hogs make a deep and warm hybernaculum with leaves and moss, in which they conceal themselves for the winter ; but I never could find that they stored in any winter provision, as some quadrupeds certainly do. I have discovered an anecdote with respect to the fieldfare, (turdus pilaris,) which I think is particular enough. This bird, though it sits on trees in the day-time, and procures the greatest part of its food from white-thorn hedges ; yea, moreover, builds on very high trees, as may be seen by the Fauna Suecica; yet always appears with us to roost on the ground. They are seen to come in flocks just before it is dark, and to settle and nestle among the heath on our forest. And, besides, the larkers, in dragging their nets by night, frequently catch them in the wheat stubbles ; while the bat fowlers, who take many red- wings in the hedges, never entangle any of this species. 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. his audacity, that he took the top of his axe and despatched him in an instant. Various game-keepers have frequently told us that they sus- pected the predatory habits of the hedge-hog, though we never knew an instance in which the fact was so satisfactorily proved as in the present. In the year 1799, there was a hedge-hog in the possession of Mr Sample, of the Angel Inn at Felton, in Northumberland, which performed the duty of a turnspit, as well, in all respects, as the dog called the turnspit. It ran about the house with the same familiarity as any other domestic quadruped, and displayed an obedience, till then unknown in this species of animal ED. 84 MOOSE DEER. 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 XXXII. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, March, 1770. ON Michaelmas day, 1768, I managed to get a sight of the female moose belonging to the Duke of Richmond, at Good- wood; 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, under- standing that it was not stripped, I proceeded to examine this rare quadruped ; I found it in an old greenhouse, 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. The grand distinction between this deer and any other species that I have ever met with, consisted in the strange length of its legs ; on which it was tilted up much in the manner of the birds of the grallce order. I measured it, as they do a horse, and found that, from the ground to the wither, it was just five feet four inches, which height answers exactly to sixteen hands, a growth that few horses arrive at : but then, with this length of legs, its neck was remarkably short, no more than twelve inches ; so that, by straddling with one foot forward and the other backward, it grazed on the plain ground, with the greatest difficulty, between its legs : the ears were vast and lopping, and as long as the neck ; the head was about twenty inches long, and ass-like ; and had such a redundancy of upper lip as I never saw before, with huge nostrils. * This lip, travellers say, is esteemed a dainty dish in North America. * The gigantic moose-deer is said by some travellers to attain from eleven to twelve feet ; but it is probable that the size of a large horse is more near its dimensions. The European elk reaches from seven to eight feet, and measures in length, from the muzzle to the insertion of the tail, ten feet. The elk was at one time a native of Ireland, as its remains in a fossil state are often discovered in that countrv. A very large fossil skeleton was found in the Isle of Man, in 1821, wnile digging a marie pit. It was obtained for the Edinburgh College Museum, by that patriotic nobleman the late Duke of Atholl. ED. MOOSE-DEER. 85 It is very reasonable to suppose, that this creature supports itself chiefly by browsing of trees, and by wading after water plants, towards which way of livelihood the length of legs and great lip must contribute much. I have read somewhere, that it delights in eating the nymphcea, or water lily. From the fore-feet to the belly, behind the shoulder, it measured three feet and eight inches ; the length of the legs before and behind consisted a great deal in the tibia, which was strangely long ; but, in my haste to get out of the stench, I forgot to measure that joint exactly. Its scut seemed to be about an inch long ; the colour was a grizzly black ; the mane about four inches long ; the fore-hoofs were upright and shapely, the hind flat and splayed. The spring before, it was only two years old, so that most probably it was not then come to its growth. What a vast tall beast must a full-grown stag be ! I have been told some arrive at ten feet and a half! This poor creature had at first a female companion of the same species, which died the spring before. In the same garden was a young stag, or red-deer, between whom and this moose it was hoped that there might have been a breed ; but their inequality of height must have always been a bar to any commerce of the amorous kind. I should have been glad to have examined the teeth, tongue, lips, hoofs, &c. minutely ; but the putrefaction precluded all farther curiosity. This animal, the keeper told me, seemed to enjoy itself best in the extreme frost of the former winter. In the house, they shewed me the horn of a male moose, which had no front antlers, but only a broad palm, with some snags on the edge. The noble owner of the dead moose proposed to make a skeleton of her bones. Please to let me hear if my female moose corresponds with that you saw ; and whether you think still that the American moose and European elk are the same creature. LETTER XXXIII. TO THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. SELBORNE, April 12, 1770. DEAR SIR, I heard many birds of several species sing last year after midsummer; enough to prove that the summer solstice is not the period that puts a stop to the music of the woods. The yellow-hammer, no doubt, persists with more steadiness than any other ; but the woodlark, the wren, the 86 SINGING BIRDS CUCKOO. red-breast, the swallow, the white-throat, the goldfinch, the common linnet, are all undoubted instances of the truth of what I advanced. If this severe season does not interrupt the regularity of the summer migrations, the black-cap will be here in two or three days.* I wish it was in my power to procure you one of those songsters ; but I am no bird catcher ; and so little used to birds in a cage, that I fear, if I had one, it would soon die for want of skill in feeding. Was your reed-sparrow, which you kept in a cage, the thick billed reed-sparrow of the Zoology, p. 320 ? or was it the less reed-sparrow of Ray, the sedge-bird of Mr Pennant's last publication, p. 16 ? As to the matter of long billed birds growing fatter in moderate frosts, I have no doubt within myself what should be the reason. The thriving at those times appears to me to arise altogether from the gentle check which the cold throws upon insensible perspiration. The case is just the same with blackbirds, &c. ; and farmers and warreners observe, the first, that their hogs fat more kindly at such times, and the latter, that their rabbits are never in such good case as in a gentle frost. But, when frosts are severe, and of long continuance, the case is soon altered ; for then a want of food soon over- balances the repletion occasioned by a checked perspiration. I have observed, moreover, that some human constitutions are more inclined to plumpness in winter than in summer. When birds come to suffer by severe frost, I find that the first that fail and die are the red-wing field-fares, and then the song-thrushes. You wonder, with good reason, that the hedge-sparrows, &c. can be induced at all to sit on the egg of the cuckoo, without being scandalized at the vast disproportioned size of the supposititious egg ; but the brute creation, I suppose, have very little idea of size, colour, or number. )* For, the * Sir William Jardine supposes that the black-cap of Britain migrates to Madeira, having received specimens from that island ; but Dr Heineken, who resided there, informs us that it is resident all the year round. Mr Lewin shot one in Kent, in January. ED. f The egg of the cuckoo is less than that of the hedge-sparrow ;* thus proving the fitness of all natural bodies to the ends for which they are intended. Were we unacquainted with the fact, that cuckoos do not, like other birds, incubate their own eggs, we would marvel at their great disproportion compared with the size of the bird. There is, no doubt, some wise end to be fulfilled in this singular economy in the habits of the cuckoo, which has yet eluded human scrutiny ED. STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY 87 common hen, I know, when the fury of incubation is on her, will sit on a single shapeless stone, instead of a nest full of eggs that have been withdrawn ; and, moreover, a hen turkey, in the same circumstances, would sit on, in the empty nest, till she perished with hunger. I think the matter might easily be determined whether a cuckoo lays one or two eggs, or more, in a season, by opening a female during the laying time. If more than one were come down out of the ovary, and advanced to a good size, doubtless then she would that spring lay more than one.* I will endeavour to get a hen, and examine. Your supposition, that there may be some natural obstruction in singing birds while they are rnute, and that, when this is removed, the song recommences, is new and bold. I wish you could discover some good grounds for this suspicion. I was glad you were pleased with my specimen of the caprimulgus, or fern-owl; you were, I find, acquainted with the bird before. When we meet, I shall be glad to have some conversation with you concerning the proposal you make of my drawing up an account of the animals in this neighbourhood. Your partiality towards my small abilities persuades you, I fear, that I am able to do more than is in my power ; for it is no small undertaking for a man, unsupported and alone, to begin a natural history from his own autopsia. Though there is endless room for observation in the field of nature, which is boundless, yet investigation (where a man endeavours to be sure of his facts) can make but slow progress ; and all that one could collect in many years would go into a very narrow compass. Some extracts from your ingenious " Investigations of the difference between the present temperature of the air in Italy," &c. have fallen in my way, and gave me great satisfaction. They have removed the objection that always arose in my mind whenever I came to the passages which you quote. Surely the judicious Virgil, when writing a didactic poem for the region of Italy, could never think of describing freezing rivers, unless such severity of weather pretty frequently occurred ! P.S. Swallows appear amidst snows and frost. * The fact we have recorded in our note, at page 81, shews that they produce more than one egg ; and, if we may reason from analogy, it may be mentioned that the yellow-billed cuckoo of America lays three or four eggs, and the black-billed cuckoo of the same country lays from four to five eggs ; and these birds are very closely allied in physical structure to the common cuckoo. En. 88 PAIRING OF BIRDS. LETTER XXXIV. TO THOMAS PENNANT ESQ. SELBORNE, May 12, 1770. DEAR SIR, Last month we had such a series of cold tur bulent weather, such a constant succession of frost, and snow, and hail, and tempest, that the regular migration, or appearance of the summer birds, was much interrupted. Some did not shew themselves (at least were not heard) till weeks after their usual time, as the black-cap and white-throat ; and some have not been heard jet, as the grasshopper-lark and largest willow-wren. As to the fly-catcher, I have not seen it ; it is indeed one of the latest, but should appear about this time ; and yet, amidst all this meteorous strife and war of the elements, two swallows discovered themselves as long ago as the eleventh of April, in frost and snow ; but they withdrew quickly, and were not visible again for many days. House-martens, which are always more backward than swallows, were not observed till May came in. Among the monogamous birds, several are to be found, after pairing time, single, and of each sex : but whether this state of celibacy is matter of choice or necessity, is not so easily discoverable. When the house-sparrows deprive my martens of their nests, as soon as I cause one to be shot, the other, be it cock or hen, presently procures a mate, and so for several times following. * * The late Mr Jamieson, of Portobello, told us a remarkable circum- stance of the swallow, which was equal to human sagacity. A pair of these birds built a nest in the corner of one of his windows at Portobello. They had scarcely finished their labour, when a pair of house-sparrows took forcible possession, and drove the rightful owners from their domicile. The swallows made several unsuccessful attempts to regain possession, being always beaten off by the sparrows, who defended the entrance with determined obstinacy. At last, finding their attempts fruitless, they departed, and, in a short time, returned with a host of their companions, who did not attempt to take the intruders by storm, but, in a very short time, by their united efforts, built up the entrance to the nest, determined seemingly to imprison, for life, the occupiers of the property which had been unlawfully acquired. Male birds procure mates by the power of their song. Hence it has been inferred, that if a confined bird had acquired the song of another species, without retaining any notes of its own, and was set at liberty, the pro- bability is, that it would never find a mate of its own species j and, even PAIRING OF BIRDS. 89 I have known a dove-house infested by a pair of white owls, which made great havock among the young pigeons : one of the owls was shot as soon as possible ; but the survivor readily found a mate, and the mischief went on. After some time the new pair were both destroyed, and the annoyance ceased.* Another instance I remember, of a sportsman, whose zeal for the increase of his game being greater than his humanity, after pairing time, he always shot the cock-bird of every couple of partridges upon his grounds, supposing that the rivalry of many males interrupted the breed. He used to say, that, though he had widowed the same hen several times, yet he found she was still provided with a fresh paramour, that did not take her away from her usual haunt. Again : I knew a lover of setting, an old sportsman, who has often told me, that soon after harvest, he has frequently taken small coveys of partridges, consisting of cock birds alone : these he pleasantly used to call old bachelors. There is a propensity belonging to common house cats that is very remarkable ; I mean their violent fondness for fish, which appears to be their most favourite food ; and yet, nature in this instance seems to have planted in them an appetite that, unassisted, they know not how to gratify : for of all quadrupeds, cats are the least disposed towards water ; although it did, there is no reason to doubt but the young of that bird would be devoid of its native notes. There has been much controversy among naturalists, whether the notes of birds are innate or acquired ; the greater part of which has originated amongst those who argue on general principles without experimenting. We have ourselves instituted these experiments, and have hence proved clearly, that the song of birds is innate. We have brought up repeatedly broods of young chaffinches, and they invariably sang their native notes when they arrived at maturity; and this without the possi bility of their hearing the song of their kindred. Nay, on the contrary, they were brought up in the same room with a gray linnet, and never acquired any of its notes ; but had their peculiar notes, which cannot possibly be mistaken. ED. * It is a fact not generally known that owls feed on fish. The Rev. Mr Bree took some young brown owls (strix stridula) from the nest, and placed them among the trees in the garden of Allesley rectory. In that situation the parent birds repeatedly brought them live fish", such as bull-heads, and loach, which they had procured in a neighbouring brook. Many years ago, the gold and silver fish in the fishpond in the garden of Balstrode, the property of the Duke of Portland, were captured by the common brown owl. This fact was discovered by men set to watch the pond. ED. 12 90 CATS RETURN OF BIRDS. and will not, when they can avoid it, deign to wet a foot, much less to plunge into that element.* Quadrupeds that prey on fish are amphibious ; such as the otter, which by nature is so well formed for diving, that it makes great havock among the inhabitants of the waters. Not supposing that we had any of those beasts in our shallow brooks, I was much pleased to see a male otter brought to me, weighing twenty-one pounds, that had been shot on the bank of our stream, below the Priory, where the rivulet divides the parish of Selborne from Harteley Wood. LETTER XXXV. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, May 21, 1770. DEAR SIR, The severity and turbulence of last month so interrupted the regular process of summer migration, that some of the birds do but just begin to shew themselves, and others are apparently thinner than usual ; as the white-throat, the black-cap, the redstart, the fly-catcher. I well remember, that, after the very severe spring, in the year 1739-40, summer birds of passage were very scarce. They come probably hither with a south-east wind, or when it blows between those points ; but in that unfavourable year, the winds blew the * Many instances have been recorded of cats catching fish. Mr Moody of Jesraond, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, had a cat in 1829, which had been in his possession for some years, that caught fish with great assiduity, and frequently brought the'm home alive ! Besides minnows and eels, she occasionally carried home pilchards, one of which, about six inches long, was found in her possession in August, 1827. She also contrived to teach a neighbour's cat to fish ; and the two have been seen together watching by the Uis for fish. At other times, they have been aeen at opposite sides of the river, not far from each other, on the look out for their prey. The following still more extraordinary circumstance of a cat fishing in the sea, appeared in the Plymouth Journal, June, 1828: " There is now at the battery on the Devil's Point, a cat, which is an expert catcher of the finny tribe, being in the constant habit of diving into the sea, and bringing up the fish alive in her mouth, and depositing them in the guard-room, for the use of the soldiers. She is now seven years old, and has long been a useful caterer. It is supposed that her pursuit of the water-rats first taught her to venture into the water, to which it is well known puss has a natural aversion. She is as fond of the water as a Newfoundland dog, and takes her regular peregrinations along the rocks at its edge, looking out for her prey, ready to dive for them at a moment's notice. ED. SUMMER BIRDS REED-SPARROW. 91 whole spring and summer through from the opposite quarters. And yet, amidst all these disadvantages, two swallows, as I mentioned in my last, appeared this year as early as the eleventh of April, amidst frost and snow ; but they withdrew again for a time.* I am not pleased to find that some people seem so little satisfied with Scopoli's new publication. ( There is room to expect great things from the hands of that man, who is a good naturalist ; and one would think that a history of the birds of so distant and southern a region as Carniola would be new and interesting. I could wish to see that work, and hope to get it sent down. Dr Scopoli is physician to the wretches that work in the quicksilver mines of that district. When you talked of keeping a reed-sparrow, and giving it seeds, I could not help wondering ; because the reed-sparrow which I mentioned to you, (passer arundinaceus minor, Raii,) is a soft-billed bird, and most probably migrates hence before winter ; whereas the bird you kept (passer torquatus, Raii,) abides all the year, and is a thick-billed bird. I question whether the latter be much of a songster ; but in this matter I want to be better informed. The former has a variety of hurrying notes, and sings all night. Some part of the song of the former, I suspect, is attributed to the latter. We have plenty of the soft-billed sort, which Mr Pennant had entirely left out of his British Zoology, till I reminded him of his omission. See British, Zoology last published, p. 16. J * In 1830, the following summer birds were noticed by Mr J. D. Hoy, at Stoke Rayland, Suffolk, as appearing very early : Least willow- wren, . March 18 Sedge warbler, April 22 Wry-neck, . 31 Cuckoo, -~ 25 Sand martens, a flock of Lesser white-throat, 25 ten, . . . April 1 Wood-wren, . 26 Chimney swallow ; saw Martens ; several 28 four, . . . 3 Spotted flycatcher, one ; Yellow wagtail, . 3 several seen 1st May, 20 Willow-wren, . . 5 Turtle dove, . 30 Redstart, ... 6 * Great pettychaps, 30 Black-cap, . . . 7 Reed warbler, May 4 Nightingale, . . 9 Hobby, . . . _ 4 Greater white-throat ; saw Redbacked shrike, 7 one, . . . 10 Swifts; several, 10 Field lark, . . 14 Quail, . 10 Grasshopper warbler, . 14 Goatsucker, . . 14 Whinchat, . 15 ED. f This work he calls his " Annus Primus Historico-Naturalis." \ See Letter XXVI. To Thomas Pennant, Esq. MOTIONS OF BIRDS. I have somewhat to advance on the different manners in which different birds fly and walk ; but as this is a subject that I have not enough considered, and is of such a nature as not to be contained in a small space, I shall say nothing- farther at present.* * See Letter LXXXIV. To the Hon. Daines Barrington. There is much variety in the flight of birds ; some fly by jerks, closing their wings every third or fourth stroke, which produces an undulatory motion, as may be observed in the flight of woodpeckers warblers, wagtails, and most other small birds ; others pursue a smooth and even course ; while others, again, are buoyant, without perceptible motion, as the kite, kestril, and many of the hawk tribe. The greater number of birds fly with their legs drawn up, and their neck extended ; others again, from their great length of neck, and its consequent weight, are obliged to contract, or bend it in flight, for the purpose of bringing the centre of gravity on the wings, in aid of which the legs are stretched behind, as exemplified in the heron, stork, and bittern. Others fly with protruded necks, but are compelled to throw out their legs behind, as the goose, duck, and other aquatic birds. Aquatic birds, and those termed waders, run in the ordinary manner, by alternately placing one foot before the other ; but nearly all the smaller birds jump, or hop along, as if their legs were united. The crow, starling, lark, and wagtail, are regular walkers. ED. " The flight of a strong falcon," says Dr Shaw, "is wonderfully swift. It is recorded that a falcon belonging to the Duke of Cleve, flew out of Westphalia into Prussia in one day ; and in the county of Norfolk, a hawk has made a flight at a woodcock near thirty miles in an hour." " But what are these," says Professor Rennie, " compared to the actual velocity and continuance of the falcon that is recorded to have belonged to Henry IV. King of France, which escaped from Fontainbleau, and in twenty-four hours after was killed in Malta, a space computed to be not less 'than one thousand three hundred and fifty miles ! a velocity equal to fifty-seven miles in an hour, supposing the hawk to have been on the wing the whole time. But as such birds never fly by night, and allowing the day to be at the longest, or to be eighteen hours light, this would make seventy-five miles an hour. It is probable, however, that he neither had so many hours of light in the twenty-four to perform the journey, nor that he was retaken the moment of his arrival, so that we may fairly conclude much less time was occupied in performing this distant flight," We do not agree with the opinion entertained by Professor Rennie, that the falcon in question did not fly by night. Although the birds of this tribe are diurnal, still there must be instances of their flying by night, as in the case above referred to. We would ask, where did he rest during the night in crossing the Mediterranean? Birds which make long migrations,' must fly by night as well as by day in crossing a great extent of ocean. Audubon says, " The passenger pigeon (columba migrator ia) moves M'ith extreme rapidity, propelling itself by repeated flaps of the wings, which it brings more or less near to the body, according to the degree of velocity which is required. Like the domestic pigeon, it often flies SEX OF ANIMALS. 93 No doubt the reason why the sex of birds in their first plumage is so difficult to be distinguished is, as you say, " because they are not to pair and discharge their parental functions till the ensuing spring." As colours seem to be the chief external sexual distinction in many birds, these colours do not take place till sexual attachments begin to obtain. And the case is the same in quadrupeds ; among whom, in their younger days, the sexes differ but little ; but, as they advance to maturity, horns and shaggy manes, beards and brawny necks, &c. strongly discriminate the male from the female. We may instance still farther in our own species, where a beard and stronger features are usually characteristic of the male sex ; but this sexual diversity does not take place in earlier life ; for a beautiful youth shall be so like a beautiful girl, that the difference shall not be discernible : * Quern si puellarum insereres clioro, Mire sagaces falleret hospites Discrimen obscurum, solutis Crinibus, ambiguoque vultu. Hon. during the love season, in a circling manner, supporting itself with both wings angularly elevated, in which position it keeps them until it is about to alight. Now and then, during these circular flights, the tips of the primary quills of each wing are made to strike against each other, producing a sharp rap, which may be heard at a distance of thirty or forty yards. Before alighting, the passenger pigeon, like the Carolina parrot, and a few other species of birds, breaks the force of its flight by repeated flappings, as if apprehensive of receiving injury from coming too suddenly into contact with the branch, or the spot of ground, on which it intends to settle." Mr Audubon calculates that the passenger pigeon must travel at the rate of a mile in a minute, a velocity which would enable one of these birds to visit the European continent "m less than three days. ED. * There is a remarkable physiological fact in the animal economy, that of the females of many species assuming somewnat of the character of the male when they become aged. This obtains in a strong degree in many animals, and something similar takes place in the human species ; for example, that increase of hair observable in the faces of many women advanced in life, is certainly an approximation towards a beard, which is one of the most distinguishing secondary properties of man. It is also well known that old mares approach the form of the horse, in the thickening of the crest. Dr Butter, sf Plymouth, has satisfactorily proved, that our female domestic fowls have all a tendency to assume the male plumage at an advanced period of their lives, so as to make them resemble the cock of their own species. In illustration, he states, that " Mr Corham, at Compton, near Plymouth, has, for a long series of years, possessed an excellent breed of game-fowls, the cocks of which are of a beautifully dark-red colour, and the hens of a dusky brown, One hen of this 94 HENS WITH COCK PLUMAGE. LETTER XXXVI. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, August 1, 1770. DEAR SIR, The French, I think, in general, are strangely prolix in their natural history. What Linnaeus says with breed was allowed to live as long as possible, because her chickens became so renowned in the cock-pit. When, however, she had attained the age of fifteen years, she was observed, after moulting, to have acquired some arched cock's feathers in her tail, whilst others (old feathers) remained straight and brown, as formerly. By degrees, and during one moulting season, the whole of her dusky plumage was thrown off, and succeeded by a covering of red, and more beautiful feathers, quite like those of the cock of her own breed. In the course of the single season, the change was so fully accomplished, that, as she walked about, any stranger might have pronounced her rather to have been a cock than a hen. Spurs, likewise, sprouted out on her legs; she acquired a comb and wattles on her head ; and even crowed hoarsely, not unlike a young cock. Her wattles were, however, cut off afterwards, for the purpose of making her look like a fighting cock. After the completion of this change of plumage, she discontinued to lay eggs ; and lived no very considerable time to enjoy her recently acquired, but splendid costume." This bird is now in Dr Butter's collection. This gentleman adduces other evidence of a similar change, in two old hens, kept for him by a Mrs Adams, of Bowden, near Totness, on purpose to ascertain if the change was general. One of these was fifteen years old, and the other thirteen. Of these she says, " I bought them both when pullets. They were of the common domestic breed, and excellent layers, which was the reason I kept them so long. I first observed the change on them after an absence of five months ; when I inquired of my dairy-maid, ' From whence come these two young cocks?' for-such they appeared to me in their plumage and crowing. I was greatly surprised at being informed, that they were my two old hens." In Tucker's Ornithologia Danmoniensis, there is an account of a domestic hen, which changed her feathers to those of the cock; and Aristotle, in his Hist. Anim. lib. ix. c. 36, makes mention of a domestic hen assuming the male plumage. When we were in Downpatrick, our friend, William Johnstone, Esq. informed us of a circumstance which, no doubt, was referable to this cause. He had succeeded to a large fortune by the will of an uncle, and among the animals which he acquired was an old cock, a favourite of the old gentleman. It was, out of respect for his memory, permitted to live until it died a natural death. Mr Johnstone shewed me the cock, which was then alive, and which he considered as a very miraculous one, having, at short intervals, laid two small eggs, not larger than those of a blackbird, and nearly circular, with very strong shells. He was quite certain that they were extruded by this supposed cock, as no other fowl could possibly get into the place where he was kept at the time. We told him we had no doubt but it was a hen, with the male plumage from age ; but he was firmly of belief that it was an old cock. From circumstances of this kind have arisen, no doubt, the fable of the cockatrice. En. SPECIMENS OF HORNS AND OF BIRDS. 95 respect to insects, holds good in every other branch : " Verbo* situs prcesentis sceculi, calamitas artis" Pray how do you approve of Seopoli's new work ? As I admire his Entomologia, I long to see it. I forgot to mention in my last letter, and had not room to insert in the former, that the male moose, in rutting time, swims from island to island, in the lakes and rivers of North America, in pursuit of the females. My friend, the chaplain, saw one killed in the water, as it was on that errand, in the river of 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, a horn-room furnished with more than thirty different pairs : but I have not seen that house lately. Mr Barrington shewed 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, &c. were thick-billed birds, of the loxia and fringilla genera ; and no motacillce or muscicapidce, * 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. It is from this defect of food that our collections (curious as they are) are defective, and we are deprived of some of the most delicate and lively genera. LETTER XXXVII. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, September 14, 1770. DEAR SIR, You saw, I find, the ringousels again among their native crags ; and are farther assured that they continue * The flycatchers and warblers abound in South America, and these of many beautiful and curious species, ED. 06 SCOPOLl's ANNDS PRIMUS. resident in those cold regions the whole year. From whence then do our ringousels migrate so regularly every September, and make their appearance again, as if in their return, every April ? They are more early this year than common, for some were seen at the usual hill on the fourth of this month An observing Devonshire gentleman tells me, that they frequent some parts of Dartmoor, and breed there, but leave those haunts about the end of September, or beginning of October, and return again about the end of March. Another intelligent person assures me, that they breed in great abundance all over the Peak of Derby, and are called there torousels, withdraw in October and November, and return in spring. This information seems to throw some light on my new migration. Scopoli's new work* (which I have just procured) has its merits, in ascertaining many of the birds of the Tyrol and Carniola. Monographers, come from whence they may, have, I think, fair pretence to challenge some regard and approbation from the lovers of natural history ; for, as no man can alone investigate all the works of nature, these partial writers may, each in his department, be more accurate in their discoveries, and freer from errors, than more general writers, and so by degrees may pave the way to an universal correct natural history. Not that Scopoli is so circumstantial and attentive to the life and conversation of his birds as I could wish : he advances some false facts ; as' when he says of the hirundo urbicctj that "pullos extra nidum non nutrit" This assertion I know to be wrong, from repeated observation this summer ; for house-martens do feed their young flying, though, it must be acknowledged, not so commonly as the house-swallow : and the feat is done in so quick a manner as not to be perceptible to indifferent observers. He also advances some (I was going to say) improbable facts ; as when he says of the woodcock that "pullos rostro portat fugiens db hoste" But candour forbids me to say absolutely that any fact is false, because I have never been witness to such a fact. I have only to remark, that the long unwieldy bill of the woodcock is perhaps the worst adapted of any among the winged creation for such a feat of natural affection. * Annus Primus Historicn- Natural ''*. SCOPOLl's ANNUS PRIMUS. 07 LETTER XXXVIII. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. RZNGMER, near LEWES, October 8, 1770. DEAR SIR, I am glad to hear that Kuekalm is to furnish you with the birds of Jamaica. A sight of the hirundines of that hot and distant island would be a great entertainment to me. The Anni of Scopoli are now in my possession ; and I have read the Annus Primus with satisfaction ; for, though some parts of this work are exceptionable, and he may advance some mistaken observations, yet the ornithology of so distant a country as Carniola is very curious. Men that undertake only one district, are much more likely to advance natural knowledge, than those that grasp at more than they can pos- sibly be acquainted with. Every kingdom, every province, should have its own monographer. The reason, perhaps, why he mentions nothing of Ray's Ornithology, may be the extreme poverty and distance of his country, into which the works of our great naturalists may have never yet found their way. You have doubts, I know, whether this Ornithology is genuine, and really the work of Scopoli: as to myself, I think I discover strong tokens of authenticity ; the style corresponds with that of his Entomo- logy; and his characters of his Ordines and Genera are many of them new, expressive, and masterly. He has ventured to alter some of the Linnsean genera, with sufficient show of reason. It might, perhaps, be mere accident that you saw so many swifts and no swallows at Staines ; because, in my long obser- vation of those birds, I never could discover the least degree of rivalry or hostility between the species. Ray remarks, that birds of the galince order, as cocks and hens, partridges and pheasants, &c. are pulveratrices, such as dust themselves, using that method of cleansing their feathers, and ridding themselves of their vermin. As far as I can observe, many birds that dust themselves never wash ; and I once thought that those birds that wash themselves would never dust : but here I find myself mistaken ; for common house-sparrows are great pulveratrices, being frequently seen grovelling and wallowing in dusty roads ; and yet they are great washers. Does not the skylark dust ? 98 FERN-OWL CUCKOO CROSSBILL. Query, Might not Mahomet and his followers take one method of purification from these pulveratrices f because I find, from travellers of credit, that if a strict Mussulman is journeying in a sandy desert, where no water is to be found, at stated hours he strips off his clothes, and most scrupulously rubs his body over with sand or dust. A countryman told me he had found a young fern-owl in the nest of a small bird on the ground ; and that it was fed by the little bird. I went to see this extraordinary phenomenon, and found that it was a young cuckoo hatched in the nest of a titlark ; it was become vastly too big for its nest, appearing . in tenui re Majores pennas nido extendisse, and was very fierce and pugnacious, pursuing my finger, as I teased it, for many feet from the nest, and sparring and buffeting with its wings like a game-cock. The dupe of a dam appeared at a distance, hovering about, with meat in its mouth, and expressing the greatest solicitude. In July, I saw several cuckoos skimming over a large pond ; and found, after some observation, that they were feeding on the libellulce, or dragon-flies, some of which they caught as they settled on the weeds, and some as they were on the wing. Notwithstanding what Linnaeus says, I cannot be induced to believe that they are birds of prey.* This district affords some birds that are hardly ever heard of at Selborne. In the first place, considerable flocks of crossbeaks (loxia curvirostrd) have appeared this summer in the pine groves belonging to this house ; f the water-ousel is * The food of the cuckoo is insects and caterpillars, particularly those of tlie lepidopterous order, both smooth and rough, as also butterflies and moths themselves. Audubon says, the yellow-billed cuckoo of America robs smaller birds of their eggs, which it sucks on all occasions, and that the black-billed cuckoo lives on fruits, fresh water shell -fish, aquatic larvae, and very young frogs. ED. f- Three species of crossbills have been identified as occasional visitants of Britain, namely, the American crossbill, (curvirostra Americana,) the white- winged crossbill, (curvirostra leucoptera,) and parrot-billed crossbill, (c. pytiopsittacus,) a specimen of which was shot in Scotland, and is in the cabinet of Sir William Jardine, Bart. In the autumn of 1821, a large flock of crossbills was discovered feeding in a grove of firs. " After watching them for some time," says a narrator, " with a gun, I procured fifteen specimens, out of which only two were in full feather, the breasts and backs of the others being nearly bare. After this, they used to visit the same spot pretty regularly twice a day. The males varied very much in colour, some being of a deeper red, and others inclining THE DIPPER RINGOUSEL. 99 said to haunt the mouth of the Lewes river, near Ntwhaven ; * and the Cornish chough builds, I know, all along the chalky cliffs of the Sussex shore. I was greatly pleased to see little parties of ringousels (my newly discovered migrators) scattered, at intervals, all along the Sussex downs from Chichester to Lewes. Let them come from whence they w r ill, it looks very suspicious that they are cantoned along the coast in order to pass the Channel when severe weather advances. They visit us again in April, as it should seem, in their return, and are not to be found in the dead of winter. It is remarkable that they are very tame, and rather more to yellow, particularly on the tail coverts, and being a little mottled with yellow upon the breast and back. The Weymouth pine was thtiir particular favourite, indeed, I scarcely observed them on any other tree, except the sentinel, who regularly took his station on the top of a spruce-fir, which happened to be the highest in the immediate neigh- bourhood of their haunt. Their note, or call, very much resembled the chirping of a chicken. They continued their visits, though the flock certainly gradually diminished, during a great part of the winter ; and one pair remained long after the rest had left, being constantly seen in February and beginning of March, 1822." This was the year in which Mr Selby mentions them as being so plentiful throughout the kingdom. See our note, page 26. ED. * This is the dipper of modern ornithologists, (cinclus aquaticus ol Bechstein. ) White does not seem to have been acquainted with the musical powers of this interesting species. The dipper begins to pour forth its strong, distinct, and varied notes in the beginning of spring, and is the earliest warbler of the remote situations where it usually localizes. Montagu says, " This bird is amongst the few that sing so eai'ly in the spring as the months of January and February. In hard frost, on the 1 1th of the latter month, when the thermometer in the morning had been at twenty- six degrees, we heard this bird sing incessantly in a strong and elegant manner, and with much variation in notes, many of which were peculiar to itself, intermixed with a little of the piping of the woodlark. At the time it was singing, the day was bright, but freezing in the shade ; the sun had considerably passed the meridian, and was obscured from the bird by the lofty surrounding hills. The dipper devours a considerable quantity of fishes' spawn, especially the large ova of the salmon." The dipper dives with great dexterity, and can swim a considerable way under water, emerging at a distance from the spot where it dis- appeared. " We found a nest of this bird," says Colonel Montagu, " in a steep bank, projecting over a rivulet, clothed with moss. The nest was so well adapted to the surrounding materials, that nothing but the old bird flying in with a fish in its bill would have led to a discovery. The young were nearly full feathered, but incapable of iiight ; and the moment the nest was disturbed, they fluttered out, and dropped into the water, and, to our astonishment, instantly vanished ; but, in a little time, made their appearance at some distance down the stream ; and it was with difficulty that two out of the five were taken, as they dived on being approached. " ED. 100 LAND TORTOISE. seem to have no manner of apprehensions of danger from a person with a gun. There are bustards on the wide downs near Brighthelmstone. No doubt you are acquainted with the Sussex downs. The prospects and rides round Lewes are most lovely. As I rode along near the coast, I kept a very sharp look- out in the lanes and woods, hoping I might, at this time of the year, have discovered some of the summer short-winged birds of passage crowding towards the coast, in order for their departure ; but it was very extraordinary that I never saw a redstart, white-throat, black-cap, uncrested wren, flycatcher, &c. ; and I remember to have made the same remark in former years, as I usually come to this place annually about this time. The birds most common along the coast, at present, are the stone-chatters, whinchats, buntings, linnets, some few wheat- ears, titlarks, &c. Swallows and house-martens abound yet, induced to prolong their stay by this soft, still, dry season. A land tortoise, which has been kept for thirty years in a little walled court belonging to the house where I am now visiting, retires under ground about the middle of November, and comes forth again about the middle of April. When it first appears, in the spring, it discovers very little inclination towards food ; but, in the height of summer, grows voracious ; and then, as the summer declines, its appetite declines; so that, for the last six weeks in autumn, it hardly eats at all. Milky plants, such as lettuces, dandelions, sow-thistles, are its favourite dish. In a neighbouring village, one was kept till, by tradition, it was supposed to be an hundred years old, an instance of vast longevity in such a poor reptile ! * * In the library of Lambeth Palace, is the shell of a tortoise, brought there in 1623; it lived until 1730, and was killed by being carelessly exposed to the inclemency of the weather. Another, at the episcopal palace at Fulham, procured by Bishop Laud, in 1628, died in 1753. One at Peterborough was known to have lived to the extraordinary age of two hundred and twenty years ! During the hybernation of animals, a temporary stagnation or suspen- sion of active life ensues : their temperature becomes diminished, and the circulation of the blood slower ; respiration less frequent, and sometimes entirely suspended ; the action of their stomach and digestive organs are also suspended ; and the irritability and sensibility of the muscular and nervous powers are greatly diminished. Heat and air are the only agencies which rouse them from their death-like lethargy. Judging from the circumstance of toads*, lizards, and bats, being found alive in solid rocks, and in the centre of trees, this torpidity may endure the lapse of ages, without the extinction of life. Mr Murray, in his Researches in Natural History, says, " a toad was found, under the coal seam, in the ironstone SCOPOLI'S ANNUS PRIMUS. 101 LETTER XXXIX. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, October 29, 1770. DEAR SIR, After an ineffectual search in Linnaeus, Brisson, Ktc. I begin to suspect that I discern my brother's hirundo hyberna in Scopoli's newly discovered hirundo rupestris, p. 167. His description of " Supra murina, subtus albida ; rectrices macula ovali alba in later e inferno ; pedes nudi, nigri; rostrum nigrum ; remigcs obscuriores quam plumes dorsales ; rectrices remigibus concolores; cauda emarginatd nee forcipata? agrees very well with the bird in question ; but, when he comes to advajice that it is " statura hirundinis urbicce" and that " defi- nitio hirundinis riparicB Linncei huic quoque convenit" he, in some measure, invalidates all he has said ; at least, he shews at once that he compares them to these species merely from memory ; for I have compared the birds themselves, and find they differ widely in every circumstance of shape, size, and colour. However, as you will have a specimen, I shall be glad to hear what your judgment is in the matter. Whether my brother is forestalled in his nondescript or not, he will have the credit of first discovering that they spend their winters under the warm and sheltery shores of Gibraltar and Barbary. Scopoli's characters of his ordines and genera are clear, just, and expressive, and much in the spirit of Linnaeus. These few remarks are the result of my first perusal of Scopoli's Annus Primus. The bane of our science is the comparing one animal to the other by memory. For want of caution in this particular, Scopoli falls into errors. He is not so full with regard to the manners of his indigenous birds as might be wished, as you justly observe : his Latin is easy, elegant, and expressive, and very superior to Kramer's. * over which it rests, in a coal mine at Auchincruive, in Ayrshire." This fact invalidates the Huttonian theory of the primitive formation of the earth, and is in favour of the Wernerian hypothesis. ED. * See his Elenchus Vegetabilium et Animalium per A.ustriam Infe- riorcm, 8cc. K2 STONE-CURLEW. LETTER XI- TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, November 26, 1770. DEAR SIR, I was much pleased to see, among the collection of birds from Gibraltar, some of those short-winged English summer birds of passage, concerning whose departure we have made so much inquiry. Now, if these birds are found in Andalusia to migrate to and from Barbary, it may easily be supposed that those that come to us may migrate back to the continent, and spend their winters in some of the warmer parts of Europe. This is certain, that many soft-billed birds that come to Gibraltar appear there only in spring and autumn, seeming to advance in pairs towards the northward, for the sake of breeding during the summer months, and retiring in parties and broods towards the south at the decline of the year ; so that the rock of Gibraltar is the great rendezvous and place of observation, from whence they take their departure each way towards Europe or Africa. It is therefore no mean discovery, I think, to rind that our small short-winged summer birds of passage are to be seen, spring and autumn, on the very skirts of Europe ; it is a presumptive proof of their emigrations. Scopoli seems to me to have found the hirundo melba, (the great Gibraltar swift,) in Tyrol, without knowing it. For what is his hirundo alpina, but the aforementioned bird in other words ? Says he " Omnia prioris, (meaning the swift,) ed pectus album; paulo major prior e" I do not suppose this to be a new species. It is true also of the melba, that " nidijicat in excelsis Alphun rupibus" Vid. Annum Primuni. My Sussex friend, a man of observation and good sense, Dut no naturalist, to whom I applied on account of the stone- curlew, (oedicnemus,) sends me the following account : " In looking over my Naturalists Journal for the month of April, I find the stone-curlews are first mentioned on the 17th and 18th, which date seems to me rather late. They live with us all the spring and summer, and at the beginning of autumn prepare to take leave, by getting together in flocks. They seem to me a bird of passage that may travel into some dry hilly country south of us, probably Spain, because of the abundance of sheep-walks in that country ; for they spend their summers with us in such districts. This conjecture I I>CSTARD. 103 hazard, as I never met with any one that has seen them in England in the winter. I believe they are not fond of going near the water, but feed on earth-worms, that are common on sheep-walks and downs. They breed on fallows and lay- fields abounding with grey mossy flints, w ; hich much resemble their young in colour, among which they skulk and conceal themselves. They make no nest, but lay their eggs on the bare ground, producing in common but two at a time. There is reason to think their young run soon after they are hatched, and that the old ones do not feed them, but only lead them about at the time of feeding, which, for the most part, is in the night." Thus far my friend. In the manners of this bird, you see, there is something very analogous to the bustard, whom it also somewhat resembles in aspect and make, and in the structure of its feet. * For a long time I have desired my relation to look out for these birds in Andalusia ; and now he writes me word that, for the first time, he saw one dead in the market, on the 3d of September. When the oedicncmus flies, it stretches out its legs straight behind, like a heron. LETTER XL!. TO THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. SELBORNE, December 20, 1770. DEAR SIR, The birds that I took for aberdavines were reed-sparrows (pas-seres torquati.) * The bustard is the largest of British birds ; but we fear it is now nearly, if not entirely, extinct in this country. Some years ago, a pair of these, male and female, were kept in a garden at Norwich infirmary. The male was an extremely majestic bird, and possessed of much courage, for he feared nothing, seizing any one who approached near him by the coat. The female, on the contrary, was shy and timid. It was, however, remarkable that the male bird, on discovering even a small hawk, however high, in the air, squatted down on the ground, exhibiting strong marks of fear. In 1804, a fine bustard was shot, and taken to Plymouth market, where it was purchased by a publican for a shilling, its value being unknown, whereas it would have brought three or four pounds in the London market. So completely lost was this rare wanderer, that it was rejected at the second table, in consequence of the pectoral muscles differing in colour from the other parts of the breast, which is not unusual in birds of the grouse kind. Some country gentlemen arriving at the inn the following evening, and hearing of the circumstance, desired that the princely bird might be introduced, and partook of it cold at their repast. ED. 104 CHAFFINCH FIELDFARE There are, doubtless, many home internal migrations within this kingdom that want to be better understood ; witness those vast flocks of hen chaffinches that appear with us in the winter without hardly any cocks among them.* Now, were there a due proportion of each sex, it would seem very improbable that any one district should produce such numbers of these little birds, and much more when only one half of the species appears ; therefore, we may conclude, that the fringillce ccelebes, for some 'good purposes, have a peculiar migration of their own, in which the sexes part. Nor should it seem so wonderful that the intercourse of sexes in this species of birds should be interrupted in winter ; since, in many animals, and particularly in bucks and does, the sexes herd separately, except at the season when commerce is necessary for the continuance of the breed. For this matter of the chaffinches, see Fauna Suecica, p. 85, and Sy sterna Natures, p. 318. I see every winter vast flights of hen chaffinches, but none of cocks. Your method of accounting for the periodical motions of the British singing birds, or birds of flight, is a very probable one, since the matter of food is a great regulator of the actions and proceedings of the brute creation : there is but one that can be set in competition with it, and that is love. But I cannot quite acquiesce with you in one circumstance, when you advance that, " When they have thus feasted, they again separate into small parties of five or six, and get the best fare they can within a certain district, having no inducement to go in quest of fresh-turned earth." Now, if you mean that the business of congregating is quite at an end from the conclusion of wheat-sowing, to the season of barley and oats, it is not the case with us ; for larks and chaffinches, and particularly linnets, flock and congregate as much in the very dead of winter as when the husbandman is busy with his ploughs and harrows. Sure there can be no doubt but that woodcocks and field- fares leave us in the spring, in order to cross the seas, and to retire to some districts more suitable to the purpose of breeding, f That the former pair before they retire, and that * We Lave already stated, in a note at page 32, that chaffinches do not always separate into flocks of male and female during winter. May not the supposed hen chaffinches, so frequently seen, be the young birds of the previous summer, and the males not having yet assumed the complete plumage, are not to be distinguished from the females ? ED. f Fieldfares visit us in October, and leave us again about the beginning of April. Their principal food in this country is the fruit of the haw- thorn, and other berries, worms, and insects. " Perfectly gregarious as the fieldfare is," says Knapp, " yet we observe every year, in some tall WOODCOCK. 105 the hens are forward with egg, I myself, when I was a sports- man, have often experienced. It cannot indeed be denied, but that now and then we hear of a woodcock's nest, or young- hedgerow, or little quiet pasture, two or three of them, that have with- drawn from the main flocks, and there associate with the blackbird and the thrush. " The woodcocks arrive in Great Britain in flocks ; some of them in October, but not in great numbers till November and December. They generally take advantage of the night, being seldom seen to come before sunset. The time of their arrival depends considerably on the prevailing winds; for adverse gales always detain them, they not being able to struggle with the boisterous squalls of the Northern Ocean. The greater part of them leave this country about the latter end of February, or beginning of March, always pairing before they set out. They retire to the coast, and, if the wind be fair, set out immediately ; but, if contrary, they are often detained in the neighbouring woods and thickets for some time. So well skilled are these birds in atmospherical changes, that the instant a fair wind springs up, they seize the opportunity ; and where the sportsman has seen hundreds in one day, he will not find even a single bird the next. At the Landsend, Cornwall, every fisherman and peasant can tell, from, the temperature of the air, the week, if not the day, on which the wood- cocks will arrive on the coast. They come in prodigious flocks, which reach the shore at the same time, and from their state of exhaustion, induced by their long flight, they are easily knocked down, or caught by dogs. A short respite soon invigorates them, so that they are enabled to pursue their inland course, but till thus recruited they are an easy prey, and produce no small profit to those who live in the neighbourhood. Mr Warner informs us, that " We were told at Truro, as a proof of the definitive time of their arrival, that a gentleman then had sent to the Landsend for several brace, to be forwarded to him for a particular occasion. This correspondent acquainted him in answer, that no wood- cocks had yet arrived ; but that, on the third day from his writing, if the weather continued as it then was, there would be plenty. The state of the atmosphere remained unchanged, the visitors came as it was asserted they would, and the gentleman received the number of birds he had ordered. " It seems quite certain that the migratory birds usually return to their former haunts. The following well authenticated circumstance is related by Bewick, on the authority of Sir John Trevelyan, Bart. " In the winter of 1797," says he, " the gamekeeper of E. M. Pleydell, Esq. of Watcombe, in Dorsetshire, brought him a woodcock, alive and unhurt, which he had caught in a net set for rabbits. Mr Pleydell scratched the name upon a bit of thin brass, bent it round the woodcock's leg, and let it fly. In December, the next year, Mr Pleydell shot this bird, with the bras.3 about its leg, in the same wood where it had been first caught." We caught a swallow, which built in the corner of a window, tied a silk thread about one of its limbs, and set it at liberty. Next year the same corner was taken possession of by a pair of swallows. We caught them, and found that one had still round its limb the piece of thread which we had tied on the preceding year. ED. 106 NIDIFICATIOX. birds, discovered in some part or other of this island ; * but then they are always mentioned as rarities, and somewhat out of the common course of things ; but as to redwings and field- fares, no sportsman or naturalist has ever yet, that I could hear, pretended to have found the nest or young of those species in any part of these kingdoms, f And I the more admire at this 'instance as extraordinary, since, to all appearance, the same food in summer, as well as in winter, might support them here which maintains their congeners, the blackbirds and thrushes, did they choose to stay the summer through. From hence it appears, that it is not food alone which determines some species of birds with regard to their stay or departure. Fieldfares and redwings disappear sooner or later, according as the warm weather comes on earlier or later ; for I well remem- ber, after that dreadful winter, 1739-40, that cold northeast winds continued to blow on through April and May, and that these kinds of birds (what few remained of them) did not depart as usual, but were seen lingering about till the beginning of June. The best authority that we can have for the nidification of the birds above mentioned, in any district, is the testimony of faunists that have written professedly the natural history of particular countries. Now, as to the fieldfare, Linnaeus, in nis Fauna Suecica, says of it, that " maximis in arboribus nidi- ficat ;" and of the redwing, he says in the same place, that " nidificat in mediis arbusculis, sive sepibus ; ova sex cceruleo- viridia maculis nigris variis" Hence we may be assured that fieldfares and redwings breed in Sweden. Scopoli says, in his Annus Primus, of the woodcock, that, " nupta ad nos venit circa Gcquinoctium vernalc" meaning in Tyrol, of which he is a native. And afterwards, he adds, " nidificat in paludibus alpinis : ova ponit 3 5." It does not appear from Kramer that wood- cocks breed at all in Austria ; but he says, " Avis hcec septen- trionalium provinciarum cestivo tempore incola est ; ubi plerumquc nidificat. Appropinquante hyeme australiorcs provincias petit ; * A woodcock's nest, with four eggs in it, was found in Chicksand woods, near Sheffield, in Bedfordshire, on the 15th April, 1826. The eggs were about the size of a bantam hen's, of a bluish white ground, with irregular brown spots. En. f Mr Knapp says, " I have before me the egg of a bird, which I believe to be that of a fieldfare, taken from a nest, somewhat like that formed by the song-thrush in 1824." Mr Bullock found the nest of a redwing at the island of Harris, one of the Hebrides. Mr Jennings says, he has been informed by a friend, on whose accuracy he can rely, that the redwing occasionally sings in this country before its departure in the spring, En. RAIN MIGRATION. 107 hinc circa plenilunium potissimum mensis Octobris plerumque Austriam transmigrat. Tune rursus circa plenilunium potissimum mensis Martii per Austriam matrimonio juncta ad septentrionales provincias redit." For the whole passage (which I have abridged) see Elenchus, fyc. p. 351. This seems to be a full proof of the emigration of woodcocks ; though little is proved concerning the place of their breeding. P.S. There fell in the county of Rutland, in three weeks of this present very wet weather, seven inches and a half of rain, which is more than has fallen in any three weeks for these thirty years past, in that part of the world. A mean quantity in that county for one year is twenty inches and a half. * LETTER XLIL TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. FYFIELD, near ANDOVER, February 12, 177]. DEAR SIR, You are, I know, no great friend to migration ; and the well-attested accounts from various parts of the king- dom seem to justify you in your suspicions, that at least many of the swallow kind do not leave us in the winter, but lay themselves up, like insects and bats, in a torpid state, and slumber away the more uncomfortable months, till the return of the sun and fine weather awakens them. But then we must not, I think, deny migration in general ; because migration certainly does subsist in some places, as my brother in Andalusia has fully informed me. Of the motions of these birds he has ocular demonstration, for many weeks together, both spring and fall ; during which periods, myriads of the swallow kind traverse the Straits from north to south,f and * The average quantity of rain, which falls annually, has been calcu- lated at between thirty-one and thirty-two inches. In Scotland, it varies, as in all other countries, with the locality. In Glasgow, it is thirty-one inches; Dumfries, thirty-six inches; and Dalkeith, twenty-five inches, making an average between thirty and thirty-one inches, or twenty-eight cubit feet of water. Countries adjacent to the coast of an extended ocean have usually more rain than inland districts. In some parts of India it is from one hundred and three to one hundred and twelve, but the average is eighty-five inches annually. En. f The migration of swallows is not confined to Britain, for they appear to be influenced by a general law in every variety of climate. It has been satisfactorily proved, that swallows leave even the most extreme southern parts of Europe, as the kingdom of Naples, Sicily, the Morea, &c. and migrate to Africa and Asia. Mr Rae Wilson gives us positive 108 SWALLOW BEE-BIRD. from south to north, according to the season. And these vast migrations consist not only of hirimdines, but of bee-birds,* assurance of these migrations in his travels in Egypt. He says, he had the proof, in the immense bodies of these birds which he perceived pushing their way in the direction of Egypt from Europe, during the month of November, when the winter sets in. We are told by Wilson, that the swallows of America are also migra- tory, " arriving in Pennsylvania late in April, or early in May; dispersing themselves over the whole country, wherever there are vacant chimneys, in summer, sufficiently high and convenient for their accommodation. In no other situation," with us, are they observed at present to build. This circumstance naturally suggests the query, Where did these birds construct their nests before the arrival of Europeans in this country, wheu there were no such places for their accommodation? I would answer, Probably in the same situations in which they still continue to build in the remote regions of our western forests ; where European improvements of this kind are scarcely to be found, namely, in the hollow of a tree, which, in some cases, has the nearest resemblance to their present choice, of any other. One of the first settlers in the state of Kentucky informed me, that he cut down a large hollow beech tree, which contained forty or fifty nests of the chimney swallow, most of which, by the fall of the tree, or by the weather, were lyi'ug at the bottom of the hollow ; but sufficient fragments remained, adhering to the sides of the tree, to enable him to number them. They appeared, he said, to be of many years' standing." Dr Richardson says, " In the fur countries, where the habitations of man are few and far between, the barn-swallow inhabits caves, parti- cularly in the limestone rocks ; and it frequents the out-houses of all the trading ports. When Fort Franklin was erected on the shores of the Great Bear Lake, in the autumn of 1 825, we found many of the nests in the ruins of a house that had been abandoned for more than ten years." In that northern latitude they arrive about the 15th of May, and take their departure early in August. Swallows were noticed by Dr Richard- son at Fort Good Hope in latitude sixty-seven and a half degrees, the most northerly post in America. ED. * What our author calls bee-bird, is the European bee-eater, merops apiaster of Linmeus. It is the only one of the genus found in Europe. It is not uncommon in the south of France, Italy, Germany, and Sweden, but abounds in the southern Russian provinces bordering on the Don and Wolga. It is gregarious and migratory, leaving its summer quarters for more southern latitudes in autumn. This bird has been frequently taken in Britain, but was not noticed till July, 1794, when one was shot at Mattishall, county of Norfolk. In the same year, a flock of about twenty was seen in June, and, in October following, a flight, much fewer in number in all probability the same passed over the place where they had been first seen. This bird feeds on all winged insects, which it takes on the wing like a swallow En. Sir William Jardine, in a paper on " the Birds of Madeira," in the Edinburgh Journal of Natural and Geographical Science^ mentions that the common swift remains in that island all the year round. Not- withstanding the very respectable authority of Mr Carruthers, on whose observations he states this, we are inclined to suppose his conclusions HOOPOE MIGRATING BIRDS. 109 hoopoes, oro pendolos, * or golden thrushes, (- &c. and also of many of our soft-billed summer birds of passage, and moreover, of birds which never leave us, such as all the various sorts of hawks and kites. Old Belon, two hundred years ago, gives a curious account of the incredible armies of hawks and kites which he saw in the spring time traversing the Thracian Bosphorus, from Asia to Europe. Besides the above mentioned, he remarks that the procession is swelled by whole troops of eagles and vultures. J must have been formed fr6 a few solitary instances, as we firmly believe that all the species of swifts and swallows are strictly migratory over the whole globe. It has been observed, that these birds migrate under even Afric's burning sun, the equinoctial regions of America, arid the more uniform temperature of all intertropical climates. It would certainly be a remarkable deviation, were the common swift of Madeira to differ from its species, which are guided by one similar law in all other parts of the world. * We have noticed the occasional appearance of the hoopoe in Britain, at poge 25. This beautiful bird is twelve inches in length, and nineteen in breadth. The bill is about two inches long, black, slender, and somewhat curved ; the eyes hazel ; the tongue very short and triangular ; the head is surmounted by a crest, consisting of a double row of feathers of a pale orange colour, tipped with black, the largest being about two inches in length ; the neck is of a faint reddish brown ; the breast ana belly, white ; the back, scapulars, and wings, are crossed with broad bars of black and white; the lesser coverts of the wings are light brown ; the rump is white, and the tail consists of ten feathers, each marked with white, and, when closed, assumes the form of a crescent, with the horns pointing downwards ; the legs are short and black. Except when under some excitement, the crest usually falls behind on its neck. Bechstein informs us, that, in Germany, hoopoes frequent the meadows all the summer. In the month of August, they form themselves into families in the plains; and, early in September, leave that country, returning again in the month of April ED. f- The golden thrush of our author is the golden oriole, oriolus galbufa of Linnaeus. It is an occasional visitant. This very elegant species is about the size of a blackbird ; the male being of a bright golden yellow, with black wings, marked here and there with yellow ; the two middle tail feathers are also black, the rest yellow. The female is of a dull greenish brown in those parts where the male is black ; the breast is spotted with black. A male and female were shot in the neighbourhood of the Pentland Hills, near Edinburgh, and are now in the College Museum. These birds are plentiful in France and Germany: they congre- gate in August, and migrate to the warmer regions of Asia, and return again in May. En. | The geographical range of the vultures and eagles is much extended in various species; for example, the golden eagle has been found to breed in Britain, the continent of Europe, and also in America, That some of them have roving habits, extending their predatory excursions frequently to a great distance, is quite true ; but we cannot admit tlie L ] 10 WOODCOCK. Now, it is no wonder that birds residing in Africa should retreat before the sun as it advances, and retire :o milder regions, and especially birds of prey, whose blood being heated with hot animal food, are more impatient of a sultry climate; but then I cannot help wondering why kites and hawks, and such hardy birds as are known to defy all the severity of England, and even of Sweden and all north Europe, should want to migrate from the south of Europe, and be dissatisfied with the winters of Andalusia. It does not appear to me that much stress may be laid on the difficulty and hazard that birds must run in their migrations, by reason of vast oceans, cross winds, &c. ; because, if we reflect, a bird may travel from England to the Equator without lanching out and exposing itself to boundless seas, and that by crossing the water at Dover, and again at Gibraltar. And I with the more confidence advance this obvious remark, because my brother has always found that some of his birds, and particularly the swallow kind, are very sparing of their pains in crossing the Mediterranean ; for, when arrived at Gibraltar, they do not, Ranged in figure, wedge their way, - and set forth Their airy caravan, high over seas Flying, and over lands with mutual wing Easing their night ; MILTON. but scout and hurry along in little detached parties, of six or seven in a company ; and, sweeping low, just over the surface of the land and water, direct their course to the opposite continent, at the narrowest passage they can find. They usually slope across the bay to the south-west, and so pass over opposite to Tangier, which, it seems, is the narrowest space.* In former letters, we have considered, w r hether it was probable that woodcocks, in moonshiny nights, cross the German Ocean from Scandinavia. As a proof that birds of less speed may pass that sea, considerable as it is, I shall relate the following incident, which, though mentioned to have happened so many years ago, was strictly matter of fact: As birds of these tribes to be classed among those which are migratory. I occasionally happens that these birds extend their flight from one country to another ; but, then, these excursions are not marked by periodical regularity, nor influenced by atmospherical changes, but proceed from some unknown cause. ED. * Ceuta is the narrowest part of the Straits of Gibraltar. ED. NIGHTINGALES THE CHOUGH. Ill some people were shooting in the parish of Trotton, in the county of Sussex, they killed a duck in that dreadful winter, 1708-9, with a silver collar about its neck,* on which were engraven the arms of the King of Denmark. This anecdote the rector of Trotton at that time has often told to a near relation of mine ; and, to the best of my remembrance, the collar was in the possession of the rector. At present, I do not know any body near the seaside that will take the trouble to remark at what time of the moon woodcocks first come : if I lived near the sea myself, I would soon tell you more of the matter. One thing I used to observe when I was a sportsman, that there were times in which wood- cocks were so sluggish and sleepy, that they would drop again when flushed just before the spaniels, nay, just at the muzzle of a gun that had been fired at them : whether this strange laziness was the effect of a recent fatiguing journey, I shall not presume to say. )- Nightingales not only never reach Northumberland and Scotland, but also, as I have been always told, Devonshire and Cornwall. In those two last counties, we cannot attribute the failure of them to the want of warmth : the defect in the west is rather a presumptive argument, that these birds come over to us from the continent at the narrowest passage, and do not stroll so far westward. J . Let me hear from your own observation whether skylarks do not dust. I think they do : and if they do, whether they wash also. The alauda pratensis of Ray was the poor dupe that was educating the booby of a cuckoo mentioned in my letter of October last. Your letter came too late for me to procure a ringousel for Mr Tunstal during their autumnal visit ; but I will endeavour to get him one when they call on us again in April. I am glad that you and that gentleman saw my Andalusian birds ; * I have read a like anecdote of a swan. f- It is quite evident that such must be attributed to fatigue after their long excursions, as mentioned in our note at page 105. ED. J The farthest north which this bird has been known to extend in England, is the neighbourhood of Doncaster, in Yorkshire. It is certainly a strange circumstance that the nightingale has never been met with in Devonshire and Cornwall, as these counties appear peculiarly calculated for their residence, both from the mildness of the temperature and the variety of ground. The bounds prescribed to all animals and plants, is one of the most singular arrangements in the economy of nature. ED. Letter XXXVIII. To the Hon. Daines Harrington. il'2 I hope they answered your expectation. Royston, or gray, crows, are winter birds that come much about the same time with the woodcock : they, like the fieldfare and redwing, have no apparent reason for migration ; for, as they fare in the winter like their congeners, so might they, in all appearance, in the summer.* Was not Tenant, when a boy, mistaken ? Did he not find a missel-thrush's nest, and take it for the nest of a fieldfare ? The stock-dove, or wood-pigeon, cenas Raii, is the last winter bira of passage which appears with us, and is not seen till towards the end of November. About twenty years ago, they abounded in the district of Selborne, and strings of them were seen morning and evening that reached a mile or more ; but, since the beechen woods have been greatly thinned, they have much decreased in number. The ring-dove, palumbus Raii, stays with us the whole year, and breeds several times through the summer, f Before I received your letter of October last, I had just remarked in my journal that the trees were unusually green. This uncommon verdure lasted on late into November, and may be accounted for from a late spring, a cool and moist summer, but more particularly from vast armies of chaffers, or tree-beetles, which, in many places, reduced whole woods to a leafless naked state. These trees shot again at midsummer, and then retained their foliage till very late in the year. My musical friend, at whose house I am now visiting, has tried all the owls that are his near neighbours, with a pitch- * The royston crow, or chough, (pyrrhocorax graculus, of Temminck,) ia not migratory. It is well known in Scotland, and also in England, all the year round. In other countries, however, it appears to be migratory. We are told that this bird has been observed to attend the inundation of the Nile, in September and October. It is a widely diffused species, being an inhabitant of the Alps, Siberia, and Persia. Colonel Montagu had one, which would stand quietly for hours to be caressed ; and if an affront were offered to it, would resist the injury with bill and claws. ED. f Considerable confusion arises respecting the stock-dove and rock- dove ; their history and individuality have been strangely confounded ; some considering them as the same bird, and others as only varieties of the same species. The stock-dove, columba ce?ias, is not migratory, as White supposes, although it is limited to certain districts of the country. It is common in Staffordshire, and some of the midland counties ; but it has never been found in the northern parts of Britain. The stock-dove is abundant in southern Europe. It occurs also in Africa, but does not extend to the southward of the tropic. Those of Germany and France are, however, migratory. ED. HARVEST BUG. 113 pipe set at concert pitch, and finds they all hoot in B flat. He will examine the nightingales next spring. LETTER XLIIT. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, March 30, 1771. DEAR SIR, There is an insect with us, especially on chalky districts, which is very troublesome and teasing all the latter end of the summer, getting into people's skins, especially those of women and children, and raising tumours, which itch intol- erably. This animal (which we call an harvest bug) is very minute, scarce discernible to the naked eye, of a bright scarlet colour, and of the genus of acarus.* They are to be met with in gardens, on kidney beans, or any legumens, but prevail only in the hot months of summer. Warreners, as some have assured me, are much infested by them on chalky downs, where these insects swarm sometimes to so infinite a degree as to discolour their nets, and to give them a reddish cast; while the men are so bitten as to be thrown into fevers. There is a small, long, shining fly, in these parts, very troublesome to the housewife, by getting into the chimneys, and laying its eggs in the bacon, while it is drying. These eggs produce maggots, called jumpers, which, harbouring in * This is the acarus autumnalis, or harvest bug, which is one of the most teasing little insects in nature. Though bred to live on vegetable substances, such as French beans, currants, raspberries, and other fruits, yet it deserts these, whether by accident or design, to live on, and among, the most sensitive portions of the human race. These insects are so minute, that they are hardly visible to the naked eye, and that only when they are placed on a smooth, white surface: they are best known by their effects. Females and children are most liable to their attacks, and chiefly i wash best calculated for removing them, while the person so employed use a magnifying glass, to enable him to do so. They lacerate the skin iti some way or other, and cause extreme itching, and considerable inflammation, which surrounds small vesicles, filled with a semi-trans- parent fluid. These animals have a fastidious taste, for there are some individuals whom they will not attack. Of two persons, for instance, who had been together, during a day's nutting in the woods, and who afterwards slept in the same bed-chamber, one of them was entirely covered with red blotches, from the attack of the bug, while the other was quite untouched. ED. L2 114 MAGGOTS. the gammons and best parts of the hogs, eat down to the bone, and make great waste. This fly I suspect to be a variety of the musca putris of Linnaeus. It is to be seen, in the summer, in farm kitchens, on the bacon racks, and about the mantle- pieces, and on the ceilings. The insect that infests turnips, and many crops in the garden, (destroying often whole fields, while in their seedling leaves,) is an animal that wants to be better known. The country people here call it the turnip fly and black dolphin ; but I know it to be one of the coleoptera, the " chrysomela o/eracea, saltatoria, femoribus posticis eras sis simis.* In verjf * The haltica nemorum of Illiger, and the root weevil {nedigus contractus) of Stephens, are both formidable depredators, in turnip and other crops. The former of these is that probably meant by White. The caterpillar of another species of the genus athalia, is no less destructive. Marshall records an instance, in the Philosophical Transactions, of many thousand acres, which had to be ploughed up, in consequence of the devastations caused by these insects. The Norfolk farmers think they come from beyond the sea, and one even averred, that he saw them arrive in clouds, so as to darken the air ; while the fishermen reported, that they had repeatedly witnessed nights of them pass over their heads, when they were at a distance from the shore. So numerous were they upon the beach and cliffs, and lay in such heaps, that they might have been taken up with shovels. Three miles inland, they were found congregated like swarms of bees. The maggots or larvse of the blow-flies are an equally destructive race to animal matter. Linnaeus says, the musca vomitaria will devour the carcass of a horse as quickly as a lion would do. And this is not at all improbable, when we know, that a species nearly allied to this (the musca carnaria) produces not fewer' than twenty thousand at a time ; and that they have been proved by Redi to increase in weight two hundred fold within the short space of twenty-four hours. One of the most extraor- dinary circumstances connected with the destructive powers of maggots, and of their attacking the human frame, is recorded in Bell's Weekly Messenger. " On the 25th June, 1829, died at Asbornby, Lincoln- shire, John Page, a pauper, belonging to Little Willoughby, under circumstances truly singular. He being of a restless disposition, and not choosing to stay in the parish workhouse, was in the habit of strolling about the neighbouring villages, subsisting on the pittance obtained from door to door ; the support he usually received from the benevolent was bread and meat ; and after satisfying the cravings of nature, it was his custom to deposit the surplus provisions, particularly the mt at, betwixt his shirt and skin. Having a considerable portion of this provision ia store, so deposited, he was taken rather unwell, and laid himself down in a field, in the parish of Scredington ; when, from the heat of the season at that time, the meat speedily became putrid, and was of course struck by the flies : these not only proceeded to devour the inanimate pieces of flesh, but also literally to prey upon the living substance; and when the wretched man was accidentally found by some of the inhabitants, NOXIOUS INSECTS. 115 hot summers, they abound to an amazing degree ; and, as you walk in a field, or in a garden, make a pattering like rain, by jumping on the leaves of the turnips or cabbages. There is an oestrus, known in these parts to every plough- boy, which, because it is omitted by Linnaeus, is also passed over by late writers ; and that is the curvicauda of old Moufet, mentioned by Derham, in his Physico -Theology, p. 250 : an insect worthy of remark, for depositing its eggs, as it flies, in .so dexterous a manner on the single hairs of the legs and flanks of grass horses. But then, Derham is mistaken when he advances that this oestrus is the parent of that wonderful star-tailed maggot which he mentions afterwards; for more modern entomologists have discovered that singular production to be derived from the egg of the musca chamceleon. Sec Geoffroy,t. 17, f. 4. A full history of noxious insects, hurtful in the field, garden, and house, suggesting all the known and likely means of destroying them, would be allowed by the public to be a most 'useful and important work. What knowledge there is of this sort lies scattered, and wants to be collected : great improve- ments would soon follow, of course. A knowledge of the properties, economy, propagation, and, in short, of the life and conversation, of these animals, is a necessary step to lead us to some method of preventing their depredations. As far as I am a judge, nothing would recommend ento- mology more than some neat plates, that should well express the generic distinctions of insects according to Linnaeus ; for I am well assured that many people would study insects, could they set out with a more adequate notion of those distinctions than can be conveyed at first by words alone. he was so eaten by the maggots, that his death seemed inevitable. After cleaving away, as well as they were able, these shocking vermin, those who found courage conveyed him to Asbornby, and a surgeon was immediately procured, who declared that his body was in such a state, that dressing it must be little short of instantaneous death : and, in fact, the man did survive the operation but a few hours. When first found, and again when examined by the surgeon, he presented a sight loath- some in the extreme ; white maggots of enormous size were crawling in and upon his body, which they had most shockingly mangled, and the removing of the external ones served only to render the sight more liorrid." ED. I 16 PEACOCKS. LETTER XUV. 7?0 THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, 1771. DEAR SIR, Happening to make a visit to my neighbour's peacocks, I could not help observing, that the trains of those magnificent birds appear by no means to be their tails, those long feathers growing not from their uropvgium, but all up their backs. A range of short, brown, stiff feathers, about six inches long, fixed in the uropygium, is the real tail, and serves as the fulcrum to prop the train, which is long and top-heavy, when set on end. When the train is up, nothing appears of the bird before, but its head and neck ; but this would not be the case, were these long feathers fixed only in the rump, as may be seen by the turkey cock, when in a strutting attitude.* By a strong muscular vibration, these birds can make the shafts of their long feathers clatter like the swords of a sword- dancer ; they then trample very quick with their feet, and run backwards towards the females. I should tell you that I have got an uncommon calculus (zgogropila, taken out of the stomach of a fat ox. It is per- fectly round, and about the size of a large Seville orange : such are, I think, usually flat. LETTER XLV. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, August 1, 1771. DEAR SIR, From what follows, it will appear that neither owls nor cuckoos keep to one note. A friend remarks that many (most) of his owls hoot in B flat ; but that one went almost half a note below A. The pipe he tried their notes * The female peacock, like the hen of the domestic fowl and the pheasant, has sometimes been known to assume the plumage of the male. Lady Tynte had a favourite peahen, which at eight several times produced chicks. Having moulted when eleven years old, the lady and her family were astonished by her displaying the feathers peculiar to the other sex, and appearing like a pied peacock. In the process the tail, which was like that of the cock, first appeared. In the following year she moulted again and produced similar feathers ; in the third year she did the same, and then had also spurs resembling those of the cock. The hen never bred after this change of plumage. ED. NOTES OF OWLS REDWINGS. 117 by was a common half-crown pitch-pipe, such as masters use for tuning of harpsichords ; it was the common London pitch. A neighbour of mine, who is said to have a nice ear, remarks, that the owls about this village hoot in three different keys, in G flat or F sharp, in B flat, and A flat. He heard two hooting to each other, the one in A flat, and the other in B flat. Query : Do these different notes proceed from different species, or only from various individuals ? The same person finds, upon trial, that the note of the cuckoo (of which we have but one species) varies in different individuals ; for, about Selborne wood, he found they were mostly in D ; he heard two sing together, the one in D, and the other in D sharp, which made a disagreeable concert ; he afterwards heard one in D sharp, and about Wolmer Forest, some in C. As to nightingales, he says, that their notes are so short, and their transitions so rapid,* that he cannot well ascertain their key. Perhaps in a cage, and in a room, their notes may be more distinguishable. This person has tried to settle the notes of a swift, and of several other small birds, but cannot bring them to any criterion. As I have often remarked that redwings are some of the first birds that suffer with us in severe weather, it is no wonder at all that they retreat from Scandinavian winters ; and much more the ordo of grallce, who all, to a bird, forsake the northern parts of Europe at the approach of winter. * " Grails tanquam conjuratcB unanimiter in fugam se conjiciunt ; ne earum unlearn quidem inter nos habitantem invenire possimus ; ut enim cestate in australibus degere nequeunt ob defectum lumbricorum, terramque siccam ; ita nee infrigidis ob eandem causam" says Ekmarkthe Swede, in his ingenious little treatise called Migrationes Aviutn, which by all means you ought to read, while your thoughts run on the subject of migration. See Amcenitates Academics, vol. iv. p. 565. Birds may be so circumstanced as to be obliged to migrate in one country, and not in another; but the grallce (which procure their food from marshes and boggy ground) must, in winter, forsake the more northerly parts of Europe, or perish for want of food. * In the very severe winter of 1799, immense flocks of redwings resorted to the west of England, where a sudden fall of snow, unusually deep in that quarter, cut off these poor birds from all supply of food ; and being reduced to too great weakness to attempt a passage over the ocean to some more congenial climate, thousands of them, as well as fieldfares, were starved to death. ED. 118 WOODCOCKS. I am glad you are making inquiries from Linnaeus concerning the woodcock ; it is expected of him that he should be able to account for the motions and manner of life of the animals of his own Fauna. * Faunists, as you observe, are too apt to acquiesce in bare descriptions, and a few synonyms : the reason is plain ; because all that may be done at home in a man's study ; but the investigation of the life and conversation of animals, is a concern of much more trouble and difficulty, and is not to be attained but by the active and inquisitive, and by those that reside much in the country. Foreign systematists are, I observe, much too vague in their specific differences ; which are almost universally constituted by one or two particular marks, the rest of the description running in general terms. But our countryman, the excellent Mr Ray, is the only describer that conveys some precise idea in every term or word, maintaining his superiority over his * The woodcock is found in all parts of the old Continent, from north to south. In some places, it is said to remain the whole year, only changing its haunts, in the breeding season, from the plains to the mountainous districts. The habits of all the woodcocks hitherto dis- covered only two or three in number are alike : they are observed to make partial migrations from north to south during the breeding season. The woodcock is among the few winter birds that occasionally breed in Britain. Besides what we have mentioned at page 106, young birds have been killed in August, and eggs found in June. In the year 1795, the Rev. Mr Wheatear, of Hastings, found a nest, with four eggs, in a wood near Battle, in Sussex. In 1802, Mr Foljamb possessed a specimen of a half fledged bird, taken in Broodsworth Wood, near Doncaster ; and, in 1805, a brood of four were hatched in a wood at Shucoaks, near Worksop. The nest from which these last were taken, consisted of moss, bent, and dry leaves. On the 19th May, 1828, James Smith, keeper to John Chetwood, Esq. of Ansley, near Naneaton, shot two young wood- cocks in a wood called Hore Park, in that neighbourhood ; and, on the following day, an old bird was shot by Smith, at the same spot. The young ones are said to have been dry and bad when brought to table, but the old bird was excellent. John Wigson, woodman to W. Dilke, Esq. discovered a woodcock sitting on four eggs, in Regton Wood, near Coventry, in the beginning of May, 1829. From some cause, however, the nest was deserted, and several of the eggs destroyed. On breaking one that remained, it was found to be nearly ready to hatch ; a fact proving that the adults must have commenced the business of nidification about the beginning of April, which is earlier than many individuals of this species leave Britain for northern climates ; thus affording pretty strong evidence in favour of woodcocks pairing previous to their departure. On the 8th August, 1828, a woodcock was shot in Florida demesne, county cf Down, Ireland, which must have remained through the summer. EDI BATS. 119 followers and imitators, in spite of the advantage of fresh discoveries and modern information. At this distance of years, it is not in my power to recollect at what periods woodcocks used to be sluggish or alert, when I was a sportsman ; but, upon my mentioning this circumstance to a friend, he thinks he has observed them to be remarkably listless against snowy foul weather : if this should be the case, then the inaptitude for flying arises only from an eagerness for food, as sheep are observed to be very intent on grazing against stormy wet evenings. LETTER XLVL TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. September, 1771. DEAR SIR, The summer through, I have seen but two of that large species of bat which I call vespertilio altivolans, from its manner of feeding high in the air. I procured one of them, and found it to be a male, and made no doubt, as they accompanied together, that the other was a female ; but, Happening in an evening or two to procure the other likewise, I was somewhat disappointed when it appeared to be also of the same sex. This circumstance, and the great scarcity of this sort, at least in these parts, occasions some suspicions in my mind whether it is really a species, or whether it may not be the male part of the more known species, one of which may supply many females, as is known to be the case in sheep, and some other quadrupeds. But this doubt can only be cleared by a farther examination, and some attention to the sex, of more specimens. All that I know at present is, that my two were amply furnished with the parts of generation, much resembling those of a boar. In the extent of their wings, they measured fourteen inches and an half, and four inches and an half from the nose to the tip of the tail : their heads were large, their nostrils bilobated, their shoulders broad and muscular, and their whole bodies fleshy and plump. Nothing could be more sleek and soft than their fur, which was of a bright chestnut colour ; their maws were full of food, but so macerated, that the quality could not be distinguished ; their livers, kidneys, and hearts, were large, and their bowels covered with fat. They weighed each, when entire, full one ounce and one drachm. Within the ear, there was somewhat of a peculiar structure, that I did 1*20 BATS. not understand perfectly ; but refer it to the observation of the curious anatomist. These creatures send forth a very- rancid and offensive smell.* LETTER XL VII. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, 1771. DEAR SIR, On the twelfth of July, I had a fair opportunity of contemplating the motions of the caprimulgus, or fern-owl, as it was playing round a large oak that swarmed with scarabcei * Mr Jesse says, " Bats seem to be gregarious animals. Vast numbers of them were lately found under the roof of an old building in Richmond Park. I had two sorts of them brought to me, nearly similar in shape, but one very considerably larger than the other. This latter is probably the vespertilio altivolans, mentioned by Mr White, in his Natural History of Selborne, answering to his description of it. It measured nearly fifteen inches from the tip of one wing to that of the other. These larger bats were quite as numerous as the smaller species. A great number of them were also found in an old building in Combe Wood, adjoining Rich- mond Park ; and, subsequently, ten of them were discovered in a decayed tree in that park. " This is pretty strong evidence against the migration of the bat in question. Several of these were sent by Mr Jesse to the Zoological Societies of London. A workman employed in the repairs of Cardinal Wolsey's hall, Hamp- ton-Court Palace, found the skeleton of a bat at the end of one of trie rafters of the ceiling, which is calculated to have been nearly as large as a pigeon when alive. Bats are possessed of a sense with which we are yet unacquainted, that of avoiding objects in the dark. Spallanzani hung up some cloths across a room, with holes cut in them at various distances, large enough to allow a bat to fly through. He deprived the poor animals of light, and stopt their hearing as much as possible. These animals on being turned loose, flew through the perforations with as much correctness as if they had had the use of their eyes. Respecting the hybernation of the bat, the following fact is very curious : " In the beginning of November, 1821, a woodman engaged in splitting timber for rails in the woods close to the lake at Haining, a seat of Mr Pringle in Selkirkshire, discovered in the centre of a large wild cherry tree, a living bat, of a bright scarlet colour, which, as soon as it was relieved from its entombment, took to its wings and escaped. In the tree there was a recess sufficiently large to contain the animal ; but all around the wood was perfectly sound, solid, and free from any fissure through which the atmosphere could reach the animal. A man employed in the same manner at Kelsall, in December, 1826, met with a similar phenomenon, and allowed the bat to escape, under the influence of fear, protesting that it was not a 'being of this world.'" BlackwoocTs Magazine, vol. viii. p. 467. ED. MIGRATION. 121 solstitiales, or fern-chaffers. The powers of its wing were wonderful, exceeding, if possible, the various evolutions and quick turns of the swallow genus. But the circumstance that pleased me most was, that I saw it distinctly more than once put out its short leg when on the wing, and, by a bend of the head, deliver somewhat into its mouth. If it takes any part of its prey with its foot, as I have now the greatest reason to suppose it does these chaffers, I no longer wonder at the use of its middle toe, which is curiously furnished with a serrated claw. * Swallows and martins the bulk of them, I mean have forsaken us sooner this year than usual ; for, on September the 22d, they rendezvoused in a neighbour's walnut tree, where, it seemed probable, they had taken up their lodgings for the night. At the dawn of the day, which was foggy, they rose altogether in infinite numbers, occasioning such a rushing, from the strokes of their wings against the hazy air, as might be heard to a considerable distance : since that, no flock has appeared, only a few stragglers. Some swifts staid late, till the 22d of August ; a rare instance I for they usually withdraw within the first week, f On September the 24th, three or four ringousels appeared in my fields, for the first time this season. How punctual are these visitors in their autumnal and spring migrations ! LETTER XL VIII. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, February 8 f 1772. DEAR SIR, When I ride about in winter, and see such prodigious flocks of various kinds of birds, I cannot help * The use of the serrated claw of the goat-sucker has occasioned much controversy amongst naturalists within the last few years, but is satis- factorily accounted for by Wilson, in his description of the Carolina night- jar. " Their mouths," says he, " are capable of prodigious expansion, to seize their prey with more certainty, and furnished with long hairs or bristles, serving as palisades to secure what comes between them. Reposing much during the heat of day, they are greatly infested with vermin, particularly about the head, and are provided with a comb on the under edge of the middle claw, with which they are often employed in ridding themselves of these pests, at least when in a state of captivity." ED. f See letter XCVII. to the Hon. Daines Barrington. In the Magazine of Natural History, we are informed that swifts were seen at Chipping Norton, on the 27th September, 1830. ED. M 122 CONGREGATING OF BIRDS. admiring at these congregations, and wishing that it was in my power to account for those appearances, almost peculiar to the season. The two great motives which regulate the proceedings of the brute creation, are love and hunger : the former incites animals to perpetuate their kind, the latter induces them to preserve individuals. Whether either of these should seem to be the ruling passion, in the matter of congregating, is to be considered. As to love, that is out of the question, at a time of the year when that soft passion is not indulged ; besides, during the amorous season, such a jealousy prevails between the male birds, that they can hardly bear to be together in the same hedge or field. Most of the singing and elation of spirits of that time, seem to me to be the effect of rivalry and emulation ; and it is to this spirit of jealousy, that I chiefly attribute the equal dispersion of birds in the spring, over the face of the country. Now as to the business of food. As these animals are actuated by instinct to hunt for necessary food, they should not, one would suppose, crowd together in pursuit of suste- nance, at a time when it is most likely to fail ; yet such associations do take place in hard weather chiefly, and thicken as the severity increases. As some kind of self-interest and self-defence is, no doubt, the motive for the proceeding, may it not arise from the helplessness of their state in such rigorous seasons, as men crowd together, when under great calamities, though they know not why ? Perhaps approximation may dispel some degree of cold ; and a crowd may make each individual appear safer from the ravages of birds of prey, and other dangers. If I admire when I see how much congenerous birds love to congregate, I am the more struck when I see incongruous ones in such strict amity.* If we do not much wonder to see a flock of rooks usually attended by a train of daws, yet it is strange that the former should so frequently have a flight of starlings for their satellites, f Is it because rooks have a more * There is nothing more strange in starlings and rooks being seen in company, than for the short-eared owl to be seen amongst flights of woodcocks. Pennant mentions simultaneous migrations of cuckoos and turtle-doves having been noticed in Greece. f The author of the Journal of a Naturalist, speaking of the readiness with which rooks detect the places where grubs are sure to be found, says, " I have often observed them alight on a pasture of uniform verdure, and exhibiting no sensible appearance of feathering or decay, and imme- diately commence staking up tl j ground. Upon investigating the object of their operations, I have found the heads of plantains, the little autumnal ROOKS LAPWINGS. 123 discerning scent than their attendants, and can lead them to spots more productive of food ? Anatomists say that rooks, by reason of two large nerves which run down between the eyes into the upper mandible, have a more delicate feeling in their beaks than other round-billed birds, and can grope for their meat when out of sight. Perhaps, then, their associates attend them on the motive of interest, as greyhounds wait on the motions of their finders, and as lions are said to do on the yelp- ings of jackals. Lapwings and starlings sometimes associate.* dandelions, and other plants, drawn out of the ground and scattered about, their roots having been eaten off by a grub, leaving only a crown of leaves upon the surface. This grub beneath, in the earth, the rooks had detected in their flight, and descended to feed on it, first pulling up the plant which concealed it, and then drawing the larvae from their holes. " A correspondent, in the Magazine of Natural History, proves that the rook is occasionally a predatory bird. He says, " As I was passing through Chandos Street, Cavendish Square, London, soon after six o'clock this morning, my attention was attracted to a rook flying low, near the walls of some out-buildings, in which were many holes occupied by sparrows' nests. He directed his flight to one of these holes, into which he thrust himself as far as possible. It was evident that he was attempting to reach something with his bill ; but apparently he did not succeed, for he shortly withdrew himself from this hole, and flew to another, into which he intruded himself in the same manner. From this second hole he retired almost immediately, bearing in his beak one of the callow brood. He flew with his spoil to a high chimney at the corner house, followed for a short distance by ten or twelve sparrows, clamouring loudly at such an atrocious robbery ; and one sparrow, probably the parent, ventured to pursue even to the chimney-top, as if determined to assail the fell destroyer; but both the rook and the sparrow quickly disappeared behind the chimney-pot, and prevented my farther observation." Colonel Montagu records an instance of great sagacity in rooks. He noticed two of them by the sea shore, after having satisfied the calls of hunger, busy in removing small fish beyond the flux of the tide, and depositing them just above high water mark under the broken rocks. ED. * Lapwings are invariably gregarious, assembling in very large flocks in the autumn. At this time they are esteemed excellent food. The starlings also congregate in autumn. We saw a flight of these birds in the autumn of 1814, in Kings County, Ireland, which liter- ally darkened the air, and must have consisted of at least a hundred thousand ; they were flyisg near the immense marshy plain near Banacher, through which the Shannon flows. " In the autumnal and hyemal months," says Selby, " these birds gather in immense flocks, and are particularly abundant in the fenny parts of Nottinghamshire and Lin :olnshire, where they roost among the reeds. Before they retire to rest, they perform various manreuvres in the air, the whole frequently describing rapid revolutions round a common centre. This peculiar flight will sometimes continue for nearly half an hour before they become finally settled for the night. Upon the approach of spring they spread them- selves over the whole country. " ED. 124 SWALLOWS TORTOISE. LETTER XLIX. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. March 9, 1772. DEAR SIR, As a gentleman and myself were walking, on the 4th of last November, round the sea-banks at Newhaven, near the mouth of the Lewes river, in pursuit of natural knowledge, we were surprised to see three house swallows gliding very swiftly by us. That morning was rather chilly, with the wind at north-west ; but the tenor of the weather, for some time before, had been delicate, and the noons remarkably warm. From this incident, and from repeated accounts which I meet with, I am more and more induced to believe, that many of the swallow kind do not depart from this island, but lay themselves up in holes and caverns, and do, insect-like, and bat-like, come forth at mild times, and then retire again to their latebrce. Nor make I the least doubt but that, if I lived at Newhaven, Seaford, Brighthelmstone, or any of those towns near the chalk cliffs of the Sussex coast, by proper observations, I should see swallows stirring at periods of the winter, when the noons were soft and inviting, and the sun warm and invi- gorating. And I am the more of this opinion, from what I have remarked during some of our late springs, and though, some swallows did make their appearance about the usual time, viz. the 13th or 14th of April, yet, meeting with a harsh reception, and blustering, cold, north-east winds, they imme- diately withdrew, absconding for several days, till the weather gave them better encouragement. LETTER L. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. April 12, 1772. DEAR SIR, While I was in Sussex last autumn, my resi- dence was at the village near Lewes, from whence I had formerly the pleasure of writing to you. On the 1st of November, I remarked that the old tortoise, formerly men- tioned, began first to dig the ground, in order to the forming of its hybernaculum, which it had fixed on just beside a great turf of hepaticas. It scrapes out the ground with its fore feet, and throws it up over its back with its hind; but the TORTOISE. 125 motion of its legs is ridiculously slow, little exceeding the hour hand of a clock, and suitable to the composure of an animal said to be a whole month in performing one feat of copulation. Nothing can be more assiduous than this creature night and day in scooping the earth, and forcing its great body into the cavity ; but, as the noons of that season proved unu- sually warm and sunny, it was continually interrupted, and called forth, by the heat in the middle of the day ; and, though I continued there till the 13th of November, yet the work remained unfinished. Harsher weather, and frosty mornings, would have quickened its operations. No part of its behaviour ever struck me more than the extreme timidity it always expresses with regard to rain ; for though it has a shell that would secure it against the wheel of a loaded cart, yet does it discover as much solicitude about rain as a lady dressed in all her best attire, shuffling away on the first sprinklings, and running its head up in a corner. If attended to, it becomes an excellent weather-glass ; for as sure as it walks elate, and as it were on tiptoe, feeding with great earnest- ness in a morning, so sure will it rain before night. It is totally a diurnal animal, and never pretends to stir after it becomes dark. The tortoise, like other reptiles, has an arbitrary stomach, as well as lungs ; and can refrain from eating as well as breathing for a great part of the year. When first awakened it eats nothing ; nor again in the autumn, before it retires ; through the height of the summer, it feeds voraciously, devouring all the food that comes in its way. I was much taken with its sagacity in discerning those that do it kind offices ; for, as soon as the good old lady comes in sight who has waited on it for more than thirty years, it hobbles towards its benefactress with awkward alacrity ; but remains inattentive to strangers. Thus not only *' the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib,"* but the most abject reptile and torpid of beings distinguishes the hand^that feeds it, and is touched with the feelings of gratitude. P. S. In about three days after I left Sussex, the tortoise retired into the ground under the hepatica.-)- * Isaiah, i. 3. f A singular circumstance occurred at Ludlow with a tortoise, the property of Mr Jones, which was put in a convenient place to spend the winter. It was soon attacked by rats, which ate away its eyes, tongue, and all the under parts of its throat, together with the windpipe. In that mutilated state it is supposed it had continued for about three weeks prior to its being discovered. The most remarkable circumstance MIGRATION. LETTER LI. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, March 15, 1773. DEAR SIR, By my journal for last autumn, it appears that the house-martens bred very late, and staid very late in these parts ; for, on the 1st of October, 1 saw young martens in their riests, nearly fledged ; and again, on the 21st of October, we had, at the next house, a nest full of young martens just ready to fly, and the old ones were hawking for insects with great alertness. The next morning, the brood forsook their nest, and were flying round the village. From this day, I never saw one of the swallow kind till November the 3d ; when twenty, or perhaps thirty, house-martens were playing all day long by the side of the Hanging Wood, and over my fields. Did these small weak birds, some of which were nestlings twelve days ago, shift their quarters at this late season of the year, to the other side of the northern tropic ? Or rather, is it not more probable, that the next church, ruin, chalk-cliff, steep covert, or perhaps sand-bank, lake, or pool, (as a more northern naturalist would say,) may become their hybernaculum, and afford them a ready and obvious retreat?* attending this is, that the animal did not exhibit the least signs of decomposition, nor was animation perceptible. It is, however, quite evident it was alive, otherwise putridity would have ensued. The extreme slow motion of the limbs of tortoises, mentioned by White, is depicted in Homer's Hymn to Hermes, which has been thus translated : Feeding far off from man, the flowery herb Slow moving with his feet * The young of the swifts, before leaving their nests, are quite pre- pared for an aerial excursion of almost any extent. At one time, we were detached, at Holy Island, coast of Northumberland, in command of the castle. A pair of martens built in a hole over the window of our apart- ment. We were generally disturbed at the early dawn by these birds feeding their young. We had the curiosity to take all the young, four in number, out of the nest for examination. We found them in full feather, although they had never yet attempted to leave their nest. After having satisfied our curiosity, we were preparing to replace them in their nest, when the one we had just taken in our hand for that purpose took to its wings, and was immediately followed by the others. These little birds, accompanied by their parents, disported in the sun for upwards of two hours over the deep valley beneath our windows. They returned to the nest in the afternoon, and left it early next morning, never to return. The parents, on the following day, commenced anew the business of incubation ED. AFFECTION IN BIRDS. 127 We now begin to expect our vernal migration of ringousels every week. Persons worthy of credit assure me, that ring- ousels were seen at Christmas, 1770, in the forest of Bere, on the southern verge of this county. Hence we may conclude, that their migrations are only internal, and not extended to the continent southward, if they do at first come at all from the northern parts of this island only, and not from the north of Europe. Come from whence they will, it is plain, from the fearless disregard that they shew for men or guns, that they have been little accustomed to places of much resort. Navi- gators mention, that, in the Isle of Ascension, and other such desolate districts, birds are so little acquainted with the human form, that they settle on men's shoulders, and have no more dread of a sailor than they would have of a goat that was grazing. A young man at Lewes, in Sussex, assured me, that, about seven years ago, ringousels abounded so about that town in the autumn, that he killed sixteen himself in one afternoon : he added farther, that some had appeared since in every autumn ; but he could not find that any had been observed before the season in which he shot so many. I myself have found these birds in little parties in the autumi , cantoned all along the Sussex downs, wherever there were shrubs and bushes, from Chichester to Lewes ; particularly in the autumn of 1770. LETTER LII. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, March 26, 1773. DEAR SIR, The more I reflect on the tfrogy?} of animals, the more I am astonished at its effects. Nor is the violence of this affection more wonderful than the shortness of its duration. Thus, every hen is in her turn the virago of the yard, in proportion to the helplessness of her brood ; and will fly in the face of a dog or a, sow in defence of those chickens, which, in a few weeks, she will drive before her with relentless cruelty.* * The hen will attack any animal whatever in defence of her chickens ; and has been known to lose her own life in attempting to save the life, as she thought, of a brood of young ducklings which she had hatched, on their entering the water. A singular instance of strong affection in the feathered tribe is related by Mr Jesse : " A gentleman in my neighbourhood," says he, ' had 128 AFFECTION IN BIRDS. This affection sublimes the passions, quickens the invention, and sharpens the sagacity of the brute creation. Thus a hen, just become a mother, is no longer that placid bird she used to be ; but, with feathers standing on end, wings hovering, and clucking note, she runs about like one possessed. Dams will throw themselves in the way of the grcstest danger in order to avert it from their progeny. Thus a partridge will tumble along before a sportsman, in order to draw away the dogs from her helpless covey. In the time of nidification, the most feeble birds will assault the most rapacious. All the hirundines of a village are up in arms at the sight of a hawk, whom they will persecute till he leaves that district.* A very directed one of his wagons to be packed with sundry hampers and boxes, intending to send it to Worthing, where he was going himself. For some time his going was delayed, and he therefore directed that the wagon should be placed in a shed in his yard, packed as it was, till it should be convenient for him to send it off. While it was in the shed, a pair of robins built their nest among some straw in the wagon, and had natched their young just before it was sent away. One of the old birds, instead of being frightened away by the motion of the wagon, only left its nest from time to time for the purpose of flying to the nearest hedge for food for its young ; and thus, alternately affording warmth and nourish- ment to them,* it arrived at Worthing. The affection of this bird having been observed by the wagoner, he took care in unloading not to disturb the robin's nest, and my readers will, I am sure, be glad to hear, that the robin and its young ones returned in safety to Walton Heath, being the place from whence they had set out. The distance the wagon went in going and returning could not have been less than one hundred miles." ED. * A curious example of this was manifested by a wren in opposition to martens. Mr Simpson mentions, that, during his residence at Welton, North America, he one morning heard a loud noise from a pair of martens that were flying from tree to tree near his dwelling. They made several attempts to get into a box fixed against the house, which they had before occupied as a breeding place ; but they always appeared to fly from it again with the utmost dread, at the same time repeating their usual loud cries. Curiosity led the gentleman to watch their motions. After some time, a small wren came from the box, and perched on a tree near it, when her shrill notes seemed to amaze her antagonists. Having remained a short time, she flew away, when the martens took an opportunity of returning to the box, but their stay was of short duration; for their diminutive adversary returned, and made them retreat with the greatest precipitation. They continued maneuvering in this way the whole day ; hut the following morning, on the wren quitting the box, the martens immediately returned, took possession of their mansion, broke up their own nest, went to work afresh with much diligence and ingenuity, and soon barricaded their door. The wren returned, but could not now re-enter. She made some bold efforts to storm the nest, but was unsuccessful. The martens abstained from food for nearly two AFFECTION IN BIRDS. 129 exact observer has often remarked, that a pair of ravens, nesting in the rock of Gibraltar, would suffer no vulture or eagle to rest near their station, but would drive them from the hill with an amazing fury : even the blue thrush, at the season of breeding, would dart out from the clefts of the rocks to chase away the kestrel, or the sparrow-hawk. If you stand near the nest of a bird that has young, she will not be induced to betray them by an inadvertent fondness, but will wait about at a distance, with meat in her mouth, for an hour together. Should I farther corroborate what I have advanced above, by some anecdotes which I probably may have mentioned before in conversation, yet you will, I trust, pardon the repe- tition for the sake of the illustration. The fly-catcher of the Zoology (the stoparola of Ray) builds every year in the vines that grow on the walls of my house.* A pair of these little birds had one year inadvertently placed their nest on a naked bough, perhaps in a shady time, not being aware of the inconvenience that followed. But a hot sunny season coming on before the brood was half fledged, the reflection of the wall became insupportable, and must inevitably have destroyed the tender young, had not affection suggested an expedient, and prompted the parent birds to hover over the nest all the hotter hours, while, with wings expanded, and mouths gaping for breath, they screened off the heat from their suffering offspring. A farther instance I once saw of notable sagacity in a willow- wren, which had built in a bank in my fields. This bird a friend and myself had observed as she sat in her nest, but were particularly careful not to disturb her, though we saw she eyed us with some degree of jealousy. Some days after, as we passed that way, we were desirous of remarking how this brood went on ; but no nest could be found, till I happened to take up a large bundle of long green moss, as it were carelessly thrown over the nest, in order to dodge the eye of any imper- tinent intruder. A still more remarkable mixture of sagacity and instinct occurred to me one day, as my people were pulling off the lining of a hot-bed, in order to add some fresh dung. From out of the side of this bed leaped an animal with great agility days, persevering during the whole of that time in defending the entrance ; and the wren, after many fruitless attempts to force the works, raised the siege, quitted her intentions, and left the martens in quiet possession of their dwelling. ED. The beam bird, muscicapa grisola of Linnaeus ED. 130 AFFECTION IN BIRDS. that made a most grotesque figure; nor was it without great difficulty that it could be taken, when it proved to be a large white-bellied field-mouse, with three or four young clinging to her teats by their mouths and feet. It was amazing that the desultory and rapid motions of this dam should not oblige her litter to quit their hold, especially when it appeared that they were so young as to be both naked and blind ! * To these instances of tender attachment, many more of which might be daily discovered, by those that are studious of nature, may be opposed that rage of affection, that monstrous perver- sion of the tirogyh) which induces some females of the brute creation to devour their young, because their owners have handled them too freely, or removed them from place to place ! Swine, and sometimes the more gentle race of dogs and cats, are guilty of this horrid and preposterous murder.f When I hear now and then of an abandoned mother that destroys her offspring, I am not so much amazed ; since reason perverted, and the bad passions let loose, are capable of any enormity ; but why the parental feelings of brutes, that usually flow in one most uniform tenor, should sometimes be so extravagantly diverted, I leave to abler philosophers than myself to determine. LETTER LIII. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, July 8, 1773. DEAR SIR, Some young men went down lately to a pond on the verge of Wolmer Forest, to hunt flappers, or young wild ducks, many of which they caught, and, among the rest, some very minute yet well-fledged wild fowls alive, which, upon examination, I found to be teals. I did not know till then that teals ever bred in the south of England, and was * Bats fly with tlieir young adhering to their teats. ED. } There are a few species, and but a few, of the brute creation which occasionally destroy their offspring immediately on their birth, an anomaly in the law of nature commonly followed by another, that of devouring them. But as the latter usually takes place among domestic animals, it is obvious that hunger has no snare in the transaction, and that it may rather be ascribed to some temporary derangement (occasioned, perhaps, by agonizing pain) of the instinctive solicitude, interwoven with the constitution and existence of every living creature, to protect and preserve its young ED. OWLS. 131 much pleased with the discovery : this 1 look upon as a great stroke in natural history.* We have had, ever since I can remember, a pair of white owls that constantly breed under the eaves of this church. As I have paid good attention to the manner of life of these birds during their season of breeding, which lasts the summer through, the following remarks may not perhaps be unaccep- table. About an hour before sunset, (for then the mice begin to run,) they sally forth in quest of prey, and hunt all round the hedges of meadows and small enclosures for them, which seem to be their only food. In this irregular country, we can stand on an eminence and see them beat the fields over like a setting-dog, and often drop down in the grass or corn. I have minuted these birds with my watch for an hour together, and have found, that they return to their nest, the one or the other of them, about once in five minutes ; reflecting, at the same time, on the adroitness that every animal is possessed of, as far as regards the well-being of itself and offspring, f But a piece of address, which they shew when they return loaded, should not, I think, be passed over in silence. As they take their prey with their claws, so they carry it in their claws to their nest ; but, as the feet are necessary in their ascent under the tiles, they constantly perch first on the roof of the chancel, and shift the mouse from their claws to their bill, that the feet may be at liberty to take hold of the plate on the wall, as they are rising under the eaves. White owls seem not (but in this I am not positive) to hoot at all ; J all that clamorous hooting appears to me to come from the wood kinds. The white owl does indeed snore and hiss in a tremendous manner; and these menaces well answer the intention of intimidating, for I have known a whole village up in arms on such an occasion, imagining the church-yard to be full of goblins and spectres.} White owls also often scream * Dr Haysham says, that the teal is now known to breed in the mosses about Carlisle. ED. f Colonel Montagu has remarked, that the wren returns with food to its offspring once in two minutes. The swallow generally feeds its young every second or third minute ED. $ Sir William Jardine says white owls do hoot, and that he has shot them in the act ; and a correspondent in London's Magazine says, " Owls which build in Attenborough Church, in this parish, sit on the turrets and hoot fearfully. An old white owl used to frequent a dovecot, not two hundred yards from where I am writing this, and, late in the evening, would sit at the top and utter its doleful cries." En. Dr Richardson, in speaking of the great Virginian horned owl, 132 OWLS. horribly as they fly along : from this screaming probably aroee the common people's imaginary species of screech-owl, which they superstitiously think attends the windows of dying persons. The plumage of the remiges of the wings, of every species of owl that I have yet examined, is remarkably soft and pliant. Perhaps it may be necessary that the wings of these birds should not make much resistance or rushing, that they may be enabled to steal through the air unheard upon a nimble and watchful quarry. While I am talking of owls, it may not be improper to mention what I was told by a gentleman of the county of Wilts : As they were grubbing a vast hollow pollard ash, that had been the mansion of owls for centuries, he discovered at the bottom a mass of matter that at first he could not account for. After some examination, he found that it was a congeries of the bones of mice, (and perhaps of birds and bats,) that had been heaping together for ages, being cast up in pellets out of the crops of many generations of inhabitants. For owls cast up the bones, fur, and feathers of what they gives the following animated picture of its dismal unearthly cry. He says, *' It is found in almost every quarter of the United States, and occurs in all parts of the fur countries. Its loud and full nocturnal cry, issuing from the gloomy recesses of the forest, bear some resemblance to the human voice, uttered in a hollow, sepulchral tone, and has been frequently productive of alarm to the traveller, of which an instance occurred within my own knowledge. A party of Scottish Highlanders, in the service of the Hudson ? s Bay Company, happened, in a winter journey, to encamp after nightfall in a dense clump of trees, whose dark tops and lofty stems, the growth of centuries, gave a solemnity to the scene that had strongly tended to excite the superstitious feelings of the Highlanders. The effect was heightened by the discovery of a tomb, which, with a natural taste often exhibited by the Indians, had been placed in this secluded spot. Our travellers, having finished their supper, were trimming their fire, preparatory to retiring to rest, when the slow and dismal notes of the horned owl fell on the ear with a startling nearness. None of them being acquainted with the sound, they at once concluded, that so unearthly a voice must be the moaning of the spirit of the departed, whose repose they supposed they had disturbed, by inadvertently making a fire of the wood of which the tomb had been constructed. They passed a tedious night of fear, and with the first dawn of day hastily quitted the ill-omened spot." Audubon describes the cry of this owl as fearful. He says, " It suddenly alights on the top of a fern-stake or a dead stump, shakes its feathers, arranges them, and utters a shriek so horrid that the woods around echo to its dismal sound. Now, it seems as if you heard the barking of a cur-dog ; again, the notes are so rough and mingled together, that they might be mistaken for the last gurglings of a murdered person, striving in vain to call for assistance." ED. OWLS SWALLOWS. 133 devour, after the manner of hawks. He believes, he told me, that there were bushels of this kind of substance. When brown owls hoot, their throats swell as big as a hen's egg. I have known an owl of this species live a full year without any water. Perhaps the case may be the same with all birds of prey.* When owls fly, they stretch out their legs behind them, as a balance to their large heavy heads ; for, as most nocturnal birds have large eyes and ears, they must have large heads to contain them. Large eyes, I pre- sume, are necessary to collect every ray of light, and large concave ears to command the smallest degree of sound or noise. The hirundines are a most inoffensive, harmless, entertaining, social, and useful tribe of birds ; they touch no fruit in our gardens ; delight, all except one species, in attaching them- selves to our houses ; amuse us with their migrations, songs, and marvellous agility ; and clear our outlets from the annoy- ances of gnats and other troublesome insects. Some districts in the South Seas, near Guiaquil, j~ are desolated, it seems, by the infinite swarms of venomous mosquitoes, which fill the air, and render those coasts insupportable. It would be worth inquiring, whether any species of hirundines is found in these regions. Whoever contemplates the myriads of insects that sport in the sunbeams of a summer evening in this country, will soon be convinced to what a degree our atmosphere would be choked with them were it not for the friendly intercourse of the swallow tribe. J * Predatory birds are endowed with the power of existing for a great length of time without food or water. In them, digestion seems to be carried on in a slow manner ; and very different from this function in most other birds, as it is extremely rapid" in the smaller species. Vultures after feeding may be seen in one unvaried position, patiently waiting till the work of digestion is completed, and the stimulus of hunger is renewed. If violently disturbed after a full meal, they are quite incapable of flight, until they have disgorged the contents of their stomach. ED. | See Ulloa's Travels. \ The wanton destruction of the swallow tribe is not only an act of great inhumanity, but also very impolitic, and can only be practised by persons who are defective either in the head or heart. The-author of the Journal of a Naturalist expresses himself thus feelingly on the subject : " The sportsman's essaying his skill on the swallow race, that * skim the dimpled pool,' or harmless glide along the flowery mead, when, if successful, he consigns whole nests of infant broods to famine and to death, is pitiable indeed ! No injury, no meditated crime, was ever imputed to these birds ; they free our dwelling from multitudes of insects; their unsuspicious confidence and familiarity with man merit N 134 SWALLOWS. Many species of birds have their peculiar lice ; but the ftirundmes alone seem to be annoyed with dipterous insects,* which infest every species, and are so large, in proportion to themselves, that they must be extremely irksome and injurious to them. These are the hippoboscce hirundines, with narrow subulated wings, abounding in every nest ; and are hatched by the warmth of the bird's own body during incubation, and crawl about under its feathers. A species of them is familiar to horsemen in the south of England, under the name of forest-fly, and, to some, of side- fly, from its running sideways, like a crab. It creeps under the tails and about the groins of horses, which, at their first protection, not punishment from him. The sufferings of their broods, when the parents are destroyed, should excite humanity and demand forbearance. I supplicate from the youthful sportsman his considera- tion for these most useful creatures." The positive good they do, the beneficial services they perform for us, by clearing the air of innumer- able insects, ought to render them sacred, and secure them from our molestation. Without their friendly aid, the atmosphere we live in would scarcely be habitable by man. They feed entirely on insects, which, if not kept under by their means, would swarm and torment us like another Egyptian plague. The immense quantity of flies destroyed in a short space of time by one individual bird is scarcely to be credited by those who have not actual experience of the fact. I was once present when a swift was shot I may as well confess the truth I myself (then a thoughtless youth) the perpetrator of the deed : I acknowledge the fault in contrition, and will never be guilty of the like again. It was in the breeding season, when the young were hatched, at which time the parent birds, it is well known, are in the habit of making little excursions into the country, to a considerable distance from the breeding places, for the mouth ; the throat and pouch seemed absolutely stuffed with them, and an incredible number was at length disgorged. I am sure I speak within compass when I state, that there was a mass of flies, just caught by this single swift, larger than, when pressed close, could conveniently be con- tained in the bowl of an ordinary tablespoon ! Thus was a whole brood of young birds deprived of one of their nursing parents, by an act of the most wanton cruelty. " ED. * This insect is the craterina hirundines of Olfers, which has the instinct to deposit its cocoons in the well sheltered and warm nest of the swallow tribe, heat being so necessary to its existence. The fly, when hatched, lives by sucking the blood of the swallow. So tormenting are these insects to swallows, that they sometimes render the poor animals cjuite stupid, and unfit for their aerial excursions. The hippobosca equina, is the insect which sucks the blood of horses, and known in England by the name of the forest-fly : it belongs to the same natural family with that above described. ED. 1NSEC1S ON BIRDS OSPREY. 135 coming out of the north, are rendered half frantic by the tickling sensation ; while our own breed little regards them. The curious Reaumur discovered the large eggs, or rather pupcE, of these flies, as big as the flies themselves, which he hatched in his own bosom. Any person that will take the trouble to examine the old nests of either species of swallows, may find in them the black shining cases, or skins, of the pupce of these insects ; but, for other particulars, too long for this place, we refer the reader to L'Histoire d'lnsectes of that admirable entomologist, torn. iv. pi. 11. LETTER LIV. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, November 9, 1773. DEAR SIR, As you desire me to send you such observa- tions as may occur, I take the liberty of making the following remarks, that you may, according as you think me right or wrong, admit or reject what I here advance, in your intended new edition of the British Zoology. The osprey* was shot about a year ago at Frinsham Pond, a great lake, at about six miles from hence, while it was sitting on the handle of a plough and devouring a fish ; it used to precipitate itself into the water, and so take its prey by surprise. )* * British Zoology, vol. i. p. 128. f Wilson beautifully describes the manoeuvres of the osprey, pandion haliceetus of Savigney, while in search of his prey : " In leaving the nest, he usually flies direct till he comes to the sea, then sails around in easy curving lines, turning sometimes in the air on a pivot, apparently without the least exertion, rarely moving the wings, his legs extended in a straight line behind, and his remarkable length and curvature, or bend of wing, distinguishes him from all other hawks. The height at which he thus elegantly glides is various, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty, and two hundred feet, sometimes much higher, all the while calmly reconnoitring the face of the deep below. Suddenly he is seen to check his course, as if struck by a particular object, which he seems to survey for a few moments with such steadiness, that he appears fixed in air, flapping his wings. This object, however, he abandons, or rather the fish he had in his eye has disappeared, and he is again seen sailing around as before. Now his attention is again arrested, and he descends with great rapidity ; but ere he reaches the surface, shoots off on another course, as if ashamed that a second victim had escaped him. lie now sails at a short height above the surface, and by a zigzag descent, and without seeming to dip his feet in the water, seizes a fish, which, 136 MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. A great ash-coloured* butcher-bird was shot last winter in Tisted Park, and a red-backed butcher-bird at Selborne. They are rarce aves in this country. Crows )- go in pairs the whole year round. Cornish choughs J abound, and breed on Beechy Head, and on all the cliffs of the Sussex coast. The common wild pigeon, or stock-dove, is a bird of passage in the south of England, seldom appearing till towards the end of November ; || is usually the latest winter bird of passage. Before our beechen woods were so much destroyed, we had myriads of them, reaching in strings for a mile toge- ther, as they went out in a morning to feed. They leave us early in spring : where do they breed ? The people of Hampshire and Sussex call the missel-bird t the storm-cock, because it sings early in the spring, in blowing, after carrying a short distance, he probably drops, or yields up to the bald eagle, (falco leucocephalus,') and again ascends by easy spiral circles, to the higher regions of the air, where he glides about in all the ease and majesty of his species. At once, from this sublime aerial height, he descends like a perpendicular torrent, plunging into the sea with a loud rushing sound, and with the certainty of a rifle. In a few moments, he emerges, bearing in his claws his struggling prey, which he always carries head foremost ; and, having risen a few feet above the surface, shakes himself as a water spaniel would do, and directs his heavy and laborious course straightway to the land." Mr Lloyd mentions, that in Sweden, the eagle sometimes strikes sc large a pike, and so firmly do his talons hold their grasp, that he is carried under water by the superior gravity of the pike, and drowned. Dr Muller 1 - fl - -'* '- - J "- its baa This naturalist also gives an account of a conflict between an eagle and a pike, which a gentleman saw on the river Gotha, near Wenersborg. In this case, when the eagle first seized the pike, he soared a short distance into the air, but the weight and struggling of the fish together, soon obliged the eagle to descend. Both fell into the water and disappeared. Presently, however, the eagle again came to the surface, uttering the most piercing cries, and making apparently every endeavour to extricate his talons, but in vain ; and, after a violent struggle, was carried under water. Montagu tell us, an osprey was seen to stoop and carry off a half-grown duck from the surface of the water, at Slapton Ley. In the struggle, the duck fell from the talons of the eagle, but was recovered before it reached the water. ED. * JBritish Zoology, vol. i. p. 16 J. f Ibid. p. 167. J Ibid. p. 198. Ibid. p. 216. I See our note, p. 112. ED. ^ British Zoology, vol. i. p. 224. MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 137 showery weather. Its song often commences with the year with us it builds much in orchards. A gentleman assures me he has taken the nests of ring- ousels * on Dartmoor : they build in banks on the sides of streams. Titlarks f not only sing sweetly as they sit on trees, but also as they play and toy about on the wing ; and particularly while they are descending, and sometimes as they stand on the ground. J Adanson's testimony seems to me to be a very poor evidence that European swallows migrate during our winter to Senegal ; he does not talk at all like an ornithologist, and probably saw only the swallows of that country, which I know build within Governor O'Hara's hall against the roof. Had he known European swallows, would he not have mentioned the species ? The house-swallow washes by dropping into the water as it flies ; this species appears commonly about a week before the house-rnarten, and about ten or twelve days before the swift. In 1772, there were young house-martens || in their nest till October the 23d. The swift f appears about ten or twelve days later than the house-swallow ; viz. about the 24th or 26th of April. Whin-chats ** and stone-chatters f f stay with us the whole year. Some wheatears J J continue with us the winter through. Wagtails, all sorts, remain with us all the winter. || || * British Zoology, vol. i. p. 229. f Ibid. vol. ii. p. 237. J This must have been the tree pipet, anthus arboj-eus, as the titlark generally sits on the ground. ED. British Zoology, vol. ii. p. 242. [I Ibid. p. 244. ' <[ Ibid. p. 246. * This is a migratory species, appearing ir Britain about the middle of April ED. ff British Zoology, vol. ii. p. 270, 27K \\ Ibid. p. 269. Wheatears are migratory, and some few do remain. Montagu mentions the fact, and Mr Sweet says, " I observed a pair on the 17th November, near the gravel pit in Hyde-Park, which were quite lively, and flying about after the insects, as brisk as if it had been the middle of summer." They generally migrate in September ED. |j || There are three species of wagtails in Britain, the pied, gray, and yellow. The pied wagtail is to be found in the south of England, during the whole year ; but, in the northern parts, it is migratory, retiring to the southward about the middle of October, and returning to the north about the beginning of March. The gray wagtail is only known 138 MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. Bullfinches, * when fed on hempseed, often become wholly black. We have vast flocks of female chaffinches f all the winter, with hardly any males among- them. When you say that, in breeding time, the cock snipes f make a bleating noise, and a drumming, (perhaps I should have rather said a humming,) I suspect we mean the same thing. However, while they are playing about on the wing, they certainly make a loud piping with their mouths ; but whether that bleating or humming is ventriloquous, or proceeds from the motion of their wings, I cannot say ; but this I know, that when this noise happens, the bird is always descending, and his wings are violently agitated. Soon after the lapwings have done breeding, they congre- gate, and, leaving the moors and marshes, betake themselves to downs and sheep walks. Two years ago || last spring, the little auk was found alive and unhurt, but fluttering and unable to rise, in a lane a few miles from Alresford, where there is a great lake ; it was kept a while, but died. I saw young teals f taken alive in the ponds of Wolmer Forest in the beginning of July last, along with flappers, OP young wild ducks. Speaking of the swift,** that page says, " its drink the dew;" whereas it should be, " it drinks on the wing ;" for all the swallow kind sip their water as they sweep over the face of pools or rivers : like Virgil's bees, they drink flying, "Jlumma sumtna libant" In this method of drinking, perhaps this genus may be peculiar. Of the sedge-bird, f f be pleased to say, it sings most part of the night ; its notes are hurrying, but not unpleasing, and imitative of several birds, as the sparrow, swallow, skylark. Jf as an equatorial migrant in the southern counties of England, but is a regular summer visitant in the northern parts of the kingdom, arriving in April, and departing in the end of September, or beginning of October. The yellow wagtail, "motacilla fiava of Linnaeus, is also migratorv, appearing about the end of March : it leaves Britain in September, In search of a warmer residence for winter. ED. * British Zoology, vol. ii. p. 800. f Ibid. p. 306. Ibid. p. 358. Ibid. p. 860. || Ibid. p. 409. Ibid. p. 475. ** Ibid. p. 15. ff Ibid. p. 16. ' ft In Loudon's Magazine, a correspondent says, " The sedge-bird ha* ariety of notes, which partake of that of the skylark and the swallow, HOUSE MARTEN. 139 When it happens to be silent in the night, by throwing a stone or clod into the bushes where it sits, you immediately set it a-singing, or, in other words, though it slumbers sometimes, yet, as soon as it is awakened, it reassumes its song. It will be proper to premise here, that the fifty-fifth, fifty-seventh, fifty-ninth, and sixty-first letters have been published already in the Philosophical Transactions; but, as nicer observation has furnished several corrections and additions, it is hoped that the republication of them will not give offence ; especially as these sheets would be very imperfect without them, and as they will be new to many readers who had no opportunity of seeing them when they made their first appearance. LETTER LV. TO THE HON. DAINES BARR1NGTON. SELBORNE, November, 20, 1773. DEAR SIR, In obedience to your injunctions, I sit down to give you some account of the house-marten, or martlet ; and, if my monography of this little domestic and familiar bird should happen to meet with your approbation, I may probably soon extend my inquiries to the rest of the British hirundines, the sw r allow, the swift, and the bank-marten. A few house-martens begin to appear about the 16th of April ; usually some few days later than the swallow. For some time after they appear, the hirundines in general pay no attention to the business of nidification, but play and sport about, either to recruit from the fatigue of their journey, if as well as that of the house-sparrow. I have heard it imitate, in succes- sion, (intermixed with its own note of chur cAwr,) the swallow, the house-marten, the greenfinch, the chaffinch, and lesser redpole, the red- start, the willow-wren, the whinchat, the pied and spring wagtails ; yet; its imitations are confined to the notes of alarm of these birds, and so exactly does it imitate them, both in tone ac-d modulation, that, if it were to confine itself to one, (no matter which,) and not interlard the wailings of the little redpole and the shrieks of the marten, with the curses of the house-sparrow, and the twink twink of the chaffinch, and its own care- for-nought chatter, the most practised ear would not detect the difference. After being silent for a while, it often begins with the chur chur of the sparrow, so exactly imitated, in every respect, that, were it not for what follows, no one would suppose it to be any other bird. It is called the mocking bird here, (Lancashire,) and it well deserves the name; for it is a real scoffer at the sorrows of other bii'ds, which it laughs to scorn, and turns into ridicule, by parodying them so exactly." ED. 140 HOUSE-MARTEN. they do migrate at all, or else that their blood may recover iU true tone and texture after it has been so long benumbed by the severities of winter.* About the middle of May, if the weather be fine, the marten begins to think in earnest of pro- viding a mansion for its family. The crust, or shell, of this nest seems to be formed of such dirt or loam as comes most readily to hand, and is tempered and wrought together with little bits of broken straws, to render it tough arid tenacious. As this bird often builds against a perpendicular wall, without any projecting ledge under it, it requires its utmost efforts to get the first foundation firmly fixed, so that it may safely carry the superstructure. On this occasion the bird not only clings with its claws, but partly supports itself by strongly inclining* its tail against the wall, making that a fulcrum ; and, thus steadied, it works and plasters the materials into the face of the brick or stone. But then, that this work may not, while it is soft and green, pull itself down by its own weight, the provident architect has prudence and forbearance enough not to advance her work too fast ; but, by building only in the morning, and by dedicating the rest of the day to food and amusement, gives it sufficient time to dry and harden. About half an inch seems to be a sufficient layer for a day. Thus, careful workmen, when they build mud-walls, (informed at first, perhaps, by this little bird,) raise but a moderate layer at a time, and then desist ; lest the work should become top- heavy, and so be ruined by its own weight. By this method, in about ten or twelve days, is formed an hemispheric nest, with a small aperture towards the top, strong, compact, and warm ; and perfectly fitted for all the purposes for which it was intended. But then, nothing is more common than for the house-sparrow, as soon as the shell is finished, to seize on it as its own, to eject the owner, and to line it after its own manner.-)- After so much labour is bestowed in erecting- a mansion, as * We are surprised to find that the more our author seems to have investigated the subject of swallows and their congeners, the greater is his leaning to the side of their hybernation. We need only again refer to our to the Greek calendar of Flora, which was kept at Athens by Theo- phrastus, the Ornithian winds blow, and the swallow arrives, between tlie 28th February and the 12th March. ~ En. f Soe our note at page 88. EJ>. HOUSE-MAKTEN. 141 Nature seldom works in vain, martens will breed on for several years together in the same nest, where it happens to be well sheltered and secure from the injuries of weather. The shell, or crust, of the nest is a sort of rustic work, full of knobs and protuberances on the outside ; nor is the inside of those that I have examined smoothed with any exactness at all ; but is rendered soft and warm, and fit for incubation, by a lining of small straws, grasses, and feathers ; and sometimes by a bed of moss, interwoven with wool. In this nest, they tread, or engender, frequently during the time of building ; and the hen lays from three to five white eggs. At first, when the young are hatched, and are in a naked and helpless condition, the parent birds, with tender assiduity, carry out what comes away from their young. Were it not for this affectionate cleanliness, the nestlings would soon be burnt up and destroyed, in so deep and hollow a nest, by their own caustic excrement. In the quadruped creation, the same neat precaution is made use of ; particularly among dogs and cats, where the dams lick away what proceeds from their young. But, in birds, there seems to be a particular provision, that the dung of nestlings is enveloped in a tough kind of ielly, and, therefore, is the easier conveyed off, without soiling or daubing. Yet, as Nature is cleanly in all her ways, the young perform this office for themselves in a little time, by thrusting their tails out at the aperture of their nest. As the young of small birds presently arrive at their jJX/x/a, or full growth, they soon become impatient of confinement, and sit all day with their heads out at the orifice, where the dams, by clinging to the nest, supply them with food from morning to night. For a time, the young are fed on the wing by their parents ; but the feat is done by so quick and almost imper- ceptible a sleight, that a person must have attended very exactly to their motions, before he would be able to perceive it. As soon as the young are able to shift for themselves, the dams immediately turn their thoughts to the business of a second brood ; while the first flight, shaken off and rejected by their nurses, congregate in great flocks, and are the birds that are seen clustering and hovering, on sunny mornings and evenings, round towers and steeples, and on the roofs of churches and houses. These congregatings usually begin to take place about the first week in August ; and, therefore, we may conclude, that by that time the first flight is pretty well over. The young of this species do not quit their abodes all together ; but the more forward birds get abroad some days 142 HOUSE-MARTEN. before the rest. These, approaching the eaves of buildings, and playing about before them, make people think that several old ones attend one nest. They are often capricious in fixing on a nesting-place, beginning many edifices, and leaving them unfinished ; but when once a nest is completed in a sheltered place, it serves for several seasons. Those which breed in a ready finished house get the start, in hatching, of those that build new, by ten days or a fortnight. These industrious artificers are at their labours in the long days before four in the morning : when they fix their materials, they plaster them on with their chins, moving their heads with a quick vibratory motion. They dip and wash as they fly sometimes, in very hot weather, but not so frequently as swallows. It has been observed, that martens usually build to a north-east or north- west aspect, that the heat of the sun may not crack and destroy their nests : but instances are also remembered where they bred for many years in vast abundance in a hot stifled inn- yard, against a wall facing to the south. Birds in general are wise in their choice of situation ; but, in this neighbourhood, every summer, is seen a strong proof to the contrary, at a house without eaves, in an exposed district, where some martens build year by year in the corners of the windows. * But, as the corners of these windows (which face to the south-east and south-west) are too shallow, the * A gentleman residing at Blois, in France, on the 14th April, 1831, made the following curious remarks on the building of the marten : A pair of martens commenced making their nest in the deep corner of one of his windows, which, being of French make, frame and all moved inwards every time it was opened. So close did these birds build their nest to the corner, that it became attached to the frame of the window; the nest was consequently carried away every time the window was opened ; but they recommenced building every morning, and so perseveringly did they adhere to the spot, that nothing would make them desist from their fruitless labour, until a piece of paper was nailed up at the corners of the window. When this was done, they removed to the next window, and there, with wonderful sagacity, commenced and carried on the business of building their nest, out of reach of the motion of the window frame. It is surprising to see animals thus exhibit such strong proofs of thought and skill out of the ordinary sphere of their habits. Mr Clement Jackson, of East Looe, observed, in the same year, in a cavern near Falmouth, numbers of martens building their nests, and says, the roof was quite studded with them. But what renders the circumstance still more remarkable is, that while these birds colonized in the upper part of the cave, a pair of kestrels had taken up their abode, and were rearing their brood, under a projecting ledge at fche entrance. Neither party seemed to be incommoded by the neighbourhood of the other. ED. HOUSE MARTEN. 143 nests are washed down every hard rain ; and yet these birds drudge on to no purpose, from summer to summer, without changing their aspect or house. It is a piteous sight to see them labouring when half their nest is washed away, and bringing dirt " generis lapsi sarcire ruinas" Thus is instinct a most wonderfully unequal faculty ; in some instances so much above reason, in other respects so far below it ! Martens love to frequent towns, especially if there are great lakes and rivers at hand ; nay, they even affect the close air of London. And I have not only seen them nesting in the Borough, but even in the Strand and Fleet Street : but then it was obvious, from the dinginess of their aspect, that their feathers partook of the filth of that sooty atmosphere. Martens are by far the least agile of the four species ; their wings and tails are short, and therefore they are not capable of such surprising turns, and quick and glancing evolutions as the swallow. Accord- ingly, they make use of a placid, easy motion, in a middle region of the air, seldom mounting to any great height, and never sweeping along together over the surface of the ground or water. They do not wander far for food, but affect sheltered districts, over some lake, or under some hanging wood, or in some hollow vale, especially in windy weather. They breed the latest of all the swallow kind : in 1772, they had nestlings on to October twenty-first, and are never without unfledged young as late as Michaelmas. As the summer declines, the congregating flocks increase in numbers daily by the constant accession of the second broods : till at last they swarm in myriads upon myriads round the villages on the Thames, darkening the face of the sky as they frequent the aits of that river, where they roost. They retire, the bulk of them I mean, in vast flocks together, about the beginning of October ; but have appeared of late years, in a considerable flight, in this neighbourhood, for one day or two, as late as November the third and sixth, after they were supposed to have been gone for more than a fortnight. They, therefore, withdraw with us the latest of any species. Unless these birds are very short-lived, indeed, or unless they do not return to the district where they are bred, they must undergo vast devastations somehow, and somewhere ; for the birds that return yearly bear no manner of proportion to the birds that retire. * * Inscrutable are the ways of Him who is the director of all things. He has, in his infinite wisdom, so nicely regulated the increase of animal life, that there shall be no superabundance. But for this, there would 144 SUSSEX DOWNS. House-martens are distinguished irom their congeners bj having their legs covered with soft downy feathers down to their toes. They are no songsters, but twitter in a pretty, inward, soft manner in their nests. During the time of breed- ing, they are often greatly molested with fleas. LETTER LVI. TO THE HON. DAINfcS HARRINGTON. RINGMER, near LEWES, Decemlcr 9, 1773. DEAR SIR, I received your last favour just as I was setting out for this place ; and am pleased to find that my mono- graphy met with your approbation. My remarks are the result of many years' observation ; and are, I trust, true on the whole ; though I do not pretend to say that they are perfectly void of mistake, or that a more nice observer might not make many additions, since subjects of this kind are inexhaustible. If you think my letter worthy the notice of your respectable Society, you are at liberty to lay it before them ; and they will consider it, I hope, as it was intended, as an humble attempt to promote a more minute inquiry into natural history, into the life and conversation of animals. Perhaps, here- after, I may be induced to take the house-swallow under consideration ; and from that proceed to the rest of the British hirundines. Though I have now travelled the Sussex Downs upwards of thirty years, yet I still investigate that chain of majestic mountains with fresh admiration, year by year ; and I think I see new beauties every time I traverse it. This range, which runs from Chichester eastward, as far as East Bourn, is about sixty miles in length, and is called the South Downs, properly speaking, only round Lewes. As you pass along, you com- mand a noble view of the wold, or weald, on one hand, and the broad downs and sea, on the other. Mr Ray used to not be at this moment a vacant acre of ground in our globe, so thickly studded would it have been with the human race, and its surface would have been more than covered by even any one species of animal which is more prolific than man ; the atmosphere would have been a solid mass of insects, and the mighty ocean incapable of containing its tenants. But how differently is every thing ordered, and we behold nothing but harmony of design, and a wise regulation of every object, which nts it for the ends it is destined to fulfil in the scale of being. ED SUSSEX DOWNS SHEEP. 145 visit a family* just at the toot ot these hills, and was so ravished with the prospect from Plympton-plain, near Lewes, that he mentions those capes in his Wisdom of God in the Works of the Creation, with the utmost satisfaction, and thinks them equal to any thing he had seen in the finest parts of Europe. For my own part, I think there is somewhat peculiarly sweet and amusing in the shapely-figured aspect of chalk hills, in preference to those of stone, which are rugged, broken, abrupt, and shapeless. Perhaps I may be singular in my opinion, and not so happy as to convey to you the same idea, but I never contemplate these mountains, without thinking I perceive somewhat analogous to growth, in their gentle swellings, and smooth fungus-like protuberances, their fluted sides, and regular hollows and slopes, that carry at once the air of vegetative dilatation and expansion ; or, was there ever a time when these immense masses of calcareous matter were thrown into fermentation by some adventitious moisture, were raised and leavened into such shapes, by some plastic power, and so made to swell and heave their broad backs into the sky, so much above the less animated clay of the wild below ? By what I can guess, from the admeasurements of the hills that have been taken round my house, I should suppose that these hills surmount the wild, at an average, at about the rate of five hundred feet. One thing is very remarkable as to the sheep: from the westward, till you get to the river Adur, all the flocks have horns, and smooth white faces, and white legs ; and a hornless sheep is rarely to be seen. But as soon as you pass that river eastward, and mount Beeding-hill, all the flocks at once become hornless, or, as they call them, poll-sheep ; and have, moreover, black faces, with a white tuft of wool on their fore- neads, and speckled and spotted legs : so that, you would think that the flocks of Laban were pasturing on one side of the stream, and the variegated breed of his son-in-law, Jacob, were cantoned along on the other. And this diversity holds good respectively on each side, from the valley of Bramber and Beeding to the eastward, and westward all the whole length of the downs. If you talk with the shepherds on this subject, they tell you that the case has been so from time immemorial ; and smile at your simplicity if you ask them, whether the Mr Courthope, of Danny. O 146 BIRDS OF PASSAGE. situation of these two different breeds might not be reversed ? (However, an intelligent friend of mine near Chichester is determined to try the experiment ; and has, this autumn, at the hazard of being laughed at, introduced a parcel of black- faced hornless rams among his horned western ewes.) The black-faced poll-sheep have the shortest legs and the finest wool.* As I had hardly ever before travelled these downs at so late a season of the year, I was determined to keep as sharp a look- out as possible so near the southern coast, with respect to the summer short-winged birds of passage. We make great inquiries concerning the withdrawing of the swallow kind, without examining enough into the causes why this tribe is never to be seen in winter ; for, entre nous, the disappearing of the latter is more marvellous than that of the former, and much more unaccountable. The hirundines, if they please, are certainly capable of migration ; and yet, no doubt, are often found in a torpid state : but redstarts, nightingales, white-throats, black-caps, &c. &c. are very ill provided for long flights ; have never been once found, as I ever heard of, in a torpid state, and yet can never be supposed, in such troops, from year to year, to dodge and elude the eyes of the curious and inquisitive, which, from day to day, discern the other small birds that are known to abide our winters. But, notwithstanding all my care, I saw nothing like a summer bird of passage ; and what is Taore strange, not one wheatear, though they abound * There are ten or twelve distinct varieties of the common slieep, which will all breed with each otb^r. In the mountainous districts of Wales and in the Highlands of Scotland, the kind preferred is the small? horned,black-faced breed, remarkable for the very fine flavour of its flesh. There are four distinct species ; the bearded sheep of Barbary, the argali, which ranges the mountains and steeps of Northern Asia, the American argali, which inhabits Canada, and the musmon of Corsica and Sardinia. With regard to colour, Southey, in his letters from Spain, says, the sheep of that peninsula are nearly all black. Geraldus Cambrensis informs us that the Irish in his time were usually clothed in black habiliments, made from wool which did not require dying. Much has been done within the last century to improve the breed in Ireland, but still, in many districts, black sheep are numerous. The cloth peculiar to Scotland, called hodden grey, was a manufacture from the natural fleece; and throughout the domestic farming districts, the housewives still use their influence to have one black lamb retained among the flock, as the wool takes on the dye more kindly and is indeed often spun into thread for the stockings of the family, without receiving any artificial tinge. Indi- viduals with a black covering are very common in black-faced nocks, and occasionally occur among the Cheviot breed. Ei>. WHEATEARS RINGOUSELS CROSSBILLS. 147 so in the autumn as to be a considerable perquisite to the shepherds that take them ; and though many are to be seen to my knowledge all the winter through, in many parts of the south of England. The most intelligent shepherds tell me, that some few of these birds appear on the downs in March, and then withdraw to breed, probably, in warrens and stone quarries : now and then a nest is ploughed up in a fallow on the downs, under a furrow ; but it is thought a rarity. At the time of wheat-harvest, they begin to be taken in great numbers ; are sent for sale in vast quantities to Brighthelm- stone and Tunbridge ; and appear at the tables of all the gentry that entertain with any degree of elegance. About Michaelmas they retire, and are seen no more till March. Though these birds are, when in season, in great plenty on the South Downs round Lewes, yet at East Bourn, which is the eastern extremity of those downs, they abound much more. One thing is very remarkable, that, though in the height of the season so many hundreds of dozens are taken, yet they never are seen to flock ; and it is a rare thing to see more than three or four at a time : so that there must be a perpetual flitting and constant progressive succession. It does not appear that any wheatears are taken to the westward of Houghton-bridge, which stands on the river Arun. * I did not fail to look particularly after my new migration of ringousels, and to take notice whether they continued on the downs to this season of the year ; as I had formerly remarked them in the month of October all the way from Chichester to Lewes, wherever there were any shrubs and covert : but not one bird of this sort came within my observation. I only saw a few larks and whinchats, some rooks, and several kitss and buzzards. About midsummer, a flight of crossbills comes to the pine- groves about this house, but never makes any long stay, f The old tortoise, that I have mentioned in a former letter * Mr White is mistaken when he says that the wheatear is not to be found farther west than Houghton-bridge, as they have frequently been taken many miles west of the point mentioned. ED. f This bird but seldom visits this kingdom : it is a native of the extensive pine forests of the Rhine. Mr Knapp knew one instance of it breeding In England ; he says, " That rare bird the crossbill occasionally visits the orchards in our neighbourhood, coming in little parties to feed on the seeds of the apple, and, seldom as it appears, it is always noticed by the mischief it does to fruit, cutting it asunder with its well-ccriStructed mandibles, in order to obtain the kernels." Ei>. 148 TORTOISE ROOKS. still continues in this garden ; and retired under ground about the 20th of November, and came out again for one day on the 30th : it lies now buried in a wet swampy border under a wall facing to the south, and is enveloped at present in mud and mire! Here is a large rookery round tins house, tbe inhabitants of which seem to get their livelihood very easily ; for they spend the greatest part of the day on their nest-trees when the weather is mild. These rooks retire every evening, all the water, from this rookery, where they only call by the way, as they are going to roost in deep woods : at the dawn of day, they always revisit their nest-trees,* and are preceded a few minutes by a flight of daws, that act, as it were, as their har- bingers, f * Rooks are not easily driven from the trees on which they were bred. Two striking instances of this have recently been witnessed in Edinburgh, on the grounds of the Earl of Moray, which have all been lately converted into magnificent streets and squares. Several rooks continue on the few remaining trees at the end of Ainslie Place ; and at St Bernard's Crescent, which is surrounded on both sides with houses, the rooks still incubate. Mr Jesse makes the following curious remarks, illustrative of the attachment of this bird to its old accustomed haunts, and to the established usages of its tribe : " The average number of rooks' nests, during the last four years, in the avenue of Hampton- Court Park, has been about seven hundred and fifty. Allowing three young birds and a pair of old ones to each nest, the number would amount to three thousand seven hundred and fifty. They are very particular that none of their society build away from the usual line of trees. A pair of rooks did so this spring, 1832, and when their nest was nearly finished, at least fifty others came and demolished it in a few minutes." Differently from all other birds, rooks exhibit much sympathy when one of their fraternity has been killed, or hurt by a shot. They hover over their wounded companion, uttering cries of distress, and endeavouring all in their power to render him assistance. If he be able to flutter along, they animate him with their voices, and by advancing a little in front. try to induce him by their example to follow. ED. f The jack-daw is a bird of great intelligence ; is easily domesticated, and becomes very familiar. We had a pair in Fife, which flew about all our grounds, and even to the villages around, yet never strayed. They slept in a box, at a back window of the house. They entered the house, and even allowed themselves to be handled. They caught in their bill with great adroitness pieces of bread which were thrown to them. They followed the different members of our family through all the walks of the garden and shrubbery, and would perch on a tree, near the seats, and chatter while any person rested. One of them pronounced several words very distinctly ; such as wee kaeie, (little kae, the Scottish provincial name,) and come here. They were much addicted to stealing, and carried SWALLOWS. 149 LETTER LVIL TO THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. SELBORNE, January 29, 1774. DEAR SIR, The house-swallow, or chimney-swallow, is, undoubtedly, the first comer of all the British hirundines ; and appears in general on or about the thirteenth of April., as I have remarked from many years' observation. * Not but now and then a straggler is seen much earlier : and, in particular, when I was a boy, I observed a swallow for a whole day together on a sunny warm Shrove Tuesday, which day could not fall out later than the middle of March, and often happened early in February. It is worth remarking, that these birds are seen first about lakes and mill-ponds ; and it is also very particular, that, if these early visitors happen to find frost and snow, as was the case of the two dreadful springs of 1770 and 1771, they imme- diately withdraw for a time ; a circumstance this, much more in favour of hiding than migration ; since it is much more probable that a bird should retire to its hybernaculum just They had particular pleasure in turning over the leaves of a book, or pulling the whole thread off a bobbin. ED. * The following beautiful and vivid reflections on the swallow are from the pen of the late Sir Humphry Davy : "I delight in this living landscape ! the swallow is one of my favourite birds, and a rival of the nightingale ; for he glads my sense of hearing. He is the joyous prophet of the year, the harbinger of the best season ; he has a life of enjoyment amongst the loveliest forms of nature ; winter is unknown to him, and he leaves the green meadows of England in autumn for the myrtle and orange groves of Italy, and for the palms of Africa ; he has always objects of pursuit, and Ms success is secure. Even the beings selected for his prey are poetical, beautiful, and transient. The cphemerse are saved by his means from a slow and lingering death in the evening, and killerl in a moment when they have known nothing of life but pleasure. He is the constant destroyer of insects, the friend of man ; and with the stork and the ibis, may be regarded as a sacred bird. This instinct, which gives him his appointed seasons, and which teaches him always when and where to move, may be regarded as flowing from a Divine source, and he belongs to the oracles of nature, which ?peak the awful and intelligible language of a present Deity." En. o2 150 SWALLOWS. at hand, than return for a week or two only to warmer latitudes. * The swallow, though called the chimney-swallow, by no means builds altogether in chimneys, but often within barns and out-houses, against the rafters ; and so she did in Virgil's time, . Ante Garrula quam tignis nidos suspendat hirundo. In Sweden, she builds in barns, and is called ladu sw&ki, the barn-swallow.) Besides, in the warmer parts of Europe, Vere are no chimneys to houses, except they are English built ; in these countries, she constructs her nest in porches, and gateways, and galleries, and open halls, f * That the migration of the swallow elicited attention in tlie earliest times, is evident from the manner in which it is noticed by the prophet Jeremiah. From that migration also, Cicero has drawn the following simile : " As swallows are present with us in summer, but are gone in winter, so false friends attend us in the sunshine of prosperity, but in the winter of affliction they all flee away." The ancients usually mention this bird as wintering in Africa ; which is distinctly stated in Anacreon, T^y. Edn. Brunck. p. 88. So great a favourite was the swallow among the Greeks, particularly at Rhodes, that they had a festival called ^sXidbvicC) which was a holyday for the Greek boys, when they carried about young; swallows, and sung a song, which is preserved in the works of Meursius. It has been thus rendered in English : He comes ! He comes ! who loves to hear Soft sunny hours, and seasons fair ; The swallow hither comes, to rest His sable wing, and snowy breast. * These young mendicants (like Eton scholars at the Montem) used to lew contributions from the good nature of their fellow-citizens. It is remarkable that most countries have a similar proverb relating to the swallow's accidental appearance before its usual time. The French have, Une hirondette ne fait pas le printemps ; the Germans, Eine Sheval bemacht keinen fruhling; the Dutch, Eeu swalaw maak geen zomer ; the Italians, Una rodine non fa primevera ; the Swede?, En svala gor ingen sommar; which may be all literally translated by the English proverb, " One swallow doth not make a summer." The story is well known of a thin brass plate having been fixed on a swallow, with this inscription, "Prithee, swallow, whither goest thou in winter?" The bird returned next spring, with the answer subjoined, " To Anthony of A thens . W hy dost thou inquire ? " ED. f Dr Richardson gives a curious example of the cliff-swallow (Jiirundo lunifrons) building in houses. " On the 25th of June, in the year 182V says he, " a number of them made their first appearance at Fort Che- pewyan, North America, and built their nests under the eaves of the dwelling-house, which arc about six feet above a balcony that extends thj * Vol. iii. p. 074, folio edition. SWALLOWS. 151 Here and there a bird may affect some odd, peculiar place ; as we have known a swallow build down the shaft of an old well, through which chalk had been formerly drawn up, for the purpose of manure ; but, in general, with us this hirundo breeds in chimneys, and loves to haunt those stacks where there is a constant fire no doubt for the sake of warmth. Not that it can subsist in the immediate shaft where there is a fire ; but prefers one adjoining to that of the kitchen, and disregards the perpetual smoke of that funnel, as I have often observed with some degree of wonder. Five or six, or more feet down the chimney, does this little bird begin to form her nest, about the middle of May, which whole length of the building, and is a frequented promenade. They had thus to graze the heads of the passengers on entering their nests, and were, moreover, exposed to the depredations of the children, to whom they were novelties ; yet they preferred the dwelling-house to the more lofty eaves of the storehouses, and, on the following season, returned with augmented numbers to the same spot. Fort Chepewyan has existed for many years, and trading posts, though far distant from each other, have been established in the fur countries for a century and a half; yet this, as far as I could learn, is the first instance of this species of swallow placing itself under the protection of man within the widely extended lands north of the great lakes. What cause could have thus suddenly called into action that confidence in the human race, with which the Framer of the universe has endowed this species, in common with others of the swallow tribe ? It has been supposed that birds, frequenting desert countries, and unaccustomed to annoyance from man, would approach him fearlessly, or at least be less shy than those inhabiting the thickly peopled districts where they are daily exposed to the attacks of the great destroyer of their tribes. But although this may be true of some families of birds, it is far from being generally the case. On the contrary, the small birds of the fur countries, which are never objects of pursuit,, and scarcely even of notice, to the Indian hunter, are shy, retiring, and distrustful, their habits contrasting strongly with the boldness and familiarity of sparrows, that are persecuted to death by every idle boy in Europe. Nay, some species which are bold enough during their winter residence in the United States, evince great timidity in the northern regions, where the raising their progeny occupies the whole time. In like manner, the redbreast of Europe, familiar as it is in winter, sequesters itself with the greatest care in the breeding season. The question, however, recurs, What is the peculiarity of economy which leads one species of bird to conceal its nest with the most extraordinary care and address, and another to place its offspring in the most exposed situation it can select ?" In the cabinet of the Lyceeum, Governor De Witt Clinton has given an account of the fulvous swallow, il folva, which is nearly allied to the preceding species, having built its nest in the walls of houses in the Western States ; and which has, every succeeding year, been advancing farther to the eastward. ED. Fa 152 SWALLOWS. consists, like that of the house-marten, of a crust, or shell, composed of dirt, or mud, mixed with short pieces of straw, to render it tough and permanent ; with this difference, that whereas the shell of the marten is nearly hemispheric, that of the swallow is open at the top, and like half a deep dish : this nest is lined with fine grasses, and feathers, which are often collected as they float in the air. Wonderful is the address which this adroit bird shews all day long, in ascending and descending with security through so narrow a pass. When hovering over the mouth of the funnel, the vibrations of her wings, acting on the confined air, occasion a rumbling like thunder. It is ;not improbable that the dam submits to this inconvenient situation so low in the shaft, in order to secure her broods from rapacious birds, and particularly from owls, which frequently fall down chimneys, perhaps in attempting to get at these nestlings. * The swallow lays from four to six white eggs, dotted with red specks ; and brings out her first brood about the last week in June, or the first week in July, The progressive method by which the young are introduced into life is very amusing : first they emerge from the shaft with difficulty enough, and often fall down into the rooms below ; for a day or so, they are fed on the chimney top, and then are conducted to the dead leafless bough of some tree, where, sitting in a row, they are attended with great assiduity, and may then be called perchers. In a day or two more, they become fliers, but are still unable to take their own food ; therefore, they play about near the place where the dams are hawking for flies ; and when a mouthful is collected, at a certain signal given, the dam and the nestling advance, rising towards each other, and meeting at an angle ; the young one all the while uttering five minutes or more, when the wind was high, they have been noticed incubation, No doubt, however, the feelings of security overcome many considerations. Kn. SWALLOWS. 153 such a little quick note of gratitude and complacency, that a person must have paid very little regard to the wonders of Nature that has not often remarked this feat. The dam betakes herself immediately to the business of a second brood, as soon as she is disengaged from her first which at once associates with the first broods x)f house-martens, and with them congregates, clustering on sunny roofs, towers, and trees. This Mrundo brings out her second brood towards the middle and end of 'August. All the summer long is the swallow a most instructive pattern of unwearied industry and affection ; for, from morning to night, while there is a family to be supported, she spends the whole day in skimming close to the ground, and exerting the most sudden turns and quick evolutions. Avenues, and long walks, under hedges, and pasture fields, and mown meadows where cattle graze, are her delight, especially if there are trees interspersed ; because in such spots insects most abound. When a fly is taken, a smart snap from her bill is heard, resembling the noise at the shutting of a watch case ; but the motion of the mandibles is too quick for the eye. The swallow, probably the male bird, is the excubitor to house-martens, and other little birds, announcing the approach of birds of prey. For as soon as a hawk appears, with a shrill alarming note, he calls all the swallows and martens about him ; who pursue in a body, and buffet and strike their enemy, till they have driven him From the village, darting down from above on his back, and rising in a perpendicular line in perfect security. This bird also will sound the alarm, and strike at cats when they climb on the roofs of houses, or otherwise approach the nests.* Each species of Mrundo drinks as it * The swallow is well known to be a very intrepid bird, and will attack animals of a size superior to itself, and which larger birds would not dare to face. While a gentleman was walking through a retired village lane, near Lynn Regis, in 1830, a stoat, mustela erminea, issued from the hedge a few paces before him, on the footpath. A swallow, flying over the place, immediately discovered the animal, fearlessly pounced upon him, and forced him to retire to his hiding-place. In a minute after- wards, however, the stoat again ventured out, when the swallow, having taken another round in the air, again obliged him to retreat. This was repeated four several times, after which the stoat disappeared, and was not again seen. A swallow has been seen to attack a cat, in the same manner as above described. A writer in Loudon's Magazine says, " Swallows were and are allowed to build in out-houses belonging to my father; the house cat would often bask in the sun, beside the out-houses, when the swallows testified their detestation of her by flying over her head in a 154 x SWALLOWS. flies along, sipping the surface of the water; but the swallow alone, in general, washes on the wing, by dropping into a pool for many times together: in very hot weather, house- martens and bank-martens dip and wash a little. The swallow is a delicate songster, and, in soft, sunny weather, sings both perching and flying ; on trees in a kind of concert, and on chimney tops ; is also a bold flier, ranging to distant downs and commons, even in windy weather, which the other species seem much to dislike ; nay, even frequenting exposed seaport towns, and making little excursions over the salt water. Horsemen on wide downs are often closely attended by a little party of swallows for miles together, which plays before and behind them, sweeping around, and collecting all the skulking insects that are roused by the trampling of the horses' feet. When the wind blows hard, without this expedient, they are often forced to settle to pick up their lurking prey. This species feeds much on little coleoptera, as well as on gnats and flies, and often settles on dug ground, or paths, for gravels to grind and digest its food. Before they depart, for some weeks, to a bird they forsake houses and chimneys, and roost in trees, and usually withdraw about the beginning of October, though some few stragglers may appear on, at times, till the first week in November. rapid, sweeping curve, almost touching her in its lowest inclination ; and they shrieked their hatred as they flew. Now and then, as if enraged by their pertinacity, and her own want of success, she would spring up in the air at them, as they passed, with her best vigour and agility ; but I never knew her catch one." Another correspondent mentions a cat which was more successful. He says, " The thing is, a priori, nearly impossible, and yet we stake our credit on the authenticity of the fact, having seen the whole process of grimalkin's wonderful cunning, and almost miraculous rapidity. It was in the early part of May, 1832, when insects, in conse- quence of the cold, fly low, and, of course, the swallows are forced to hawk for their prey by skimming the surface of the ground. The wily cat, taking advantage of this, stretches herself upon the sunny grass-plot, with her legs extended, as if she were dead ; the flies collect about her, as flies always do when they can find any animal as patient as my Uncle Toby, to endure their tickling and buzzing ; the simple swallows, dream- ing of no harm, and thinking they can make good a meal, dip down from the barren air, dart with free will upon the flies, when puss, perceiving her prey within reach, makes a spring like a flash of lightning, and strikes down with her paw the poor thoughtless swallow. The best marksmen know how difficult it is to shoot a swallow on the wing ; but the cat found her patience, cunning, and rapidity, well rewarded, by her unerring success whenever a swallow ventured within her reach," En. SWALLOWS. 155 Some few pairs haunt the new and open streets of London next the fields, but do not enter, like the house-marten, the close and crowded parts of the city. * Both male and female are distinguished from their con- geners by the length and forkedness of their tails. They are undoubtedly the most nimble of all the species ; and when the male pursues the female in amorous chase, they then go beyond their usual speed, and exert a rapidity almost too quick for the eye to follow. After this circumstantial detail of the life and discerning (frogy/i of the swallow, I shall add, for your farther amusement, an anecdote or two, not much in favour of her sagacity : A certain swallow built, for two years together, on the handles of a pair of garden shears, that were stuck up against the boards in an out-house, and therefore must have her nest spoiled whenever that implement was wanted. And, what is stranger still, another bird of the same species built its nest on the wings and body of an owl, that happened by accident to hang, dead and dry, from the rafter of a barn. This owl, with the nest on its wings, and with eggs in the nest, was brought as a curiosity worthy the most elegant private museum in Great Britain. The owner, struck with the oddity of the sight, furnished the bringer with a large shell, or conch, desiring him to fix it just where the owl hung. The person did as he was ordered ; arid the following year, a pair, probably the same pair, built their nest in the conch, and laid their eggs, f The owl and the conch make a strange, grotesque appear- ance, and are not the least curious specimens in that wonderful collection of art and nature. * In 1819, we noticed the nest of a chimney-swallow, under the coping of a stack of chimneys, in Hyde Street, Bloomsbury, the very heart of London. ED. f The following interesting circumstance is mentioned in Kalm's Travels: " A pair of swallows built their nest in the stable belonging to a lady ; the female laid eggs in the nest, and was about to breed them. Some days after, the people saw the female sitting on the eggs, but the male flying about the nest, and, sometimes sitting on a nail, he was heard to utter a very plaintive note, which betrayed his uneasiness. On a nearer examination, the female was found dead in the nest, and the people flung her body a\\ r ay. The male went to sit upon the eggs ; but, after being about two hours on them, and perhaps finding the business too trouble- some, he went out, and returned in the afternoon with another female, which sat upon the nest, and afterwards fed the young ones, till they were able to provide for themselves." There seems to have been displayed in this a degree of intelligence higher than mere instinct. ED. Sir Ashton Lever's Museum. 156 SWALLOWS. Thus is instinct in animals, taken the least out of its way an undistinguishing, limited faculty, and blind to every circum stance that does not immediately respect self-preservation, or lead at once to the propagation or support of their species. LETTER LVI1I. TO THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. SELBORNE, February 14, 1774. DEAR SIR, I received your favour of the eighth, and am pleased to find that you read my little history of the swallow with your usual candour ; nor was I the less pleased to find that you made objections where you saw reason. As to the quotations, it is difficult to say precisely which species of hirundo Virgil might intend, in the lines in question, since the ancients did not attend to specific differences, like modern naturalists ; yet somewhat may be gathered, enough to incline me to suppose, that, in the two passages quoted, the poet had his eye on the swallow. In the first place, the epithet garrula suits the swallow well, vrho is a great songster, and not the marten, which is rather a mute bird, and when it sings, is so inward as scarce to be heard. Besides, if tignum in that place signifies a rafter, rather than a beam, as it seems to me to do, then I think it must be the swallow that is alluded to, and not the marten, since the former does frequently build within the roof, against the rafters, while the latter always, as far as I have been able to observe, builds without the roof, against eaves and cornices.* As to the simile, too much stress must not be laid on it , yet the epithet nigra speaks plainly in favour of the swallow, whose back and wings are very black ; while the rump of the marten is milk-white, its back and wings blue, and all its under part white as snow. Nor can the clumsy motions (compara- tively clumsy) of the marten well represent the sudden and artful evolutions, and quick turns, which Juturna gave to her brother's chariot, so as to elude the eager pursuit of the enraged * We have seen that the marten and cliff- swallow of America have changed their habits, so far as their breeding places are concerned. The former has been known to breed in caverns, as mentioned in our note at page 142, and the Jatter has deserted the cliff of the desert for the abode of man, as noticed in our note, pages 150, 151 : so that the argument made use of by our author is no evidence in favour of the point lie wishes to establish ED. LAND SPRINGS SWALLOWS. 157 ^Eneas. The verb sonat, also, seems to imply a bird that is somewhat loquacious.* We have had a very wet autumn and winter, so as to raise the springs to a pitch beyond any thing since 1764, which was a remarkable year for floods and high waters. The land- springs, which we call levants, break out much on the downs of Sussex, Hampshire, and Wiltshire. The country people say, when the levants rise, corn will always be dear ; meaning, that when the earth is so glutted with water as to send forth springs on the downs and uplands, that the com vales must be drowned : and so it has proved for these ten or eleven years past ; for land-springs have never obtained more since the memory of man than during that period, nor has there been known a greater scarcity of all sorts of grain, considering the great improvements of modem husbandry. Such a run of wet seasons, a century or two ago, would, I am persuaded, have occasioned a famine. Therefore, pamphlets and newspaper letters that talk of combinations, tend to inflame and mislead, since we must not expect plenty till Providence sends us more favourable seasons. The wheat of last year, all round this district, and in the county of Rutland, and elsewhere, yields remarkably bad ; and our wheat on the ground, by the continual late sudden vicissi- tudes from fierce frost to pouring rains, looks poorly, and the turnips rot very fast. LETTER LIX. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, February 26, 1774. DEAR SIR, The sand-marten, or bank-marten, is by much the. least of any of the British hirundines, and, as far as we have ever seen, the smallest known hirundo; though Brisson asserts that there is one much smaller, and that is the hirundo escu/enta,-\- * Nigra velut magnas domini cum divitis sedes Pervolat, et pennis alta atria lustrat hirundo, Pabula parva legens, nidisque loquacibus escas : Et nunc porticibus vacuis, iiunc huraida cireum Stagna sonat. f The edible nest of this species constitutes one of the luxuries of an Indian banquet. The Nicobar swallow builds in fissures and cavities of rocks, especially such as are open to the south. In the latter situation, the finest and whitest nests are found. Sometimes fifty pounds weight of them are gathered in a nest-hunting excursion. They are small, and 158 SAND-MARTENS. But it is much to be regretted, that it is scarce possible ior any observer to be so full and exact as he could wish, in reciting the circumstances attending the life and conversation of this little bird, since it isfcra naturd, at least in this part of the kingdom, disclaiming all domestic attachments, and haunt- ing wild heaths and commons where there are large lakes ; while the other species, especially the swallow and house- marten, are remarkably gentle and domesticated, and never seem to think themselves safe but under the protection of man.* Here are in this parish, in the sand-pits and banks of the lake of Wolmer Forest, several colonies of these birds ; and yet they are never seen in the village, nor do they at all frequent the cottages that are scattered about in that wild district. The only instance I ever remember where this species haunts any building, is at the town of Bishop's Waltham, in this county, where many sand-martens nestle and breed in the scaffold holes of the back wall of William of Wykeham's stables ; but then this wall stands in a very sequestered and retired enclosure, and faces upon a large and beautiful lake. shaped like the nest of a window-swallow. If these are perfect, seventy- two of them will go to a catty, or one pound and three quarters. They bring a very high price in China. They are composed of a substance resembling amber, and probably the gum of the Nicobar cedar, which grows abundantly in all the islands. From December to May, it is covered with blossoms, and bears a fruit somewhat resembling a cedar or pine apple, but more like a large berry full of pustules, discharging a gum or resinous fluid. The hen constructs a neat, large nest, for laying and hatching her eggs, and the cock contrives to fix another smaller, and rather more clumsy, close to his mate ; for they are not only built for the purpose of incubation, but also for resting places. If they are robbed of them, they immediately fall to work to build others, and being remarkably active, are able in a day to finish enough to support the weight of their bodies, although they take about three weeks to com- lete a nest. During the north-east trade-wind, they are all alive, and y about briskly ; but as soon as the wind comes round to the south- west, they sit or lie in their nests, in a state of stupor, and shew anima- tion only by a kind of tremulous motion over their whole body. If the nests were taken away at this season, the poor birds must inevitably perish. En. * If the sand-martens of Selborne were solitary, as Mr White states, they have been different from all others we have heard of or seen. In many situations the excavations are so near each other, that the entrance to one of their holes is frequently close to that of the other. Professor Rennie tells us that he has noticed them not three inches apart, and the whole face of a bank thickly studded over with them. We have seen them in an indurated sandbank, on the side of a stream called the Lothrie, near Leslie, in Fife, very numerous, and not above fifteen inches from each other. ED. SAND-MARTENS. 159 And, indeed, this species seems so to delight in large waters, that no instance occurs of their abounding, but near vast pools or rivers ; and, in particular, it has been remarked that they swarm in the banks of the Thames, in some places below London Bridge. It is curious to observe with what different degrees of architectonic skill Providence has endowed birds of the same genus, and so nearly correspondent in their general mode of life ; for, while the swallow and the house-marten discover the greatest address in raising and securely fixing crusts, or shells, of loam, as cunabula for their young, the bank-marten terebrates a round and regular hole in the sand or earth, which is serpen- tine, horizontal, and about two feet deep. At the inner end of this burrow does this bird deposit, in a good degree of safety, her rude nest, consisting of fine grasses and feathers, usually goose feathers, very inartificially laicf together. Perseverance will accomplish any thing : though at first one would be disinclined to believe that this weak bird, with her soft and tender bill and claws, should ever be able to bore the stubborn sand bank, without entirely disabling herself ; * yet, ivith these feeble instruments, have I seen a pair of them make great despatch, and could remark how much they had scooped that day, by the fresh sand which ran down the bank, and was of a different colour from that which lay loose and bleached in the sun. In what space of time these little artists are able to mine and finish these cavities, I have never been able to discover, for reasons given above ; but it would be a matter worthy of observation, where it falls in the way of any naturalist, to make his remarks. This I have often taken notice of, that several holes of different depths are left unfinished at the end of summer. To imagine that these beginnings were inten- tionally made, in order to be in the greater forwardness for next spring, is allowing perhaps, too much foresight and rerum prudentia to a simple bird. May not the cause of these latebrcs being left unfinished arise from their meeting in those places with strata too harsh, hard, and solid for their purpose, which they relinquish, and go to a fresh spot that works more freely ? or may they not in other places fall in with a soil as much too loose and mouldering, liable to founder, and threaten- ing to overwhelm them and their labours ? * The bill is rather hard and sharp, well adapted for digging ; and its shortness adds greatly to its strength. ED. 1GO SAND-MARTENS. One thing is remarkable, that, after some years, the old holes are forsaken, and new ones bored ; perhaps because the old habitations grow foul and fetid from long use, or because they may so abound with fleas as to become untenantable. This species of swallow, moreover, is strangely annoyed with fleas; and we have seen fleas, bed-fleas, (pulex irritans,*) swarming at the mouths of these holes like bees on the stools of their hives. The following circumstance should by no means be omitted, that these birds do not make use of their caverns by way of hybernacula, as might be expected; since banks so perforated have been dug out with care in the winter, when nothing was found but empty nests. The sand-marten arrives much about the same time with the swallow, and lays, as she does, from four to six white eggs. But, as this species is cryptogame, carrying on the business of nidification, incubation, and the support of its young, in the dark, it would not be easy to ascertain the time of breeding, were it not for the coming forth of the broods, which appear much about the time, or rather somewhat earlier, than those of the swallow. The nestlings are supported, in common, like those of their congeners, with gnats and other small insects, and sometimes they are fed with Hbettulcs, (dragon-flies,) almost as long as themselves. In the last week in June, we have seen a row of these sitting on a rail, near a great pool, as perchers, and so young and helpless, as easily to be taken by hand j but whether the dams ever feed them on the wing, as swallows and house-martens do, we have never yet been able to determine ; nor do we know whether they pursue and attack birds of prey. When they happen to breed near hedges and enclosures, they are dispossessed of their breeding holes by the house- sparrow, which is, on the same account, a fell adversary to house-martens. These hirundines are no songsters, but rather mute, making only a little harsh noise when a person approaches their nests. They seem not to be of a sociable turn, never with us congre- gating with their congeners in the autumn. Undoubtedly they breed a second time, like the house-marten and swallow, and withdraw about Michaelmas. Though, in some particular districts, they may happen to * Our author is wrong in supposing these insects to be the common bed-flea ; it is the swallow-flea, (pulex hirundinis of Stephens,) by which thry are infested. ED. SAND-MARTENS. 161 abound, yet, on the whole, in the south of England at least, is this much the rarest species ; for there are few towns or large villages but what abound with house-martens ; few churches, towers, or steeples, but what are haunted by some swifts ; scarce a hamlet or single cottage chimney that has not its swallow ; while the bank-martens, scattered here and there live a sequestered life among some abrupt sand hills, and in the banks of some few rivers. * These birds have a peculiar manner of flying, flitting about with odd jerks and vacillations, not unlike the motions of a butterfly. Doubtless the flight of all hirundines is influenced by, and adapted to, the peculiar sort of insects which furnish their food. Hence it would be worth inquiry to examine what particular genus of insects affords the principal food of each respective species of swallow. Notwithstanding what has been advanced above, some few sand-martens, I see, haunt the skirts of London, frequenting the dirty pools in St George's Fields, and about Whitechapel. The question is, where these build, since there are no banks or bold shores in that neighbourhood ? Perhaps they nestle in the scaffold-holes of some old or new deserted building. They dip and wash as they fly sometimes, like the house-marten and swallow. * Professor Renuie says, " We can hardly bring ourselves to believe that he meant the same species, or at least that he spoke in this instance from his own observation. A more decidedly social bird we are not acquainted with ; since it not only nestles in numerous colonies, but also hunts for insects in troops of from thirty to fifty, and, as Buffon correctly remarks, associates freely with other swallows." La Vaillant, Montagu, and Wilson, all agree on this point ; the latter says, it " appears to be the most social of its kind of all our swallows, living together in large communities of sorretimes three or four hundred. Several of their holes," he adds, " are often within a few inches of each other, and extend in various strata along the front of a precipice, sometimes for eighty or a hundred yards. They are particularly fond of the shores of rivers, and in several places along the Ohio and the Kentucky river, they congregate in immense multitudes." Although it may be true, according to the remarks of these naturalists, that the sand-marten has been found in much frequented situations, we do not think that any proof of the inaccu- racy of our author, as the Professor seems desirous of establishing. We have already pointed out, in our note at page 150, on the respectable authority of Dr Richardson, that one of the congeners of this bird, the cliff-swallow, has entirely changed its habits within these very few years ; and this may be the case with the sand-marten also. These birds may have been in Mr White's time much more rare in this country than at present. As far as our own observation goes, we have always noticed this species in remote and rather sequestered situations. ED. r2 162 SWALLOWS NIGHTINGALES. Sand-martens differ from their congeners in the diminutive- ness of their size, and in their colour, which is what is usually called a mouse-colour. Near Valencia, in Spain, they are taken, says Willoughby, and sold in the markets for the table, and are called by the country people, probably from their desultory, jerking- manner of flight, Papillon de Montagna.* LETTER LX. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, September 2, 1774. DEAR SIR, Before your letter arrived, and of my own accord, I had been remarking and comparing the tails of the male and female swallow, and this ere any young broods appeared ; so that there was no danger of confounding the dams with their puUi ; and, besides, as they were then always in pairs, and busied in the employ of nidification, there could be no room for mistaking the sexes, nor the individuals of different chimneys, the one for the other. From all my obser- vations, it constantly appeared that each sex has the long feathers in its tail that give it that forked shape ; with this difference, that they are longer in the tail of the male than in that of the female. Nightingales, when their young first come abroad, and are helpless, make a plaintive and a jarring noise ; and also a snapping or cracking, pursuing people along the hedges as they walk : these last sounds seem intended for menace and defiance, f * Dr Richardson considers the sand-marten of the fur countries of North America, as identical with the European bird ; and, from all accounts, it is the same in every quarter of the globe. It breeds but once in the fur countries, generally late, and takes its departure about the middle of August with the rest of the swallow tribe ; which confirms the fact that they live in societies. That traveller says, " We observed thousands of these sand-martens fluttering at the entrance of their burrows, near the mouth of the Mackenzie, in the sixty-eighth parallel, on the 4th July ; and it is probable, from the state of the weather, that they had arrived at least a fortnight prior to that date. They are equally numerous in every district of the fur countries, wherein banks suitable for burrowing exist." ED. f It has been generally believed that the migratory songsters, both old and young, return to their native haunts in the breeding season. From this circumstance it is believed, that if any of these cou!4 be bred beyond the ordinary limits of their incubation, they would return in the follow- ing season to their birth place. Impressed with this belief, Sir John MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 163 The grasshopper-lark chirps all night in the height of summer. Swans turn white the second year, and breed the third. Weasels prey on moles, as appears by their being some- times caught in mole-traps.* Sparrow-hawks sometimes breed in old crows' nests ; and the kestrel in churches and ruins. There are supposed to be two sorts of eels in the island of Ely. The threads sometimes discovered in eels are perhaps their young : the generation of eels is very dark and myste- rious.f Sinclair, Bart, long known for his patriotism, commissioned the late Mr Dickson of Covent Garden, to purchase for him as many nightingales' eggs as he could procure, at a shilling each. This was accordingly done, the eggs carefully packed in wool, and transmitted to Sir John by the mail. Sir John employed several men to find, and take care of, the nests of several robins, in places where the eggs might be deposited and hatched with security. The robins' eggs were removed, and replaced by those of the nightingale, which were all sat upon, hatched in due time, and the young brought up by the foster-parents. The songsters flew, when fully fledged, and were observed, for some time afterwards, near the places where they were incubated. In September, the usual migratory period, they disappeared, and never returned to the place of their birth. The nightingale is usually silent on the 1 st of July. ED. * A man of acute observation, who had set a common spring mole- trap, perceived that a mole was taken. He took the trap from the ground, allowing the mole to continue suspended in it. He was working iu the neighbourhood, and chancing to look at the trap, he perceived 'a weasel actively engaged in attempting to get the mole out of the wires which held it. The weasel ran up the stick, which formed the spring of the trap, and descended on the captive, which he seized, and, tried by wriggling, twisting, and hanging by it, to disengage it from the trap, but without being able to effect his purpose. When exhausted with these fruitless efforts, he relinquished his hold, and dropt to the ground, where he rested for some time; he re-ascended the stick, and renewed his efforts with redoubled ardour. The workman, after seeing him make nearly a dozen attempts, took the mole from the trap, and threw it down as a reward for his perseverance ; but, on seeing the man, he made his escape, and never returned while he remained. EC. f- The uncertainty on this subject has, as is usual in most cases, invested it with a degree of fable. It is a common belief among schoolboys in Scotland, that horse hairs left in the water are, in a short time, converted into young eels ; and they establish the fact, to their own full satisfaction, by experiment. Repairing to a rivulet, they stick a hair in the mud at the bottom, both because they think the incipient animal derives some nourishment from the ground, and to prevent its being swept away from their observation. On their return to the spot, next day perhaps, the admiring group gather round; one of them with his finger touches the hair, which being by this time moistened and rendered pliable, exhibits in the rippling stream a tremulous motion, that is unhesitatingly ascribed 164 MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. Hen-harriers breed on the ground, and seem never to settle on trees. When redstarts shake their tails, they move them horizon- tally, as dogs do when they fawn ; the tail of the wagtail, when in motion, bobs up and down, like that of a jaded horse. Hedge-sparrows have a remarkable flirt with their wings in breeding time : as soon as frosty mornings come, they make a very piping, plaintive noise. Many birds which become silent about midsummer, reassume their notes again in September, as the thrush, blackbird, wood- lark, willow-wren, &c. ; hence August is by much the most mute month, the spring, summer, and autumn through. Are birds induced to sing again because the temperament of autumn resembles that of spring ? Linna3us ranges plants geographically : palms inhabit the tropics ; grasses the temperate zones ; and mosses and lichens the polar circles : no doubt animals may be classed in the same manner with propriety. House-sparrows build under eaves in the spring ; as the weather becomes hotter, they get out for coolness, and nest in plum-trees and apple-trees. These birds have been known sometimes to build in rooks' nests, and sometimes in the forks of boughs under rooks' nests. * to animation. It is allowed to float down the current, and the urchin philosophers depart, fully persuaded of the possibility of the planting and rearing beds of eels. ED. * The late Mrs O'Brien, of Manor Place, Chelsea, being exceedingly fond of birds, kept a number in cages. One of them, a canary, was a great favourite, but the loudness of its song frequently obliged her to put it outside of the window, among trees trained in the front of the house. During breakfast one morning, a sparrow was observed to fly several times round the cage, to alight upon the top, and chirp to the canary ; at length a reciprocal conversation ensued. He remained a few minutes, and then flew away, but soon returned with a worm in his bill, which he dropped into the cage, and again took his departure. The same atten- tions were manifested day after day, till they became so familiar, that the canary would at length receive the proffered food from the bill of his generous friend. This trait of the sparrow soon became known to the neighbours, who were frequent spectators of his acts of benevolence. Some of them, wishing to ascertain the extent of his kindly feelings, also put their birds out at the window, and he extended his attention to all of them ; hut his first and longest visit was always paid to his old acquain- tance, Mrs O'Brien's canary. Notwithstanding the sociable disposition manifested by this sparrow towards his feathered companions, he was excessively shy with regard to man, for they were obliged to observe his motions at a distance, as the t he noticed them he flow nvrny. Theee vis'ts were continued till MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 165 As my neighbour was housing a rick, he observed that his dogs devoured all the little red mice that they could catch, but rejected the common mice ; and that his cats eat the common mice, refusing the red. Red-breasts sing all through the spring*, summer, and autumn. The reason that they are called autumn songsters is, because in the two first seasons their voices are lost and drowned in the general chorus : in the latter, their song becomes distin- guishable. Many songsters of the autumn seem to be the young cock red-breast of that year : notwithstanding the prejudices in their favour, they do much mischief in gardens to the summer fruits. * The tit-mouse, which early in February begins to make two quaint notes, like the whetting of a saw,f is the marsh tit- mouse ; the great tit-mouse sings with three cheerful joyous notes, and begins about the same time. Wrens sing all the winter through, frost excepted. House-martens came remarkably late this year, both in Hampshire and Devonshire : Is this circumstance for or against either hiding or migration ? Most birds drink sipping at intervals ; but pigeons take a long continued draught, like quadrupeds. Notwithstanding what I have said in a former letter, no gray crows were ever known to breed on Dartmoor ; it was my mistake. The appearance and flying of the scardbceus solstitialis, or fern-chaffer, commence with the month of July, and cease about the end of it. These scarabs are the constan-t food of caprimulgt^ or fern-owls, through that period. They abound on the chalky downs, and in some sandy districts, but not in the clays. In the garden of the Black Bear Inn, in the town of Reading, is a stream, or canal, running under the stables and out into the fields on the other side of the road : in this water are many carps, which lie rolling about in sight, being fed by travellers, who amuse themselves by tossing them bread ; but as soon as the weather grows at all severe, these fishes are no longer seen, the commencement of winter, and he then withdrew, never to appear again. ED. * They /eat also the berries of the ivy, the honeysuckle, and the euonymus europceus, or spindle-tree. Redbreasts were very frequent here about the end of January, 1832, during the cold weather ; but, on the air becoming milder, they entirely disappeared ; nor did they again return, although the frost became pretty severe about six weeks after. ED. f It is the greater titmouse (parus major of Linnseus) which makes the sound alluded to. ED. 166 MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. because they retire under the stables, where they remain till the return of spring. Do they lie in a torpid state ? if they do not, how are they supported?* The note of the white-throat, which is continually repeated, and ol'ten attended with odd gesticulations on the wing, is harsh and displeasing. These birds seem of pugnacious dis- position, for they sing with an erected crest, and attitudes of rivalry and defiance ; are shy and wild in breeding time, avoid- ing neighbourhoods, and haunting lonely lanes and commons ; nay, even the very tops of the Sussex Downs, where there are bushes and covert ; but in July and August, they bring their broods into gardens and orchards, and make great havoc among the summer fruits. The black-cap has, in common, a full, sweet, deep, loud, and wild pipe ; yet that strain is of short continuance, and his motions are desultory ; but, when that bird sits calmly and engages in song in earnest, he pours forth very sweet, but inward melody, and expresses great variety of soft and gentle modulations, superior perhaps to -those of any of our warblers, the nightingale excepted. Black-caps mostly haunt orchards and gardens : while they warble, their throats are wonderfully distended. The song of the redstart is superior, though somewhat like that of the white-throat ; some birds have a few more notes than others. Sitting very placidly on the top of a tall tree in a village, the cock sings from morning to night : he affects neighbourhoods, and avoids solitude, and loves to build in orchards and about houses ; with us he perches on the vane of a tall maypole. The fly-catcher is, of all our summer birds, the most mute * These fishes are extremely cunning ; hence their rustic name, river fox. They have frequently been known to leap over a net when used to take them, or to immerse tnemselves in the mud, that it might pass over without touching them. In ponds carp become exceedingly tame, and will allow themselves to be handled. Sir John Hawkins was assured by a clergyman, a friend of his, that at the Abbey of St Bernard, near Antwerp, he saw one come to the edge of the water at the whistling of the person who fed it. Carp are very long lived : there was one in the garden of Emanuel College, Cambridge, which was known to have inhabited it for upwards of seventy years. Gesner mentions an instance of one that reached the extraordinary age of a hundred years. Carp have been known to live a fortnight out of the water, being placed in a net, among wet moss, the head only left out, and hung up in a cellar. They are frequently plunged into water, and fed with white bread and milk. In this situation they even fatten, and their flesh is considered of a higher flavour than when taken fresh out of a pond. ED. MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS SWIFTS. 167 and the most familiar ; it also appears the last of any. It builds in a vine, or a sweet-brier, against the wall of a house, or in the hole of a wall, or on the end of a beam or plate, and often close to the post of a door, where people are goin.e' in and out all day long. This bird does not make the least pretension to song, but uses a little inward wailing note when it thinks its young in danger from cats, or other annoyances : it breeds but once, and retires early.* Selborne parish alone can and has exhibited at times more than half the birds that are ever seen in all Sweden : the former has produced more than one hundred and twenty species, the latter only two hundred and twenty-one. Let me add also, that it has shewn near half the species that were eycr known in Great Britain.-)* On a retrospect, I observe that my long letter carries with it a quaint and magisterial air, and is very sententious ; but when I recollect that you requested stricture and anecdote, hope you will pardon the didactic manner for the sake of the information it may happen to contain. LETTER LXI. TO THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. SELBORNE, September 28, 1774. DEAR SIR, As the swift, or black-marten, is the largest of the British hirundines, so it is undoubtedly the latest comer : for I remember but one instance of its appearing before the last week in April ; and in some of our late frosty harsh springs, it has not been seen till the beginning of May. This species usually arrives in pairs. The swift, like the sand-marten, is very defective in architecture, making no crust, or shell, for its nest, but forming it of dry grasses and feathers, very rudely and inartificially put together. With all my attention to these birds, I have never been able once to discover one in the act of collecting or carrying in materials : so that I have suspected (since their nests are exactly the same) that they sometimes * The beam-bird, (muscicapa grisola, Linn.) It is very rare in Scotland. The nest is neatly constructed, of long green moss, intermixed with the catkins of the hazel and filbert, the interior lined with straw and wool. ED. f Sweden 221, Great Britain 252 species. - There are now 368, including the occasional visitants. ED. 168 SWIFTS. usurp upon the house-sparrows, and expel them, as sparrows do the house and sand-marten well remembering that I have seen them squabbling together at the entrance of their holes, and the sparrows up in arms, and much disconcerted at these intruders ; and yet, I am assured by a nice observer in such matters, that they do collect feathers for their nests in Andalusia, and that he has shot them with such materials in their mouths. Swifts, like sand-inartens, carry on the business of nidifica- tion quite in the dark, in crannies of castles, and towers, and steeples, and upon the tops of , the walls of churches, under the roof, and therefore cannot be so narrowly watched as those species that build more openly ; but, from what I could ever observe, they begin nesting about the middle of May ; and I have remarked, from eggs taken, that they have sat hard by the 9th of June. In general, they haunt tall buildings, churches, and steeples, and breed only in such ; yet, in this village, some pairs frequent the lowest and meanest cottages, and educate their young under those thatched roofs. We remember but one instance where they breed out of buildings, and that is in the sides of a deep chalk pit near the town of Odiham, in this county, where we have seen many pairs entering the crevices, and skimming and squeaking round the precipices. As I have regarded these amusive birds w r ith no small attention, if I should advance something new and peculiar with respect to them, and different from all other birds, I might perhaps be credited, especially as my assertion is the result of many years' exact observation. The fact that I would advance is, that swifts tread, or copulate, on the wing ; and I would w r ish any nice observer, that is startled at this supposition, to use his own eyes, and I think he will soon be convinced. In another class of animals, viz. the insect, nothing is so common as to see the different species of many genera, in conjunction as they fly. The swift is almost continually on the wing ; and, as it never settles on the ground, on trees, or roofs, would seldom find opportunity for amorous rites, were it not enabled to indulge them in the air. If any person would watch these birds of a fine morning in May, as they are sailing round, at a great height from the ground, he would see, every now and then, one drop on the back of another, and both of them sink down together for many fathoms, with a loud, piercing shriek. This I take to be the juncture when the business of generation is carrying on. As the swift eats, drinks, collects materials for its nest, and, SWIFTS. 169 as it seems, propagates on the wing, it appears to live more in the air than any other bird, and to perform all functions there, save those of sleeping and incubation. This hirundo differs widely from its congeners, in laying invariably but two eggs at a time, which are milk-white, long, and peaked at the small end ; whereas the other species lay at each brood from four to six.* It is a most alert bird, rising very early, and retiring to roost very late, and is on the wing in the height of summer, at least sixteen hours. In the longest days it does not withdraw to rest till a quarter before nine in the evening, being the latest of all day birds. Just before they retire, whole groups of them assemble high in the air, and squeak and shoot about with wonderful rapidity. But this bird is never so much alive as in sultry thundery weather, when it expresses great alacrity, and calls forth all its powers. In hot mornings, several, getting together into little parties, dash round the steeples and churches, squeaking as they go, in a very clamorous manner : these, by nice observers, are supposed to be males serenading their sitting hens ; and not without reason, since they seldom squeak till they come close to the walls or eaves, and since those within utter at the same time, a little inward note of complacency.-)' When the hen has sat hard all day, she rushes forth just as it is almost dark, and stretches and relieves her weary limbs, and snatches a scanty meal for a few minutes, and then returns to her duty of incubation.f Swifts, when wantonly and cruelly shot while they have young, discover a little lump of insects in their mouths, which they pouch and hold under their tongue. In general, they feed in a much higher district than the other species ; a proof that gnats and other insects do * Teraminck, the greatest living ornithologist, says, that the swift (cypsdus murarius of Temrainck) lays four eggs. ED. f The velocity of the swift's flight is extraordinary; the following curious circumstance is recorded in London's Magazine of Natural History, for November, 1831: " Some few months ago, being on a visit at Hastings, I stopped, during an early morning's walk, to watch a party of swifts dashing round the ruins of an old castle which overlook the town. While 1 was thus amusing myself, and admiring the extraor- dinary rapidity of their flight, to my infinite astonishment, one of them flew directly against the castle wall. My surprise was so great, that at first I thought I was mistaken ; but as the spot where the bird fell was not very difficult of approach, I climbed up, and there found the bird fluttering on the ground. I picked it up, but in a very few minutes it lied in my hand. It would be difficult to assign a cause for this curious circumstance." ED. % Montagu says, that at night, both male and femile sit upon the neet ED.' Q 170 SWIFTS. also abound to a considerable height in the air : they also range to vast distances ; since locomotion is no labour to them, who are endowed with such wonderful powers of wing. Their powers seem to be in proportion to their levers ; and their wings are longer in proportion, than those of almost any other bird. When they mute, or ease themselves in flight, they raise their wings, and make them meet over their backs. At some certain times in the summer, I had remarked that swifts were hawking very low, for hours together, over pools and streams ; and could not help inquiring into the object of their pursuit, that induced them to descend so much below their usual range. After some trouble, I found that they were taking phryganetE, ephemera, libellulce, (cadew-flies, may- flies, and dragon-flies,) that were just emerged out of their aurelia state. I then no longer wondered that they should be so willing to stoop for a prey that afforded them such plentiful and succulent nourishment. They bring out their young about the middle or latter end of July ; but us these never become perchers, nor, that ever I could discern, are fed on the wing by their dams, the coming forth of the young is not so notorious as in the other species. On the thirtieth of last June, I untiled the eaves of a house where many pairs build, and found in each nest only two squab, naked puili ; on the eighth of July, I repeated the same inquiry, and found they had made very little progress towards a fledged state, but were still naked and helpless. From whence we may conclude, that birds whose way of life keeps them perpetually on the wing, would not be able to quit their nest till the end of the month. Swallows and martens, that have numerous families, are continually feeding them every two or three minutes ; while swifts, that have but two young to maintain, are much at their leisure, and do not attend on their nests for hours together. Sometimes they pursue and strike at hawks that come in their way, but not with that vehemence and fury that swallows express on the same occasion.* They are out all day long on wet days, feeding about, and disregarding still rain ; from whence two things maybe gathered, first, that many insects abide high in the air, even in rain ; and next, that the feathers of these birds must be well preened to resist so much wet.f * Swifts are very spirited birds, and being extremely pugnacious among themselves, they sometimes fight till the contending parties are brought to the ground, with the claws mutually clasping each other ED. f Mr Henslow of St Alban's gives the following interesting proof of birds oiling their feathers, a fact concerning which some eminent SWIFTS. 171 Windy, and j articularly windy weather with heavy showers, they dislike, and on such days withdraw, and are scarcely ever seen. There is a circumstance respecting the ^ colour of swifts, which seems not to be unworthy our attention. When they arrive in the spring, they are all over of a glossy dark soot colour, except their chins, which are white ; but, by being all day long in the sun and air, they become quite weather-beaten and bleached before they depart, and yet they return glossy again in the spring. Now if they pursue the sun into lower latitudes, as some suppose, in order to enjoy a perpetual summer, why do they not return bleached ? Do they not rather, perhaps, retire to rest for a season, and at that juncture moult and change their feathers, since all other birds are known to moult soon after the season of breeding ? * Swifts are very anomalous in many particulars, dissenting from all their congeners, not only in the number of their young, but in breeding but once in a summer ; whereas all the other British hirundines breed invariably twice. It is past all doubt that swifts can breed but once, since they withdraw in a short time after the flight of their young, and some time naturalists have lately had a controversy. " Last summer," says he, " 1 brought up by hand a turtle dove, which I accustomed to ily about my room, till within this last month, at all times, except at night. Invariably when I had it sitting on my hand, it would begin pluming itself, (particularly while in moult, which was for about four months,) and, at such times, it was curious to see it apply its bill to the gland, or nipple just above its tail, and, by pincing it, procure something, though 1 could never discover what. On withdrawing its bill, it always stretched out its neck, and twisted its head about in the strangest manner, with its eyes shut, and the bill opening and shutting, as if in the act of chewing something which put it in pain, but which I always considered was for the purpose of spreading, or allowing the substance procured to circulate to all parts of the bill. This operation lasted about^twelve seconds, and then it immediately applied it, quickly, to only three or four different parts of its plumage at a time, and, at its pleasure, easily enough, all over its head and neck, by rubbing them on such parts as were within a convenient distance ; for who ever saw a bird, particularly a duck, wash itself, without observing it rub its head and neck on its back, or the shoulders of its wings ? This I have seen it do at least ten times in as many minutes on my hand ; but confess, I could never detect what it was it procured from the gland for the purpose of spreading it over its plumage, though I could distinctly see it pinch the nipple." ED. * The probability is, that these birds have just arrived in this country after they have undergone the vernal moult. Birds differ considerably in colour before the renewal of their plumage ; and that they are in this state before taking their departure there can be little doubt, as they have not yet been subjected to the autumnal moult. ED. 172 SWIFTS. before their congeners bring out their second broods. We may here remark, that, as swifts breed but once in a summer, and only two at a lime, and the other hirundines twice, the latter, who lay from four to six eggs, increase, at an average, five times as fast as the former. But in nothing are swifts more singular than in their early retreat. They retire, as to the main body of them, by the tenth of August, and sometimes a few days sooner ; and every straggler invariably withdraws by the twentieth : while their congeners, all of them, stay till the beginning of October, many of them all through that month, and some occasionally to the beginning of November. This early retreat is mysterious and wonderful, since that time is often the sweetest season in the year. But, what is more extraordinary, they begin to retire still earlier in the more southerly parts of Andalusia, where they can be nowise influenced by any defect of heat, or as one might suppose, defect of food. Are they regulated in their motions with us by a failure of food, or by a propensity to moulting, or by a disposition to rest after so rapid a life, or by what ? This is one of those incidents in natural history that not only baffles our researches, but almost eludes our guesses ! These hirundines never perch on trees or roofs, and so never congregate with their congeners. They are fearless while haunting their nesting places, and are not to be scared with a gun, and are often beaten down with poles and cudgels as they stoop to go under the eaves. Swifts are much infested with those pests to the genus, called hippoboscce Mrundinis,* and often wriggle and scratch themselves, in their flight, to get rid of that clinging annoyance. Swifts are no songsters, and have only one harsh, screaming note ; yet there are ears to which it is not displeasing, from an agreeable association of ideas, since that note never occurs but in the most lovely summer weather. They never settle on the ground but through accident, and when down can hardly rise, on account of the shortness of their legs, and the length of their wings : neither can they walk, but only crawl ; but they have a strong grasp with their feet, by which they cling to walls. Their bodies being flat, they can enter a very narrow crevice ; and where they cannot pass on their bellies, they will turn up edgewise. The particular formation of the foot discriminates the swift from all the British hirundines, and, indeed, from all other * Crater ina hirundinis of Olfera. Em SWIFTS. 173 known birds, the hirundo melba, or great white-bellied swift of Gibraltar, excepted ; for it is so disposed as to carry " omnes quatuor digitos anticos" all its four toes forward : besides, the least toe, which should be the back toe, consists of one bone alone, and the other three only of two apiece, a construction most rare and peculiar, but nicely adapted to the purposes in which their feet are employed. This, and some peculiarities attending the nostrils and under mandible, have induced a discerning naturalist* to suppose that this species might con- stitute a genus per sc.-\ In London, a party of swifts frequent the Tower, playing and feeding over the river just below the Bridge ; others haunt some of the churches of the Borough next the fields, but do not venture, like the house-marten, into the close, crowded part of the town. The Swedes have bestowed a very pertinent name on this swallow, calling it ring-swala, from the perpetual rings, or circles, that it takes round the scene of its nidification. Swifts feed on coleoptera, or small beetles with hard cases over their wings, as well as on the softer insects ; but it does not appear how they can procure gravel to grind their food, as swallows do, since they never settle on the ground. Young ones, overrun with hippoboscte, are sometimes found, under their nests, fallen to the ground, the number of vermin ren- dering their abode insupportable any longer. They frequent, in this village, several abject cottages ; yet a succession still haunts the same unlikely roofs a good proof this that the same birds return to the same spots. As they must stoop very low to get up under these humble eaves, cats lie in wait, and sometimes catch them on the wing. On the 5th of July, 1775, I again untiled part of a roof over the nest of a swift. The clam sat in the nest ; but so strongly was she affected by natural tfrogyjj for her brood, which she supposed to be in danger, that, regardless of her own safety, she would not stir, but lay sullenly by them, per- mitting herself to be taken in hand. * The squab young we brought down, and placed on the grass-plot, where they tumbled about, and were as helpless as a new-born child. While we contemplated their naked bodies, their unwieldy, * John Antony Scopoli, of Carniola, M.D. f This difference of character from that of the swallow tribe, has been laid hold of as a generic distinction by Illiger, under the name of no doubt f r the reason given h^H^nf'r!^ "'"I' few Pj lenomena are more strange than Hie state of little ponds on the summits of chalk hills, many nS Vn ne T VCT d 1 m thC " 10St tr >' !n ' drou ^ hts of Bumme/, on chalk hills I say, because in many rocky and gravelly soils springs usually break out pretty high on the side! SfKteS dir c t S " -M T mt T S ; i Ut " PerS n aC 1" aiated -ith chalky districts will allow that they ever saw springs in such a soil but in valleys and bottoms, since the waters "of so pervious a stratum as chalk all he on one dead level, as well-diggers have assured me again and again, f n? r ha l' e T ny SUCh little TOund P nds in this di ^rict ; id one in particular on our sheep-down, three hundred feet above my house , which, though never above three feet deep m the middle, and not more than thirty feet in diameter, and * Vide Kalm's Travels to North America. s P hofe, 1h T wlter i abn t ey f 1 ? ev 1 onshire - Within a mile of the -'=&^ 198 PONDS ON THE SUMMITS OF CHALK HILLS. containing pernaps not more than two or three hundred hogs- heads of water, yet never is known to fail, though it affords drink for three hundred or four hundred sheep, and for at least twenty head of large cattle besides. This pond, it is true, is overhung with two moderate beeches, that, doubtless, at times, afford it much supply; but then we have others as small, that, without the aid of trees, and in spite of evaporation from sun and wind, and perpetual consumption by cattle, yet constantly maintain a moderate share of water, without over- flowing in the wettest seasons, as they would do if supplied by springs. By my journal of May, 1775, it appears that " the small and even considerable ponds on the vales are now dried up, while the small ponds on the very tops of hills are but little affected." Can this difference be accounted for from evaporation alone, which certainly is more prevalent in bottoms ? or rather have not those elevated pools some unnoticed recruits, which in the night-time counterbalance the w r aste of the day ; without which, the cattle alone must soon exhaust them ? And here it will be necessary to enter more minutely into the cause. Dr Hales, in his Vegetable Statics, advances, from experiment, that " the moister the earth is, the more dew falls on it in a night ; and more than a double quantity of dew falls on an equal surface of moist earth." Hence we see that water, by its coolness, is enabled to assimi- late to itself a large quantity of moisture nightly by condensation ; and that the air, when loaded with fogs and vapours, and even with copious dews, can alone advance a considerable and never- failing resource. * Persons that are much abroad, and travel earl}'' and late, such as shepherds, fishermen, &c. can tell what prodigious fogs prevail in the night on elevated downs, even in the hottest parts of summer ; and how much the surfaces of things are drenched by those swimming vapours, though, to the senses, all the while, little moisture seems to fall. * Fogs are much more frequent in cold seasons, and cold countries, than in such as are warm ; because, in the former, the aqueous particles, being condensed almost as soon as they proceed from the surface of the earth, are incapable of rising into the higher portions of the atmosphere. If the oold be augmented, the fog freezes, attaching itself in small icicles to the branches of trees, and to the hair and clothes of persons exposed to it, to the bJades of grass, and other substances, ED. THE CUCKOO, LETTER LXXIL TO THE HON. DAINES BA.RRINGTON. SELBORNE, April 3, 1776. DEAR SIR, Monsieur Herissant, a French anatomist, seems persuaded that he has discovered the reason why cuckoos do not hatch their own eggs ; the impediment, he supposes, arises from the internal structure of their parts, which incapacitates them for incubation. According to this gentleman, the crop, or craw, of a cuckoo, does not lie before the sternum at the bottom of the neck, as in the gallmcB, columbce, &c. but imme- diately behind it, on and over the bowels, so as to make a large protuberance in the belly.* Induced by this assertion, we procured a cuckoo ; and, cutting open the breast-bone, and exposing the intestines to sight, found the crop lying as mentioned above. This stomach was large and round, and stuffed hard, like a pin-cushion, with food, which, upon nice examination, we found to consist of yarious insects ; such as small scarabs, spiders, and dragon- flies ; the last of which we have seen cuckoos catching on the wing, as they were just emerging out of the aurelia state. Among this farrago also were to be seen maggots, and many seeds, which belonged either to gooseberries, currants, cran- berries, or some such fruit ; so that these birds apparently subsist on insects and fruits ; nor was there the least appear- ance of bones, feathers, or fur, to support the idle notion of their being birds of prey.-j- The sternum in this bird seemed to us to be remarkably short, between which and the anus lay the crop, or craw, and, immediately behind that, the bowels against the back-bone. It must be allowed, as this anatomist observes, that the crop, placed just below the bowels, must, especially when full, be in a very uneasy situation during the business of incubation ; yet the test will be, to examine whether birds that are actually known to sit for certain are not formed in a similar manner, * Histoire deT Academic JRoyale, 1752. j* Sir William Jardine says, that when cuckoos have fed much, on some of the large hairy caterpillars so common on the northern moors, the stomach becomes coated with the short hairs, which may have given rise to the opinion that they are predatory. But has not Sir William mistaken the fibrous structure of the stomach for these hairs ? Its American congenera, the yellow-billed cuckoo, and the black-billed cuckoo, rob birds of their eggs ; and the la.tf.fir feeds or fresh water shell-fis^ 00 THE CUCKOO THE VIPER. This inquiry I proposed to myself to make with a fern-owl, or goat-sucker, as soon as opportunity offered : because, if their torination proves the same, the reason for incapacity in the cuckoo will be allowed to have been taken up somewhat hastily. Not long after, a fern-owl was procured, which, from its habits and shape, we suspected might resemble the cuckoo in its internal construction. Nor were our suspicions ill grounded ; for, upon the dissection, the crop, or craw, also lay behind the sternum, immediately on the viscera, between them and the skin of the belly. It was bulky, and stuffed hard with large phakztue, moths of several sorts, and their eggs, which, no douot, had been forced out of these insects by the action of swallowing. Now, as it appears that this bird, which is so well known to practise incubation, is formed in a similar manner with cuckoos, Monsieur Herissant's conjecture, that cuckoos are incapable of incubation from the disposition of their intestines, seems to fall to the ground : and we are still at a loss for the cause of that strange and singular peculiarity in the instance of the cuculus canorus. We found the case to be the same with the ring-tail hawk, in respect to formation ; and, as far as I can recollect, with the swift , and probably it is so with many more sorts of birds that are not granivorous. LETTER LXXIII. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, April 29, 1776. DEAR SIR, On August the 4th, 1775, we surprised a large viper, which seemed very heavy and bloated, as it lay in the grass, basking in the sun. When we came to cut it up, we found that the abdomen was crowded with young, fifteen in number ; the shortest of which measured full seven inches, and were about the size of full-grown earth-worms. This little fry issued into the world with the true viper spirit about them, shewing great alertness as soon as disengaged from the belly of the dam : they twisted and wriggled about, and set them- selves up, and gaped very \vide, when touched with a stick, shewing manifest tokens of menace and defiance, though as yet they had no manner of fangs that we could find, evenwfh the help of our glasses. THE VIPER- '201 To a thinking mind, nothing is more wonderful than that early instinct which impresses young animals with the notion of the situation of their natural weapons, and of using them properly in their own defence, even before those weapons subsist or are formed. * Thus a young cock will spar at his adversary before his spurs are grown ; and a calf or larnb will push with their heads before their horns are sprouted. In the same manner did these young adders attempt to bite before their fangs were in being. The dam, however, was furnished with very formidable ones, which we lifted up, (for they fold down when not used,) and cut them off with the point of our scissars. There was little room to suppose that this brood had ever been in the open air before, and that they were taken in for refuge, at the mouth of the dam, when she perceived that danger was approaching ; because then, probably, we should have found them somewhere in the neck, and not in the abdomen. LETTER LXXIV. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. CASTRATION has a strange effect : it emasculates both man, beast, and bird, and brings them to a near resemblance of the other sex. Thus, eunuchs have smooth unmuscular arms, thighs, and legs ; and broad hips, and beardless chins, and squeaking voices. Gelt stags and bucks have hornless heads, like hinds and does. Thus wethers have small horns, like ewes ; and oxen large bent horns, and hoarse voices when they low, like cows : for bulls have short straight horns ; and though they mutter and grumble in a deep tremendous tone, yet they low in a shrill high key. Capons have small combs and gills, and look pallid about the head like pullets; they also walk without any parade, and hover chickens like hens. Barrow-hogs have also small tusks like sows.-)- * An adder with two distinct heads, which lived three days, taken with five others from the body of an old one, found in a ditch at Drumlanrig, Dumfriesshire, is now in the museum of Mr Thomas Grierson, Baitforrt, near Thornhill. ED. f- After castration animals generally lose their spirit, although, in the instance of horses, this is by no means always the case. The following fact is a strong evidence of this : The horse of a nobleman in Ireland ran at a man, seized him with his teeth by the arm, which he broke ; he then threw him down, and lay upon him. Every effort to get him off 202 THE HOG Thus far it is plain, that the deprivation of masculine vigour puts a stop to the growth of those parts or appendages that are looked upon as its insignia. But the ingenious Mr Lisle, in his book on husbandry, carries it much farther ; for he says, that the loss of those insignia alone has sometimes a strange effect on the ability itself. He had a boar so fierce and venereous that, to prevent mischief, orders were given for his tusks to be broken off. No sooner had the beast suffered this injury than his powers forsook him, and he neglected those females to whom before he was passionately attached, and from whom no fences could restrain him. LETTER LXXV. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. THE natural term of a hog's life is little known, and the reason is plain, because it is neither profitable nor convenient to keep that turbulent animal to the full extent of its time ; however, my neighbour, a man of substance, who had no occasion to study every little advantage to a nicety, kept a half-bred Bantam sow, who was as thick as she was long, and whose belly swept on the ground, till she was advanced to her seventeenth year ; at which period, she shewed some tokens of age by the decay of her teeth, and the decline of her fertility. For about ten years, this prolific mother produced two litters in the year, of about ten at a time, and once above twenty at a litter ; but, as there were near double the number of pigs to that of teats, many died. From long experience in the world, this female was grown very sagacious and artful. When she found occasion to converse with a boar, she used to open all the intervening gates, and march, by herself, up to a distant farm where one was kept, and when her purpose was served, would return by the same means. At the age of about fifteen, her litters began to be reduced to four or five ; and such a litter she exhibited when in her fattirig-pen. She proved, when fat, good bacon, juicy, and tender ; the rind, or sward, was remarkably thin. At a moderate computation, she was allowed to have been the fruitful parent of three proved unavailing, and they were forced to shoot nim. The only reasor, could be assigned for such ferocity was, that he had been ca&trated by this man some time before, which the animal seems to have remembered. ED. A LEVERET REARED BY A CAT. 203 hundred pigs, a prodigious instance of fecundity in so large a quadruped ! She was killed in spring, 1 775. * LETTER LXXVI. TO THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. SELBORNE, May 9, 17'iu. Admorunt ubera tigres. DEAR SIR, We have remarked in a former letter how much incongruous animals, in a lonely state, may be attached to each other from a spirit of sociality ; in this, it may not be amiss to recount a different motive, which has been known to create as strange a fondness. My friend had a little helpless leveret brought to him, which the servants fed with milk in a spoon, and, about the same time, his cat kittened, and the young were despatched and buried. The hare was soon lost, and supposed to be gone the way of most foundlings, to be killed by some dog or cat. However, in about a fortnight, as the master was sitting in his garden, in the dusk of the evening, he observed his cat, with tail erect, trotting towards him, and calling with little short inward notes of complacency, such as they use towards their kittens, and something gamboling after, which proved to be the leveret that the cat had supported with her milk, and continued to support with great affection. Thus was a graminivorous animal nurtured by a carnivorous and predaceous one ! ) * The hog is a very prolific animal, and where persons have the proper means of feeding, it turns out very profitable. The following is the produce of a sow fed near Drogheda, for the short space of nine months : July, 1813. A litter of eleven, seven sold at 80s. . . 1010 July, J 81 4. A litter of eleven, nine sold at 40s. . . 18 March, Three of first litter, sold in market at . SI April, Sow sold fat, 20 5 5 79 15 5 And a breeding sow was kept, valued at 20. A sow, belonging to Mr Thomas Richdale, Leicestershire, Lad produced, in the year 1797, three hundred and fifty pigs in twenty litters; four years before, it brought two hundred and five in twelve litters. A sow, the property of George Baillie, butcher, in Hospital Street, Perth, on the 22d of August, 1829, littered the amazing number of twenty-nine pigs. Suaban is of opinion, that in twelve generations, a single pair would produce as many as Europe could support. ED. f Of incongruous attachments formed by animals, there is perhaps none more remarkable than the following, which proves that even the strongest of nature's laws may be altered by circumstances : Mr Cross, 204 CHILDREN SUCKLED BY WILD BEASTS. Why so cruel and sanguinary a beast as a cat, of the ferocious genus of felis, the murium leo, as Linnaeus calls it, should be atfected with any tenderness towards an animal which is its natural prey, is not so easy to determine. * This strange affection probably was occasioned by that desiderium, those tender maternal feelings, which the loss of her kittens had awakened in her breast ; and by the compla- cency and ease she derived to herself from procuring her teats to be drawn, which were too much distended with milk ; till, from habit, she became as much delighted with this foundling, as if it had been her real offspring. This incident is no bad solution of that strange circumstance which grave historians, as well as the poets, assert, of exposed children being sometimes nurtured by female wild beasts that probably had lost their young. For it is not one whit more marvellous that Romulus and Remus, in their infant state, should be nursed by a she-wolf, than that a poor little sucking leveret should be fostered and cherished by a bloody grimalkin : Viridi foetam Mavortis in antro Procubuisse lupam : geminos hnic ubera circum Ludere pendentes pueros, et lambere matrem Impavidos : illam tereti cervice reflexam Mulcere alternos, et corpora fingere lingua. in Exeter Change, had, for some years, within one cage, the snake called the hooded snake, cobra di capello, and a canary bird; they appeared most affectionately attached to each other. ED. * A cat, belonging to a person in Taunton, in May, 1822, having lost her kittens, transferred her affection to two ducklings, which were kept in the yard adjoining. She led them out every day to feed ; seemed quite pleased to see them eat ; returned with them to their usual nest, and evinced for them as much attachment as she could have shewn to her lost young ones. The following is a still more extraordinary proof of the kindly feelings of the cat: A short time ago, a young girl, daughter of Mr John Ander son, farmer at Collin, on the road to Annan, brought home early one morning two fine larks, which she had taken from the nest in a neigh- bouring field. Soon afterwards, the girl discovered that one of the larks had been taken out of the cage, arid, on searching for it, found that the cat, whose only kitten died a day or two before, had carried the bird to the place where she usually nurtured her offspring, and was trying every method to make it suckle her ; and when the lark attempted to _, ays after, several more birds were brought to the house, one of which the persevering cat also stole, and again tried, by all the endearing acts in her power, to make this likewise accept of her nourishment. Neither of the birds suffered the least injury from the animal. ED. LETTER LXXVII. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, May 20, 1777. &ELBORNE, May 20, 1777. DEAR SIR, Lands that are subject to frequent inundations, always poor ; and, probably, the reason may be, because ie worms are drowned. The most insignificant insects and )tiles are of much more consequence, and have much more influence in the economy of Nature, than the incurious are aware of; and are mighty in their effect, from their minuteness. which renders them less an object of attention ; and from their numbers and fecundity. * Earth-worms, though in appearance a small and despicable link in the chain of Nature, yet, if lost, would make a lamentable chasm. For to say nothin^ of halt the birds, and some quadrupeds, which are almost entirely supported by them, worms seem to be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely without them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and rendering it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by drawing straws and stalks of leaves into it; and, most of all, by throwing up ich mhmte numbers of lumps of earth, called worm-casts. * The earth-worm has been long considered a viviparous animal, but M. Leon Dufour seems to have determined that it is oviparous. The afpLTp A 7 Pe , ha / j struct J ure > bein S lon S> tapering, and terminated at each end by a pencil of fringed membranaceous substance. They have more the appearance, indeed, of a chrysalis or cocoon than of an eg- but their pulp, &c. prove them to be true eggs. The worms, wfen S afe C tv e with? Th 7 Tf' TS w " sturb ed, &11 sometimes retreat for into thl clay. ' " Y ^ jut qui " edj r instincti vely dig cay. Reaumur computes, though from what data it is difficult to conjectur , BE^n^llS? theworm of co/ruption:' Hampden wa m June, 1643. It is stated in the Times, that the skull was m some places perfectly bare, whilst in others the 'skin remained nearly .11 e, upon which we discovered a number of maggots, and small red worm,, feeding with great activity. This was the only'spot wre any SnT V t were W'?^ as if th e brain contained Vital princLle ^n,nf ^ engendered its own destruction ; otherwise, how can we -count, after a lapse of nearly two centuries, for finding livin preying upon the seat of int/llect, when they were Swh2 fcnnd- m no other part of the bodv?" ED T 206 WORMS. which, being their excrement, is a fine manure for grain and grass. Worms probably provide new soil for hills and slopes where the rain washes the earth away ; and they affect slopes, probably, to avoid being flooded. Gardeners and farmers express their detestation of worms ; the former, because they render their walks unsightly, and make them much work : and the latter, because, as they think, worms eat their green corn. But these men would find, that the earth without worms would soon become cold, hard-bound, and void of fermentation, and consequently steril : and, besides, in favour of worms it should be hinted, that green corn, plants, and flowers are not so much injured by them as by many species of coleoptera (scarabs) and tipuloe (long-legs,) in their larva or grub state ; and by unnoticed myriads of small shell-less snails, called slugs, which silently and imperceptibly make amazing havoc in the field and garden. * These hints we think proper to throw out, in order to set the inquisitive and discerning to work. A good monography of worms would afford much enter- tainment, and information at the same time ; and would open a large and new field in natural history. Worms work most in the spring, but by no means lie torpid in the dead months ; are out every mild night in the winter, as any person may be convinced that will take the pains to examine his grass plots with a candle ; are hermaphrodites, and much addicted to venery, and consequently very Drolific. LETTER LXXVIII. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, November 22, 1777. DEAR SIR, You cannot but remember, that the twenty- sixth and twenty-seventh of last March were very hot days ; so sultry, that every body complained, and were restless under those sensations to which they had not been reconciled by gradual approaches. The sudden summer-like heat was attended by many summer coincidences ; for, on those two days, the thermometer rose to sixty-six in the shade ; many species of insects revived * Farmer Young, of Norton-farm, says, that this spring, about four acres of his wheat, in one field, was entirely destroyed by slugs, which swarmed on the blades of corn, and devoured it as fast as it sprang. TORPIDITY OF SWALLOWS. 207 and came forth ; some bees swarmed in this neighbourhood ; the old tortoise, near Lewes, awakened, and came forth out of its dormitory ; and, what is most to my present purpose, many house-swallows appeared, and were very alert in many places, and particularly at Cobham, in Surrey.* But as that short warm period was succeeded as well as preceded by harsh, severe weather, with frequent frosts and ice, and cutting winds, the insects withdrew, the tortoise retired again into the ground, and the swallows were seen no more until the tenth of April, when, the rigour of the spring abating, a softer season began to prevail. Again, it appears by my journals for many years past, that house-martens retire, to a bird, about the beginning of October ; so that a person not very observant of such matters would conclude that they had taken their last farewell ; but then it may be seen in my diaries, also, that considerable flocks have discovered themselves again in the first week of November, and often on the fourth day of that month, only for one day : and that not as if they were in actual migration, but playing about at their leisure, and feeding calmly, as if no enterprise of moment at all agitated their spirits. And this was the case in the beginning of this very month ; for, on the fourth of Novem- ber, more than twenty house-martens, which, in appearanco } * We are still unable to account for the reappearance of swallows after they seem to have taken their departure ; but, at the same time, we are not inclined to believe in their general torpidity during the winter. We must have proof on this subject. A curious fact respecting the swallow was mentioned by our late >rthy friend and intelligent naturalist, Captain Dougal Carmichael. It appears that swallows are birds of passage at the southern extremity of Africa, as well as in other parts of the world. They return to the Cape * v H P e . m September, and quit it again in March and April. A t these birds (hirundo capensis} fixed their flask-shaped nest against the angle formed by the wall with the board which supported the eaves. 1 his nest had a single aperture, by which the birds went in and out. 1 down after the young quitted it. On the February following, these t in the same place; but on this occasion Captain Carmichael larked, in the construction of the nest, an improvement which can hardly be referred to the dictates of mere instinct. It was formed with n opening at both sides, and the swallows invariably entered at the one, nd came put at the other. One advantage obtained by this arrangement was, that its occupants were saved the trouble of turning round in the nest, and thus avoided the risk of any derangement in its internal economy. the chief object appeared to be, to facilitate their escape from the ,cks ot serpents, which harbour in the roofs of thatched houses, or crawl up along the wall, and not unfrequently devour both the mother and her young. ED. *?08 TORPIDITY OF SWALLOWS LEPROSY. had all departed about the seventh of October, were seen again, for that one morning only, sporting between my fields and the Hanger, and feasting on insects which swarmed in that sheltered district. The preceding day was wet and blustering, but the fourth was dark, and mild, and soft, the wind at south-west, an 1 the thermometer at 58J ; a pitch not common at that season of the year. Moreover, it may not be amiss to add in this place, that whenever the thermometer is above 50, the bat comes flitting out in every autumnal and winter month. From all these circumstances laid together, it is obvious that torpid insects, reptiles, and quadrupeds, are awakened from their profoundest slumbers by a little untimely warmth ; and, therefore, that nothing so much promotes this deathlike stupor as a defect of heat. And farther, it is reasonable to suppose, that two whole species, or at least many individuals of these two species of British hirundines, do never leave this island at all, but partake of the same benumbed state ; for we cannot suppose that, after a month's absence, house-martens can return from southern regions to appear for one morning in November, or that house-swallows should leave the districts of Africa to enjoy, in March, the transient summer of a couple of days. LETTER LXXIX. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, January 8, 1778. DEAR SIR, There was, in this village, several years ago, a miserable pauper, who, from his birth, was afflicted with a leprosy, as far as we are aware, of a singular kind, since it affected only the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet. This scaly eruption usually broke out twice in the year, at the spring and fall ; and by peeling away, left the skin so thin and tender, that neither his hands nor feet were able to perform their functions ; so that the poor object was half his time on crutches, incapable of employ, and languishing in a tiresome state of indolence and inactivity. His habit was lean, lank, and cadaverous. In this sad plight, he dragged on a miserable existence, a burden to himself and his parish, which was obliged to support him, till he was relieved by death, at more than thirty years of age. The ood women, whc love to account for every defect, in LEPROSY. 209 children by the doctrine of longing, said that his mother felt a violent propensity for oysters, which she was unable to gratify and that the black rough scurf on his hands and feet were the shells of that fish. We knew his parents, neither of whom were lepers : his father, in particular, lived to be far advanced in years. In all ages, the leprosy has made dreadful havoc among mankind. The Israelites seem to have been greatly afflicted with it from the most remote times, as appears from the pecu- liar and repeated injunctions given them in the Levitical law. * Nor was the rancour of this foul disorder much abated in the last period of their commonwealth, as may be seen in many passages of the New Testament. Some centuries ago, this horrible distemper prevailed all over Europe ; and our forefathers were by no means exempt, s appears by the large provision made for objects labouring under this calamity. There was an hospital for female lepers m the diocese of Lincoln, a noble one near Durham, three in London and Southwark, and perhaps many more in or near our great towns and cities. Moreover, some crowned heads, other wealthy and charitable personages, bequeathed large legacies to such poor people as languished under this hopeless infirmity. It ^must, therefore, in these days, be, to a humane and thinking person, a matter of equal wonder and satisfaction, when he contemplates how nearly this pest is eradicated, and observes that a leper is now a rare sight. He will, moreover, icn engaged m such a train of thought, naturally inquire for ie reason. This happy change, perhaps, may have originated een continued from the much smaller quantity of salted meat and fish now eaten in these kingdoms from the use of a next the skin from the plenty of better bread and the profusion of fruits, roots, legumes, and greens, so common m every family, f Three or four centuries ago, before e were any enclosures, sown grasses, field turnips, or field carrots, or hay, all the cattle that had grown fat in summer and were not killed for winter use, were turned out soon after' chaelmas to shift as they could through the dead months ; * See Leviticus, chap. xiii. and xiv. T2 210 RfOBtfKN COMFORTS. so that no fresh meat could be had in winter or spring. Hence the marvellous account of the vast stores of salted flesh found in the larder of the eldest Spencer,* in the days of Edward the Second, even so late in the spring as the third of May. It was from magazines like these that the turbulent barons supported in idleness their riotous swarms of retainers, ready for any disorder or mischief. But agriculture has now arrived at such a pitch of perfection, that our best and fattest meats are killed in the winter ; and no man needs eat salted flesh, unless he prefer it, that has money to buy fresh. One cause of this distemper might be, no doubt, the quantity of wretched fresh and salt fish consumed by the commonalty at all seasons, as well as in Lent, which our poor now would hardly be persuaded to touch. The use of linen changes, shirts or shifts, in the room of sordid or filthy woollen, long worn next the skin, is a matter of neatness comparatively modern, but must prove a great means of preventing cutaneous ails. At this very time, woollen instead of linen prevails among the poorer Welsh, who are subject to foul eruptions. The plenty of good wheatenbreadthatnow is found among all ranks of people in the south, instead of that miserable sort which used in old days tc be made of barley or beans, may contribute not a little to the sweetening their blood and cor- recting their juices ; for the inhabitants of mountainous districts, to this day, are still liable to the itch and other cutaneous disorders, from a wretchedness and poverty of diet. As to the produce of a garden, every middle-aged person of observation may perceive, within his own memory, both in town and country, how vastly the consumption of vegetables is increased. Green stalls in cities now support multitudes in a comfortable state, whik gardeners get fortunes. Every decent labourer, also, has hiH garden, which is half his support, as well as his delight ; and common farmers provide plenty of beans, pease, and greens, for their hinds to eat with their bacon ; and those few that do not are despised for their sordid parsimony, and looked upon as regardless of the welfare of their dependents. Potatoes have prevailed in this little district, by means of premiums, within these twenty years only, and are much esteemed here now by the poor, who would scarce have ventured to taste them in the last reign. * Namely, six hundred bacons, eighty carcasses of beef, and six hundred n>nt tons. . hpn Ur S fif n a " ces u tors certainly had some sort of cabbage because they call the month of February sprout-cale * but Safen^^-^ ? ukivation rfJESTEi Htde i to. The religious, being men of leisure and n- e i to. The religious, being men of leisure, and keeping up a constant correspondence with Italy, were the first neonlf among us who had gardens and fruit trees in any pe fecdon within the walls of their abbeysf and priories Wbfrons dW - ^ * - or e t^o S It was not till gentlemen took up the study of horticulture IdvTclr *I at d h r k vT led , ge / f ardenin ^ ade such h idvances. Lord Cobham, Lord Ila, and Mr Waller of Bea consfield, were some of the first people of rank tha promoted e elegant sc.ence of ornamenting, without despS th supermtendence of the kitchen quarters and fruit arers an ut ws A remark made by the excellent Mr Ray, in his four at Europe,* once surrises us, and corroborate* what has curled endive, blanched, is much' used beyond set and for' a raw salad, seemed to excel lettuce itself.'' Now this lou'rn, was undertaken no longer ago than in the year]663 '' 212 ECHOES. LETTER LXXX. TO THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. SELBORNE, February 12, 1778. Fortfc puer, comitum seductus ab agmine fido, Dixerat, ecquis adest ? et, adest, responderat echo. Hie stupet ; utque aciem partes divisit in omnes ; Voce, veni clamat magna. Vocat ilia vocantem. DEAR SIR, In a district so diversified as this, so full of hollow vales and hanging woods, it is no wonder that echoes should abound. Many we have discovered, that return the cry of a pack of dogs, the notes of a hunting horn, a tunable ring of bells, or the melody of birds, very agreeably ; but we were still at a loss for a polysyllabical articulate echo, till a young gentleman, who had parted from his company in a summer evening walk, and was calling after them, stumbled upon a very curious one, in a spot where it might least be expected. At first, he was much surprised, and could not be persuaded but that he was mocked by some boy ; but repeating his trials in several languages, and finding his respondent to be a very adroit polyglot, he then discerned the deception. This echo, in an evening before rural noises cease, would repeat ten syllables most articulately and distinctly, especially if quick dactyls were chosen. The last syllables of Tityre, tu patulse recubans were as audibly and intelligibly returned as the first; and there is no doubt, could trial have been made, but that at midnight, when the air is very elastic, and a dead stillness prevails, one or two syllables more might have been obtained ; but the distance rendered so late an experiment very inconvenient. Quick dactyls, we observed, succeeded best ; for when we came lo try its powers in slow, heavy embarrassed spondees, of the same number of syllables, Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens we could perceive a return but of four or five.* * There is a very extraordinary echo at a ruined fortress near Lourain in France. If a person sings, he only hears his own voice, without any repetition ; on the contrary, those who stand at some distance, hear the ocho, but not the voice ; but then they hear it with surprising variations, sometimes louder, sometimes softer, now more near, then more distant. 213 All echoes have some one place to which they are returned stronger and more distinct than to any other; and that is always the place that lies at right angles with the object of repercussion, and is not too near, nor too far off. Buildings, or naked rocks, re-echo much more articulately than hanging woods or vales ; because, in the latter, the voice is, as it were, entangled, and embarrassed in the covert, and weakened in the rebound. The true object of this echo, as we found by various experi- ments, is the stone-built, tiled hop-kiln in Gaily Lane, which measures in front forty feet, and from the ground to the eaves, twelve feet. The true centrum phonicum, or just distance, is one particular spot in the King's Field, in the path to Nore- hill, on the very brink of the steep balk above the hollow cart-way. In this case, there is no choice of distance ; but the path, by mere contingency, happens to be the lucky, the identical spot, because the ground rises or falls so immediately, if the speaker either retires or advances, that his mouth would at once be above or below the object. We measured this polysyllabical echo with great exactness, and found the distance to fall very short of Dr Plot's rule for distinct articulation ; for the Doctor, in his History of Oxford- shire, allows one hundred and twenty feet for the return of each syllable distinctly ; hence this echo, which gives ten dis- tinct syllables, ought to measure four hundred yards, or one hundred and twenty feet to each syllable ; whereas our distance is only two hundred and fifty-eight yards, or near seventy-five feet to each syllable.* Thus our measure fells short of the Doctors as five to eight ; but then it must be acknowledged, that this candid philosopher was convinced afterwards, that some latitude must be admitted of in the distance of echoes, according to time and place. When experiments of this sort are making, it should always be remembered, that weather and the time of day have a vast There is an account in the Memoirs of the French A cademy of a similar echo near Rouen. The building which returns it is a semicircular court- yard ; yet everyone of the same form does not produce a similar effect ED. A knowledge of the progression of sound is not an article of mere steril curiosity, but in several instances useful ; for by this means we are abled to determine the distance of ships, or other moving bodies. Suppose, for example, that a vessel fires a gun, the sound of which is heard five seconds after the flash is seen, as sound moves one thousand one hundred and forty-two English feet in a second, this number, multiplied by nve, gives the distance of five thousand seven hundred and ten feet icsame principle is applicable in storms of lightning and thunder. ED. 214 ECHOES. influence on an echo ; for a dull, heavy, moist air deadens arid clogs the sound ; and hot sunshine renders the air thin and weak, and deprives it of all its springiness ; and a ruffling wind quite defeats the whole. In a still, clear, dewy evening, the air is most elastic ; and perhaps the later the hour the more so. Echo has always been so amusing to the imagination, that the poets have personified her ; and, in their hands, she has been the occasion of many a beautiful fiction. Nor need the gravest man be ashamed to appear taken with such a pheno- menon, since it may become the subject of philosophical or mathematical inquiries. One should have imagined that echoes, if not entertaining, must at least have been harmless and inoffensive : yet Virgil advances a strange notion, that they are injurious to bees. After enumerating some probable and reasonable annoyances, such as prudent owners would wish far removed from their bee-gardens, he adds, - Ant ubi concava pulsu Saxa sonant, vocisque oft'ensa resultat imago. This wild and fanciful assertion will hardly be admitted by the philosophers of these days, especially as they all now seem agreed that insects are not furnished with any organs of hear- ing at all.* But if it should be urged, that, though they cannot hear, yet perhaps they may feel the repercussion of sounds, I grant it is possible they may. Yet that these impressions are distasteful or hurtful I deny, because bees, in good summers, thrive well in my outlet, where the echoes are very strong ; for this village is another Anathoth, a place of responses, or echoes. Besides, it does not appear from experiment that bees are in any way capable of being affected by sounds : for I have often tried my own with a large speaking trumpet held close to their hives, and with such an exertion of voice as would have hailed a ship at the distance of a mile, and still these insects pursued their various employments undisturbed, and without shewing the least sensibility or resentment. * The organs of hearing in insects are the antennae, or horn-like processes, which stand out from the forehead. If these organs do not convey sound, in the same manner as the ears of other animals, they are, at least, very sensible of any concussion produced in the atmosphere by sounds, and if not the ears themselves, are, at least, analogous to them. The reflected sound of an echo cannot take place at less than fifty-five feet ; because it is necessary that the distance should be such, and the reverberated or reflected sound so long in arriving, that the ear may distinguish clearly between that and the original sound. En. ECHOES. 9J5 is become oth. o and perhaps success mieht th " ed yards> distance s canal" lake^r stream "nfeveLF 6 " 816 ' enSUred could friends ' of an evening wh the pra fof^-'l them ^^ sometimes whose complacency and Cnt reserve loquacious 7*& ' of can with truth ^foMSStt^jR*? QuaD nee reticere loquenti, Nee prior lpsa loqui, didicit resonabilis echo T> O rni , acccounting for their cau^esTom r^^^+wi. oujjcrsui voces LUCKETIUS, Jib. ir. 216 SWIFT?. LETTER LXXXI. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBOKNE, May 13, 1778. DEAR SIR, Among the many singularities attending those amusing birds, the swifts, I am now confirmed in the opinion that we have every year the same number of pairs invariably ; at least the result of my inquiry has been exactly the same for a long time past. The swallows and martens are so numerous, and so widely distributed over the village, that it is hardly possible to recount them ; while the swifts, though they do not all build in the church, yet so frequently haunt it, and play and rendezvous round it, that they are easily enumerated. The number that I constantly find are eight pairs, about half of which reside in the church, and the rest build in some of the lowest and meanest thatched cottages. * Now, as these eight pairs allowance being made for accidents breed yearly eight pairs more, what becomes annually of this increase ? and what determines, every spring, which pairs shall visit us, and re-occupy their ancient haunts ? Ever since T have attended to the subject of ornithology, I have always supposed that the sudden reverse of affection, that strange avr/rfrog^Tj, which immediately succeeds in the feathered kind to the most passionate fondness, is the occasion of an equal dispersion of birds over the face of the earth. Without this provision, one favourite district would be crowded with inha- bitants, while others would be destitute and forsaken. But the parent birds seem to maintain a jealous superiority, and to oblige the young to seek for new abodes ; and the rivalry of the males in many kinds prevents their crowding the one on the other. Whether the swallows and house-martens return in the same exact number annually it is not easy to say, for reasons given above; but it is apparent, as I have remarked before in my Monographies, that the numbers returning bear no manner of proportion to the numbers retiring. * We do not mean to dispute the accuracy of the fact here mentioned ; but we have seen many instances where the number of nests were trebled, (luring three or four years, in one locality. ED. BOTANY. 217 LETTER LXX1I. TO THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. n SELBORNE, June 2, 177& been that T/ 7 " "^X* ob J ection *o botany has always is a pursuit that amuses the fancy and exercises lory, without improving the mind, or advancing anv ! knowledge ; and, where the science is carried no farther e systematic classification, the charge is but too true : botanist that is desirous of wiping off this aspersion' odd be by no means content with a list of names , he should -s philosophically, should investigate the laws of ^C ' w e ^ am , in ? th e powers and virtues of efficacious bs should promote their cultivation, and graft the gardener the planter, and the husbandman on the phytologist. Not that fi!?M IS p y w a ? y means , J be throvm aside without system "Nature would be a pathless wilderness but svs- tem should be subservient to, not the main object of, pursuit Vegetation is highly worthy of our attention, and ?n tiif is of the utmost consequence to mankind, and productive^ many of the greatest comforts and elegancies of life To plants we owe timber, bread, beer, honey, wine, oil/linen! ton, &c. what not only strengthens our hearts, and exhi- bnte. our spirits, but what secures us from inclemencies of weather, and adorns our persons. Man, in his true state of ature, seems to be subsisted by spontaneous vegetal on fa middle cUmes, where grasses prevail, he mixes some anirna" food with the produce of Ae field and garden ; and it is towards the polar extremes only, that, like his kindred bears and wolveV ie gorges himself with flesh alone, and is driven to what hunger' id a vast influence on f navigation, as may beTe^a^r^cl^s^S tobacco, opium, ginseng, betel, pepper, &n As ever/chmate has ,ts peculiar produce, our natural wants brin- on a mutuat mtercourse ; so that by means of trade, each distant par L supplied with the growth of every latitude. But, wkhout the knowledge of plants and their culture, we must have been * See the late voyages to the South Seas U 218 BOTANY GRASSES, content with our hips and haws, without enjoying the delicate fruits of India, and the salutiferous drugs of Peru. Instead of examining the minute distinctions of every various species of each obscure genus, the botanist should endeavour to make himself acquainted with those that are useful. You shall see a man readily ascertain every herb of the field, yet hardly know wheat from barley, or at least one sort of wheat or barley from another. * But of all sorts of vegetation, the grasses seem to be most neglected : neither the farmer nor the grazier seem to distin- guish the annual from the perennial, the hardy from the tender, nor the succulent and nutritive from the dry and juiceless. j- The study of grasses would be of great consequence to a northerly and grazing kingdom. The botanist that could improve the sward of the district where he lived, would be a useful member of society : to raise a thick turf on a naked soil, would be worth volumes of systematic knowledge ; and he would be the best commonwealth's man that could occasion the growth of " two blades of grass where one alone was seen before." LETTER LXXXIII. TO THE HON. DANIES HARRINGTON. SELBORNE, July 3, 1778. DEAR SIR, In a district so diversified with such a variety of hill and dale, aspects and soils, it is no wonder that great choice of plants should be found. Chalks, clays, sands, sheep- walks and downs, bogs, heaths, woodlands, and champaign fields, cannot but furnish an ample flora. The deep rocky lanes abound with filices, and the pastures and moist woods with fungi. If in any branch of botany we may seem to be wanting, it must be in the large aquatic plants, which are not * The observations and experiments of one generation after another, have enabled us progressively to improve, by culture, the cereal grasses, into those valuable plants wheat and barley, which now maintain millions of our fellow men. ED. f Of late not only the attention of the naturalist, but also of the farmer, has been directed to the study of grasses, to the preference of particulai species, and to the relative produce of the different kinds. Among the works which have most contributed to the advancement of this highly important department of agriculture, we would mention Curtis on British Grasses, and the splendid and valuable Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis ; and in Young's Farmer's Magazine many interesting experiments have been recorded. ED. BOTANY OF SELBORNE. 5J19 to be expected on a spot far removed from rivers, and Iviim- up anudst the Ml country at the spring-heads. To enumerate all the plants that have been discovered within our Tin Us would be a needless work; but a short list of the more rare and the spots where they are to be found, may neither be unacceptable nor unentertaining. Helleborusfatidus stinking hellebore, bear's-foot, or setter- wort,- all over the Highwood and Coney-croft-han-er This contmues a great branching plant the winter throu^'blossom" Z,ht U Ja " * an<1 J S Vry am ental in shady walks and .hrubberies. The good women give the leaves powdered to Idren troubled w,th worms ; but it is a violent remedy, and ought to be administered with caution. HeUebarw vindis, green hellebore, -in the deep stony lane, on the left hand just before the turning to Norton Farm, and at the top of Middle Dorton, under the hedge. This plant dies down to the ground early in autumn, and springs again about February, flowermg almost as soon as it appears above ground r bilberries > loi" rfwZ 101 ^ r bilberries *e dry hil- Droserarotundifolia, round-leaved sundew, in the bogs of Bin s-pond : ^Drosera longifolia, long-leaved sundew, in the bogs of Bin's- comaruin> r marsh cin q- fo .- Tutsan> st John>s wort - in th - P eriwinUe '- in Selborne-hanger or Shrub- Monatropa hypopithys, yellow monotropa, or bird's-nest - K^t^^^^ one-berry,- in ~on the Lathram sc/uammnrh, tooth-wort, in the Church-litten 220 BOTANY OF SELBORNE. coppice, under some hazels near the foot-bridge, in Trimming's garden hedge, and on the dry wall opposite Grange-yard : Dipsacus pilosus, small teasel, in the Short and Long Lith : Lathyrus tylvestris, narrow-leaved, or wild lathyrus, in the bushes at the foot of the Short Lith, near the path : Ophrys spiralis, ladies' traces, in the Long Lith, and towards the south corner of the common : Ophrys nidus avis, bird's-nest ophrys, in the Long Lith, under the shady beeches among the dead leaves, in Great Dorton among the bushes, and on the Hanger plentifully : Serapias latifolia, helleborine, in the Highwood under the shady beeches : Daphne laureola, spurge laurel, in Selborne-hanger and the High-wood : Daphne mezereum, the mezereon, in Selbornd-hanger, among the shrubs at the south-east end, above the cottages : Lycoperdon tuber, truffles, in the Hanger and High- wood : Sambucus ebulus, dwarf elder, walwort, or danewort, among the rubbish and ruined foundations of the Priory. Of all the propensities of plants, none seem more strange than their different periods of blossoming. Some produce their flowers in the winter, or very first d awnings of spring ; many when the spring is established ; some at midsummer, and some not till autumn. When we see the helleborus foetidus and helleborus niger blowing at Christmas, the helleborus hyemalis in January, and the helleborus viridis as soon as ever it emerges out of the ground, we do not wonder, because they are kindred plants that we expect should keep pace the one with the other ; but other congenerous vegetables differ so widely in their time of flowering, that we cannot but admire. I shall only instance at present in the crocus sativus, * the * Two species are generally admitted by botanists, the crocus sativus of Linnaeus, or saffron crocus, and the crocus vernus, the vernal crocus. Besides good specific differences, these two plants are distinct in their Eroperties, the highly odoriferous stigmas of the crocus sativus alone irnishing the saffron of commerce. The stigma of the crocus vernus is inodorous. The similarity of climate and weather that characterizes vernal and autumnal days, often produces, towards the latter end of September, a vegetation vying with that of May in profusion and variety of tints. Many plants, generally considered as exclusively vernal, bloom a second time. Of this, the viola cawina and odorata are striking examples; and the sweet gentiana verna, or spring gentian, often unfolds its azure blossoms for the second time, late in October, studding the verdant sward with a blue that rivals in intensity the ultramarine. ED. FLIGHT OF BIRDS. 221 vernal and the autumnal crocus, which have such an affinity, that the best botanists only make them varieties of the same genus, of which there is only one species, not being able to discern any difference in the cciolla, or hi the internal struc- ture. Yet the vernal crocus expands its flowers by the beginning of March at farthest, and often in very rigorous weather ; and cannot be retarded but by some violence offered ; while the autumnal (the saffron) defies the influence of the spring and summer, and will not blow till most plants begin to fade and run to seed. This circumstance is one of the wonders of the creation, little noticed because a common occurrence ; yet ought not to be overlooked on account of its being familiar, since it would be as difficult to be explained as the most stupendous phenomenon in nature. Say, what impels, amidst surrounding snow Congeal'd, the crocus' flamy bud to glow ? Say, what retards, amidst the summer's blaze, Th' autumnal bulb, till pale, declining days ? The GOD OF SEASONS, whose pervading power Controls the sun, or sheds the fleecy shower : He bids each flower his quickening word obey, Or to each lingering bloom enjoins delay. LETTER LXXXIV. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, August!, 1778. Omnibus animalibus reliquis certus et uniusmodi, ct in suo cuiquc genere incessus est ; aves solse vario meatu feruntur, et in terra, et in aere. PLIN. Hist. Nat. lib. x. cap. 38. DEAR SIR, A good ornithologist should be able to distin- guish birds by their air as well as their colours and shape, on the ground as well as on the wing, and in the bush as well as in the hand. For, though it must not be said that every .species of birds has a manner peculiar to itself, yet there is somewhat in most genera at least that at first sight discriminates them, and enables a judicious observer to pronounce upon them with some certainty. Put a bird in motion, Et vera incessu patuit. Thus kites and buzzards sail round in circles, with wings expanded and motionless ; and it is from their gliding manner that the former are still called, in the north of England, pleads, from the Saxon verb glidan. to glide. The kestrel, or u2 222 FLIGHT OF BIRDS. windhover, has a peculiar mode of hanging in the air in one place, his wings all the while being briskly agitated. Hen- harriers fly low over heaths or fields of corn, and beat the ground regularly like a pointer or setting-dog. Owls move in a buoyant manner, as if lighter than the air ; they seem to want ballast. There is a peculiarity belonging to ravens that must draw the attention even of the most incurious, they spend all their leisure time in striking and cuffing each other on the wing in a kind of playful skirmish ; and when they move from one place to another, frequently turn on their backs with a loud croak, and seem to be falling to the ground. When this odd gesture betides them, they are scratching themselves with one foot, and thus lose the centre of gravity. Rooks sometimes dive and tumble in a frolicsome manner ; crows and daws swagger in their walk ; woodpeckers fly volatu undoso, opening and closing their wings at every stroke, and so are always rising and falling in curves. All of this genus use their tails, which incline downward, as a support while they run up trees. Parrots, like all other hooked-clawed birds, walk awkwardly, and make use of their bill as a third foot, climbing and descending with ridiculous caution. All the gallince parade and walk gracefully, and run nimbly ; but fly with difficulty, with an impetuous whirring, and in a straight line. Magpies and jays flutter with powerless wings, and make no despatch ; herons seem encumbered with too much sail for their light bodies ; but these vast hollow wings are necessary in carrying burdens, such as large fishes, and the like ; pigeons, and particularly the sort called smiters, have a way of clashing their wings, the one against the other, over their backs with a loud snap ; another variety, called tumblers, turn themselves over in the air. * Some birds have movements peculiar to the season of love : thus ring-doves, though strong and rapid at other times, yet, in the spring, hang about on the wing in a toying and playful manner ; thus the cock snipe, while breeding, forgetting his former flight, fans the air like the windhover ; and the greenfinch, in particular, exhibits such languishing and faltering gestures as to appear like a w r ounded and dying bird ; the king-fisher darts along like an arrow ; fern-owls, or goat-suckers, glance in the dust over the tops of trees like a meteor ; starlings, as it were, swim along, while missel-thrushes use a wild and desultory flight ; swallows * Mr Swainson is of opinion, that this movement is indicative of pleasure or excitement. Ei>. FLIGHT AND LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 223 sweep over the surface of the ground and water, and distinguish themselves by rapid turns and quick evolutions : swifts dash round in circles ; and the bank-marten moves with frequent vacillations like a butterfly. Most of the small birds fly by jerks, rising and falling as they advance. Most small birds hop ; but wagtails and larks walk, moving their legs alter- nately. Sky-larks rise and fall perpendicularly as they sing ;* woodlarks hang poised in the air ; and titlarks rise and fall in large curves, singing in their descent. The white-throat uses odd jerks and gesticulations over the tops of hedges and bushes. All the duck kind waddle ; divers and auks walk as if fettered, and stand erect on their tails ; these are the compedes of Linnaeus. Geese and cranes, and most wild owls, move in figured flights, often changing their position. The secondary remiges of tringce, wild ducks, and some others, are very long, and give their wings, when in motion, a hooked appearance. Dabchicks, moor-hens, and coots, fly erect, with their legs hanging down, and hardly make any despatch : the reason is plain, their wings are placed too forward out of the true centre of gravity ; as the legs of auks and divers are situated too backward. LETTER LXXXV. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, September 9, 1778. DEAR SIR, From the motion of birds, the transition is natural enough to their notes and language, of which I shall say something. Not that I would pretend to understand their language like the vizier, who, by the recital of a conversation which passed between two owls, reclaimed a sultan,f before delighting in conquest and devastation ; but I would be thought only to mean, that many of the winged tribes have various sounds and voices adapted to express their various passions, wants, and feelings, such as anger, fear, love, hatred, hunger, and the like. All species are not equally eloquent ; some are copious and fluent, as it were, in their utterance, while others are confined to a few important sounds ; no bird, like the fish * The male of the yellow breasted chat, icteria polyglotta of Swain- son, while the female is sitting, sometimes mounts up into the air almost perpendicularly, to the height of thirty or forty feet, with his legs hanging, descending, as he rose, by repeated jerks, as if highly irritated. ED. f See Spectator, No. 512. 224 LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. kind, is quite mute,* though some are rather silent. The lan- guage of birds is very ancient, and like other ancient modes of speech, very elliptical ; little is said, but much is meant and understood, f The notes of the eagle kind are shrill and piercing ; and about the season of nidification much diversified, as I have been often assured by a curious observer of nature, who long resided at Gibraltar, where eagles abound. The notes of our hawks much resemble those of the king of birds. Owls have very expressive notes ; they hoot in a fine vocal sound, much resembling the vox humana, and reducible by a pitch-pipe to a musical key. This note seems to express complacency and rivalry among the males ; they use also a quick call and an horrible scream ; and can snore and hiss when they mean to menace. Ravens, besides their loud croak, can exert a deep and solemn note that makes the woods to echo ; the amorous sound of a crow is strange and ridiculous ; rooks, in the breed- ing season, attempt sometimes, in the gaiety of their hearts, to sing, but with no great success ; the parrot kind have many modulations of voice, as appears by their aptitude to learn human sounds ; doves coo in an amorous and mournful manner and are emblems of despairing lovers ; the woodpecker sets up a sort of loud and hearty laugh ; the fern-owl, or goat-sucker, from the dusk till daybreak, serenades his mate with the clat- tering of castanets. All the tuneful passercs express their * Mr John Thomson of Hull says, " Some tench, which I caught in ponds, made a croaking like a frog for a full half hour, whilst in the basket at my shoulder." It is well known that when the herring is just caught in the net, and brought into the boat, it utters a shrill cry like a mouse. The gurnard grunts or croaks when taken and freed from the hook. ED. f Mr J. Murray says, " I once heard the cuckoo's note at midnight. This occurred some years ago, as I was coming from Charleton to Douglas, in the Isle of Man. It was moonlight, and I enjoyed a delightful walk and the nights clear and calm, so that the night was in fact more pleasant than the day ; so much so, that I frequently went out after supper, and as frequently heard the cuckoo and the nightingale from ten till eleven s highly gratified in hearing a trie, melody of the grove, performed by the cuckoo, the nightingale, and the irbli-r, ?x little after midnight." Ko. LANGUAGE OF FOWLS. 225- complacency by sweet modulations, and a variety of melody. The swallow, as has been observed in a former letter, by a shrill alarm, bespeaks the attention of the other hirundines, and bids them be aware that the hawk is at hand.* Aquatic and gregarious birds, especially the nocturnal, that shift tneir quar- ters in the dark, are very nois and loquacious, as cranes, wild-geese, wild-ducks, and the like : their perpetual clamour prevents them from dispersing and losing their companions. In so extensive a subject, sketches and outlines are as much as can be expected ; for it would be endless to instance in all the infinite variety of the feathered nation. We shall, there- fore, confine the remainder of this letter to the few domestic fowls of our yards, w r hich are most known, and, therefore, best understood. And first, the peacock, with his gorgeous train, demands our attention ; but, like most of the gaudy birds, his notes are grating and shocking to the ear : the yelling of cats, and the braying of an ass, are not more disgustful. The voice of the goose is trumpet-like, and clanking ; and once saved the Capitol at Rome, as grave historians assert: the hiss, also, of the gander is formidable, and full of menace, and " protective of his young." Among ducks, the sexual dis- tinction of voice is remarkable ; for, while the quack of the female is loud and sonorous, the voice of the. drake is inward, and harsh, and feeble, and scarce discernible. The cock turkey struts and gobbles to his mistress in a most uncouth manner : he hath also a pert and petulant note when he attacks his adversary. When a hen turkey leads forth her young brood, she keeps a watchful eye ; and if a bird of prey appear, though ever so high in the air, the careful mother announces the enemy with a little inward moan, and watches him with a * Syme makes the following judicious remarks upon the songs of birds : " The notes of soft-billed birds are finely toned, mellow, and plaintive ; those of the hard-billed species are sprightly, cheerful, and rapid. This difference proceeds from the construction of the larynx ; as a large pipe of an organ produces a deeper and more mellow-toned note than a small pipe ; so the trachea of the nightingale, which is wider than that of the canary, sends forth a deeper and more mellow-toned note. Soft-billed birds, also, sing more from the lower part of their throat than the hard-billed species. This, together with the greater width of the larynx of the nightingale and other soft-billed warblers, ful'y accounts for their soft, round, mellow notes, compared with the shrill, sharp, and clear 226 LANGUAGE OF FOWLS. steady and attentive look ; but, if he approach, her note becomes earnest and alarming, and her outcries are redoubled. No inhabitants of "a yard seem possessed of such a variety of expression, and so copious a language, as common poultry. Take a chicken of four or five days old, and hold it up to a window where there are flies, and it will immediately seize its prey with little twitterings of complacency ; but if you tender it a wasp or a bee, at once its note becomes harsh, and expres- sive of disapprobation and a sense of danger. When a pullet is ready to lay, she intimates the event by a joyous and easy soft note. Of all the occurrences of their life, that of laying seems to be the most important ; for no sooner has a hen disburdened herself, than she rushes forth with a clamorous kind of joy, which the cock and the rest of his mistresses immediately adopt. The tumult is not confined to the family concerned, but catches from yard to yard, and spreads to every homestead within hearing, till at last the whole village is in an uproar. As soon as a hen becomes a mother, her new relation demands a new language ; she then runs clucking and screaming about, and seems agitated as if possessed. The father of the flock has also a considerable vocabulary : if he finds food, he calls a favourite concubine to partake ; and if a bird of prey passes over, with a warning voice, he bids his family beware. The gallant chanticleer has, at command, his amorous phrases, and his terms of defiance. But the sound by which he is best known is his crowing : by this he has been distinguished in all ages as the countryman's clock orlarum, as the watchman that proclaims the divisions of the night. Thus the poet elegantly styles him the crested cock, whose clarion sounds The silent hours. A neighbouring gentleman, one summer, had lost most of his chickens by a sparrow-hawk, that came gliding down, between a fagot pile and the end of his house, to the place where the coops stood. The owner, inwardly vexed to see his flock thus diminishing, hung a setting net adroitly between the pile and the house, into which the caitiff dashed", and was entangled. Resentment suggested the law of retaliation ; he, therefore, clipped the hawk's wings, cut off his talons, and, fixing a cork on his bill, threw him down among the brood- hens. Imagination cannot paint the scene that ensued ; the expressions that fear, rage, and revenge inspired, were new. or at least such as had been unnoticed before. The exasperated HELIOTROPES. 227 matrons upbraided they execrated they insulted they triumphed. In a word, they never desisted front buffeting their adversary till they had torn him in a hundred pieces. LETTER LXXXVI. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE. monstrent Quid tantuni Oceano properent se tlngere soles Hyberni ; vel quse tardis mora noctibus obstet. GENTLEMEN who have outlets might contrive to make ornament subservient to utility ; a pleasing eye-trap might also contribute to promote science : an obelisk in a garden or park might be both an embellishment and a heliotrope. Any person that is curious, and enjoys the advantage of a good horizon, might, with little trouble, make two heliotropes, the one for the winter, the other for the summer solstice ; and these two erections might be constructed with very little expense ; for two pieces of timber frame-work, about ten or twelve feet high, and four feet broad at the base, and close lined with plank, would answer the purpose. The erection for the former should, if possible, be placed within sight of some window in the common sitting parlour ; because men, at that dead season of the year, are usually within doors at the close of the day ; while that for the latter might be fixed for any given spot in the garden or outlet, whence the owner might contemplate, in a fine summer's evening, the utmost extent that the sun makes to the north- ward at the season of the longest days. Now nothing would be necessary but to place these two objects with so much exactness, that the westerly limb of the sun, at setting, might but just clear the winter heliotrope to the west of it, on the shortest day, and that the whole disc of the sun, at the longest day, might exactly, at setting, also clear the summer helio- trope to the north of it. * * Mr Mark Watt has invented a very curious and interesting instru- ment, which he calls the heliastron, or solar compass. Having observed the daily variation of barometers and the magnetic needle, and remarking that a similar series of alternate changes were more or less observable in every instrument capable of indicating a slight alteration of the impressions made on them, and that these diurnal changes bore a proportionate 228 HELIOTROPES. By this simple expedient, it would soon appear, that there is no such thing-, strictly speaking, as a solstice j for, from the shortest day, the owner would, every clear evening, see the disc advancing, at its setting, to the westward of the object ; and, from the longest day, observe the sun retiring backwards every evening, at its setting, towards the object westward, till, in a few nights, it would set quite behind it, and so by degrees to the west of it ; for when the sun comes near the summer solstice, the whole disc of it would at first set behind the object: after a time, the northern limb would first appear, and so every night gradually more, till at length the whole diameter would set northward of it for about three nights ; but, on the middle night of the three, sensibly more remote than the former or following. When beginning its recess from the summer tropic, it would continue more and more to be hidden every night, till at length it would descend quite behind the object again ; and so nightly more and more to the westward relation to the latitude in which the instruments were placed, or to the degrees of solar influence that might exist in the regions in which they were used, and of which they would partake ; he also noticed, in coin- cidence with these movements, the daily expansion and contraction of the petals and leaves of most plants, and that the different species of the heliotropium and chrysanthemum, turned their corollse round toward the sun for many hours during the day. Hence he concluded that an instrument might be constructed upon principles nearly similar to the laws which regulate these motions in plants. This instrument he formed of a circular ring of cork, three inches in diameter. Into this is fixed twenty-five needles fully impregnated with the magnetic fluid, and these are placed at equal distances round the circumference of the circle, with their north and south poles placed out- wards alternately. This circle is affixed to a light slip of wood, five inches long, and one-fourth of an inch broad, by a piece of copper wire, of a semicircular form, the extremities of which are passed through the opposite sides of the cork's circle ; and the slip of wood attached to the centre of the wire. Into the centre of the bar is fixed an agate cup ; arid the whole traverses like a compass needle upon a fine steel point, the bar of wood being equipoised by a small weight at the end of it, equivalent to the weight of the needles. This instrument, when placed with a disc of purple velvet across the needles, in the sun's rays, continued to revolve nearly the whole day, moving always in the direction from east to west by south, in the course of the sun's apparent motion. It moves forty or fifty degrees to the light of a single candle held close to the side of the circle. A piece of clear amber, formed into a convex lens, if fixed into a circle of cork, and suspended by a fine hair or filament, under a glass cover, will also be arrested by the incidence of the solar rays, and will continue to present its surface to the sun, if unclouded, as long as he is invisible above the horizon. It is, perhaps, not generally known, that the conducting power of living plants, in favouring the rapid distribution of electricity, r-as been reckoned three millions of times greater than that of water. ED. MOVING HILLS. 229 LETTER LXXXVII. TO THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. SELBORNE. Mugire videbis Sub pedibus terram, et desceiidere montibus ornos. WHEN I was a boy, I used to read, with astonishment and implicit assent, accounts in Baker's Chronicle of walking- hills and travelling mountains. John Philips, in his Cyder, alludes to the credit that was given to such stories with a delicate but quaint vein of humour, peculiar to the author of the Splendid Shit/ing : I nor advise, nor reprehend, the choice Of Marc ley Hill ; * the apple no where finds A kinder mould : yet 'tis unsafe to trust Deceitful ground : who knows but that, once more, This mount may journey, and, his present site Forsaking, to thy neighbour's bounds transfer The goodly plants, affording matter strange For law debates ! But, when I came to consider better, I began to suspect that, though our hills may never have journeyed far, yet that the ends of many of them have slipped and fallen away at distant periods, leaving the cliffs bare and abrupt. This seems to have been the case with Nore and Whetham Hills, and especially with the ridge between Harteley Park and Ward- le-ham, where the ground has slid into vast swellings and furrows, and lies still in such romantic confusion as cannot be accounted for from any other cause. A strange event, that happened not long since, justifies our suspicions ; which, though it befell not within the limits of this parish, yet as it was within the hundred of Selborne, and as the circumstances were singular, may fairly claim a place in a work of this nature. 230 FALL OF A CLIFF. The months of January and February in the year 1774, were remarkable for great melting snows and vast gluts of rain, so that, by the end of the latter month, the land-springs, or levants, began to prevail, and to be near as high as in the memorable winter of 1764. The beginning of March also went on in the same tenor, when, in the night between the 8th and 9th of that month, a considerable part of the great woody hanger at Hawkley was torn from its place, and fell down, leaving a high freestone cliff naked and bare, and resembling the steep side of a chalk-pit. It appears that this huge fragment, being, perhaps, sapped and undermined by waters, foundered, and was ingulfed, going down in a perpen- dicular direction ; for a gate, which stood in the field on the top of the hill, after sinking with its posts for thirty or forty feet, remained in so true and upright a position, as to open and shut with great exactness, just as in its first situation. Several oaks also are still standing, and in a state of vegetation, after taking the same desperate leap. That great part of this prodigious mass was absorbed in some gulf below, is plain also from the inclining ground at the bottom of the hill, which is free and unencumbered, but would have been buried in heaps of rubbish, had the fragment parted and fallen forward. About an hundred yards from the foot of this hanging coppice stood a cottage by the side of a lane ; and two hundred yards lower, on the other side of the lane, was a farm-house, in which lived a labourer and his family ; and just by, a stout new barn. The cottage was inhabited by an old woman and her son, and his wife. These people, in the evening, which was very dark and tempestuous, observed that the brick floors of their kitchens began to heave and part, and that the walls seemed to open, and the roofs to crack ; but they all agree that no tremor of the ground, indicating an earthquake, was ever felt, only that the wind continued to make a most tre- mendous roaring in the woods and hangers. The miserable inhabitants, not daring to go to bed, remained in the utmost solicitude and confusion, expecting every moment to be buried under the ruins of their shattered edifices. When daylight came, they were at leisure to contemplate the devastations of the night. They then found that a deep rift, or chasm, had opened under their houses, and torn them, as it were, in two, and that one end of the barn had suffered in a similar manner : that a pond near the cottage had undergone a strange reverse, becoming deep at the shallow end, and so vice versa : that many large oaks were removed out of their perpendicular, MOUNTAIN SLIPS. Z.JJ some thrown down, and some fallen into the heads of neigh- bouring trees ; and that a gate was thrust forward, with its hedge, full six feet, so as to require a new track to be made to it. From the foot of the cliff, the general course of the ground, which is pasture, inclines in a moderate descent for half a mile, and is interspersed with some hillocks, which were rifted in every direction, as well towards the great woody hanger as from it. In the first pasture the deep clefts began, and, running across the lane and under the buildings, made such vast shelves that the road was impassable for some time ; and so over to an arable field on the other side, which was strangely torn and disordered. The second pasture field, being more soft and springy, was protruded forward without many fissures in the turf, which was raised in long ridges resembling graves, lying at right angles to the motion. At the bottom of this enclosure, the soil and turf rose many feet against the bodies of some oaks that obstructed their farther course, and terminated this awful commotion.* * There are numerous instances on record of mountain slips of this kind, in various places of the world ; indeed, they are almost of daily occurrence, to a greater or lesser extent. That which is recorded by our author, is trifling when compared to some others. We may particularize the fall of Mount Rusfi, in Switzerland, which took place in 1806. " Here," says Saussure, writing on the spot, " but three weeks ago, was one of the most delightfully fertile valleys of all Switzerland, green and luxuriant, adorned with little villages, full of secure and happy farmers. Now, three of these villages are for ever erased from the face of the earth, and an extended desolation, burying alive several hundred peasants, over- spreads the valley of Lowertz." Early in the evening of the second of September, an immense projection of the mountain of Rusfi gave way, and was precipitated into the valley. In four minutes, it completely overwhelmed three villages, and part of two others. The torrent of earth and stones was more rapid than that of lava, and its effects as irresistible and terrible. The mountain, in its tremendous descent, carried trees, rocks, houses, and every thing before it; the mass spread in every direction, so as to bury completely a space of charming country, more than three miles square. The force of the earth was so great, that it not only overspread the hollow of the valley, but even ascended to a considerable height on the side of the opposite mountain. Part of the falling mass rolled into the lake of Lowertz, filling a fifth part of it up; and raised the water so much, that two islands within it, and the village of Sever, were, for a time, completely overwhelmed by the swell. By this frightful catastrophe, four hundred and thirty-four individuals lost their lives ; and thei'e were also lost one hundred and seventy cows and horses, and one hundred and three goats and sheep; eighty-seven meadows destroyed, sixty meadows damaged ; ninety-three houses entirely destroyed, eight houses damaged, and uninhabitable ; one hundred and sixty-six cow-houses, barns, &c. destroyed, and nineteen damaged. ED. 2tJ FIELD-CRICKET. The perpendicular height of the precipice, in general, is twenty-three yards ; the length of the lapse, or slip, as seen from the fields below, one hundred and eighty-one ; and a partial fall, concealed in the coppice, extends seventy yards more : so that the total length of this fragment that fell was two hundred and fifty-one yards. About fifty acres of land suffered from this violent convulsion ; two houses were entirely destroyed ; one end of a new barn was left in ruins, the walls being cracked through the very stones that composed them ; a hanging coppice was changed to a naked rock ; and some grass grounds and an arable field so broken and rifted by the chasms, as to be rendered, for a time, neither fit for the plough, nor safe for pasturage, till considerable labour and expense had been bestowed in levelling the surface, and filling in the gaping fissures. LETTER LXXXVIII. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE. Resonant arbusta. THERE is a steep abrupt pasture field, interspersed with furze, close to the back of this village, well known by the name of the Short Lithe, consisting of a rocky dry soil, and inclining to the afternoon sun. This spot abounds with the gryllus campestris, or field-cricket ;* which, though frequent in these parts, is by no means a common insect in many other counties. As their cheerful summer cry cannot but draw the attention of a naturalist, 1 have often gone down to examine the economy of these grylli, and study their mode of life ; but they are so shy and cautious that it is no easy matter to get a sight of hem ; for, feeling a person's footsteps as he advances, they stop short in the midst of their song, and retire backward nimbly into their burrows, where they lurk till all suspicion of danger is over. At first, we attempted to dig them out with a spade, but without any great success ; for either we could not get to the bottom of the hole, which often terminated under a great stone, or else, in breaking up the ground, we inadvertently squeezed the poor insect to death. Out of one so bruised, we * Acheta campestris, Fabricius. ED, FIELD-CRICKET. 233 took a multitude of eggs, which were long and narrow, of a yellow colour, and covered with a very tough skin. By this accident, we learned to distinguish the male from the female ; the former of which is shining black, with a golden stripe across his shoulders ; the latter is more dusky, more capacious about the abdomen, and carries a long sword-shaped weapon at her tail, which probably is the instrument with which she deposits her eggs in crannies and safe receptacles. Where violent methods will not avail, more gentle means will often succeed ; and so it proved in the present case : for, though a spade be too boisterous and rough an implement, a pliant stalk of grass, gently insinuated into the caverns, will probe their windings to the bottom, and quickly bring out the inhabitant; and thus the humane inquirer may gratify his curiosity without injuring the object of it. * It is remarkable, that, though these insects are furnished with long legs behind, and brawny thighs for leaping, like grasshoppers, yet, when driven from their holes, they shew no activity, but crawl along in a shiftless manner, so as easily to be taken ; and again, though provided with a curious apparatus of wings, yet they never exert them when there seems to be the greatest occasion. The males only make that shrilling noise, perhaps out of rivalry and emulation, as is the case with many animals which exert some sprightly note during their breeding time : it is raised by a brisk friction of one wing against the other. They are solitary beings, living singly male or female, each as it may happen ; but there must be a time when the sexes have some intercourse, and then the wings maybe useful, perhaps, during the hours of night. When the males meet, they will fight fiercely, as I found by some which I put into the crevices of a dry stone wall, where I should have been glad to have made them settle ; for though they seemed distressed by being taken out of their knowledge, yet the first that got possession of the chinks would seize on any that were obtruded upon them, with a vast row of serrated fangs. With their strong jaws, * The children in France amuse themselves in the fields hunting the field-cricket. They put into the hole of that insect an ant, to which a long hair is attached, and allowing the little animal to penetrate to the bottom of the burrow, they then draw it out, and the cricket always follows it, and in this manner is captured. Pliny informs us of a simple method of taking this insect, which is, by thrusting a slender piece of stick to the bottom of their burrow, when the cricket immediately gets upon it to know the reason of the intrusion, and is thus easily secured. This simplicity of the animal no doubt gave rise to the proverb stultior ffrillo, more foolish than a cricket. ED. X 9 234 FIELD-CRICKET. toothed like the shears of a lobster's claws, they perforate and round their curious regular cells, having no fore-claws to dig, like the mole-cricket. When taken in hand, I could not but wonder that they never offered to defend themselves, though armed with such formidable weapons. Of such herbs as grow before the mouths of their burrows, they eat indiscriminately ; and, on a little platform, which they make just by, they drop their dung ; and never in the day-time seem to stir more than two or three inches from home. Sitting in the entrance of their caverns, they chirp all night as well as day, from the middle of the month of May to the middle of July ; and, in hot w r eather, when they are most vigorous, they make the hills echo ; and, in the still hours of darkness, may be heard to a considerable distance. In the beginning of the season, their notes are more faint and inward ; but become louder as the summer advances, and so die away again by degrees. Sounds do not always give us pleasure according to their sweetness and melody ; nor do harsh sounds always displease. We are more apt to be captivated or disgusted with the associations which they promote, than with the notes them- selves. Thus the shrilling of the field-cricket, though sharp and stridulous, yet marvellously delights some hearers, filling their minds with a train of summer ideas of every thing that is rural, verdurous, and joyous. About the 10th of March, the crickets appear at the mouths of their cells, which they then open and bore, and shap$ very elegantly. All that ever I have seen at that season were in their pupa state, and had only the rudiments of wings lying under a skin, or coat, which must be cast before the insect can arrive at its perfect state ; * from whence I should suppose that the old ones of last year do not always survive the winter. In August, their holes begin to be obliterated, and the insects are seen no more till spring. Not many summers ago, I endeavoured to transplant a colony to the terrace in my garden, by boring deep holes in the sloping turf. The new inhabitants staid some time, and fed and sung ; but wandered away by degrees, and were heard at a farther distance every morning ; so that it appears that, on this emergency, they made use of their wings in attempting to return to the spot from which they were taken. One of these crickets, when confined in a paper cage, and * We have observed that they cast these skins in April, which are then seen lying at the mouths of their holes. HOUSE-CRICKET. 235 set in the sun, and supplied with plants moistened with water, will feed and thrive, and become so merry and loud as to be irksome in the same room where a person is sitting : if *the plants are not wetted, it \vill die. LETTER LXXXIX. TO THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. SELBORNT. Far from all resort of mirth Save the cricket on the hearth. MIJLTON'S 11 Penseroso. DEAR SIR, While many other insects must be sought after in fields, and woods, and waters, the gryllus domesticus,* or house-cricket, resides altogether within our dwellings, intruding itself upon our notice whether we will or no. This species delights in new-built houses, being, like the spider, pleased with the moisture of the walls ; and, besides, the softness of the mortar enables them to burrow and mine between the joints of the bricks or stones, and to open communications from one room to another. They are particularly fond of kitchens and bakers' ovens, on account of their perpetual warmth, -j~ Tender insects that live abroad either enjoy only the short period of one summer, or else doze away the cold uncomfortable months in profound slumbers ; but these, residing as it were in a torrid zone, are always alert and merry ; a good Christinas fire is to them like the heats of the dog-days. Though they are frequently heard by day, yet is their natural time of motion only in the night. As soon as it grows dusk, the chirping increases, and they come running forth, and are from the size of a flea to that of their full stature. As one should suppose, * Acheta domestica, Fabricius ED. f These animals are exceedingly pugnacious, and fight desperately with each other. We have frequently captured crickets, and, having put them into a tumbler covered with paper, have witnessed their battles. Upon more than one occasion we have known them eat each other. We left three of them together in a tumbler, along with some pieces of bread, and, on examining them on the following day, two had been completely devoured, except three of the limbs and the antennae. The survivor was quite brisk and lively. In return for his misdeeds, we terminated the existence of this insect cannibal, and placed him in our cabinet. Latreille informs us that this cricket eats only insects, and certainly thrives well in houses infested by cockroches. We had always supposed that they lived upon bread, until we discovered them devouring each other. ED. 236 HOUSE-CRICKET. from the burning atmosphere which they inhabit, they are a thirsty race, arid shew a great propensity for liquids, being found frequently drowned in pans of water, milk, broth, or the like. Whatever is moist they affect ; and, therefore, often gnaw holes in wet woollen stockings and aprons that are hung to the fire ; they are the housewife's barometer, foretelling her when it will rain ; and are prognostics sometimes, she thinks, of ill or good luck ; of the death of a near relation, or the approach of an absent lover. By being the constant com- panions of her solitary hours, they naturally become the objects of her superstition. * These crickets are not only very thirsty, but very voracious ; for they will eat the scummings of pots, and yeast, salt, and crumbs of bread ; and any kitchen offal or sweepings. In the summer we have observed them to fly, when it became dusk, out of the windows, and over the neighbouring roofs. This feat of activity accounts for the sudden manner in which they often leave their haunts, as it does for the method by which they come to houses where they were not known before. It is remarkable, that many sorts of insects seem never to use their wings but when they have a mind to shift their quarters and settle new colonies. When in the air, they move volatu undoso, in waves, or curves, like woodpeckers, opening and shutting their wings at every stroke, and so are always rising or sinking. When they increase to a great degree, as they did once in the house where I am now writing, they become noisome pests, flying into the candles, and dashing into people's faces ; but may be blasted and destroyed by gunpowder discharged into their crevices and crannies. In families, at such times, they are, like Pharaoh's plague of frogs, " in their bed-chambers, and upon their beds, and in their ovens, and in their kneading- troughs." f Their shrilling noise is occasioned by a brisk attrition of their wings. Cats catch hearth-crickets, and, playing with them as they do with mice, devour them. Crickets may be destroyed, like wasps, by phials half filled with beer, or any liquid, and set in their haunts ; for, being always eager to drink, they will crowd in till the bottles are full. * Sir William Jardine says, that, in Dumfriesshire, it is considered lucky to have crickets in a house ; but if they disappear from one which they have long inhabited, it is locked upon as foreboding some calamity to rhe family Ei>. f Exod. viii. 3. MOT.E-CKK'KFT. 237 LETTER XC. TO THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. SELBORNE. How diversified are the modes of life, not only of incon- gruous, but even of congenerous animals ! and yet their specific distinctions are not more various than their propensities. Thus, while the field-cricket delights in sunny, dry banks, and the house-cricket rejoices amidst the glowing heat of the kitchen hearth or oven, the gryllus gryllotalpa (the mole-cricket) haunts moist meadows, and frequents the sides of ponds, and banks of streams, performing all its functions in a swampy wet soil. With a pair of fore-feet, curiously adapted to the purpose, it burrows and works under ground like the mole, raising a ridge as it proceeds, but seldom throwing up hillocks. * As rnole-crickets often infest gardens by the sides of canals, they are unwelcome guests to the gardener, raising up ridges in their subterraneous progress, and rendering the walks unsightly. If they take to the kitchen quarters, they occasion great damage among the plants and roots, by destroying whoL beds of cabbages, young legumes, and flowers. When dug* out, they seem very slow and helpless, and make no use of their wings by day ; but at night they come abroad, and make long excursions, as I have been convinced by finding stragglers, in a morning, in improbable places. In fine weather, about the middle of April, and just at the close of day, they begin to solace themselves with a low, dull, jarring note, continued for a long time without interruption, and not unlike the chattering of the fern-owl, or goat-sucker, but more inward. * This is the gryUotalpa vulgaris of Latreille ; the structure of its arms and fore-feet fit it in a peculiar manner for these operations, being of great strength, and moved by a set of muscles admirably fitted for the purpose of digging, giving vigour to these parts. The breast consists of a hard and thick horny substance, strengthened within by a double frame-work of tough gristle, in the front edge of which the shoulder- blades are firmly articulated. This structure seems intended to prevent the breast from being injured by the powerful muscles of the arms during the operation of digging. The arms are powerfully formed, and of great breadth, in proportion to the size of the animal ; the feet are shaped like two broad hands, and provided with four large broad-based and sharp claws, pointing somewhat obliquely outwards, like the hands of the mole, this being the direction in which the animal digs, throwing the earth on both sides as it advances. ED. 238 MOLE-CRICKET. About the beginning of May, they lay their eggs, as I was once an eye-witness ; for a gardener, at a house where I was on a visit, happening to be mowing, on the 6th of that month, by the side of a canal, his scythe struck loo deep, pared off' a large piece of turf, and laid open to view a curious scene of domestic economy : ingentem lato dedit ore fenestram ; Apparet domus intus, et atria longa patescunt : Apparent penetralia. There were many caverns and winding passages leading tf a kind of chamber, neatly smoothed and rounded, and about the size of a moderate snuff-box. Within the secret nursery were deposited near an hundred eggs, of a dirty yellow colour, and enveloped in a tough skin ; but too lately excluded to con- tain any rudiments of young, being full of a viscous substance. The eggs lay but shallow, and within the influence of the sun, just under a little heap of fresh moved mould, like that which is raised by ants. When mole-crickets fly, they move cursu undoso, rising and falling in curves, like the other species mentioned before. In different parts of this kingdom, people call them fen-crickets, churr-worms, and eve-churrs, all very apposite names. Anatomists, who have examined the intestines of these insects, astonish me with their accounts : for they say, that from the structure, position, and number of their stomachs, or maws, there seems to be good reason to suppose that this and the two former species ruminate, or chew the cud like many quadrupeds ! LETTER XCI. TO THE EION. DAINES HARRINGTON. SELBORNE, May 7, 1779. IT is now more than forty years that I have paid some atten- tion to the ornithology of this district, without being able to exhaust the subject : new occurrences still arise as long as any inquiries are kept alive. In the last week of last month, five of those most rare birds, too uncommon to have obtained an English name, but known to naturalists by the terms of himantopus, or loripes, and charadriw himantopus,* were shot upon the verge of Frinsham Pond, * This is the long-legged plover of Bewick, and other British authors. ED. HIMANTOPUS, 239 a large lake belonging to the Bishop of Winchester, and lying between Wolmer Forest and the town of Farnham, in the county of Surrey. The pond-keeper says there were three brace in the flock ; but that, after he had satisfied his curiosity, he suffered the sixth to remain unmolested. One of these specimens I procured, and found the length of the legs to be so extraordinary, that, at first sight, one might have supposed the shanks had'been fastened on to impose on the credulity of the beholder : they were legs in caricatura; and had we seen such proportions on a Chinese or Japan screen, we should have made large allowances for the fancy of the draughtsman. These birds are of the plover family, and might, with propriety, be called the stilt-plovers. Brisson, under that idea, gives them the apposite name of Vechasse. My specimen, when drawn, and stuffed with pepper, weighed only four ounces and a quar- ter, though the naked part of the thigh measured three inches and a half, and the legs four inches arid a half : Hence we may safely assert, that these birds exhibit, weight for inches, incom- parably the greatest length of legs of any known bird. The flamingo, for instance, is one of the most long-legged birds, and yet it bears no manner of proportion to the himantopus ; for a cock flamingo weighs, at an average, about four pounds avoirdupois ; and his legs and thighs measure usually about twenty inches. But four pounds are fifteen times and a frac- tion more than four ounces and one quarter : and if four ounces and a quarter have eight inches of legs, four pounds must have one hundred and twenty inches and a fraction of legs, viz. somewhat more than ten feet, such a monstrous proportion as the world never saw! If you should try the experiment in still larger birds, the disparity would still increase. It must be matter of great curiosity to see the stilt-plover move ; to observe how it can wield such a length of lever with such feeble muscles as the thighs seem to be furnished with. At best, one should expect it to be but a bad walker : but what adds to the wonder is, that it has no back toe. Now, without that steady prop to support its steps, it must be liable, in speculation, to perpetual vacillations, and seldom able to pre- serve the true centre of gravity. The old name of himantopus is taken from Pliny; and, by an awkward metaphor, implies that the legs are as slender and pliant as if cut out of a thong of leather. Neither Willughby nor Ray, in all their curious researches, either at home or abroad, ever saw this bird. Mr Pennant never met with it in 240 HIMANTOPUS TORTOISE. all Great Britain, but observed it often in the cabinets of the curious at Paris. Hasselquist says, that it migrates to Egypt in the autumn ; and a most accurate observer of nature has assured me, that he has found it on the banks of the streams in Andalusia. Our writers record it to have been found only twice in Great Britain. From all these relations it plainly appears, that these long-legged plovers are birds of South Europe, and rarely visit our island ; and when they do, are wanderers and stragglers, and impelled to make so distant and northern an excursion, from motives or accidents, for which we are not able to account. One thing may fairly be deduced, that these birds come over to us from the Continent, since nobody can suppose that a species not noticed once in an a-ge, and of such a remarkable make, can constantly breed unobserved in this kingdom.* LETTER XCII. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTOX. SELBORNE, April 21, 1780. DEAR SIR, The old Sussex tortoise, that I have mentioned to you so often, is become my property. I dug it out of its winter dormitory in March last, when it was enough awakened to express its resentments by hissing ; and, packing it in a box with earth, carried it eighty miles in post chaises. The rattle and hurry of the journey so perfectly roused it, that when I turned it out on a border, it walked twice down to the bottom of my garden : however, in the evening, the weather being cold, it buried itself in the loose mould, and continues still concealed. As it will be under my eye, I shall now have an opportunity of enlarging my observations on its mode of life, and propen- sities ; and perceive already, that, towards the time of coming forth, it opens a breathing-place in the ground near its head, requiring, I conclude, a freer respiration as it becomes more alive. This creature not only goes under the earth from the middle of November to the middle of April, but sleeps great part of the summer ; for it goes to bed, in the longest days, at four in the afternoon, and often does not stir in the morning * This bird is a widely diffused species, being common in Egypt, the shores of the Caspian Sea, the southern deserts "of Independent Tartary, and Madras, in the East Indies. En. TORTOISE. 241 till late. Besides, it retires to rest ibr every shower, and does not move at all in wet days. * When one reflects on the state of this strange being, it is a matter of wonder, to find that Providence should bestow such a profusion of days, such a seeming waste of longevity, on a reptile that appears to relish it so little as to squander more than two-thirds of its existence in a joyless stupor, and be lost to all sensation for months together in the profoundest cf slumbers. While I was writing this letter, a moist and warm afternoon, with the thermometer at 50, brought forth troops of shell- snails ; and, at the same juncture, the tortoise heaved up the mould and put out its head ; and the next morning came forth, as it were raised from the dead, and walked about till four in the afternoon. This was a curious coincidence a very amu- sing occurrence to see such a similarity of feelings between two pgggo//co/, for so the Greeks call both the shell-snail and the tortoise. ) Summer birds are, this cold and backward spring, unusually * Dr Bright mentions that land-tortoises are used as food in Hungary. He says, " In the evening I was taken to see another object of curiosity, the garden kept for the rearing and preservation of land-tortoises. The testudo orbicularis is the species most common about the lake, and the river Szala, which falls into it. Tortoises, likewise, occur in great numbers in various parts of Hungary, more particularly about Fiixea Gyarmath, and the marshes of the river Theiss ; and being deemed a delicacy for the table, are caught and kept in preserves. That of Keszthely encloses about an acre of land, intersected by trenches aud ponds, in which the animals feed and enjoy themselves. In one corner was a space separated from the rest by boards two feet high, forming a pen for snails, which here, as well as in Germany, are in request as an article of food. The upper edge of the boards were spiked with nails an inch in height, and at intervals of half an inch, over which, I was assured, these animals never attempt to make their way. This snail, the helix pomatia, is in great demand in Vienna, where sacks of them are regularly exposed for sale in the markets, alternating with sacks of beans, lentils, kidney-beans, and truffles. " The helix pomatia is now ranked among the British land snails. It is the largest of our land shells ; is pretty abun- dant in some of the southern counties of England ; and was introduced by the luxurious Romans, during their residence in Britain ED. f- Snail shells remain in a torpid state during the winter, in the holes of walls, in the ground, or under large stones. They, however, sometimes make their appearance in winter, if the weather should be very mild, and particularly in moist or rainy days. These animals have a wonderful faculty of living, for a great length of time, without food. They liave been known to exist in a drawer, or box, without nutriment of any kind, for two or three years. ED. Y 242 TORTOISE. late : I have seen but one swallow yet. This conformity with the weather convinces mo more and more that they sleep in the winter. MORE PARTICULARS RESPECTING THE OLD FAMILY TOttTOlSH. BECAUSE we call this creature an abject reptile, we are too apt to undervalue his abilities, and depreciate his powers cf instinct. Yet he is, as Mr Pope says of his lord, Much too wise to walk into a well ; and has so much discernment as not to fall down a haha, but to stop and withdraw from the brink with the readiest precaution. Though he loves warm weather, he avoids the hot sun; because his thick shell, when once heated, would, as the poet says of solid armour, " scald with safety." He therefore spends the more sultry hours under the umbrella of a large cabbage leaf, or amidst the waving forests of an asparagus bed. But as he avoids the heat in summer, so, in the decline of the year, he improves the faint autumnal beams, by getting within the reflection of a fruit wall ; and, though he never has read that planes inclining to the horizon receive a greater share of warmth,* he inclines his shell, by tilting it against the wall, to collect and admit every feeble ray. Pitiable seems the condition of this poor embarrassed reptile ; to be cased in a suit of ponderous armour, which he cannot lay aside ; to be imprisoned, as it were, within his own snell, must preclude, we should suppose, all activity and disposition for enterprise. Yet there is a season of the year (usually tne beginning of June) when his exertions are remarkable. Ho then walks on tiptoe, and is stirring by five in the morning ; and, traversing the garden, examines every wicket and inter- stice in the fences, through which he will escape if possible ; and often has eluded the care of the gardener, and wandered to some distant field. The motives that impel him to under- take these rambles seem to be of the amorous kind : his fancy then becomes intent on sexual attachments, which transport him beyond his usual gravity, and induce him to forget for a time his ordinary solemn deportment. * Several years ago a book was written entitled, " Fruit walls improved by inclining them to the horizon; " in which the author has shewn, by calculation, that a much greater number of the rays of the sun u r ill fill] G'i such walls than on those which are perpendicular. HONEY-BUZZARD SPARROW-HAWK, 243 LETTER XCIII. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. A PAIR of honey-buzzards, buteo apivorus, sive ves2)worus 9 Raft, built them a large shallow nest, composed of twigs, and lined with dead beechen leaves, upon a tall slender beech near the middle of Selbome hanger, in the summer of 1 780. 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 embryo 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 Ray's description of that species : had a black cere, short thick legs, and a long tail. When on the wing, this species may be easily distinguished from the common buzzard, by its hawk-like appearance, small head, wings not so blunt, and longer tail. This specimen contained in its craw some limbs of frogs, and many gray snails without shells. The irides of the eyes of this bird were of a beautiful bright yellow colour. About the tenth of July, in the same summer, a pair of sparrow-hawks bred in an old crow's nest on a low beech in the same hanger ;* and as their brood, which was numerous, began to grow up, became so daring and ravenous, that they were a terror to all the dames in the village that had chickens or ducklings under their care. A boy climbed the tree, and found the young so fledged that they all escaped from him ; but discovered that a good house had been kept ; the larder was well stored with provisions ; for he brought down a young blackbird, jay, and house-marten, all clean picked, and some * Professor Rennie says, " Although I have known this bird frequently take possession of the abandoned nest of a crow or a magpie, without making any additional repairs, I have also known it breed in the holes of precipitous rocks, as at Howford, near 'Mauchline, in Ayrshire, and Cartlan Crags, near Lanark." The sparrow-hawk is a bold, audacious bird, and builds frequently in the most frequented situations. Some years ago, when on a visit to Lord Douglas, at Douglas Castle, Lanarkshire, we discovered a nest close to the approach, and not far distant from the east gate. We were desirous to possess the birds, and his lordship gave orders to the gamekeeper to ehoot them, but he only killed the female. ED. 244 DOVES. half devoured. * The old birds had been observed to make sad havoc for some days among 1 the new-flown swallows and martens, which, being but lately out of their nests, had not acquired those powers and command of wing that enable them, when more mature, to set such enemies at defiance. LETTER XCIV. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, November 30, 1780. DEAR SIR, Every incident that occasions a renewal of'oiir correspondence will ever be pleasing and agreeable to me. As to the wild wood-pigeon, the oenas, or vinago, of Ray, I am much of your mind ; and see no reason for making it the origin of the common house-dove : but suppose those that have advanced that opinion may have been misled by another appellation, often given to the oenas, which is that of stock- dove. Unless the stock-dove in the winter varies greatly in manners from itself in summer, no species seems more unlikely to oe domesticated, and to make a house-dove. We very rarely see the latter settle on trees at all, nor does it ever haunt the woods ; but the former, as long as it stays with us, from November perhaps to February, lives the same wild life with the ring-dove, (palumbus torquatus ;) frequents coppices and groves, supports itself chiefly by mast, and delights to roost in the tallest beeches. Could it be known in what manner stock-doves build, the doubt would be settled with me at once, provided they construct their nests on trees, like the ring- dove, as I much suspect they do. You received, you say, last spring, a stock-dove from Sussex ; and are informed that they sometimes breed in that country. But why did not your correspondent determine the place of its nidification, whether on rocks, cliffs, or trees ? If he was not an adroit ornithologist. I should doubt the fact, because people * Speaking of the cruel propensities of this bird, Montagu savs u The more generous hawks, we have frequently observed, kill their prey as soon as caught, by eating the head first ; whereas the buzzards, in particular, hegin eating their prey indiscriminately. We have several times taken partridges and other birds from them, which had one side of the breast or k thigh devoured, and the bird still alive.," Kn. WOOD-PIGEONS. 2-45 with us perpetually confound the stock-dove with me ring- dove. * For my own part, I readily concur with you in supposing that house-doves are derived from the small blue rock-pigeon, for many reasons. In the first place, the wild stock-dove is manifestly larger than the common house- dove, against the usual rule of domestication, which generally enlarges the breed. Again, those two remarkable black spots on the remiges of each wing of the stock-dove, which are so charac- teristic of the species, would not, one should think, be totally lost by its being reclaimed ; but would often break out among its descendants. But what is worth a hundred arguments, is the instance you give in Sir Roger Mostyn's house- doves in Caernarvonshire ; which, though tempted by plenty of food and gentle treatment, can never be prevailed on to inhabit their cote for any time ; but, as soon as they begin to breed, betake themselves to the fastnesses of Ormshead, and deposit their young in safety amidst the inaccessible caverns and precipices of that stupendous promontory. Naturam expellas furca . . . tamen usque recurret. I have consulted a sportsman, now in his seventy-eighth year, who tells me, that fifty or sixty years back, when the oeechen woods were much more extensive than at present, the number of wood-pigeons was astonishing ; that he has often killed near twenty in a day ; and that, with a long wild-fowl piece, he has shot seven or eight at a time on the wing, as they came wheeling over his head : he moreover adds, which I was not aware of, that often there were among them little parties of small blue doves, which he calls rockiers. The food of these numberless emigrants was beech-mast and some acorns ; and particularly barley, which they collected in the stubbles. But of late years, since the vast increase of turnips, that vegetable has furnished a great part of their support in * There are three species of wild pigeon in Britain, besides the turtle- dove, the ring-dove, columba palumbus, the stock-dove, columba aenas, and the rock-dove, columba livia. The two latter are very nearly allied j but a very strong distinctive mark is, that the stock-dove is larger than the rock-dove, and the latter is white on the lower part of the back, whereas the stor-k-dove is ash-coloured. It is now generally believed that the rock-dove is the progenitor of all our domestic breeds of pigeons. There is one circumstance which renders this opinion pretty conclusive, and that is, we never find the domestic pigeon taking to trees to build, when they become wild, but always resorting to old ruins, or to rocks. The ring-dove is much larger than the other two species. ED. Y 2 24t> KING-DOVE. hard weather ; and the holes they pick in these roots greatly damage the crop. From this food their flesh has contracted a rancidness which occasions them to be rejected by nicer judges of eating, who thought them before a delicate dish. They were shot not only as they were feeding in the fields, and especially in snowy weather, but also at the close of the even- ing, by men who lay in ambush among the woods and groves to kill them as they came in to roost. * These are the principal circumstances relating to this wonderful internal migration, which with us takes place towards the end of November, and ceases early in the spring. Last winter we had, in Selborne High-wood, about an hundred of these doves j but in former times the flocks were so vast, not only with us, but all the district around, that on mornings and evenings they traversed the air, like rooks, in strings, reaching for a mile together. When they thus rendezvoused here by thousands, if they happened to be suddenly roused from their roost-trees on an evening, Their rising all at once was like the sound Of thunder heard remote. It will by no means be foreign to the present purpose to add, that I had a relation in this neighbourhood who made it a practice for a time, whenever he could procure the eggs of a ring-dove, to place them under a pair of doves that were sitting in his own pigeon-house, hoping thereby, if he could bring about a coalition, to enlarge his breed, and teach his own doves to beat out into the woods, and to support themselves by mast. The plan was plausible, but something always interrupted the success ; for though the birds were usually hatched, and sometimes grew to half their size, yet none ever arrived at maturity. I myself have seen these foundlings in their nest displaying a strange ferocity of nature, so as scarcely to bear to be looked at, and snapping with their bills by way of menace. In short, they always died, perhaps for want of proper sustenance ; but the owner thought that by their fierce and wild demeanour they frighted their foster-mothers, and so were starved. Virgil, as a familiar occurrence, by way of simile, describes a dove haunting the cavern of a rock, in such engaging numbers, that I cannot refrain from quoting the passage ; and * Some old sportsmen say, that the main part of these flocks iisod to Withdraw as soon as the heavy Christmas frosts were over. HOUSE-MARTEN. 247 John Dryden has rendered it so happily in our language that without farther excuse, I shall add his translation also : Quails spelunca subito coraraota columba, Cui domus, et dulces latebroso in pumice nidi, Fertur in arva volans, plausumque exterrita pennis Dat tecto ingentem : mox aere lapsa quieto Radit iter liquidum, celeres neque commovet alas. As when the dove her rocky hold forsakes, Roused in a fright, her sounding wings she shakes j The cavern rings with clattering ; out she flies, And leaves her callow care, and cleaves the skies : At first she flutters ; but at length she springs To smoother flight, and shoots upon her wings. LETTER XCV. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, September 3, 1781 I HAVE now read your Miscellanies through with much care and satisfaction ; and am to return you my best thanks for the honourable mention made in them of me as a naturalist, which I wish I may deserve. In some former letters, I expressed my suspicions that many of the house-martens do not depart in the winter far from this village. I therefore determined to make some search about the south-east end of the hill, where I imagined they might slumber out the uncomfortable months of winter. But suppo- sing that the examination would be made to the best advantage in the spring, and observing that no martens had appeared by the llth of April last, on that day I employed some men to explore the shrubs and cavities of the suspected spot. The persons took pains, but without any success ; however, a remarkable incident occurred in the midst of our pursuit, while the labourers were at work, a house-marten, the first that had been seen this year, came down the village in the sight of several people, and went at once into a nest, where it staid a short time, and then flew over the houses ; for some days after, no martens were observed, not till the 16th of April, and then only a pair. Martens in general were remark- ably late this year. * * These early birds may be such as have hastened hither, by coming within the range of a favouring gale of wind. En. 248 SWIFTS. LETTER XCVI. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, September 9, 1731. I HAVE just met with a circumstance respecting swifts, which furnishes an exception to the whole tenor of my observations ever since I have bestowed any attention on that species of hirundines. Our swifts, in general, withdrew this year about the first day of August, all save one pair, which in two or three days was reduced to a single bird. The perseverance of this individual made me suspect that the strongest of motives, that of an attachment to her young, could alone occasion so late a stay. I watched therefore till the twenty-fourth of August, and then discovered that, under the eaves of the church, she attended upon two young, which were fledged, and now put out their white chins from a crevice. These remained till the twenty-seventh, looking more alert every day, and seeming to long to be on the wing. After this day, they were missing at once ; nor could I ever observe them with their dam coursing round the church in the act of learning to fly, as the first broods evidently do. On the thirty-first, I caused the eaves to be searched ; but we found in the nest only two callow, dead, stinking swifts, on which a second nest had been formed. This double nest was full of the black shining cases of the hippobosccB hirundinis. The following remarks on this unusual Incident are obvious : The first is, that though it be disagreeable to swifts to remain beyond the beginning of August, yet that they can subsist longer is undeniable. The second is, that this uncommon event, as it was owing to the loss of the first brood, so it cor- roborates my former remark, that swifts breed regularly but once ; since, was the contrary the case, the occurrence above could neither be new nor rare. P.S. One swift was seen at Lyndon, in the county of Rut- land, in 1782, so late as the 3d of September. LETTER XCVII. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. As I have sometimes known you make inquiries about several kinds of insects, I shall here send you an account of coccus. 249 one sort which I little expected to have found in this kingdom. 1 had often observed that one particular part of a vine, growing oti the walls of my house, was covered in the autumn with a black, dust-like appearance, on which the flies fed eagerly; and that the shoots and leaves thus affected did not thrive, Lor did the fruit ripen. To this substance I applied my glasses, but could not discover that it had any thing to do with animal life, as 1 at first expected ; but upon a closer examination behind the larger boughs, we were surprised to find that they were coated over with husky shells, from whose sides proceeded a cotton-like substance, surrounding a multi- tude of eggs. This curious and uncommon production put me upon recollecting what I have heard and read concerning the coccus vitis vintferd increase, I cannot but suspect still that these cocci came to me originally from Andalusia. Yet, all the while, candour obliges me to confess, that Mr Lightfoot has written me word, that he once, and but once, saw these insects on a vine at Weymouth, in Dorsetshire ; which, it is here to be observed, is a seaport town to which the coccus might be conveyed by shipping. As many of my readers may possibly never have heard of this strange and unusual insect, I shall here transcribe a passage from a Natural History of Gibraltar, written by the Reverend John White, late vicar of Blackburn, in Lancashire, but not yet published : " In the year 1770, a vine, which grew on the east side of my house, and which had produced the finest crops of grapes for years past, was suddenly overspread, on all the woody branches, with large lumps of a white fibrous substance, resembling spiders' webs, or rather raw cotton. It was of a very clammy quality, sticking fast to every thing that touched it, and capable of being spun into long threads. At first I suspected it to be the product of spiders, but could find none. Nothing was to be seen connected with it, but many brown oval husky shells, which by no means looked like insects, but rather resembled bits of the dry bark of the vine. The tree had a plentiful crop of grapes set, when this pest appeared upon it ; but the fruit was manifestly injured by this foul encumbrance. It remained all the summer, still increasing, and loaded the woody and bearing branches to a vast degree. I often pulled off great quantities by handfuls ; but it was so slimy and tenacious that it could by no means be cleared. The grapes never filled to their natural perfection, but turned watery and vapid. Upon perusing the works afterwards of M. de Reaumur, I found this matter perfectly described and accounted for. Those husky shells which I had observed, were no other than the female coccus, from whose sides this cotton-like substance exudes, and serves as a covering and security for their eggs," To this account I think proper to add, that, though the female cocci are stationary, and seldom remove from the place to which they stick, yet the male is a winged insect ; and that the black dust which I saw was undoubtedly the excrement of the females, which is eaten by ants as well as flies. Though the utmost severity of our winter did not destroy tV ese insects, SMOTHER-FLY. 251 yet the attention of the gardener, in a summer or two, has entirely relieved my vine from this filthy annoyance. As we have remarked above, that insects are often conveyed from one country to another in a very unaccountable manner, I shall here mention an emigration of small aphides, which was observed in the village of Selborne, no longer ago than August the 1st, 1785. At about three o'clock in the afternoon of that day, which was very hot, the people of this village were surprised by a shower of aphides, or smother-flies, which fell in these parts.* Those that were w r alking in the street at that juncture, found themselves covered with these insects, which settled also on the hedges and gardens, blackening all the vegetables where they alighted. My annuals were discoloured with them, and the stalks of a bed of onions were quite coated over for six days after. These armies w r ere then, no doubt, in a state of emigration, and shifting their quarters ; and might have come, as far as we know, from the great hop plantations of Kent or Sussex, the wind being all that day in the easterly quarter. They were observed, at the same time, in great clouds about Farnham, and all along the vale from Farnham to Alton, f LETTER XCVIII. TO THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. DEAR SIR, When I happen to visit a family where gold and silver fishes! are kept in a glass bowl, I am always pleased * There are several species of these troublesome, although minute, animals ; the loftiest tree is as liable to their attacks as the most humble plant. Their numbers are incalculably great. They prefer the young and tender shoots, and frequently insinuate themselves into the very heart of the plants, where they commit much havoc. Some feed indiscriminately on every kind of plant, while others confine their ravages to one species of plant only. The aphis of the rose tree too frequently despoil this delightful flower. The aphides afford a very striking deviation from the general laws of nature, one impregnation of the female is sufficient for nine generations. ED. f For various methods by which several insects shift their quarters, see Derham's Physico- Theology. J The gold and silver fishes are but one species, the cyprinus auratus of Linnaeus. The young fry, when first produced, are perfectly black, but they afterwards change to white, and then to gold colour ; the latter colours appear first about the tail, and extend upwards. The smallest fish are the most beautiful, beinr of a f no orange red, appearing as if sprinkled over with gold dust -some are ash very white, and others white, 252 GOLD AND SILVER FISHES. with the occurrence, because it offers me an opportunity of observing the actions and propensities of those beings with whom we can be little acquainted in their natural state. Not long since, I spent a fortnight at the house of a friend, where there was such a vivary, to which I paid no small attention, taking every occasion to remark what passed within its narrow limits. It was here that I first observed the manner in which fishes die. As soon as the creature sickens, the head sinks low r er and lower, and it stands, as it were, on its head ; till, getting weaker, and losing all poise, the tail turns over, and, at last, it floats on the surface of the water, with its belly uppermost. The reason why fishes, when dead, swim in that manner, is very obvious ; because, when the body is no longer balanced by the fins of the belly, the broad muscular back preponderates by its own gravity, and turns the belly upper- most, as lighter, from its being a cavity, and because it contains the sw r imming bladders, which contribute to render it buoyant. Some that delight in gold and silver fishes, have adopted a notion that they need no aliment. True it is, that they will subsist for a long time without any apparent food but what they can collect from pure water frequently changed ; yet they must draw some support from animalcula, and other nourish- ment, supplied by the water ; because, though they seem to eat nothing, yet the consequences of eating often drop from them. That they are best pleased with such jejune diet may easily be confuted, since, if you toss them crumbs, they will seize them with great readiness, not to say greediness : how- ever, bread should be given sparingly, lest, turning sour, it corrupt the water. They will also feed on the water plant called lemna, (duck's meat,) and also on small fry. When they want to move a little, they gently protrude themselves with their pinnce pectorales ; but it is with their strong muscular tails only that they, and all fishes, shoot along with such inconceivable rapidity. It has been said, that the eyes of fishes are immoveable ; but these apparently turn them forward or backward, in their sockets, as their occasions require. They take little notice of a lighted candle, though applied close to their heads, but flounce, and seem much frightened by a sudden stroke of the hand against the support whereon the bowl is hung ; especially when they have been spotted with red. When kept in ponds, they are frequently taught to rise to the surface of the water, at the sound of a bell, to be fed. They arc said to have been first introduced into England in 1691. ED. HOUSE-MARTENS. 253 motionless, and perhaps asleep. As fishes have no eyelids, it is not easy to discern when they are sleeping 1 or not, because their eyes are always open. Nothing can be more amusing than a glass bowl containing such fishes : the double refractions of the glass and water represent them, when moving, in a shifting and changeable variety of dimensions, shades, and colours ; while the two mediums, assisted by the concavo-convex shape of the vessel, magnify and distort them vastly ; not to mention that the introduction of another element and its inhabitants into our parlours engages the fancy in a very agreeable manner. Gold and silver fishes, though originally natives of China and Japan, yet are become so well reconciled to our climate, as to thrive and multiply very fast in our ponds and stews. Linnaeus ranks this species of fish under the genus of cypr'mus, or carp, and calls it cyprinus auratus. Some people exhibit this sort of fish in a very fanciful way ; for they cause a glass bowl to be blown with a large hollow space within, that does not communicate with it. In this cavity they put a bird occasionally, so that you may see a goldfinch or a linnet hopping, as it were, in the midst of the water, and the fishes swimming in a circle round it. The simple exhibition of the fishes is agreeable and pleasant ; but in so complicated a way, becomes whimsical and unnatural, and liable to the objection due to him, Qui variare cupit rem prodigialiter unam. LETTER XCIX. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. October 10, 1781. DEAR SIR, I think I have observed before, that much the most considerable part of the house-martens withdraw from hence about the first week in October; but that some, the latter broods, I am now convinced, linger on till towards the middle of that month ; and that at times once perhaps in two or three years a flight, for one day only, has shewn itself in the first week in November. Having taken notice, in October, 1 780, that the last flight was numerous, amounting perhaps to one hundred and fifty, and that the season was solt and still, I was resolved to pay uncommon attention to these late birds, to find, if possible, where they roosted, and to determine the precise time of their z 254 MIGRATION. retreat. The mode of life of these latter hirundines is very favourable to such a design, for they spend the whole day in the sheltered district between me and the Hanger, sailing about in a placid easy manner, and feasting on those insects which love to haunt a spot so secure from ruffling winds. As my principal object was to discover the place of their roosting, I took care to wait on them before they retired to rest, and was much pleased to find that, for several evenings together, just at a quarter past five in the afternoon, they all scudded away in great haste towards the south-east, and darted down among the low shrubs above the cottages at the end of the hill.* This * Our author is most desirous to establish the opinion, that some of the hirundines and their congeners live with us during the winter. In addition to the mass of evidence which we have brought forward regarding the migration of the swallow tribe, we shall conclude this subject with the interesting observations of Audubon, the celebrated American ornithologist, on the republican, or cliff-swallow. " Being extremely desirous of settling the long-agitated question respecting the migration or supposed torpidity of swallows, I embraced every opportunity of examining their habits, carefully noted their arrival and disappearance, and recorded every fact connected with their history. After some years' constant observation and reflection, I remarked, that, among all the species of migratory birds, those that remove farthest from us depart sooner than those which retire only to the confines of the United States ; and, by a parity of reasoning, those that remain later return earlier in the spring. These remarks were confirmed as I advanced towards the south-west on the approach of winter, for I there found numbers of warblers, thrushes, &c. in full feather and song. It was also remarked, that the hirundo viridis of Wilson remained about the city of New Orleans later than any other swallow. As immense numbers of them were seen during the month of November, I kept a diary of the temperature from the 3d of that month, until the arrival of the hirundo purpurea. The following notes are taken from my journal, and, as I had excellent opportunities, during a residence of many years in the country, of visiting the lakes to which these swallows were said to resort during transient frosts, I present them with con- fidence : " November 11. Weather very sharp, with a heavy white frost. Swal- lows in abundance during the whole day. On inquiring of the inhabitants if this was an unusual occurrence, I was answered in the affirmative by all the French and Spaniards. From this date to the twenty-second the thermometer averaged sixty-five degrees, the weather generally a drizzly fog. Swallows playing over the city in thousands. " November 25 Thermometer this morning at thirty degrees. Ice in New Orleans a quarter of an inch thick. The swallows resorted to the lee of the cypress swamp in the rear of the city. Thousands were flying in different flocks. Fourteen were killed at a single shot, all in perfect plumage and very fat. The markets were abundantly supplied with these tender, juicy, and delicious birds. Saw swallows every day, but remarked them more plentiful the stronger the breeze blew from the sea. MIGRATION. 255 spot in many respects seems to be well calculated for their winter residence, for, in many parts, it is as steep as the roof of any house, and therefore secure from the annoyances of water ; and it is, moreover, clothed with beechen shrubs, which, being- stunted and bitten by sheep, make the thickest covert imaginable, and are so entangled as to be impervious to the smallest spaniel ; besides, it is the nature of underwood beech never to cast its leaf all the winter, so that, with the leaves on the ground and those on the twigs, no shelter can be more complete. I watched them on to the thirteenth and fourteenth of October, and found their evening retreat was exact and uniform ; but after this they made no regular appearance. Now and then a straggler was seen ; and, on the twenty-second of October, I observed two, in the morning, over the village, and with them my remarks for the season ended. From all these circumstances put together, it is more than probable that this lingering flight, at so late a season of the year, never departed from the island. Had they indulged me that autumn with a November visit, as I much desired, I presume that, with proper assistants, I should have settled the matter past all doubt ; but though the third of November was " December 20. The weather continues much the same. Foggy and drizzly mist. Thermometer averaging sixty-three degrees. " January 14. Thermometer forty- two degrees. Weather coutinuos the same. My little favourites constantly in view. " January 28. Thermometer at forty degrees. Having .seen the hirundo viridis continually, and the hirundo purpurea, or purple marten, beginning to appear, I discontinued my observations. " During the whole winter, many of them retired to the holes about the houses, but the greater number resorted to the lakes, and spent the night among the branches of myrica cerifera, the drier, as it is termed by the French settlers. At sunset they began to flock together, calling to each other for that purpose, and, in a short time, presented the appear- ance of clouds moving towards the lakes, or the mouth of the Mississippi, as the weather and wind suited. Their aerial evolutions, before they alight, are truly beautiful. They appear at first as if reconnoitering the place, when, suddenly throwing themselves into a vortex of apparent confusion, they descend spirally with astonishing quickness, and very much resemble a trombe, or water spout. When within a few feet of the driers, they disperse in all directions, and settle in a few moments. Their twittering, and the motions of their wings, are, however, heard during the whole night. As soon as the day begins to dawn, they rise, flying low over the lakes, almost touching the water for some time, and then rising, gradually move off in search of food, separating- in different directions. The hunters who resort to these places destroy great numbers of them, by knocking them down with light paddles, used in propelling their canoes." ED. tueu cairn 256 INSTINCT. a sweet day, and in appearance exactly suited to my wishes, yet not a marten was to be seen, and so I was forced, reluc- tantly, to give up the pursuit. I have only to add, that were the bushes, which cover some acres, and are not my own property, to be grubbed and care- fully examined, probably those late broods, and perhaps the whole aggregate body of the house-martens of this district, might be found there in different secret dormitories ; and that, so far from withdrawing into warmer climes, it would appear that they never depart three hundred yards from the village. LETTER C. TO THE HON. DA1NES BARRINGTON. THEY who write on natural history, cannot too frequently advert to instinct, that wonderful limited faculty, which, in some instances, raises the brute creation, as it were, above reason, and in others, leaves them so far below it. Philosophers have defined instinct to be that secret influence by which every species is impelled naturally to pursue, at all times, the fiame way, or track, without any teaching or example ; whereas reason, without instruction, would often vary, and do that by many methods which instinct effects by one 'alone. Now, this maxim must be taken in a qualified sense, for there are instances in which instinct does vary and conform to the circumstances of place and convenience. It has been remarked, that every species of bird has a mode of nidification peculiar to itself, so that a schoolboy would at once pronounce on the sort of nest before him. This is the case among fields, and woods, and wilds ; but in the villages round London, where mosses, and gossamer and cotton from vegetables, are hardly to be found, the nest of the chaffinch has not that elegant finished appearance, nor is it so beautifully studded with lichens, as in a more rural district ; and the wren is obliged to construct its house with straws and dry grasses, which do not give it that rotundity and compactness so remark- able in the edifices of that little architect. Again, the regular nest of the house-marten is hemispheric ; but where a rafter, or a joist, or a cornice, may happen to stand in the way, the nest is so contrived as to conform to the obstruction, and becomes flat, or oval, or compressed. In the following instances, instinct is perfectly uniform and consistent. There are three creatures, the squirrel, the INSTINCT. 257 field-mouse, and the bird called the nut-hatch, (sitta europcca^) which live much on hazel-nuts, and yet they open them each in a different way. The first, after rasping off the small end, splits the shell into two with his long fore teeth, as a man does with his knife ; the second nibbles a hole with his teeth, so regular as if drilled with a wimble, and yet so small that one would wonder how the kernel can be extracted through it ; while the last picks an irregular ragged hole with its bill ; but as this artist has no paws to hold the nut firm while he pierces it, like an adroit workman, he fixes it as it were in a vice, in some cleft of a tree, or in some crevice, when, standing over it, he perforates the stubborn shell. We have often placed nuts in the chink of a gate-post, where nut-hatches have been known to haunt, and have always found that those birds have readily penetrated them. While at work, they make a rapping noise that may be heard at a considerable distance.* You that understand both the theory and practical part of music, may best inform us why harmony or melody should so * Instinct is not invariably infallible, as Professor Rennie justly observes, for we can discover many mistakes of this faculty. For example, when Dr Arnold discovered that wonderful vegetable produc- tion, the rafflesia Arnoldii, in Sumatra, which is said to smell like tainted beef, he observed a swarm of flies gathered around it, for the purpose, as he supposed, of depositing their eggs upon it, as they no doubt imagined it to be tainted carrion. The circumstance of insects mistaking the rafflesia for putrid meat, is not a singular one, as we have similar mistakes happening in this country. The common flesh fly (musca vomitorea) often lays its eggs in the fetid sorts of phalli and agarici, apparently supposing them genuine flesh. The earth-worm, which is instinctively afraid of moles, flies to the surface of the earth whenever it finds the ground shaking, whether by man or animals. Boys who wish to capture these poor anima's, take advantage of this natural dread of an enemy, and by sinking a spade or stake into the ground, move it backwards and forwards, and the alarmed worms ascend to the surface. It is mentioned by Dr Anderson, in his Bee, that the lapwing (tringa vanellus} is aware of this instinctive fear of the earth-worm, and when other food is scarce, it pats the ground with its feet, till the earth-worms, mistaking it for a mole approaching, ascend to the surface, when they are immediately devoured by the cunning bird. The flight of the cuckoo being very like that of a hawk, it is frequently pursued by small birds, thinking it one of these fell destroyers. Linnaeus mentions that at Tornea, there is a meadow, or bog, which abounds with water hemlock, (cicuta virosa,) which the cattle eat, and are poisoned ; from fifty to a hundred head of cattle die annually from this cause. En. Z 2 258 EFFECT OF MUSIC. strangely affect some men, as it were by recollection, for days after a concert is over. What I mean, the following passage will most readily explain : " Prsehabebat porro vocibus humanis, instrumentisque har- monicis, musicam illam avium . non quod alia quoque non dclectaretur ; sed quod ex musica humana relinqueretur in animo continens quaedam, attentionemque et somnum contur- bans agitatio : dum ascensus, exscensus, tenores, ac mutationes illae sonorum et consonantiarum, euntque, redeuntque per phantasiam : cum nihil tale relinqui possit ex modulationibus avium, quae, quod non sunt perinde a nobis imitabiles, non pos- sunt perinde internam facultatem commovere." GASSENDUS, in Vita Peireskii.* This curious quotation strikes me much by so well repre- senting my own case, and by describing what I have so often felt, but never could so well express. When I hear fine music, I aia haunted with passages therefrom night and day, and especially at first waking; which, by their importunity, give me more uneasiness than pleasure : elegant lessons still tease my imagination, and recur Irresistibly to my recollection at seasons, and even when 1 am desirous of thinking of more serious matters, f * As this striking passage can be only understood by the classical scholar, we offer a translation for the use of those who are not so: " He preferred, besides, the music of birds to the human voice, and to musical instruments ; not because he derived no pleasure from the last, but because after music from the human voice there was left in the mind a certain continual agitation, disturbing attention and sleep, while the risings and fallings, the tones and changes, of sound and concords, pass and repass through the fancy ; whereas nothing of this kind can remain after the warblmgs of birds, which, as they cannot be imitated by us, cannot therefore affect the faculty of imagination within us." En. f A similar impulse was felt by Alfieri, who, in his life, written by nimself, describes his sensations on hearing music, as of a very powerful kind. He thus speaks of the first opera he witnessed when he was only twelve years of age, " This varied and enchanting music sank deep into my soul, and made the most astonishing impression on my imagi- nation : it agitated the imnost recesses of my heart to such a degree, that for several weeks I experienced the most profound melancholy, which was not, however, wnolly unattended with pleasure. I became tired and disgusted with my studies, while, at the same time, the most wild and whimsical ideas took such possession of my mind as would have led me to portray them in the most impassioned verses, had I not been wholly unacquainted with my own feelings. It was the first time music had produced such a powerful effect on my mind. 1 had never experienced any thing similar, and it long remained engraven on my memory. When I recollect the feelings excited by the representation of PETTICHAPS. 259 LETTER CI. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. A RARE, and I think a new, little bird frequents my garden, which f have great reason to think is the pettichaps it is common in some parts of the kingdom ; and I have received formerly several dead specimens from Gibraltar. This bird much resembles the white-throat, but has a more white, or rather silvery, breast and belly; is restless and active, like the willow-wrens, and hops from bough to bough, examining every part for food ; it also runs up the stems of the crown-imperials, and, putting its head into the bells of those flowers, sips the liquor which stands in the nectarium of each petal. Sometimes it feeds on the ground like the hedge-sparrow, by hopping about on the grass-plots and mown walks. One of my neighbours, an intelligent and observing man, informs me, that, in the beginning of May, and about ten minutes before eight o'clock in the evening, he discovered a great cluster of house-swallows, thirty at least, he supposes, perching on a willow that hung over the verge of James the grand operas, at which I was present, during several carnivals, and compare them with those which I now experience, on returning from the performance of a piece I have not witnessed for some time, I am fully convinced that nothing acts so powerfully on my mind as all species of music, and particularly the sound of female voices, and of contralto. Nothing excites more various or terrific sensations in my mind. Thus the plots of the greatest number of my tragedies were either formed while listening to music, or a few hours afterwards." In a subsequent passage lie remarks, "My greatest pleasure consisted in attending the opera buffa, though the gay and lively music left a deep and melancholy impres- sion on my mind. A thousand gloomy and mournful ideas assailed^my imagination, in which I delighted to indulge by wandering alone on the shores of the Chiaja Portici. " Associations of ideas, awakened by music, have also a powerful effect upon the sensitive mind. The following quotation from the London Magazine strikingly illustrates this fact : "I knew, at Paris, the widow of an Irish patriot, who could not hear the * Exile of Erin' sung without being overpowered to such a degree, that it would have been truly alarming, liad not a flood of tears come to her relief. What is wonderful, so far from having a fine musical ear, she had not even a common-place relish for music. The same effect was produced on her by the ' Minstrel Boy ' of Moore. A young friend of the writer, who has no taste for music, is similarly overpowered, even in a crowded theatre, when * Home, sweet Home, is sung." ED. 260 PEREGRINE FALCON. Knight's upper pond. His attention was first drawn by the twittering of these birds, \\iiich sat motionless in a row on the bough, with their heads all one way, and, by their weight, pressing down the twig, so that it nearly touched the water. In this situation, he watched them till he could see no longer. Kepeated accounts ot this sort, spring and fall, induce us greatly to suspect, that house-swallows have some strong attachment: to water, independent of the matter of food ; and, though they may not retire into that element, yet they may conceal themselves in the banks of pools and rivers during the uncomfortable months of winter. One of the keepers of Wolmer Forest sent me a peregrine falcon, which he shot on the verge of that district, as it was devouring a. wood-pigeon. The falco peregrinus, or haggard falcon, is a noble species of hawk, seldom seen in the southern counties. In winter 1767, one was killed in the neighbouring parish of Faringdon, and sent by me to Mr Pennant into North Wales.* Since that time, I have met with none till now. The specimen mentioned above was in fine preservation, and not injured by the shot : it measured forty-two inches from wing to wing, and twenty-one from beak to tail, and weighed two pounds and a half standing weight. This species is very robust, and wonderfully formed for rapine ; its breast was plump and muscular ; its thighs long, thick, and brawny ; and its legs remarkably short and well set ; the feet were armed with most formidable, sharp, long talons ; the eyelids and cere of the bill were yellow; but the irides of the eyes dusky ; the beak was thick and hooked, and of a dark colour, and had a jagged process near the 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 sup- posed 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 * See Letters X. XL to Thomas Pennant, Esq. f- The bones and feathers which are swallowed along with the fleuK by birds of prey, tend to assist digestion. Eu, CHINESE DOGS. 261 from the mountains of North Wales or Scotland, where they are known to breed, by rigorous weatner and deep snows that had lately fallen. LETTER CII. TO THE HON. 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 tHat country for the purpose of being eaten : they are about the size of a moderate spaniel ; of a pale yellow colour, with coarse bristling hair 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 them an awkward gait when they trot. When they are in motion, their tails are curved high over their backs, like those of some hounds, and have a bare place each on the outside, from the tip mid- way, that does not seem to be matter of accident, but somewhat singular. Their eyes are jet black, small, and piercing ; the insides of their lips and mouths of the same colour, and their tongues blue. The bitch has a dew-claw on each hind leg ; the dog has none. When taken out into a field, the bitch shewed some disposition for hunting, and dwelt on the scent of a covey of partridges till she sprung them, giving her tongue all the time. The dogs in South America* are dumb ; * but these bark much in a short, thick manner, like foxes ; and have a surly, savage demeanour, like their ancestors, which are not domesticated, but bred up in sties, where they are fed for the table with rice-meal and other farinaceous food. These dogs, Having been taken on board as soon as weaned, could not learn much from their dam ; yet they did not relish flesh when they came to England. In the islands of the Pacific Ocean, the dogs are bred up on vegetables, and would not eat flesh when offered them by our circumnavigators. We believe that all dogs, in a state of nature, have sharp, upright, fox-like ears ; and that hanging ears, which are esteemed so graceful, are the effect of choice breeding and * The dogs which Captain Franklin brought from the Arctic Regions were dumb, and are never known to bark in their native country ; but a young one, that was whelped here, has learnt to imitate his fellows. ED. 262 DOGS. cultivation. Thus in ihe Travels of Ysbrandt Ides from Muscovy to China, the dogs which draw the Tartars on snow sledges near the river Oby, are engraved with prick-ears, like those from Canton. The Kamtschatdales also train the same sort of sharp-eared, peak-nosed dogs to draw their sledges ; as may be seen in an elegant print engraved for Captain Cook's last voyage round the world. Now we are upon the subject of dogs, it may not be impertinent to add, that spaniels, as all sportsmen know though they hunt partridges and pheasants, as it were, by instinct, and with much delight and alacrity, yet will hardly touch their bones when offered as food ; nor will a mongrel dog of my own, though he is remarkable for finding that sort of game. But, when we came to offer the bones of partridges to the two Chinese dogs, they devoured them with much greediness, and licked the platter clean. No sporting dogs will flush woodcocks till inured to the scent, and trained to the sport, which they then pursue with vehemence and transport ; but then they will not touch their bones, but turn from them with abhorrence, even when they are hungry. * Now, that dogs should not be fond of the bones of such birds as they are not disposed to hunt, is no wonder ; but why they reject and do not care to eat their natural game, is not so easily accounted for, since the end of hunting seems to be, that the chase pursued should be eaten. Dogs, again, will not devour the more rancid water-fowls ; nor indeed the bones of any wild-fowls ; nor will they touch the fetid bodies of birds that feed on offal and garbage ; and indeed there may be somewhat of providential instinct in this circumstance of dislike ; for vultures, )* and kites, and ravens, and crows, &c. were intended to be messmates with dogs J over their carrion ; and seem to be appointed by Nature as fellow-scavengers, to remove all cadaverous nuisances from the face of the earth. * Pointers are frequently known to set game the first time they are taken into a field, and to preserve their point with the steadiness of an old well-trained dog. En. f- Hasselquist, in his Travels to the Levant, observes, that the dogB and vultures at Grand Cairo maintain such a friendly intercourse, as to , bring up their young together in the same place. \ The Chinese word loi a dog, to a European ear, sounds like quttdch. STONE-CURLEW liOOKS. 263 LETTER CIII. TO THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. THE fossil wood buried in the bogs of Wolmer Forest, is not yet all exhausted ; for the peat-cutters now and then stumble upon a log. I have just seen a piece which was sent by a labourer of Oakhanger to a carpenter of this village : this was the butt end of a small oak, about five feet long, and about five inches in diameter. It had apparently been severed from the ground by an ax, was very ponderous, and as black as ebony. Upon asking the carpenter for what purpose he had procured it, he told me that it was to be sent to his brother, a joiner at Farnham, who was to make use of it in cabinet work, by inlaying it along with whiter woods. Those that are much abroad on evenings after it is dark, in spring and summer, frequently hear a nocturnal bird passing by on the wing, and repeating often a short quick note. This bird I have remarked myself, but never could make out till lately. I am assured now, that it is the stone-curlew, (char a- drius oedicnemus.) Some of them pass over or near my house almost every evening after it is dark, from the uplands of the hill and Northfield, away down towards Dorton ; where, among the streams and meadows, they find a greater plenty of food. Birds that fly by night are obliged to be noisy ; their notes, often repeated, become signals, or watch-words, to keep them together, that they may not stray or lose each other in the dark. The evening proceedings and manoeuvres of the rooks are curious and amusing in the autumn. Just before dusk, they return in long strings from the foraging of the day, and rendezvous by thousands over Selborne-down, where they wheel round in the air, and sport and dive in a playful manner, all the while exerting their voices, and making a loud cawing, which, being blended and softened by the distance that we at the village are below them, becomes a confused noise or chiding or rather a pleasing murmur, very engaging to the imagination, aiM not unlike the cry of a pack of hounds in hollow, echoing woods, or the rushing of the wind in tall trees, or the tumbling of the tide upon a pebbly shore. When this ceremony is over, with the last gleam of day, they retire for the night to the deep beechen woods of Tisted and Ropley. We remember a little girl, who, as she was going to bed, used to remark on 264 RAIN. such an occurrence, in the true spirit of physico-theology, that the rooks were saying their prayers ; and yet this child was much too young to be aware that the Scriptures have said of the Deity that " He feedeth the ravens who call upon him."* LETTER CIV. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. IN reading Dr Huxham's Observationes de Aere, &c. written at Plymouth, I find, by those curious and accurate remarks, which contain an account of the weather from the year 1727 to the year 1748, inclusive, that though there is frequent rain in that district of Devonshire, yet the quantity falling is not great; and that some years it has been very small; for in 1731, the rain measured only 17 inch . 266 th0 ". ; and in 1741, 20 354; and again, -in 1743, only 20 908. Places near the sea have frequent scuds, that keep the atmosphere moist, yet do not reach far up into the country ; making thus the maritime situations appear wet, when the rain is not consider- able. In the wettest years at Plymouth, the Doctor measured only once 36 ; and again once, viz. 1734, 37 114; a quantity of rain that has twice been exceeded at Selborne in the short period of my observations. Dr Huxham remarks, that frequent small rains keep the air moist ; while heavy ones render it more dry, by beating down the vapours.-)- He is also of opinion, * Rooks have undoubtedly a language of their own, which is understood by the whole community ; and a bird set to watch by them has a peculiar note, by which it warns its fellows of approaching danger, and upon the sound of which they all take flight, and always in a direction opposite to where the danger is apprehended. ED. f Mr Spence remarks, on this subject, " The superior dryness of the air in Italy in summer, compared with that of England, and many parts of the north of Europe, is well known ; but I was not aware that the difference is equally striking even in the rainy part of winter, judging, for want of a better hygrometer, from the condensation of moisture on the inside of windows in rooms without a fire, which I have always observed to be very considerable in winter, both in England, and in Brussels, during a three years' residence there, whenever a cold night succeeds a rainy or warm day, the condensed moisture often even running down to the floor ; whereas at Florence, under precisely similar circumstances, I have never ECHOES BAROMETER. ^65 that the dingy smoky appearance in the sky, in very dry seasons, arises from the want of moisture sufficient to let the light through, and render the atmosphere transparent ; because he had observed several bodies more diaphanous when wet than dry ; and did never recollect that the air had that look in rainy seasons. My friend, who lives just beyond the top of the Down, brought his three swivel guns to try them in my outlet, with their muzzles towards the Hanger, supposing that the report would have had a great effect; but the experiment did not answer his expectation. He then removed them to the alcove on the Hanger ; when the sound, rushing along the Lythe and Comb-wood, was very grand : but it was at the Hermitage that the echoes and repercussions delighted the hearers ; not only filling the Lythe with a roar, as if all the beeches were tearing up by the roots, but, turning to the left, they pervaded the vale above Comb-wood ponds ; and, after a pause, seemed to take up the crash again, and to extend round Harteley Hangers, and to die away at last among the coppices and coverts of Ward-le-ham. It has been remarked before, that this district is an Anathoth, a place of responses, or echoes, and therefore proper for such experiments ; we may farther add, that the pauses in echoes, when they cease and yet are taken up again, like the pauses in music, surprise the hearers, and have a fine effect on the imagination. The gentleman above mentioned has just fixed a barometer in his parlour at Newton Valence. The tube was first filled here (at Selborne) twice with care, when the mercury agreed, and stood exactly with my own ; but being filled again twice at Newton, the mercury stood, on account of the great elevation of that house, three-tenths of an inch lower than the baro- meters at this village, and so continues to do, be the weight of the atmosphere what it may. The plate of the barometer at Newton is figured as low as twenty-seven ; because, in stormy weather, the mercury there will sometimes descend below twenty-eight. We have supposed Newton house to stand two hundred feet higher than this house : but if the rule holds good, which says that mercury in a barometer sinks a hard frost sets in. Among many other proofs of the greater dryness of the air in winter, one is afforded by the profusion in which grapes are to be had, at less than twopence a pound, at the corners of every street, up to the end of March, quite free from all mouldiness, though cut full four months, and kept merely by being hung at the top of rooms without afire." ED. 2 A 266 BAROMETERS WEATHER. one-tenth of an inch for erery hundred feet elevation, then the Newton barometer, by standing three-tenths lower than that of Selborne, proves that Newton house must be three hundred feet higher than that in which I am writing, instead of two hundred. It may not be impertinent to add, that the barometers at Selborne stand three-tenths of an inch lower than the baro- meters at South Lambeth ; whence we may conclude, that the former place is about three hundred feet higher than the latter ; and with good reason, because the streams that rise with us run into the Thames at Weybridge, and so to London. Of course, therefore, there must be lower ground all the way from Selborne to South Lambeth ; the distance between which, all the windings and indentings of the streams considered, cannot be less than an hundred miles. * LETTER CV. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SINCE the weather of a district is undoubtedly part of its natural history, I shall make no farther apology for the four following letters, which will contain many particulars concern- ing some of the great frosts, and a few respecting some very hot summers, that have distinguished themselves from the rest during the course of my observations. As the frost in January, 1768, was, for the small time it lasted, the most severe that we had then known for many years, and was remarkably injurious to evergreens, some account of its rigour, and reason of its ravages, may be useful, and not unacceptable to persons that d.elight in planting and orna- menting ; and may particularly become a work that professes never to lose sight of utility. For the last two or three days of the former year, there were considerable falls of snow, which lay deep and uniform on the ground without any drifting, wrapping up the more * The best instrument now in use for determining the pressure of the atmosphere, the altitude of any place above an other, or above the level of the sea, is the barometer invented and made by Mr. Adie, 58, Princes amcuues oy a single process 01 suuiracuou aim multiplication, wnercas lo obtain the altitude with the common bai'ometer, the use of the barome- trical tables is indispensable. ED. SNOW SHRUBS. 2(57 humble vegetation in perfect security. From the first day to the fifth of the new year, more snow succeeded ; but from that day, the air became entirely clear, and the heat of the sun about noon had a considerable influence in sheltered situations. It was in such an aspect, that the snow on the author's evergreens was melted every day, and frozen intensely every night; so that the laurustines, bays, laurels, and arbutuses, looked, in three or four days, as if they had been burnt in the fire ; while a neighbour's "plantation of the same kind, in a high, cold situation, where the snow was never melted at all, remained uninjured.* From hence I would infer, that it is the repeated melting and freezing of the snow that is so fatal to vegetation, rather than the severity of the cold. Therefore, it highly behoves every planter, who wishes to escape the cruel mortification of losing in a few days the labour and hopes of years, to bestir himself on such emergencies ; and, if his plantations are small, to avail himself of mats, cloths, pease-haum, straw, reeds, or any such covering, for a short time ; or if his shrubberies are extensive, to see that his people go about with prongs and forks, and carefully dislodge the snow from the boughs ; since the naked foliage will shift much better for itself, than where the snow is partly melted and frozen again. It may perhaps appear at first like a paradox, but doubtless the more tender trees and shrubs should never be planted in hot aspects ; not only for the reason assigned above, but also because, thus circumstanced, they are disposed to shoot earlier in the spring, and to grow on later in the autumn than they would otherwise do, and so are sufferers by lagging or early frosts. For this reason, also, plants from Siberia will hardly endure our climate ; because, on the very first advances of spring, they shoot away, and so are cut off by the severe nights of March or April. Dr Fothergill and others have experienced the same incon- venience with respect to the more tender shrubs from North America : which they therefore plant under north walls. There * The effect of shade, in preventing, or rather neutralizing, terrestrial radiation, was strikingly exhibited at Florence, in January, 1830, after the second and longest frost. While all the rest of the surrounding exposed grass looked bare and withered, that under a group of old evergreen oaks had made a shoot of from one to two inches, and was of a fine vivid green, distinguishable at a great distance. Groundsel, the daisy, shepherd's purse, veronica arvensis,calendula arvensis,&c. were in flower the whole winter, their blossoms expanding in bright warm days during the frost. ED. 268 BEES FROSTS. should also, perhaps, be a wall to the east, to defend them from the piercing blasts from that quarter. This observation might, without any impropriety, be carried into animal life ; for discerning bee-masters now find that their hives should not, in the winter, be exposed to the hot sun, because such unseasonable warmth awakens the inhabi- tants too early from their slumbers ; and, by putting their juices into motion too soon, subjects them afterwards to inconveniencies when rigorous weather returns. The coincidents attending this short but intense frost, were, that the horses fell sick with an epidemic distemper, which injured the winds of many, and killed some ; that colds and coughs were general among the human species ; that it froze under people's beds for several nights ; that meat was so hard frozen that it could not be spitted, and could not be secured but in cellars ;* that several redwings and thrushes were killed by the frost ; and that the large titmouse continued to pull straws lengthwise from the eaves of thatched houses and barns in a most adroit manner, for a purpose that has been explained already.-)- On the third of January, Benjamin Martin's thermometer, within doors, in a close parlour where there was no fire, fell in the night to 20, and on the fourth to 18, and on the seventh to 1 7 J, a degree of cold which the owner never since saw in the same situation ; and he regrets much that he was not able at that juncture to attend his instrument abroad. All this time, the wind continued north and north-east; and yet on the eighth, roost-cocks, which had been silent, began to sound their clarions, and crows to clamour, as prognostic of milder weather ; and, moreover, moles began to heave and work, and a manifest thaw took place. From the latter circumstance, we may conclude, that thaws often originate under ground from warm vapours which arise, else how should subterraneous animals receive such early intimations of their approach ? Moreover, we have often observed that cold seems to descend from above ; J for when a thermometer hangs abroad in a * Meat thus frozen will keep any length of time. At St Petersburgh, there is a market of frozen meat. A species of extinct elephant was found in the ice of the North Seas, where it must have remained for many centuries, and when discovered, part of the flesh was yet preserved, an'd untainted. ED. f See Letter LXIII. to Thomas Pennant, Esq. | This may be explained, on the principle that the radiation of caloric proceeds more rapidly from the earth's surface, when the sky is clear, and is interrupted by the intervention of a cloud. En. THAWS. 269 frosty night, the intervention of a cloud shall immediately raise the mercury ten degrees ; and a clear sky shall again compel it to descend to its former gage. And here it may be proper to observe, on what has been said above, that though frosts advance to their utmost severity by somewhat of a regular gradation, yet thaws do not usually come on by as regular a declension of cold ; but often take place immediately from intense freezing ; as men in sickness often mend at once from a paroxysm.* To the great credit of Portugal laurels and American junipers, be it remembered, that they remained untouched amidst the general havock : hence men should learn to orna- ment chiefly with such trees as are able to withstand accidental seventies, and not subject themselves to the vexation of a loss which may befall them once perhaps in ten years, yet may hardly be recovered through the whole course of their lives. As it appeared afterwards, the ilexes were much injured, the cypresses were half destroyed, the arbutuses lingered on, but never recovered ; and the bays, laurustines, and laurels, were killed to the ground ; and the very wild hollies, in hot aspects, were so much affected, that they cast all their leaves.f * About the middle of November, 1831, the winter set in at Edinburgh with considerable severity, and was followed up by a fall of snow. It lay on the ground for some days, and had been raked up in heaps along the sides of the street. It continued freezing hard, on the evening of the twenty -first, at six o'clock, when we were out of doors. We had occasion to be out again a little after midnight, and, the moment we set our face out of doors, we were astonished at the extreme warmth of the atmosphere, which felt like a genial summer mid-day breeze, the wind blowing gently from the south, and the whole snow had disappeared. So rapid was the thaw, that the atmosphere seemed incapable of properly taking up the moist vapour, and next day the walls of all the houses in Edinburgh ran down with condensed vapour : those which were painted with size appeared as wet as if they had been newly washed, and it was some days before they were thoroughly dry. En. j- The winter of 1830-31, remarkable for the great quantity of snow that fell in some parts of the kingdom, as well as for the severity of the frost, caused very great devastation among the evergreens, particularly in Ireland. At Headford, in the county of Galway, several very large trees of the arbutus unedo, which had already flourished for many years, and attained a diameter of nearly a foot, were destroyed down to the root. In the vicinity of Clogher, in the county of Tyrone, most of the laurustines, bays, and laurels, and many of the evergreens, were entirely destroyed ; nor were the Portugal laurels entirely exempted. In one shrubbery, in particular, the decay was so rapid as to produce an almost overpowering smell. En. 2 A 2 270 WINTER OF 1776. By the fourteenth of January, the snow was entirely gone ; the turnips emerged, not damaged at all, save in sunny places ; the wheat looked delicately ; and the garden plants were well preserved; for snow is the most kindly mantle that infant vegetation can be wrapped in : were it not for that friendly meteor, no vegetable life could exist at all in northerly regions. Yet in Sweden, the earth in April is not divested of snow for more than a fortnight before the face of the country is covered with flowers. LETTER CVI. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. THERE were some circumstances attending the remarkable frost in January, 1776, so singular and striking, that a short detail of them may not be unacceptable. The most certain way to be exact will be to copy the passages from my journal, which were taken from time to time as things occurred. But it may be proper previously to remark, that the first week in January was uncommonly wet, and drowned with vast rains from every quarter: from whence may be inferred, as there is great reason to believe is the case, that intense frosts seldom take place till the earth is perfectly glutted and chilled with water ; and hence dry autumns are seldom followed by rigorous winters. * January 7th. Snow driving all the day, which was fol- lowed by frost, sleet, and some snow, till the twelfth, when a prodigious mass overwhelmed all the works of men, drifting over the tops of the gates, and filling the hollow lanes. On the fourteenth, the writer was obliged to be much abroad ; and thinks he never before or since encountered such rugged Siberian weather. Many of the narrow roads were now filled above the tops of the hedges ; through which the snow was driven into most romantic and grotesque shapes, so striking to the imagination, as not to be seen without wonder and pleasure. The poultry dared not to stir out of their roosting places ; for cocks and hens are so dazzled and con- founded by the glare of snow, that they would soon perish * The autumn preceding January, 1768, was very wet, and particularly the month of September, during- which there fell at Lyndon, in tbe county of Rutland six inches and a half of rain. And the terrible long frost in 1739 40 act in after a rainy season, and when tho springs were very high. WINTER OF 1770. 273 without assistance. The hares also lay sullenly in their seats, and would not move till compelled by hunger ; being conscious, poor animals, that the drifts and heaps treacherously betray their footsteps, and prove fatal to numbers of them. From the fourteenth, the snow continued to increase, and began to stop the road-wagons and coaches, which could no longer keep on their regular stages ; and especially on the western roads, where the fall appears to have been deeper than in the south. The company at Bath, that wanted to attend the Queen's birth day, were strangely incommoded : many carriages of persons who got, in their way to town from Bath, as far as Marlborough, after strange embarrassments, here met with a ne plus ultra. The ladies fretted, and offered large rewards to labourers, if they would shovel them a road to London ; but the relentless heaps of snow were too bulky to be removed ; and so the eighteenth passed over, leaving the company in very uncomfortable circumstances, at the Castle and other inns. On the twentieth, the sun shone out for the first time since the frost began ; a circumstance, that has been remarked before, much in favour of vegetation. All this time, the cold was not very intense, for the thermometer stood at twenty- nine, twenty-eight, twenty-five, and thereabout ; but on the twenty-first it descended to twenty. The birds now began to be in a very pitiable and starving condition. Tamed by the season, sky-larks settled in the streets of towns, because they saw the ground was bare ; rooks frequented dunghills close to houses ; and crows watched horses as they passed, and greedily devoured what dropped from them ; hares now came into men's gardens, and, scraping away the snow, devoured such plants as they could find. On the twenty-second, the author had occasion to go to London, through a sort of Laplandian scene, very wild and grotesque indeed. But the metropolis its'elf exhibited a still more singular appearance than the country ; for, being bedded deep in snow, the pavement of the streets could not be touched by the wheels or the horses' feet, so that the carriages ran about without the least noise. Such an exemption from din and clatter was strange, but not pleasant ; it seemed to convey an uncomfortable idea of desolation : Ipea silentia teruent. On the twenty-seventh, much snow fell all day, and in the evening-, the frost became very intense. At South Lambeth, 272 WINTER OF 1776. for the four following nights, the thermometer fell to eleven, seven, six, six ; and at Selborne, to seven, six, ten ; and on the thirty-first of January, just before sunrise, with rime on the trees, and on the tube of the glass, the quicksilver sank exactly to zero, being thirty-two degrees below the freezing point ; but by eleven in the morning, though in the shade, it sprang up to sixteen and a half,* a most unusual degree of cold this for the south of England ! During these four nights, the cold was so penetrating, that it occasioned ice in warm chambers, and under beds ; and, in the day, the wind was so keen, that persons of robust constitutions could scarcely endure to face it. The Thames was at once so frozen over, both above and below bridge, that crowds ran about on the ice. The streets were now strangely encumbered with snow, which crumbled and trode dusty ; and, turning gray, resembled bay salt : what had fallen on the roofs was so perfectly dry, that, from first to last, it lay twenty-six days on the houses in the city ; a longer time than had been remembered by the oldest housekeepers living. According to all appearances, we might now have expected the continuance of this rigorous weather for weeks to come, since every night increased in severity ; but behold, without any apparent cause, on the first of February, a thaw took place, and some rain followed before night ; making good the observation above, that frosts often go off as it were, at once, without any gradual declension of cold. On the second of February, the thaw persisted ; and on the third, swarms of little insects were frisking and sporting in a court-yard at South Lambeth, as if they had felt no frost. Why the juices in the small bodies and smaller limbs of such minute beings, are not frozen, is a matter of curious inquiry, f * At Selborne, the cold was greater than at any other place that the author could hear of with certainty ; though some reported at the time, that, at a village in Kent, the thermometer fell two degrees below zero, viz. thirty-four degrees below the freezing point. The thermometer used at Selborne was graduated by Benjamin Martin. f It is surprising the degree of cold which the eggs and chrisalids of insects can endure, without destroying the vital principle j nor is it less astonishing the degree of heat they are capable of sustaining. Spallanzani, and John Hunter, have made some curious experiments on these subjects. " Intense cold," says Spallanzani, " does not destroy the eggs of insects." The year 1 709 was celebrated for the intensity of its cold, and its fatal effects on animals and plants. Fahrenheit's thermometer fell to one degree. * Who can believe,' exclaims Boerhaave, ' that the severity of this winter did not destroy the eggs of insects, especially those exposed to its influence in open fields, on the bare earth, or on the exposed branches WINTER OF 1770 273 Severe frosts seem to be partial, or to rnn in currents ; for at the same juncture, as the author was informed by ace irate correspondents, at Lyndon, in the county of Rutland, the thermometer stood at nineteen; at Blackburn, in Lancashire, at nineteen; and at Manchester, at twenty-one, twenty, and eighteen. Thus does some unknown circumstance strangely overbalance latitude, and render the cold sometimes much greater in the southern than in the northern parts of this kingdom. The consequences of this severity were, that, in Hampshire, at the melting of the snow, the wheat looked well, and the turnips came forth little injured. The laurels and laurustines were somewhat damaged, but only in hot aspects. No ever- greens were quite destroyed ; and not half the damage sustained that befell in January, 17(58. Those laurels that were a little scorched on the south sides, were perfectly untouched on their north sides. The care taken to shake the snow day by day from the branches, seemed greatly to avail the author's evergreens. A neighbour's laurel hedge, in a high situation, and facing to the north, was perfectly green and vigorous ; and the Portugal laurels remained unhurt. As to the birds, the thrushes and blackbirds were mostly destroyed ; and the partridges, by the weather and poachers were so thinned, that few remained to breed the following year. of trees ! Yet the genial warmth of spring having again tempered the air, these eggs were hatched, and as numerously as in the mildest winters. Since that time, there have been winters still more severe, for, in France, as well as in several other European states, in December, 1788, the ther- mometer fell considerably beneath that of 1709. " I subjected eggs of insects to a more severe trial than in the winter of 1709. Among others were those of the silk-worm moth, and the elm butterfly, which I enclosed in a glass vessel, and buried five hours in a mixture of the ice and rock-salt, when the thermometer fell six degrees below zero ; notwithstanding which, caterpillars were extruded from all the eggs, and exactly at the >;ame time with those which had not been subjected to this experiment. In the succeeding year, I exposed them to a still greater degree of cold. I prepared a mixture of rock-salt and nitrate of ammonia, and reduced the thermometer to twenty-two degrees below zero, which was twenty-three degrees lower than the cold of 1709. They suffered nothing from this rigorous treatment, as they were all n sn." r i 274 WINTER OF 1784-& LETTER CVII. TO THE HON. DA1NES BARRINGTON. As the frost in December, 1784, was very extraordinary, you, I trust, will not be displeased to hear the particulars ; and especially when I promise to say no more about the severities of winter, after I have finished this letter. The first week in December was very wet, with the barometer very low. On the seventh, with the barometer at twenty-eight five-tenths, came on a vast snow, which continued all that day and the next, and most part of the following night ; so that, by the morning of the ninth, the works of men were quite overwhelmed, the lanes filled so as to be impassable, and the ground covered twelve or fifteen inches without any drifting. la the evening of the ninth, the air began to be so very sharp, that we thought it would be curious to attend to the motions of a thermometer ; we, therefore, hung out two, one made by Martin, and one by Dolland, which soon began to shew us what we were to expect ; for, by ten o'clock, they fell to twenty-one, and at eleven to four, when we went to bed. On the tenth, in the morning, the quicksilver of Dolland's glass was down to half a degree below zero, and that of Martin's, which was absurdly graduated only to four degrees above zero, sunk quite into the brass guard of the ball, so that, when the weather became most interesting, this was useless. On the tenth, at eleven at night, though the air was perfectly still, Dolland's glass went down to one degree below zero ! This strange severity of the weather made me very desirous to know what degree of cold there might be in such an exalted and near situation as Newton. We had, therefore, on the morning of the tenth, written to Mr , and entreated him to hang out his thermometer, made by Adams, and to pay some attention to it, morning and evening, expecting wonderful phenomena, in so elevated a region, at two hundred feet or more above my house. But, behold ! on the tenth, at eleven at night, it was down only to seventeen, and the next morning at twenty-two, when mine was at ten ! We were so disturbed at this unexpected reverse of comparative local cold, that we sent one of my glasses up, thinking that of Mr i must, somehow, be wrongly constructed. But, when the instruments came to be confronted, they went WINTER OF 1784-5. ^75 exactly together, so that, for one night at least, the cold at Newton was eighteen degrees less than at Selborne, and, through the whole frost, ten or twelve degrees ;* and, indeed, when we came to observe consequences, we could readily credit this, for all my laurustines, bays, ilexes, arbutuses, cypresses, and even my Portugal laurels and, which occasions more regret, my fine sloping laurel hedge, were scorched up, while, at Newton, the same trees have not lost a leaf! We had steady frost on the twenty-fifth, when the thermo- meter, in the morning, was down to ten with us, and at Newton only to twenty-one. Strong frost continued till the thirty-first, when some tendency to thaw was observed, and by January the third, 1 785, the thaw was confirmed, and some rain fell. A circumstance that I must not omit, because it was new to us, is, that on Friday, December the tenth, being bright sunshine, the air was full of icy spicula, floating in all direc- tions, like atoms in a sunbeam let into a dark room. We thought them, at first, particles of the rime falling from ray tall hedges, but were soon convinced to the contrary, by making our observations in open places where no rime could reach us. Were they watery particles of the air frozen as * The Rev. Mr Bree, of Allesley Rectory, made similar observations in the years 1830 and 1831. He says, " I have elsewhere observed, in the year 1830, that the effects of the frosty nights on trees seemed to differ according to the circumstances, and to be most destructive in lower situations. Several instances of the same kind presented themselves to my notice this season, during the frosts which prevailed in the month of May. The gooseberries and currants were in some cases much injured in gardens which lay low, while those in more elevated situations escaped unhurt. Many of our native plants were cut off, as equisetum arvense, aspidium filix mas. and aculeatum scilla nutansj &c. all of them lovers of low ground. But not only were the late frosts most destructive in low situations, they seem also to have had a much more injurious effect on vegetation within a few feet of the surface of the ground than they had as many yards above it. And of this I was struck with a remarkable instance in a wood in this neighbourhood, which consists chiefly of oak. For the space of several acres, I observed the opening foliage of the under- wood oak, about seven or eight feet from the ground, to be entirely cut off by the frost, though the bushes were, of course, much sheltered by the overshadowing boughs of the poles and trees above them ; while, contrary to what might be expected, the foliage of the poles and trees themselves, which were exposed to the atmosphere, but elevated some yards above the underwood, remained unaffected. In the case, also, of single oak trees, in other situations, I observed the foliage of the lower boughs to be cat off by the frost, and the head of the higher branches to br unimpaired " '276 WINTER OF 1784-5 they floated, or were they evaporations from the snow frozen as they mounted ?* We were much obliged to the thermometers for the early information they gave us, and hurried our apples, pears, onions, potatoes, &c. into the cellar and warm closets : while those who had not, or neglected such warnings, lost all their stores of roots and fruits, and had their very bread and cheese frozen. I must not omit to tell you, that, during those two Siberian days, my parlour cat was so electric, that had a person stroked her, and been properly insulated, the shock might have been given to a whole circle of people, f * We can account for this phenomenon only by the supposition, that these spiculse were formed by a thin stratum of vapour passing through the higher regions of the atmosphere; and that they were not dense enough to have the ordinary appearance of snow. We know that snow itself is crystallized vapour, and the distinctness and forms of these crystals will be in proportion to the intensity of the cold at the time. The ordinary cold in this country is seldom such as to produce these, and the snow has usually a flaky appearance. Captain Scoresby mentions having frequently seen snow in a highly crystallized state in the Arctic Regions. In this country there are occasional showers of highly crystallized snow. On the 4th of February, 1830, a fall of this kind was noticed at Cam- bridge, the thermometer then standing at about twenty-two degrees, and the wind from the east-north-east. Nearly all the snow which fell was of that beautiful stellated form called by Captain Scoresby the " lamellar stelliform crystals." They consisted chiefly of six points, radiating from a centre, forming with each other, at that centre, angles of sixty degrees, and having commonly additional ramifications on the primary ones, in the same plane with them, and forming angles of sixty degrees with the primaries. These, however, consisted of great variety in their arrange- ment. Some were regular in all their parts, while others were quite eccentric. Some of these were fashioned by the obliteration of the alternate rays, so as to form angles of one hundred and twenty, instead of one hundred and sixty, degrees ; the additional ramifications still forming angles of sixty degrees with the primaries. The size of these crystals varied from one-eighth to one-third of an inch in diameter. Scoresby says, that the time when the greatest quantity of crystals fell in the Arctic Seas, was when the thermometer stood between sixteen and twenty-two degrees, and the wind was north-east or north-north-east, which corresponded with what was observed at Cambridge. ED. * Some animals have the voluntary power of communicating electricity, The torpedo, and electric eel, may be mentioned as well known instances. in the Magazine of Natural History, a correspondent mentions having received several shocks from a caterpillar of the cerura vinula, or puss- moth. These he found on a young poplar. He says, " The cerura shewed decided symptoms of irritation, which particularly drew my atten- tion. It began to contract its body, drawing itself closely together, and, by degrees, elevated and extended its bifurcated tail. There were slowly protruded from out of the points bright red filaments, and irregularly bent to one side. In a short time I felt a sudden tingle along my arms, SUMMERS OF 1781 AND 1788. 27? I forgot to mention before, that, during the two severe days, two men, who were tracing hares in the snow, had their feet frozen ; and two men, who were much better employed, had their fingers so affected by the frost, while they were thrashing in a barn, that mortification followed, from which they did not recover for many weeks. This frost killed all the furze arid most of the ivy, and in many places stripped the hollies of all their leaves. It came at a very early time of the year, before old November ended, and may yet be allowed, from its effects, to have exceeded any since 1739-40.* LETTER CVIII. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. As the effects of heat are seldom very remarkable in the northerly climate of England, where the summers are often so defective in warmth and sunshine, as not to ripen the fruits of the earth so well as might be wished, I shall be more concise in my account of the severity of a summer season, and so make a little amends for the prolix account of the degrees of cold, and the inconveniencies that we suffered from some late rigorous winters. The summers of 1781 and 1783, were unusually hot and dry ; to them, therefore, 1 shall turn back in my journals, without recurring to any more distant period. In the former of these years, my peach and nectarine trees suffered so much from the heat, that the rind on the bodies was scalded and came off ; since which, the trees have been in a decaying state. This may prove a hint to assiduous gardeners to fence and shelter their wall-trees with mats or boards, as they may easily do, because such annoyance is seldom of long continu- ance. During that summer, also, I observed that my apples were coddled, as it were, on the trees ; so that they had no quickness of flavour, and would not keep in the winter. This which made me stop with surprise. Suspecting, however, that this might be imaginary, 1 again proceeded ; and shortly after I felt another shock, which made me almost involuntarily throw the twig with the creature upon the ground." ED. * Mr Miller, in his Gardener's Dictionary, says positively, that the Portugal laurels remained untouched in the remarkable frost of 1739-40: so that either that accurate observer was much mistaken, or else the frost of December, 1784, was much more severe and destructive than that in the year above mentioned. 2 & 278 SUMMERS OF 1781 AND 1783. circumstance put me in mind of what I have heard travellers assert, that they never ate a good ar>ule or aoricot in the south of Europe, where the heats were so great as to render the juices vapid and insipid. The great pests of a garden are wasps, which destroy all the finer fruits just as they are coming into perfection. In - 1781, we had none ; in 1783, there were myriads, which would have devoured all the produce of my garden had we not set the boys to take the nests, and caught thousands with hazel-twigs tipped with bird-lime : we have since em- ployed the boys to take and destroy the large breeding wasps in the spring. Such expedients have a great effect on these marauders, and will keep them under. Though wasps do not abound but in hot summers, yet they do not prevail in every hot summer, as I have instanced in the two years above mentioned.* In the sultry season of 1 783, honey-dews were, so frequent as to deface and destroy the beauties of my garden. My honeysuckles, which were one week the most sweet and lovely objects that eye could behold, became the next the most loath- some, being enveloped in a viscous substance, and loaded with black aphides, or smother-flies. The occasion of this clammy * There is a wonderful provision in the economy of Nature, by which the numbers of these troublesome marauders are kept within moderate bounds, and but for which they would soon overrun the face of the earth. Every wasp's nest is peopled by several thousands of neuters, or workers. But the neuters, which are first produced, are likewise the first that perish : for not one of them survives the termination of even a mild winter. The female wasps are, however, stronger, and can bear the rigours of winter better than either the males or neuters. But several hundreds of the females of every nest perish before the end of the winter, and, indeed, not more than ten or a dozen of each nest survive that season. These females are destined for the continuation of the species, and each of them becomes the founder of a new republic. It is quite uncertain whether any male wasps survive. Every nest, about the beginning of October, presents a strange scene of what appears anomalous cruelty. The wasps then fiot only desist from bringing nourishment to their young, but also drag them in the caterpillar state from their cells, and expose them to the weather, where they either die for want of food, or become a prey to birds, or, as is more generally the case, the parent wasps pinch them to death with their forceps. But instead of being cruel and unnatural, this is perhaps an act of mercy, as wasps do not lay up a store of food for the winter, and their progeny would consequently die a painful and lingering death from starvation if left in their cells. So that what appears a transgression of the predominating love of animals for their young is, in fact, a merciful effort of instinct ED. 'SUMMER OF 1783. 279 appearance seems to be this, that in hot weather, the effluvia of flowers in fields, and meadows, and gardens, are drawn up in the day by a brisk evaporation, and then in the night fall down again with the dews in which they are entangled ; that the air is strongly scented, and therefore impregnated with the particles of flowers in summer weather, our senses will inform us ; and that this clammy sweet substance is of the vegetable kind, we may learn from bees, to whom it is very grateful ; and we may be assured that it falls in the night, because it is always first seen in warm still mornings. * On chalky and sandy soils, and in the hot villages about London, the thermometer has been often observed to mount as high as eighty-three or eighty-four ; but with us, in this hilly and woody district, I have hardly ever seen it exceed eighty, nor does it often arrive at that pitch. The reason, I conclude, is, that our dense clayey soil, so much shaded by trees, is not so easily heated through as those above mentioned ; and, besides, our mountains cause currents of air and breezes ; and the vast effluvia from our woodlands temper and moderate our heats. LETTER CIX. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. THE summer of the year 1783, was an amazing and portentous one, and full of horrible phenomena ; for, besides the alarming meteors and tremendous thunder-storms, that affrighted and distressed the different counties of this kingdom, the peculiar haze, or smoky fog, that prevailed for many weeks in this island, and in every part of Europe, and even beyond its limits, was a most extraordinary appearance, unlike any thing known within the memory of man. By my journal, I find that I had noticed this strange occurrence from June twenty- third to July twentieth, inclusive, during which period the wind varied to every quarter, without making any alteration in the air. The sun, at noon, looked as blank as a clouded moon, and shed a rust-coloured ferruginous light on the ground and floors of rooms, but was particularly lurid and blood-coloured at rising and setting. All the time, the heat was so intense that butchers' meat could hardly be eaten the day after it was killed ; and the flies swarmed so in the lanes and hedges, that they rendered the horses half frantic, and riding irksome. The * Honey dew is the excrement of the aphides ED. 280 EARTHQUAKES THUNDER-STORMS. country people began to look with a superstitious awe at the red lowering aspect of the sun ; and, indeed, there was reason for the most enlightened person to be apprehensive, for all the while, Calabria and part of the isle of Sicily were torn and convulsed with earthquakes;* and about that juncture, a volcano sprung out of the sea on the coast of Norway. On this occasion, Milton's noble simile of the sun, in his first book of Paradise Lost, frequently occurred to my mind ; and it is indeed particularly applicable, because, towards the end, it alludes to a superstitious kind of dread, with which the minds of men are always impressed by such strange and unusual phenomena : As when the sun, new risen, Looks through the horizontal, misty air, Shorn of his beams; or, from behind the moon, In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds On half the n-itions, and with fear of change Perplexes monarchs. LETTER CX. TO THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. WE are very seldom annoyed with thunder-storms ; and it is no less remarkable than true, that those which arise in the south have hardly been known to reach this village ; for, before they get over us, they take a direction to the east or to the west, or sometimes divide into two, and go in part to one of those quarters, and in part to the other ; as was truly the case in summer 1783, when, though the country round was con- tinually harassed with tempests, and often from the south, yet we escaped them all ; as appears by my journal of that summer. * The shocks of the dreadful earthquakes here alluded to began on the" 5th February, and continued, at different times, till the 1st of March, 1783; during which time, the face of the two Calabrias, lying between the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth degree, were entirely altered ; hills had been swallowed up, others lowered ; huge mountains split asunder, and parts of them driven to a considerable distance ; valleys filled up ; the courses of rivers altered ; springs dried, and new ones formed. At Laureana, in Calabria Ultra, two tenements, with large plantations, situated in a level valley, were detached by the earthquake, and trans- planted, with their trees still remaining in their places, to the distance of about a mile from their first situation ; and from the spot on which they formerly stood, hot water, mixed with sand, sprang to a considerable height. It would be difficult to asssign the reason why Europe generally was much affected in the electrical condition of its atmosphere during this remarkable summer. ED. THUNDER-STORMS. 281 The only way that I can at alJ account for this fact for such it is is, that on that quartet, between us and the sea, there are continual mountains, hill behind hill, such as Nore-hill, the Barnet, Butser-hill, and Ports-down, whicn somehow divert the storms, and give them a different direction. High pro- montories, and elevated grounds, have always been observed to attract clouds, and disarm them of their mischievous contents, which are discharged into the trees and summits, as soon as they come in contact with these turbulent meteors ; while the humble vales escape, because they are so far beneath them. But when I say I do not remember a thunder-storm from the south, I do not mean that we never have suffered from thunder-storms at all ; for on June 5th, 1784, the thermometer in the morning being at sixty-four, and at noon at seventy, the barometer at twenty-nine, six-tenths one-half, and the wind north, I observed a blue mist, smelling strongly of sulphur, hang along our sloping woods, and seeming to indi- cate that thunder was at hand. I was called in about two in the afternoon, and so missed seeing the gathering of the clouds in the north, which they who were abroad assured me had something uncommon in its appearance. At about a quarter after two, the storm began in the parish of Harteley, moving slowly from north to south ; and from thence it came over Norton-farm, and so to Grange-farm, both in this parish. It began with vast drops of rain, which were soon succeeded by round hail, and then by convex pieces of ice, which measured three inches in girth. * Had it been as extensive as it was violent, and of any continuance, (for it was very short,) it must have ravaged all the neighbourhood. In the parish of Har- teley, it did some damage to one farm ; but Norton, which lay * On the 4th January, 1829, a violent hail-storm passed over Edmonton, near London ; during which, hailstones fell of an irregular shape, and measuring three and four inches in circumference. Calamities from hail, however, are but of rare occurrence in this; country, compared with the Continent. In France, hail-storms are frequent and formidable, and, in many districts, have done great injuries to corn, as also to vines and olive trees. In the years 1799, 1800, and 1801, the storms of hail in France had been more than usually prevalent, and many families had, in conse- quence, been reduced to ruin. This state of things suggested to M. Barrau, of Toulouse, the establishment of a mutual indemnity insurance company against hail, which has been continued ever since. Some time ago, hailstones fell at Sterlitamak, in the government of Oneaburg, which were found to contain in their centre a nucleus of small stones. These were analyzed, and in one hundred, their component parts consisted of red oxide of iron 70.00, of oxide of manganese 7.50, alum 3.76, silica 7.50, sulphur and waste 5.00. Er>. 282 THUNDER-STORMS CONCLUSION. in the centre of the storm, was greatly injured ; as was Grange, which lay next to it. It did but just reach to the middle of the village, where the hail broke my north windows, and all my garden-lights and hand-glasses, and many of my neighbours' windows. The extent of the storm was about two miles in length, and one in breadth. We were just sitting down to dinner; but were soon diverted from our repast by the clattering of tiles, and the jingling of glass. There fell, at the same time, prodigious torrents of rain on the farms above mentioned, which occasioned a flood as violent as it was sudden ; doing great damage to the meadows and fallows, by deluging the one, and washing away the soil of the other. The hollow lane towards Alton was so torn and disordered as not to be passable till mended, rocks being removed that weighed two hundred weight. Those that saw the effect which the great hail had on ponds and pools, say that the dashing of the water made an extraordinary appearance, the froth and spray standing up in the air three feet above the surface. The rushing and roaring of the hail, as it approached, was truly tremendous. Though the clouds at South Lambeth, near London, were at that juncture thin and light, and no storm was in sight, nor within hearing, yet the air was strongly electric ; for the bells of an electric machine at that place rang repeatedly, and fierce sparks were discharged. When I first took the present work in hand, I proposed to have added an Annus-Historico-Naturalis, or the Natural His- tory of the Twelve Months of the Year ; which would have comprised many incidents and occurrences that have not fallen into my way to be mentioned in my series of letters ; but, as Mr Aikin of Warrington has lately published somewhat of this sort, and as the length of my correspondence has sufficiently put your patience to the test, I shall here take a respectful leave of you and Natural History together. And am, With all due deference and regard, Your most obliged, And most humble Servant, GIL. WHITE. SELBOHNE, June 26, 1787. OBSERVATIONS ON VARIOUS PARTS OF NATURE, FROM MR WHITE'S MSS. WITH REMARKS BY MR MARKWICK AND THE EDITOR, OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS. SHEEP. The sheep on the downs this winter (1769) are very ragged, and their coats much torn ; the shepherds say they tear their fleeces with their own mouths and horns, and they are always in that way in mild wet winters, being teased and tickled with a kind of lice. After ewes and lambs are shorn, there is great confusion and bleating, neither the dams nor the young being able to distinguish one another as before. This embarrassment seems not so much to arise from the loss of the fleece, which may occasion an alteration in their appearance, as from the defect of that notus odor, discriminating each individual personally ; which also is confounded by the strong scent of the pitch and tar wherewith they are newly marked ; for the brute creation recognize each other more from the smell than the sight ; and in matters of identity and diversity, appeal much more to their noses than their eyes. AfteV sheep have been washed, there is the same confusion, from the reason given above. RABBITS. Rabbits make incomparably the finest turf, for they not only bite closer than larger quadrupeds, but they RJlcw no bents to rise; hence warrens produce much the most 284 OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS. delicate turf for gardens. Sheep never touch the stalks of grasses. CAT AND SQUIRRELS. A boy has taken three little young squirrels in their nest, or drey, as it is called in these parts. These small creatures he put under the care of a cat who had lately lost her kittens, and finds that she nurses and suckles them with the same assiduity and affection as tf they were her own offspring. This circumstance corroborates my suspicion, that the mention of exposed and deserted children being nur- tured by female beasts of prey who had lost their young, may not be so improbable an incident as many have supposed; and therefore may be a justification of those authors who have gravely mentioned, what some have deemed to be a wild and improbable story. So many people went to see the little squirrels suckled by a cat, that the foster mother became jealous of her charge, and in pain for their safety ; and therefore hid them over the ceiling, where one died. This circumstance shews her affection for these fondlings, and that she supposes the squirrels to be her own young. Thus hens, when they have hatched ducklings, are equally attached to them as if they were their own chickens, HORSE. An old hunting mare, which ran on the common, being taken very ill, ran down into the village, as it were, to implore the help of men, and died the night following in the street.* HOUNDS. The king's stag hounds carne down to Alton, attended by a huntsman and six yeoman prickers, with horns, to try for the stag that has haunted Harteley Wood for so long a time. Many hundreds of people, horse and foot, attended the dogs to see the deer unharboured ; but though the huntsman drew Harteley Wood, and Long Coppice, and Shrubwood, and Temple Hangers, and, in their way back, Harteley and Ward-le-ham Hangers, yet no stag could be found. * The Rev. Mr Bree says, " Some years ago, a quantity of peat soil was thrown down in a heap, In the corner of a small field adjoining my house, for the purpose of being used in the garden as occasion required. A horse tliat was turned out into the same field (which I may observe afforded a good pasture) was in the frequent habit of going to this heap of peat soil, and feeding upon it with as much apparent satisfaction as if it had been a rick of good hay. A pointer dog, also, which was usually kept tied up, on being let loose, would almost invariably go to the heap of soil- tmd devour lumps ot it with avidity." ED. OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS. 285 The royal pack, accustomed to have the deer turned out before them, never drew the coverts with any address and spirit, as many people that were present observed ; and this remark the event has proved to be a true one : for as a person was lately pursuing a pheasant that was wing-broken, in Harteley Wood, he stumbled upon the stag by accident, and ran in upon him as he lay concealed amidst a thick brake of brambles and bushes. OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. BIRDS IN GENERAL. IN severe weather, fieldfares, redwings, skylarks, and titlarks, resort to watered meadows for food ; the latter wades up to its belly in pursuit of the pupae of insects, and runs along upon the floating grass and weeds. Many gnats are on the snow near the water : these support the birds in part. Birds are much influenced in their choice of food by colour; for though white currants are much sweeter fruit than red, yet they seldom touch the former till they have devoured every bunch of the latter. Redstarts, fly-catchers, and black-caps, arrive early in April. If these little delicate beings are birds of passage, (as we have reason to suppose they are, because they are never seen in winter,) how could they, feeble as they seem, bear up against such storms of snow arid rain, and make their way through such meteorous turbulences, as one should suppose would embarrass and retard the most hardy and resolute of the winged nation r Yet they keep their appointed times and seasons ; and, in, spite of frost and winds, return to their stations periodically, as if they had met with nothing to obstruct them. The withdrawing and appearance of the short-winged summer birds, is a very puzzling circumstance in natural history. When the boys bring me wasps' nests, my bantam fowls fare deliciously, and, when the combs are pulled to pieces, 286 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. devour the young wasps in their maggot state, with the highest glee and delight. Any ir> sect-eating bird would do the same ; and, therefore, I have often wondered that the accurate Mr Ray should call one species of buzzard buteo apivorus sive vespivorus, or the honey-buzzard, because some combs of wasps happened to be found in one of their nests. The combs were conveyed thither, doubtless, for the sake of the maggots or nymphs, and not for their honey ; since none is to be found in the combs of wasps. Birds of prey occasion- ally feed on insects ; thus have I seen a tame kite* picking up the female ants full of eggs, with much satisfaction. * * That redstarts, fly-catcbers, black-caps, and other slender-billed insectivorous small birds, particularly the swallow tribe, make their first appearance very early in the spring, is a well known fact ; though the fly-catcher is the latest of them all in its visit, (as this accurate naturalist observes in another place;,) for it is never seen before the month of May. If these delicate creatures come to us from a distant country, they will probably be exposed in their passage, as Mr White justly remarks, to much greater difficulties from storms and tempests, than their feeble powers appear to be able to surmount : * on the other hand, if we suppose them to pass the xvinter in a dormant state, in this country, concealed in caverns, or other hiding places, sufficiently guarded from the extreme cold of our winter, to preserve their life, and that, at the approach of spring, they revive from their torpid state, and reassume their usual powers of action, it will entirely remove the first difficulty, arising from the storms and tempests they are liable to meet with in their passage ; but how are we to get over the still greater difficulty of their revivification from their torpid state ? What degree of warmth in the temperature of the air is necessary to produce that effect, and how it operates on the functions of animal life, are questions not easily answered. How could Mr White suppose that Ray named this species the honey- buzzard, because it fed on honey, when he not only named it in Latin, buteo apivorus et vespivorus, but expressly says, that " it feeds on insects, and brings up its young with the maggots, or nymphs of wasps." That birds of prey, when in want of their proper food, flesh, sometimes feed on insects, I have little doubt, and think I have observed the common buzzard, (falco buteo,) to settle on the ground, and pick up insects of some kind or other MARK WICK. Our author seems sceptical to the last regarding the migration of birds generally, and especially the short-winged tribes. The following observations were made by Mr Andrew Bloxam, of Glenfield, near Leicester, in a voyage from England to South America, in the years * M. Neumann has recorded a very extraordinary fact, of a fine specimen of the little thrush, turdus minor of Bonaparte, being taken, on the 22d December, 1825, in a wood near Kleinzererbiit, in the Duchy of Anhalt-Ccethen, Germany. It would be difficult to account for the appearance of this bird, supposed to be exclusively found in North America, as ft ffiuul;it<'d no marks of confinement. ED. OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 287 ROOKS. Rooks are continually fighting, and pulling each other's nests to pieces : these proceedings are inconsistent with 24-5. They cannot fail to be highly interesting, as proving the ;at excursions frequently, if not periodically, taken by land birds : 1824 -5 great " 1824, Oct. 11. A chaffinch flew on board; weather stormy; Bay 01 Biscay, lat. 48 deg. 33 min. north, long. 7 deg. 50 min. west. Several snipes were seen the same day. Oct. 13. A skylark was caught ; weather stormy; lat. 45 deg. 4 min. north, long. 10 deg. 10 min. west. Oct. 14. A goldfinch was caught in the rigging ; this and the two former soon died from exhaustion ; at the same time, a small white owl flew round the vessel, but did not settle on board ; lat. 44 deg. 1 min. north, long. 11 deg. 19 min, west ; wind brisk; our nearest distance from land, Cape Finisterre, one hundred and twenty miles. Oct. 27. A hawk was seen flying about the ship, but did not settle ; distance from the Canary Islands, the nearest land, two hundred and fifty miles. Oct. 29. In the morning, a single swallow was seen flying about the vessel, and frequently settling ; it waa joined soon afterwards by another, and both continued with us the whole day; lat. 23 deg. 11 min. north, long. 23 deg. 13 min. west Oct. 30. Swallows and martens in great numbers about the vessel j they were easily captured by the sailors, as they flew close to the deck, in search o* flies ; they appeared to be more in want of food than tired ; lat. 41 deg. 47 min. north, long. 25 deg. 58 min. west. Oct. 31. Swallows and martens still continue with us in great numbers, and were seen several successive days, apparently on a south-west course ; a hen redstart was also observed about the ship ; it continued with us several days, and usec. to come into the ports of the after gun-room to be fed, food being pur- posely placed there for it ; lat. 19 deg. 54 min. north, long. 25 deg. west. Nov. 3. Swallows still with us. Nov. 4. The spotted gallinule was caught on deck; lat. 8 deg. 2 min. north, long. 25 deg. 37 min. west. Nov. 7. A fine female kestrel hawk was captured in the rigging ; it was preserved in a cage for some days, but afterwards contrived to escape, and flew off; lat. 8 deg. 2 min. north, long. 24 deg. 40 min. west; four hundred and twenty-four miles from land. It is remarkable, that all the above named are British ; they were verified by a reference to Bewick's Birds. Nov. 21. A small bat, or large, dark-coloured moth, was seen flying about the top of the rigging, but soon left us ; we were three hundred miles from the nearest point of South America. Nov. 23. A Brazilian land bird, corvus dubius of Linn, settled on board ; lat. 22 deg. 46 min. south, long. 37 deg. 42 min. west ; about three hundred miles from Rio Janeiro. Dec. 80. The frinff ilia australis flew on board ; we were, at the time, exactly thirty-seven miles south of Staten Land, with a northerly breeze. 1825, Sept. 28. A small humming-bird flew round the vessel, but did not settle on board ; we were, at the time, about ten miles from land, off" the coast of Chili, opposite Conception. " It may be remarked, that, though so many land birds were seen on our passage out, not one was met with on the return. I found swallows both at Rio Janeiro and Valparaiso ; at the latter place, rearing their young. The marten I also found at Valparaiso, and other parts of Chili." ED. 288 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. living in such close community. And yet, if a pair offer to build on a single tree, the nest is plundered and demolished at once. Some rooks roost on their nest-trees. The twigs which the rooks drop in building, supply the poor with brush- wood to light their fires. Some unhappy pairs are not per- mitted to finish any nests till the rest have completed their building. As soon as they get a few sticks together, a party comes and demolishes the whole. As soon as rooks have finished their nests, and before they lay, the cocks begin to feed the hens, who receive their bounty with a "fondling, tre- mulous voice, and fluttering wings, and all the little blandish- ments that are expressed by the young, while in a helpless state. This gallant deportment of the male is continued through the whole season of incubation. These birds do not copulate on trees, nor in their nests, but on the ground in the open fields.* THRUSHES. Thrushes, during long droughts, are of great service in hunting out shell snails, which they pull in pieces for their young, and are thereby very serviceable in gardens, -j- Missel thrushes do not destroy the fruit in gardens like the other species of turdi, but feed on the berries of misseltoe, * After the first brood of rooks are sufficiently fledged, they all leave their nest-trees in the day time, and resort to some distant place in search of food, but return regularly every evening, in vast flights, to their nest-trees, where, after flying round several times, with much noise and clamour, till they are all assembled together, they take up their abode for the night. MARKWICK. f- We are aware that thrushes feed on snail shells, but think it more likely that they will find them in moist than in dry weather, at which time they generally conceal themselves in holes. In the neighbourhood of Pitlessie, in Fife, a pair of thrushes built their nest in a cart-shed, while four wheelwrights were engaged in it as a work-shop. It was placed between one of the hulls of the harrow and the adjoining tooth. The men were busily employed at the noiseful work of joining wood all the day, yet these birds flew in and out at the door of the shed, without fear or dread, and finished their nest with mortar. On the second day, the hen laid an egg, on which she sat, and was occasionally relieved by the cock. In thirteen days the birds came out of the shells, which the old ones always carried off. They fed their young with shell-snails, such as those of the helex nemoralis^ H. arbus- torum, and H. aspersa, as also butterflies and moths. The nest was robbed one Sunday, in the absence of the millwrights. Mr E. H. Greenhow, of North Shields, mentions a similar occurrence which came under his own observation, at Whitby. This nest was also built in i shed, at a public place ED. OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 289 and, in the spring, on ivy berries, which then begin to ripen. In the summer, when their young become fledged, they leave neighbourhoods, and retire to sheep-walks and wild commons. The magpies, when they have young, destroy the broods of missel thrushes, though the dams are fierce birds, and fight boldly in defence of their nests. It is probably to avoid such insults, that this species of thrush, though wild at other times, delights to build near houses, and in frequented walks and gardens. * POULTRY. Many creatures are endowed with a ready discernment to see what will turn to their own advantage and emolument ; and often discover more sagacity than could be expected. Thus, my neighbour's poultry watch for wagons loaded with wheat, and, running after them, pick up a number of grains which are shaken from the sheaves by the agitation of the carriages. Thus, when my brother used to take down his gun to shoot sparrows, his cats would run out before him, to be ready to catch up the birds as they fell. The earnest and early propensity of the gallince to roost on high, is very observable ; and discovers a strong dread impressed on their spirits respecting vermin that may annoy them on the ground during the hours of darkness. Hence poultry, if left to themselves and not housed, will perch the winter through on yew trees and fir trees ; and turkeys and guinea fowls, heavy as they are, get up into apple trees : pheasants also, in woods, sleep on trees to avoid foxes ; while pea-fowls climb to the tops of the highest trees round their owner's house for security, let the weather be ever so cold or blowing. Partridges, it is true, roost on the ground, not aving the faculty of perching ; but then the same fear prevails in their minds ; for, through apprehensions from polecats and stoats, they never trust themselves to coverts, but nestle * Of the truth of this I have been an eye-witness, having seen the common thrush feeding on the shell snail. In the very early part of this spring, (1797, ) a bird of this species used to sit every morning on the top of some high elms close by my windows, and delight me with its charming song, attracted thither, probably, by some ripe ivy berries that grew near the place. I have remarked something like the latter fact ; for I remember, many years ago, seeing a pair of these birds fly up repeatedlyj and attack some larger bird, which I suppose disturbed their nest in my orchard, uttering, at the same time, violent shrieks Since writing the above, I have seen, more than once, a pair of these birds attack some magpies that had disturbed their nest, with great violence, and loud shrieks. MARK WICK. 2c 290 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. together in the midst of large fields, far removed from hedges and coppices, which they love to haunt in the day, and where, at that season, they can skulk more secure from the ravages of rapacious birds. As to ducks and geese, their awkward, splay, web feet forbid them to settle on trees ; they therefore, in the hours of darkness and danger, betake themselves to their own element, the water, where, amidst large lakes and pools, like ships riding at anchor, they float the whole night long in peace and security.* * Guinea fowls not only roost on high, but in hard weather resort, even in the day time, to tlie very tops of the highest trees. Last winter, when the ground was covered with snow, I discovered all ray guinea fowls, in the middle of the day, sitting on the highest boughs of some very tall elms, chattering and making a great clamour : I ordered them to be driven down, lest they should be frozen to death in so elevated a situation ; but this was not effected without much difficulty, they being very unwilling to quit their lofty abode, notwithstanding one of them had its feet so much frozen, that we were obliged to kill it. I know not how to account for this, unless it was occasioned by their aversion to the snow on the ground, they being birds that come originally from a hot climate. Notwithstanding the awkward, splay, web feet, as Mr White calls them, of the duck genus, some of the foreign species have the power of settling on the boughs of trees, apparently with great ease ; an instance of which I have seen in the Earl of Ashburnham's menagerie, where the summer duck (anus sponsa} flew up and settled on the branch of an oak tree, in my presence ; but whether any of them roost on trees in the night, we are not informed by any author that I am acquainted with. I suppose not ; but that, like the rest of the genus, they sleep on the water, where the birds of this genus are not always perfectly secure, as will appear from the following circumstance, which happened in this neighbourhood a few years since, as I was credibly informed : A female fox was found in the morning, drowned in the same pond in which were several geese, and it Was supposed, that, in the night, the fox swam into the pond to devour the geese, but was attacked by the gander, which, being most powerful in its own element, buffeted the fox with its wings about the head, till it was drowned. MARKWICK. In Aberdeenshire, in 1821, thirty geese deserted the pond where they were bred, and were never more heard of. A gentleman saw them in their flight eastward towards the sea, the wind blowing a gale from the north-west. A gentleman near Huddersfield had a flock of geese, which were fed on high ground not visible from his house : they were brought home at night ; and very frequently, on seeing the house from the top of the hill, they would take wing, and fly homewards, making a circuit of about a mile. On one occasion, they were nearly alighting at a pond of water at the next farm-house, similai to one near their home ; they soon, however, discovered their mistake, and raised themselves in the OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 291 HEN PARTRIDGE. A hen partridge came out of a ditch, and ran along shivering with her wings, and crying out as if wounded and unable to get from us. While the darn acted this distress, the boy who attended me saw her brood, that was small and unable to fly, run for shelter into an old fox-earth under the bank. So wonderful a power is instinct !* air to nearly as great a height as before, alighted at their own pond, and were at it long before their driver, notwithstanding the latter went in a direct line. This was the more singular, because these geese were fat, aud heavy. At Tittenhanger Green, in 1828, there was a flock of from fifteen to twenty geese, which used to indulge in aerial excursions like the above. A hen which had, for three successive seasons, been occupied in rearing broods of ducks, became quite habituated to their taking the water. In the middle of a pond to which the ducklings resorted, there was a large stone, to which the hen would fly, and patiently await the brood, as they swam around it. On the fourth year, she sat on her own eggs, and, expecting her chickens to take to the water, as on former occasions, she flew to the stone in the middle of the pond, and called them to her with much earnestness, but they did not feel inclined to follow her dictates. The following fact is related by Professor Scarpa : A duck, accustomed to feed out of its owner's hand, was once offered some perfumed bread, which it at first refused to take. After several attempts, however, it at length complied, took the bread in its bill, and, carrying it to a neighbour's pond, moved it in various directions, as if to wash away the disagreeable taste and smell, and then swallowed it. A correspondent in London's Magazine of Natural History says, " 1 have lately seen a preternaturally large, but perfect goose's egg, contain- ing a smaller one within it, the inner one possessing its proper calcareous shell." This is certainly a very singular production. We have frequently known shells to have two yolks, but this is the only instance we have met with of one egg containing another entire one within it. Our friend, Mr Andrew Shortrede, informs us, that he remembers, on his father's farm of Monklaw, near Jedburgh, a duck, which in the spring laid black eggs. As the season advanced, the blackness gradually went off, till, at the end of autumn, the eggs were whiter than those of an ordinary duck. This animal was of rather a longer shape than usual. On the same farm, there was another duck which laid two eggs in a day. The fact was proved by locking the bird up, when one egg was found early in the morning, and another in the evening. This remarkable duck was killed by a servant ignorant of its virtues. ED. * It is not uncommon to see an old partridge feign itself wounded, and run along on the ground fluttering and crying, before either dog or man, to draw them away from its helpless unfledged young ones. I have seen it often, and once, in particular, I saw a remarkable instance of the old bird's solicitude to save its brood. As I was hunting with a young pointer, the dog ran on a brood of very small partridges ; the old bird cried, flut- tered, and ran tumbling along, just before the dog's nose, till she had drawn him to a considerable distance, when she took wing, and flew still 292 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. A HYBRID PHEASANT. Lord Stawell sent me, from the great lodge in the Holt, a curious bird for my inspection. It was found by the spaniels of one of his keepers in a coppice, and shot on the wing. The shape, air, and habit of the bird, and the scarlet ring round the eyes, agreed well with the appearance of a cock pheasant ; but then the head and neck, and breast and belly, were of a glossy black : and though it weighed three pounds three ounces and a half, * the weight of a large full-grown cock pheasant, yet there was no sign of any spurs on the legs, as is usual with all grown cock pheasants, who have long ones. The legs and feet were naked of feathers, and therefore it could be nothing of the grouse kind. In the tail were no long, bending feathers, such as cock pheasants usually have, and are characteristic of the sex. The tail was much shorter than the tail of a hen pheasant, and blunt and square at the end. The back, wing-feathers, and tail, were all of a pale russet, curiously streaked, somewhat like the upper parts of a hen partridge. I returned it with my verdict, that it was probably a spurious, or hybrid hen-bird, bred between a cock pheasant and some domestic fowl, f When I came to talk with the keeper who brought it, he told me that some pea-hens had been known last summer to haunt the coppices and coverts where this mule was found. Mr Elmer, of Farnham, the famous game painter, was employed to take an exact copy of this curious bird. N.B. It ought to be mentioned, that some good judges have imagined this bird to have been a stray grouse or black- cock ; it is, however, to be observed, that Mr W. remarks, that its legs and feet were naked, whereas those of the grouse are feathered to the toes. J farther off, but not out of the field : on this the dog returned to me, near the place the young ones lay concealed in the grass, which the old bird no sooner perceived, than she flew back again to us, settled just before the dog's nose again, and, by rolling and tumbling about, drew off his attention from her young, and thus preserved her brood a second time. I have also seen, when a kite has been hovering over a covey of young partridges, the old birds fly up at the bird of prey, screaming and fighting with all their might, to preserve their brood. MARKWICK. * Hen pheasants usually weigh only two pounds ten ounces. f This curious lusus natures is now in the collection of the Earl of Egremont, at his seat at Petworth, and is allowed by naturalists to be a mule betwixt the black-cock and common pheasant. ED. \ Mr Latham observes, that " pea-hens, after they have done laying, sometimes assume the plumage or the male bird," and has given a figure OBSERVATIONS QJ BIRDS. 293 LAND-RAIL. A man brought me a land-rail, or daker-hen, a bird so rare in this district, that we seldom see more than one or two in a season, and these only in autumn. This is deemed a bird of passage by all the writers ; yet, from its formation, seems to be poorly qualified for migration ; for its wings are short, and placed so forward, and out of the centre of gravity, that it flies in a very heavy and embarrassed manner, with its legs hanging down ; and can hardly be sprung a second time, as it runs very fast, and seems to depend more on the swiftness of its feet than on its flying. of the male-feathered pea-hen now to be seen in the Leverian Museum ; and M. Salerne remarks, that " the hen pheasant, when she has done laying and sitting, will get the plumage of the male." May not this hybrid pheasant, as Mr White calls it, be a bird of this kind ? that is, an old hen pheasant, which had just begun to assume the plumage of the cock. MARK WICK. We have already noticed this curious subject, in our note at page 93. The facts of the female bird assuming the plumage of the male, which have been recorded by authors, are the following: pea-hen, by Hunter; turkey, by Bechstein ; common pheasant, by Hunter ; golden pheasant, by Blumenbach ; the domestic hen, by Aristotle, Tucker, and Butter ; the partridge, by Montagu ; the domestic pigeon, by Tiedmann ; the bustard, by Tiedmann ; American pelican, by Catesby ; common wild duck, by Tiedmann. Some years ago, a female golden pheasant, in the possession of the Duke of Buccleugh, assumed the male plumage. Mr Falconer of Carlowrie, member of the Wernerian Society, knew a domestic duck assume the garb of the drake ; and a nobleman in Devonshire had a female wild duck, which made a similar change. Lord Glenlee lately pre- sented to the Edinburgh College Museum a pea-hen with the male attire. Dr Butter, who has bestowed much attention to this subject, comes to the three following conclusions : 1st, That in order to separate and distinguish the sexes, Nature has affixed certain external characters, proper to each. 2d, That in early life, the differences between the male and female are scarcely observable, but that at a certain period, the male assumes characteristic distinctions, denominated by Mr Hunter, " secon- dary properties," which the female then wants. Od, That the female seldom makes an advance towards these secondary properties, until her powers of procreation are gone, when an inclination to resemble the mas- culine form takes place. And he considers, as this principle is common to all females, it is not a monstrous occurrence, as some authors have termed it. It is not generally known, that pheasants are beneficial to the farmer. This fact was fully proved in 1821, at Whitney Court, where Tomkins Day, Esq. shot a hen pheasant, that excited the notice of the sportsmen present, from the immense size of its craw, which, on being opened, was found to contain more than half a pint of that destructive insect, the wire worm. ED. 294 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. When we came to draw it, we found the entrails so soft and tender, that in appearance, they might have been dressed like the ropes of a woodcock. The craw, or crop, was small and lank, containing a mucus ; the gizzard thick and strong, and filled with small shell snails, some whole, and many ground to pieces through the attrition which is occasioned by the muscular force and motion of that intestine. We saw no gravels among the food ; perhaps the shell snails might perform the functions of gravels or pebbles, and might grind one another. Land-rails used to abound formerly, I remember, in the low, wet, bean fields of Christian Malford, in North Wilts, and in the meadows near Paradise Gardens, at Oxford, where I have often heard them cry, crex, crex. The bird mentioned above weighed seven ounces and a half, was fat and tender, and in flavour like the flesh of a woodcock. The liver was very large and delicate.* FOOD FOR THE RING-DOVE. One of my neighbours shot a ring-dove on an evening as it was returning from feed and going to roost. When his wife had picked and drawn it, she found its craw stuffed with the most nice and tender tops of turnips. These she washed and boiled, and so sat down to a choice and delicate plate of greens, culled and provided in this extraordinary manner. Hence we may see that graminivorous birds, when grain fails, can subsist on the leaves of vegetables. There is reason to suppose that they would not long be healthy without ; for * Land-rails are more plentiful with us than in the neighbourhood of Selborne. I have found four brace in an afternoon, and a friend of mine lately shot nine in two adjoining fields ; but I never saw them in any other season than the autumn. That it is a bird of passage, there can be little doubt, though Mr White thinks it poorly qualified for migration, on account of the wings being short, and not placed in the exact centre of gravity : how that may be I cannot say, but I know that its heavy sluggish flight is not owing to its inability of flying faster, for I have seen it fly very swiftly; although in general its actions are sluggish. Its unwillingness to rise proceeds, I imagine, from its sluggish disposition, and its great timidity ; for it will sometimes squat so close to the ground, as to suffer itself to be taken up by the hand, rather than rise ; and yet it will at times run very fast. What Mr White remarks respecting the small shell snails found in its gizzard, confirms my opinion, that it frequents corn fields, seed clover, and brakes or fern, more for the sake of snails, slugs, and other insects which abound in such places, than for the grain or seeds, and that it is entirely an insectivorous bird. MARKWTCK. OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 295 turkeys, though corn-fed, delight in a variety of plants, such as cabbage, lettuce, endive, &c. and poultry pick much grass ; while geese live for months together on commons by grazing alone. Nought is useless made : On the barren heath The shepherd tends his flock, that daily crop Their verdant dinner from the mossy turf Sufficient : after them, the cackling goose, Close grazer, finds wherewith to ease her want. PHILIPS' Cyder.* HEN-HARRIER. A neighbouring gentleman sprung a phea- sant in a wheat stubble, and shot at it ; when, notwithstanding the report of the gun, it was immediately pursued by the blue hawk, known by the name of the hen-harrier, but escaped into some covert. He then sprung a second, and a third, in the same field, that got away in the same manner ; the hawk hover- ing round him all the while that he was beating the field, conscious, no doubt, of the game that lurked in the stubble. Hence we may conclude, that this bird of prey was rendered very daring and bold by hunger, and that hawks cannot always seize their game when they please. We may farther observe, that they cannot pounce their quarry on the ground, where it might be able to make a stout resistance, since so large a fowl as a pheasant could not but be visible to the piercing eye of a hawk, when hovering over the field. Hence that propensity of cowring and squatting, till they are almost trod on, which, no doubt, was intended as a mode of security : though long rendered destructive to the whole race of gallince by the inven- tion of nets and guns.-|- * That many graminivorous birds feed also on the herbage, or leaves of plants, there can be no doubt : partridges and larks frequently feed on the green leaves of turnips, which gives a peculiar flavour to their flesh, that is, to me, very palatable : the flavour, also, of wild ducks and geese, greatly depends on the nature of their food ; and their flesh frequently contracts a rank, unpleasant taste, from their having lately fed on strong marshy aquatic plants, as I suppose. That the leaves of vegetables are wholesome, and conducive to the health of birds, seems probable, for many people fat their ducks and turkeys with the leaves of lettuce chopped small. MARKWICK. f Of the great boldness and rapacity of birds of prey, when urged on by hunger, I have seen several instances ; particularly, when shooting in the winter, in company with two friends, a woodcock flew across us, 296 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. GREAT SPECKLED DIVER, OR LOON. As one of my neigh- bours was traversing Wolmer Forest, from Bramshot across the moors, he found a large uncommon bird fluttering in the heath, but not wounded, which he brought home alive. On examination it proved to be colymbus glacialis, Linn, the great speckled diver, or loon, which is most excellently described in Willughby's Ornithology.* Every part and proportion of this bird is so incomparably adapted to its mode of life, that in no instance do we see the wisdom of God in the creation to more advantage. The head closely pursued by a small hawk^ we all three fired at the woodcock instead of the hawk, which, notwithstanding the report of three guns close by it, continued its pursuit of the woodcock, struck it down, and carried it off, as we afterwards discovered. At another time, when partridge-shooting with a friend, we saw a ring-tail hawk rise out of a pit with some large bird in its claws ; though at a great distance we both fired, and obliged it to drop its prey, which proved to be one of the partridges we were in pursuit of. And lastly, in un evening, I shot at, and plainly saw that I had wounded a partridge, but, it being late, was obliged to go home without finding it again. The next morning, I walked round my land without any gun ; but a favourite old spaniel followed my heels. When I came near the field where I wounded the bird the evening before, I heard the partridges call, and they seemed to be much disturbed. On my approaching the bar-way, they all rose, some on my right and some on my left hand ; and just before and over my head, I perceived (though indistinctly, from the extreme velocity of their motion) two birds fly directly against each other, when instantly, to my great astonishment, down dropped a partridge at my feet : the dog immediately seized it, and, on examination, I found the blood flow very fast from a fresh wound in the head, but there were some dry clotted blood on its wings and side ; whence I concluded, that a hawk had singled out my wounded bird as the object of its prey, and had struck it down the instant that my approach had obliged the birds to rise on the wing ; but the space between the hedges was so small, and the motion of the birds so instantaneous and quick, that. I could not distinctly observe the operation. MARKWICK. * Montagu, in his Ornithological Dictionary, relates that " A northern diver, taken alive, was kept in a pond for some months, which gave us an opportunity of attending to its manners. In a few days it became extremely docile, would come at the call, from one side of the pond to the other, and would take food from the hand. The bird had received an injury in the head, which had deprived one eye of its sight, and the other was a little impaired ; but, notwithstanding, it could, by incessantly diving, discover all the fish that WOP thrown into the pond. In defect ot fish it would eat flesh. " It is observable that the legs of this bird are so constructed and situated, as to render it incapable of walking upon them. This is probably the rase with all the divers, as well as tl.e grebes." En. OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS, 297 is sharp, and smaller than the part of the neck adjoining, in order that it may pierce the water ; the wings are placed for- ward, and out of the centre of gravity, for a purpose which shall be noticed hereafter ; the thighs quite at the podex, in order to facilitate diving ; and the legs are flat, and as sharp backwards almost as the edge of a knife, that, in striking, they may easily cut the water : while the feet are palmated and broad for swimming, yet so folded up, when advanced forward to take a fresh stroke, as to be full as narrow as the shank. The two exterior toes of the feet are longest; the nails flat and broad, resembling the human, which give strength, and increase the power of swimming. The foot, when expanded, is not at right angles to the leg or body of the bird ; but the exterior part inclining towards the head, forms an acute angle with the body ; the intention being, not to give motion in the line of the legs themselves, but, by the combined impulse of both in an intermediate line, the line of the body. Most people know, that have observed at all, that the swimming of birds is nothing more than a walking in the water, where one foot succeeds the other as on the land ; yet no one, as far as I am aware, has remarked that diving fowls, while under water, impel and row themselves forward by a motion of their wings, as well as by the impulse of their feet : but such is really the case, as any person may easily be convinced, who will observe ducks when hunted by dogs in a clear pond. Nor do I know that any one has given a reason why the wings of diving fowls are placed so forward : doubtless, not for the pur- pose of promoting their speed in flying, since that position certainly impedes it ; but probably for the increase of their motion under water, by the use of four oars instead of two ; yet were the wings and feet nearer together, as in land birds, they would, when in action, rather hinder than assist one another. This colymbus was of considerable bulk, weighing 1 only three drachms short of three pounds avoirdupois. It measured in length from the bill to the tail (which was very short) two feet, and to the extremities of the toes, four inches more ; and the breadth of the wings expanded was forty-two inches. A person attempted to eat the body, but found it very strong and rancid, as is the flesh of all birds living on fish. Divers, or loons, though bred in the most northerly parts of Europe, yet are seen with us in very severe winters ; and, on the Thames, are called sprat loons, because they prey much on that sort of fish. 298 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. The legs of the colymbi and mergi are placed so very back- ward, and so out of all centre of gravity, that these birds cannot walk at all. They are called by Linnaeus compedes, because they move on the ground as if shackled or fettered.* STONE-CURLEW. On the twenty-seventh of February, 1788, stone-curlews were heard to pipe ; and on March first, after it was dark, some were passing over the village, as might be perceived by their quick short note, which they use in their nocturnal excursions by way of watch-word, that they may not stray and lose their companions. Thus we see, that retire whithersoever they may in the winter, they return again early in the spring, and are, as it now appears, the first summer birds that come back. Perhaps the mildness of the season may have quickened the emigration of the curlews this year. They spend the day in high elevated fields and sheep-walks ; but seem to descend in the night to streams and meadows, perhaps for water, which their upland haunts do not afford them.f "* These accurate and ingenious observations, tending to set forth in a proper light the wonderful works of God in the creation, and to point out his wisdom in adapting the singular form and position of the limbs of this bird to the particular mode in which it is destined to pass the greatest part of its life, in an element much denser than the air, do Mr White credit, not only as a naturalist, but as a man and as a philosopher, in the truest sense of the word, in my opinion ; for, were we enabled to trace the works of Nature minutely and accurately, we should find, not only that every bird, but every creature, is equally well adapted to the purpose for which it was intended ; though this fitness and propriety of form is more striking in such animals as are destined to any uncommon mode of life. I have had in my possession two birds, which, though of a different genus, bear a great resemblance to Mr White's colymbus, in their manner of life, which is spent chiefly in the water, where they swim and dive with astonishing rapidity ; for which purpose, their fin-toed feet, placed far behind, and very short wings, are particularly well adapted, and shew the wisdom of God in the creation as conspicuously as the bird before mentioned. These birds were the greater and lesser crested grebe, (podiceps cristatus et auritus. ) What surprised me most was, that the first of these birds was found alive on dry ground, about seven miles from the sea, to which place there was no communication by water. How did it get so far from the sea, its wings and legs being so ill adapted either to flying or walking ? The lesser crested grebe was also found in a fresh water pond, which had no communication with other water, at some miles distance from the sea. MARKWICK. f On the thirty-first of January, 1792, I received a bird of this species, which had been recently killed by a neighbouring farmer, who said that OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 299 THE SMALLEST UNCRESTED WILLOW WREN. The smallest . unerested willow-wren, or chiff chaf, is the next early summer bird which we have remarked ; it utters two sharp, piercing notes, so loud, in hollow woods, as to occasion an echo ; and is usually first heard about the 20th of March.* FERN-OWL, OR GOAT-SUCKER. The country people have a notion that the fern-owl, or churn-owl, or eve-jarr, which they also call a puckeridge, is very injurious to weanling calves, by inflicting, as it strikes at them, the fatal distemper known to cow-leeches by the name of puckeridge. Thus does this harmless, ill-fated bird, fall under a double imputation, which it by no means deserves, in Italy, of sucking the teats of goats, whence it is called caprimulgus ; and, with us, of communicating a deadly disorder to cattle. But the truth of the matter is, the malady above mentioned is occasioned by the cestrus bovis, a dipterous insect, which lays its eggs along the chines of kine, where the maggots, when hatched, eat their way through the hide of the beast into the flesh, and grow to a very large size. I have just talked with a man, who says he has more than once stripped calves who have died of the puckeridge : that the ail or complaint lay along the chine, where the flesh was much swelled, and filled with purulent matter. Once I myself saw a large, rough maggot of this sort squeezed out of the back of a cow. These maggots in Essex are called wornils. -j- he had frequently seen it in his fields during the former part or the winter ; this perhaps was an occasional straggler, which, by some accident, was prevented from accompanying its companions in their migration. MARK WICK. * This bird, which Mr White calls the smallest willow-wren, or chin* chaf, makes its appearance very early in the spring, and is very common with us ; but I cannot make out the three different species of willow wrens, which he assures us he has discovered. Ever since the publication of his History of Selborne, I have used my utmost endeavours to discover his three birds, but hitherto without success. I have frequently shot the bird which " haunts only the tops of trees, and makes a sibilous noise," even in the very act of uttering that sibilous note ; but it always proved to be the common willow- wren, or his chiff chaf. In short, I never could discover more than one species, unless my greater pettichaps, (sylvia hortensis of Latham,) is his greatest willow-wren MARK WICK. The three species are the wood-wren, sylvia siUlatrix of Bechstein ; the chiff chaf, sylvia hippolais of Latham, and the hay bird, motacilla trochilus of Latham. En. f This is the maggot of the breeze-fly, cettrus bovis of Clark. They prove extremely troublesome to cattle. During our residence in Fife, 300 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. The least observation and attention would convince men, that these birds neither injure the goatherd nor the grazier, but are perfectly harmless, and subsist alone, being night birds, on night insects, such as scarabasi, and phakencB; and, through the month of July, mostly on the scarabcsus solstitialis, which in many districts abounds at that season. Those that we have opened have always had their craws stuffed with large night moths and their eggs, and pieces of chaffers ; nor does it any- wise appear how they can, weak and unarmed as they seem, inflict any harm upon kine, unless they possess the powers of animal magnetism, and can affect them by fluttering ovei them A fern-owl, this evening, (August 27,) shewed off in a very unusual and entertaining manner, by hawking round and round the circumference of my great spreading oak for twenty times following, keeping mostly close to the grass, but occasionally glancing up amidst the boughs of the tree. This amusing bird was then in pursuit of a brood of some particular phalcenes belonging to the oak, of which there are several sorts ; and exhibited on the occasion a command of wing superior, I think, to that of the swallow itself. When a person approaches the haunt of fern-owls in an evening, they continue flying round the head of the obtruder j and, by striking their wings together above their backs, in the manner that the pigeons called smiters are known to do, make a smart snap : perhaps at that time they are jealous for their young ; and their noise and gesture are intended by way of menace. Fern-owls have attachment to oaks, no doubt on account of food ; for the next evening we saw one again several times among the boughs of the same tree ; but it did not skim round we frequently squeezed them out of our cows. We endeavoured to feed one on fresh killed beef, but it refused to eat, and died. In 1824, a cow had three of these in her back, which we extracted ; and having put them in a basin for examination, after we had finished the operation, one of our tame jackdaws deprived us from carrying our intentions into eifect, by devouring them as a lunch. One of these was an inch long, and as thick as our little finger; and the swelling which it produced in the animal's back was of the size of the largest penny-piece. This was extracted by a person pressing with a piece of wood against another piece which we held opposite. The force required to press it through the aperture (which, was about an eighth of an inch in diameter) was such, that the noise resembled that of a pop -gun, arid the worm was projected to a distance of twelve feet from the cow's back ED. OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 301 its stem over the grass, as on the evening before. In May, these birds find the scarabceus melolontha on the oak ; and the scarabceus solstitialis at midsummer. These peculiar birds can only be watched and observed for two hours in the twenty- four ; and then in a dubious twilight, an hour after sunset and an hour before sunrise. On this day, (July 14, 1789,) a woman brought me two eggs of a fern-owl, or eve-jarr, which she found on the verge of the hanger, to the left of the hermitage, under a beechen shrub. This person, who lives just at the foot of the hanger, seems well acquainted with these nocturnal swallows, and says she has often found their eggs near that place, and that they lay only two at a time on the bare ground. The eggs were oblong, dusky, and streaked somewhat in the manner of the plumage of the parent bird, and were equal in size at each end. The dam was sitting on the eggs when found, which contained the rudiments of young, and would have been hatched perhaps in a week. From hence we may see the time of their breeding, which corresponds pretty well with the swift, as does also the period of their arrival. Each species is usually seen about the beginning of May : each breeds but once in a summer : each lays only two eggs. July 4, 1790. The woman who brought me two fern-owl's eggs last year, on July 14, on this day produced me two more, one of which had been laid this morning, as appears plainly, because there was only one in the nest the evening before. They were found, as last July, on the verge of the down above the hermitage, under a beechen shrub, on the naked ground. Last year, those eggs were full of young, and just ready to be hatched. These circumstances point out the exact time when these curious nocturnal migratory birds lay their eggs and hatch their young. Fern-owls, like snipes, stone-curlews, and some birds, make no nest. Birds that build on the ground do not make much of nests. * * No author that I am acquainted with has given so accurate and pleasing an account of the manners and habits of the goat-sucker as Mr White, taken entirely from his own observations. Its being a nocturnal bird, has prevented my having many opportunities of observing it. I suspect that it passes the day in concealment amidst the dark and shady gloom of deep-wooded dells, or, as they are called here, gills ; having more than once seen it roused from such solitary places by my dogs, when shooting in the day-time. I have also sometimes seen it in an 2n 302 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. SAND-MARTENS. March 23, 1788. A gentleman, who was this week on a visit at Waverley, took the opportunity of examining some of the holes in the sand banks with which that district abounds. As these are undoubtedly bored by bank-martens, and are the places where they avowedly breed, he was in hopes they might have slept there also, and that he might have surprised them just as they were awaking from their winter slumbers. When he had dug for some time, he found the holes were horizontal and serpentine, as I had observed before ; and that the nests were deposited at the inner end, and had been occupied by broods in former sum- mers ; but no torpid birds were to be found. He opened and examined about a dozen holes. Another gentleman made the same search many years ago, with as little success. These holes were in depth about two feet. March 21, 1790. A single bank or sand-marten was seen hovering and playing round the sand pit at Short Heath, where in the summer they abound, April 9, 1793. A sober hind assures us, that this day, on Wish-hanger common, between Hedleigh and Frinsham, he saw several bank-martens playing in and out, and hanging before some nest holes in a sand hill, where these birds usually nestle. This incident confirms my suspicions that this species of hirundo is to be seen first of any ; and gives great reason to suppose that they do not leave their wild haunts at all, but are secreted amidst the clefts and caverns of those abrupt cliffs where they usually spend their summers. The late severe weather considered, it is not very probable that these birds should have migrated so early from a tropical region, through all these cutting winds and pinching frosts ; but it is easy to suppose that they may, like bats and flies, have been awakened by the influence of the sun, amidst their secret latebrce, where they have spent the uncomfortable foodless months in a torpid state, and the profoundest of slumbers. There is a large pond at Wish-hanger, which induces these sand-martens to frequent that district : for I have ever remarked that they haunt near great waters, either rivers or lakes. * evening, but not long enough to take notice of its habits and manners. I have never seen it but in the summer, between the months of May and September. MARKWICK. * Here, and in many other passages of his writings, this very ingenious OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 303 SWALLOWS, CONGREGATING AND DISAPPEARANCE OF. During the severe winds that often prevail late in the spring, it is not easy to say how the hirundines subsist ; for they withdraw them- selves, and are hardly ever seen, nor do any insects appear for their support. That they can retire to rest, and sleep away these uncomfortable periods, as bats do, is a matter rather to be suspected than proved : or do they not rather spend their time in deep and sheltered vales near waters, where insects are more likely to be found ? Certain it is, that hardly any individuals of this genus have at such times been seen for several days together. September 13, 1791. The congregating flocks ofhirundmee on the church and tower are very beautiful and amusing ! When they fly off together from the roof, on any alarm, they quite swarm in the air. But they soon settle in heaps, and, preening their feathers, and lifting up their wings to admit the sun, seem highly to enjoy the warm situation. Thus they spend the heat of the day, preparing for their emigration, and, as it were, consulting when and where they are to go. The flight about the church seems to consist chiefly of house-martens, above four hundred in number ; but there are other places of rendezvous about the village frequented at the same time. naturalist favours the opinion, that part at least of the swallow tribe pass their winter in a torpid state, in the same manner as bats and flies, and revive again on the approach of spring. I have frequently taken notice of all these circumstances, which induced Mr White to suppose that some of the hirundines lie torpid during winter. I have seen, so late as November, on a finer day than usual at that season of the year, two or three swallows flying backwards and forwards under a warm hedge, or on the sunny side of some old building ; nay, I once saw, on the 8th of December, two martens flying about very briskly, the weather being mild. I had not seen any considerable number, either of swallows or martens, for a good while before : from whence, then, could these few birds come, if not from some hole or cavern where they had laid themselves up for the winter? Surely it will not be asserted that these birds migrate back again, from some distant tropical region, merely on the appearance of a fine day or two at this late season of the year. Again, very early in the spring, and sometimes immediately after very cold, severe weather, on its growing a little warmer, a few of these birds suddenly make their appearance, long before the generality of them are seen. These appearances certainly favour the opinion of their Eassing the winter in a torpid state, but do not absolutely prove the ict ; for who ever saw them reviving of their own accord from their torpid state, without being first brought to the fire, and, as it were, forced into life again; soon after which revivification they constantly die MAKKWICK. 304 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. It is remarkable, that though most of them sit on the battle- ments and roofs, yet many hang or cling for some time by their claws against the surface of the walls, in a manner not practised by them at any other time of their remaining with us. The swallows seem to delight more in holding their assem- blies on trees. November 3, 1789. Two swallows were seen this morning at Newton vicarage house, hovering and settling on the roofs and out-buildings. None have been observed at Selborne since October 11. It is very remarkable, that after the hirun- dines have disappeared for some weeks, a few are occasionally seen again ; sometimes, in the first week in November, and that only for one day. Do they not withdraw and slumber in some hiding-place during the interval ? for we cannot suppose they had migrated to warmer climes, and so returned again for one day. Is it not more probable that they are awakened from sleep, and, like the bats, are come forth to collect a little food ? Bats appear at all seasons through the autumn and spring months, when the thermometer is at fifty, because then phalcencB and moths are stirring. These swallows looked like young ones. * WAGTAILS. While the cows are feeding in the moist low- pasture, broods of wagtails, white and gray, run round them, close up to their noses, and under their very bellies, availing themselves of the flies that settle on their legs, and probably finding worms and larvae that are roused by the trampling of their feet. Nature is such an economist, that the most * Of their migration, the proofs are such as will scarcely admit of a doubt. Sir Charles Wager and Captain Wright saw vast flocks of them at sea, when on their passage from one country to another. Our author, Mr White, saw what he deemed the actual migration of these birds, and which he has described at p. 78 of his History of Selborne ; and of their congregating together on the roofs of churches and other buildings, and on trees, previous to their departure, many instances occur ; particularly, I once observed a large flock of house-martens on the roof of the church here at Cafcfield, which acted exactly in the manner here described by Mr White, sometimes preening their feathers, and spreading their wings to the sun, and then flying of all together, but soon returning to their former situation. The greatest part of these birds seemed to be young ones MARKWICK. Wilson, Audubon, and Richardson, all attest the migration of the swallow and its congeners, in America ; and every author, ancient and modern, of whatever country, describe these birds as changing their residence during winter. ED. OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 305 incongruous animals can avail themselves of each other! Interest makes strange friendships. * WRYNECKS. These birds appear on the grass-plots and walks ; they walk a little as well as hop, and thrust their bills into the turf, in quest, I conclude, of ants, which are their food. While they hold their bills in the grass, they draw out their prey with their tongues, which are so long as to be coiled round their heads. GROSBEAK. Mr B. shot a cock grosbeak, which he had observed to haunt his garden for more than a fortnight. I began to accuse this bird of making sad havock among the buds of the cherries, gooseberries, and wall-fruit of all the neighbouring orchards. Upon opening its crop, or craw, no buds were to be seen ; but a mass of kernels of the stones of fruits. Mr B. observed, that this bird frequented the spot where plum trees grow ; and that he had seen it with some- what hard in its mouth, which it broke with difficulty : these were the stones of damsons. The Latin ornithologists call this bird coccothraustes, i.e. berry-breaker, because, with its large horny beak, it cracks and breaks the shells of stone fruits for the sake of the seed or kernel. Birds of this sort are rarely seen in England, and only in winter. { * Birds continually avail themselves of particular and unusual circum- stances to procure their food : thus wagtails keep playing about the noses and legs of cattle as they feed, in quest of flies and other insects which abound near those animals ; and great numbers of them will follow close to the plough to devour the worms, &c. that are turned up by that instrument. The red-breast attends the gardener when digging his borders; and will, with great familiarity and tameness, pick out the worms almost close to his spade, as I have frequently seen. Starlings and magpies very often sit on the backs of sheep and deer to pick out their ticks. MARKWICK. f I have never seen this rare bird but during the severest cold of the hardest winters ; at which season of the year, I have had in my possession two or three that were killed in this neighbourhood in different years. MARKWICK. On the second week of September, 1832, Mr Greenhow, surgeon of North Shields, mentions that a flock of Egyptian geese was seen beside the Tweed, at Carham, two of which, while nibbling grass on the margin of the river, were shot by Ralph Stephenson, gamekeeper. ED. . 2 i> 306 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS. OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. INSECTS IN GENERAL. THE day and night insects occupy the annuals alternately . the papilios, mu&cce* and apes, are succeeded at the close of day by phalcBnce, earwigs,* woodlice, &c. In the dusk of the even- ing, when beetles begin to buzz, partridges begin to call : these two circumstances are exactly coincident. Ivy is the last flower that supports the hymenopterous and dipterous insects. On sunny days, quite on to November, they swarm on trees covered with this plant ; and when they dis- appear, probably retire under the shelter of its leaves, concealing themselves between its fibres and the trees which it entwines.f Spiders, woodlice, lepismce in cupboards and among sugar, some empedes, gnats, flies of several species, some phalcence in hedges, earth-worms, &c. are stirring at all times, when winters are mild ; and are of great service to those soft-billed birds that never leave us. On every sunny day, the winter through, clouds of insects, usually called gnats, (I suppose tipulb. 16, Mar. 6 Feb. 28, March 5 Feb. 17 Feb. 16, March 20 Feb. 17, Mar. 8 Feb. 8, March 31 Feb. 18 Feb. a Feb. 20, Mar. 30 Feb. 2126 Feb. 21, April 13 Jan. 25, March 26 Feb. 21, April 5 Feb. 22, Mar. 26 Feb. 28, May 5 Feb. 23, May 6: last seen Oct. 28 Feb. 23, April 1 April 27, June 17 Feb. 24 Feb. 24, April 7 Feb. 26, April 18 Feb. 24, April 2 Feb. 25 Feb. 27, April 11 March 9, April 20 Feb. 26, Mar. 31 Feb. 7, April 5 Feb. 26 Feb. '27, A p. 24 June 17 Feb. 27 Jan. 25, March 26 Feb. 27, April 5 Feb. March 2, Aug. 10 Feb. 28, April 5 Feb. 28, Mar. 24 March 15, July 1 Feb. 28, Mar. 22 Feb. 9, April 10 ; tadpoles Mar. li) Mar. 1, April 2 Feb. 16, April 10 Mar. 2, April 17 Mar. 4, April 29 Mar. 2, April 6 March 9 March 3 March 3 29 March 4, May 8 Mar. 4, April 16 March 4 March 4 March 5 16 Mar. 5, April 25 March 5 March 5 Mar. 6, April 18 March 6 March? 14 March 8 March 8 March 10 March 10 18 Jan. 2, April 16 March 1, May 22 March 2, May 19 Mar. 26, April 23; last seen Sept 14 March 21 March 28 Feb. 28, April 22 ; Feb. 13, April 20 ; last seen Dec. 25 Apr. 29, emerge July 1, has young ones Mar. 16, April 13 Mar. 12, April 30 April 15, May 2? ; seen Dec. 23, Jan. 26 March 12 Feb. 26, March 28 March 1320 Jan. 24, April 22 Mar. 15, May 21 April 2, May 27 March 15 Mar. 15, April 22 March 2, May 18 340 NATURALIST S CALENDAR. Ephemeraebisetae ap. Gooseberry (ribes grossularia) 1. Common stitchwort (stellaria holostea) fl. Wood anemone (anemone nemorosa) n. Blackbird (turd us merula) lays Raven (cor v us corax) sits Wheatear (sylvia oenanthe) ap. Musk wood crowfoot (adoxa moschatel- lina) fl. Willow wren (sylvia trochilus) ap. Fumaria bulbosa, fl. Elm (ulrnus campestris) fl. Turkey (meleagris gallopavo) lays House pigeons (columba domestica) sit Marsh marigold (caltha palustiis) fl. Buzz-fly (bombylius medius) ap. Sand marten (Jiirundo riparia) ap. Snake (coluber natrix) ap. Horse ant (formica herculeana) ap. Greenfinch (loxia chloris) sings Ivy (hedera helix) berries ripe Periwinkle (vinca minor) fl. Spurge laurel (daphne laureola) fl. Swallow (hirundo rustica) ap. Black-cap (sylvia atricapilla) heard Young ducks hatched Golden saxifrage (chrysosplenium opposi- tifolium) fl. Marten (lurundo urbica) ap. Double hyacinth (hyacinthus orientalis) fl. Young geese (anas anser) Wood sorrel (oxalis acetosella) fl. Ringousel (turdus torquatus) seen Barley (hordeum sativum) sown Nightingale (sylvia luscinia) sings Ash (fraxinus excelsior) fl. Spiders' webs on the surface of the ground Chequered daffodil (fritillaria meleagris) fl. Julus terrestris, ap. Cowslip (primula veris) fl. Ground-ivy (glechoma hederacea) fl Snipe pipes Box-tree (buxus sempervirens) fl. Elm (ulmus campestris) 1. Gooseberry (ribes grossularia) fl. Currant (ribes hortensis) fl. Pear-tree (pyrus communis) fl. Lacerta vulgaris (newt, or eft) ap. WHITE. MARK WICK. March 16 Mar. 17, A p. 11 Feb. 26, April 9 Mar. 17, May 19 March 8, May 7 Mar. 17, Ap. 22 Feb. 27, April 10 March 17 April 14, young ones May 19 March 17 April 1, builds March, 18 30 Mar. 13, May 23 ; last seen Oct. 26 Mar. 18, Ap. IS Mar. 19, Ap. 13 Feb. 23, April 28 Mar. 30, May 16 ; sits May 27 ; last seen Oct. 23 March 19 Mar. 19, April 4 Mar. 19, April 7 Feb. 17, April 25 Mar. 18-25, sits April 4, young ones April 30 March 20 March 20, young hatched Mar. 20, Ap. 14 Mar. 21, Ap. 28 March 22, May 8 March 15, Ap. 30 Mar. 21, Ap. 12 April 8, May 16 ; last seen Sept. 8 Mar. 22 30 Mar. 3, April 29; last seen Oct. 2 Mar. 22, Ap. 18 Feb. 4, March 26; last seen Nov. 12 Mar. 22, Ap. 22 Mar. 23, Ap. 14 March 6, April 26 Feb. 16, May 19 March 25 Feb. 6, May 7 Mar. 25, April 1 April 1222 Mar. 26, A p. 20 April 727; last seen Nov. 16 Mar. 26, May 4 April 14, May 18; seen April 14, May 20; last seen Sept. 19 March 27 April 6, May 16 Mar. 27, A p. 9 Feb. 7, March 27 Mar. 28, May 1 April 14 May 8; last seen Dec. 8 Mar. 29, Ap. 22 March 29 Mar. 13, April 24 Mar. 29, April 19 Mar. 30, Ap. 22 Feb. 26, April 26 Mar. 30, Ap. 17 October 11 Mar. 31, Ap. 30 April 1, May 1 April 12, May 20 April 5, July 4; last seen Aug. 29 April 1, May 4 March 16, May 8 April 1 April 2 24 April 15, May 1 April 2 Aprils 24 April 3 15 March 3, May 17 Mar. 2, April 16 April 3 April 3 March 27, May 8 April 3 April 3 14 Aprils 5 April 3, May 29 April 4 April 2, May 19 March 21, May 1 Mar. 24, April 28 Mar. 30, April 30 Feb. 17, April 15; last seen Oct. 9 NATURALISTS CALENDAR. 341 WHITE. Dog's mercury (inercurialis pereiinis) fl. April 5 19 Wych elm (ulmus glabra seu montana of Smith) fl. April 5 Ladysmock (cardamine pratensis) fl. April 6 20 Cuckoo (cuculus canorus) heard April 7 26 Black-thorn (prunus spinosal fl. April 7, May 10 Death-watch (termes pulsatorius) beats April 7 Gudgeon spawns April 7 Red-start (sylvia phaenicurus) ap. April 8 28 Crown imperial (fritillaria imperialis) fl. April 8 24 Tit- lark (alaud.i pratensis) sings April 9 19 Beech (fagus sylvatica) 1. April 10, May 8 Shell-snail (helix nemoralis) comes out in troops April 11, May 9 Middle yellow wren, ap. April 11 Swift (Mr undo apus) ap. April 13, May 7 Stinging-fly ^conops calcitrans) ap. April 14, May 17 Whitlow grass (draba verna) fl. April 14 Larch-tree (pinus larix rubra) 1. April 14 Whitethroat (sylvia cinerea) ap. April 14, May 14 Red ant (formica rubra) ap. April 14 Mole cricket (gryllus gryllotalpa) churs April 14 Second willow, or laughing wren ap. Ap. 14 1923 Red rattle (pedicularis sylvatica) fl. April 15 19 Common flesh-fly (musca carnaria) ap. April 15 Lady cow (coccinella bipunctata) ap. April 16 Grasshopper-lark (alaudalocustae voce) ap. April 16 30 Willow wren, its shivering note heard April 17, May 7 Middle willow wren (reguius non cristatus medius) ap. April 17 27 Wild cherry (prunus cerasus) fl. A p. 18, May 12 Garden cherry (prunus cerasus) fl. Plum (prunus domestica) fl. Hare-bell (hyacinthus non scriptus seu scilla nutans of Smith) fl. Turtle (columba turtur) coos Hawthorn (crataegus seu rnespilus oxy- cantha of Smith) fl. A p. 20, June 11 Male fool's orchis (orchis mascula) fl. April 21 Blue flesh fly (musca vomitoria) ap. Ap. 21, May 23 Black snail, or slug (Umax ater) abounds April 22 Apple-tree (pyrus malus sativus) fl. Ap. 22, May 25 Large bat, ap. Ap. 22, June 11 Strawberry, wild wood (fragaria vesca sylvia)fl. April 23 29 Sauce alone (eryshnum alliaria) fl. April 23 Wild or bird cherry (prunus avium) fl. April 24 Apis hypnorum, ap. April 24 Musca meridiana, ap. Ap. 24, May 28 Wolf-fly (asilus) ap. April 25 ' Cabbage butterfly (papilio brassiere) ap. Ap. 28, May 20 Dragon-fly (libellula) ap. Ap. 30, May 21 Sycamore (acer pseudoplatanus) fl. Ap. 30, June 6 Bombylius minor, ap. May 1 Glow-worm (lampyris noctiluca) shines May 1, June 11 Fern-owl, or goatsucker (eaprimulgus eoropreus) ap, May 1 26 2o2 MARK WICK. Jan 20, April 16 April 19, May 10 Feb. 21, April 26 April 15, May 3: last heard June 28 March 16, May 8 March 28, May 28 April 5, sings Apr 25; last seen Sept. 30 April 1, May 13 A prill 4 29, sits June 16, 17 April 24, May 25 c May 17, June 1 lap. April 28, May 19 Jan. 15, March 24 April 1, May 9 April 14, May 5, sings May 3 10, last seen Sept. 23 April 9, June 26 April 10, June 4 April 28, May 14 A p. 18, May 11 March 25, May 6 April 18, May 5 M; ' March 30, May 10 arch 25, May 6 arch 24, May 6 April 19 25 March 27, May 8 April 20 27 May 14, Aug. 10, seen April 19, May 26 March 29, May 13 Feb. l,Oct. 24, ap. April 1 1, May 26 April 8, 9 March 31, May 8 March 30, May 10 April 29, June 15 April 18, May 13, last seen Nov. 10 April 20, June 4 June 19, Sept. 28 May 16, Sept. 11 342 NATURALIST S CALENDAR. Common bugle (ajuga reptans) fl. Field crickets (gryllus campestris; crink Chatter, or May-bug (scarabaeus roelo'op tha) ap. Honeysuckle (lonicera periclyxenuiLi) ll. Toothwort (lathraea squamaria; U, Shell-snails copulate Sedge warbler (sylvia salicaria) sings Mealy tree (viburnum lantana) fl. Fly-catcher (stoparola, muscicapa gris. ) ap. Apis longicornis, ap. Sedge warbler (sylvia salicaria) ap. Oak (quercus robur) fl. Admiral butterfly (papilio atalanta) ap. Orange-tip (papilio cardamines) ap. Beech (fagus sylvatica) fl. Common maple (acer campestre) fl. Barberry-tree (berberis vulgaris) fl. Wood argus butterfly (papilio aegeria) ap. Orange lily (lilium bulbiferum) n. Burnet moth (sphinx tilipendulae) ap. Walnut (juglans regia) 1. Laburnum (cytisus laburnum) fl. Forest fly (hippobosca equina) ap. Saintfoin (hedysarum onobrychis) fl. Peony (pseonia officinalis) fl. Horse chestnut (sesculus hippocastanum) fl. Lilac (syringa vulgaris) fl. Columbine (aquilegia vulgaris) fl. Medlar (mespilus germamca) fl. Tormentil (tormentilla erecta seu officina- lis of Smith) fl. Lily of the valley (convallaria majalis) fl. Bees (apis mellifica) swarm Woodroof (asperula odorata) fl. Wasp, female (vespa vulgaris) ap. Mountain ash (sorbus seu pyrus aucuparia of Smith) fl. Birds-nest orchis (ophrys nidus avis) fl. White-beam tree (cratsegus seu pyrus aria of Smith) 1. Milkwort (polygala vulgaris) fl. Dwarf cistus (cistus helianthemuin) fl. Gelder rose (viburnum opulus) fl. Common elder (sainbucus nigra) fl. Cantharis noctiluca, ap. Apis longicornis bores holes in walks Mulberry-tree (morus nigra) 1. Wild service tree (cratsegus seu pyrus torminalis of Smith) fl. Sanicle (sanicula europaea) fl. Avens (geum urbanum) fl. Female fool's orchis (orchis morip) fl. Ragged Robin (lychnis flos cuculi) fl. Buruet (poterium sanguisorba) fl. Foxglove (digitalis purpurea) fl. Corn-flag (gladiolus communis) fl. Serapias Jongifolium fl. Raspberry (rubus idaeus) fl. Herb Robert (geranium Robertianum) fl. Figwort (scrophularia nodosa) fl. Gromwell (lithospermum officinale) fl Wood spurge (euphorbia amygdaloidoa) tt. Rainsons (alliuin ursinum) fl. WHITE. May 1 May 224 May 2- -26 May o 30 May 4 - 12 May 4, June 17 May 4 May 5 17 May 1030 May 10, June 9 May 11 13 May 13 15 May 13 May 14 May 1526 May 16 May 1726 May 17 May 18, June 11 May 18, June 13 May 18 May 18, June 5 May 18, June 9 May 19, June 8 May 20, June 15 May 21, June 9 May 21 May 21 27 May 21, June 20 May 21 May 22 May 22, July 22 May 22 25 May 23 May 23, June 8 May 24, June 11 May 24, June 4 May 24, June 7 May 25 May 26 May 26, June 25 May 26 May 27, June 9 May 27, June 13 May 27 May 27, June 13 May 28 May 28 May 29, June 1 May 29 May 30, June 22 May 30, June 20 May 30, June 13 May 30, June 21 May 30 May 31 May 31 June 1 June 1 MARKWICK. March 27, May 10 May 2, Julv 7 April 24, June 21 June 2 30 April 25, May 22 April 29, May 21 Aug. 2 April 29, June 4 March 30, May 10 April 23, May 28 April 24, May 27 April 28, June 4 June 14, July 22 May 24, June 26 April 10, June 1 May 1, June 23 May 21, July 28 April 18, May 26 April 19, June 7 April 15, May 30 May 6, June 13 April 8, June 19 April 17, June 11 April 27, June 13 May 12, June 23 April 14, June 4 April 2, June 4 ; last seen Nov. 2 April 20, June 8 May 18, June 12 MayS April 13, June 2 May 4, Aug. 8 May 10, June 8 May 6, June 17 May 20, June 11 May 13, June 19 April 23, June 4 May 9, June 11 April 17, May 20 May 12, June 8 April 30, Aug. 7 May 23, June 1 5 June 9, July 8 May 10, June 16 March 7, May 16 May 12, June 20 May 1024 March 23, May 13 April 21, June 4 NATURALIST S CALENDAR. 348 Mouse ear scorpion grass (myosotis scor- pioides) fl. Grasshopper (gryllus grossus) ap. Rose (rosa hortensis) fl. Mouse-ear hawkweed (hieracium pilo- sella) fl. Buckbean (menyanthes trifoliata) fl. Rose chaffer (scarabaeus auratus) ap. Sheep (ovis aries) shorn Water-flag (iris pseud-acorns) fl. Cultivated rye (secale cereale) fl. Hounds tongue (cynoglossum officinale) fl. Helleborine (serapias latifolia) fl. Green-gold fly (musca caesar) ap. Argus butterfly (papilio raoera) ap. Spear wort (ranunculus flammula) fl. Birdsfoot trefoil (lotus corniculatus) fl. Fraxinella or white ditany (dictamnus albus) fl. Phryganea nigra, ap. Angler's May-fly (ephemera vulgaris) ap. Ladies' finger (anthyllis vulneraria) n. Bee- orchis (ophrys apifera) fl. Pink (dianthus deltoides) fl. Mock orange (philadelplms coronarius) fl. Libellula virgo, ap. Vine (vitis vinifera) fl. Portugal laurel (prunus lusitanicus) fl. Purple-spotted inartagon (lilium marta- gon) fl. Meadow cranes-bill (geranium pratense) fl. Black bryony (tamus communis) fl. Field pea (pisum sativum arvense) fl. Bladder campion (cucnbalus behen seu silene inflata of Smith) fl. Bryony (bryonia alba) fl. Hedge-nettle (stachys sylvatica) fl. Bittersweet (solan um dulcamara) fl. Walnut (juglans regia) fl. Phallus impudicus, ap. Rosebay willow-herb (epilooium angusti- folium) tf. Wheat (triticum hybernum) fl. Comfrey (symphytum officinale) fl. Yellow pimpernel (lysitnachia nemorum) fl. Tremella nostoc, ap. Buckthorn (rhamnus catharticus) 1. Cuckow-spit insect (cicada spurn aria) ap. Dog-rose (rosa canina) n. Puff-ball (lycoperdon bovista) ap. Mullein (verbascum thapsus) fl. Viper's ougloss (echium anglicum seu vulgare of Smith) fl. Meadow hay cut Stag beetle ^lucanus ceryus) ap. Borage (borago officinalis) fl. Spindle-tree (euonymus europaeus) n. Musk thistle (carduus nutan^) fl. Dogwood (cornus sanguinea) fl. Field scabious (scabiosa arvensis) fl. Marsh thistle (carduus palustris) fl. Dropwort (spira filipendula) fl. Great wild valerian (valerianaofficinalis) fl. Quail (perdix coturnix) calls June 1 June 1 14 June 121 June 1, July 16 June 1 June 28 June 223 June 2 June 2 June 2 June 2, Aug. 6 June 2 June 2 June 3 June 3 JuneS 11 June 3 JuneS 14 June 4 June 4, July 4 June 519 June 5 June 5 20 June 7, July 30 June 8, July 1 JuneS 25 June 8, Aug. 1 June 8 June 9 June 9 June 9 June 10 June 1 i June 12 June 12, July 23 June 12 June 13, July 22 June 13 June 13 30 June 15, Aug. 24 June 16 June 1(? June 17, 18 June 17, Sept. 3 June 18 June 19 June 19, July 20 June 19 June 20 June 20 June 20, July 4 June 21 June 21 June 21 27 June 22, July 9 June 22, July 7 June 22, July 4 MARK WICK. April 11, June 1 March 25, July 6, last seen Nov. 3 June 7, July 1 April 19, June 12 April 20, June 8 April 18, Aug. 4 May 23, June 17 May 8, June 9 May 27 May 11, June 7 July 22, Sept. 6 April 25, June 13 April 10, JuneS June 9, July 24 June 1, Aug. 16 May 26. July 6 May 10, June 23 June 18, July 29 June 3, July 16 June 18, July 19 May 15*, June 21 May 15, June 21 May 4, July 13 May 13, Aug. 17 May 28, June 24 May 15, June 20 April 18, June 1 June 4, July 28 June 4 30 May 4, June 23 April 10, June 12 May 25 June 2 21 May 24, June 21 May 6, Aug. 19 June 10, July 22 May 27, July 3 June 13, July 7 June 1421 April 22, July 26 May 11, June 25 June 4, July 25 May 28, June 27 June 16, Aug. 14 May 15, June 19 May 8, Sept. 3 May 22, July 21 July 23, seen Sept 118 044 NATURALIST S CALENDAR. Mountain willow-herb (epilobmm monta- num) fl. Thistle upon thistle (carduus crispus) fl. Cow-parsnep (heraeleum sphondylium) fl. Earth-nut (bunium bulbocastanum eeu tiexuosum of Smith) fl. Young frogs migrate Oestrus curvicauda ap. Vervain (verbena officinalis) fl. Corn poppy (papaver rhseas) fl. Self-heal (prunella vulgaris) fl. Agrimony (agrimonia eupatoria) fl. Great horse-fly (tabanus bovinus) ap. Greater knapweed (centaurea scabiosa) fl. Mushroom (agaricus campestris) ap. Common mallow (malva sylvestris) fl. Dwarf mallow (malva rotundifolia) fl. St John's wort (hypericum perforatum) fl. Broom-rape (orobanche major) fl. Henbane (hyoscyamus niger) fl. Goats-beard (tragopogon pratense) fl Deadly nightshade (atropa belladonna) fl. Truffles begin to be found Young partridges fly Lime-tree (tilia europea) fl. Spear thistle (carduus lanceolatus) fl. Meadow sweet (spiraea ulmaria) fl. Greenweed (genista tinctoria) fl. Wild thyme (thymus serpyllum) fl. Stachys germamca, fl. Day-lily (hemerocallis flava) fl. Jasmine (jasminum oflicinale) fl. Holly-oak (alcea rosea) fl. Monotropa hypopitys, fl. Ladies' bedatraw (galium verum") fl. Galium palustre, n. Nipplewort (lapsana comnmnis) fl. Welted thistle (carduus acanthoides) fl. Sneezewort (achillea ptarmica) fl. Musk mallow (malva moschata) fl Pimpernel (anagallis arvensis) fl. Hoary beetle (scarabaeus solsit) ap Corn saw-wort (serratula arveusis seu carduus arvensis of Smith) fl. Pheasant's eye (adonis annua seu autum- nalis of Smith) fl. Redeyebright(euphrasiaseu bartsia odon- tites of Smith) fl. Thorough wax (bupleurum rotundifol.) fl. Cockle (agrostemma githago) fl. Ivy-leaved wild lettuce (pxenanthes mura- lis) fl. Feverfew (matricaria seu pyrethrum par- thenium of Smith) fl. Wall pepper (sedum acre) fl. Privet (ligustrum vulgare) fl. Common toadflax (antirrhinum linaria) fl. Perennial wild flax (linum perenne) fl. Whortleberries ripe (vaccinium ulig.) Yellow base rocket (reseda lutea) fl. Blue-bottle (centaurea cyanus) fl. Dwarf carline thistle (carduus acaulis) fl. Bull-rush, or cats-tail (typha latifolia) fl. Spiked willow-herb (lythrmn salicarial H. RJark mullein (verbasrum niger) Jl. MARKWICK. June 22 June 5 21 June 23 29 May 22, July 22 June 23 May 27, July 12 June 23 May 4 31 June 23, Aug. 2 June 24 June 24 June 10, July 17 June 24 April 30, July 15 June 24 June 7 23 June 24 29 June 7, July 9 June 24, Aug. 2 June 25 June 7, Aug. 14 June 26, Aug. 30 April 16, Aug. 16 June 26 June 2ff June 26 May 27, July 13 May 12, July 30 June 15, July 12 June 27, July 4 June 27 May 9, July 25 May 13, June 19 June 27 June 5 14 June 27 June 28, July 29 May 22, Aug. 14 June 28, July 31 June 28, July 31 July 8 28 June 12, July 30 June 28, July 12 June 27, July 18 June 28 June 16, July 24 June 28 .tune 4, July 24 June 28 June 6, July 19 June 29, July 20 June 29, July 4 June 29, July 30 June 29, Aug. 4 June 29, July 23 May 29, June 9 June 27, July 21 July 4, Sept. 7 June 29 June 22, Aug. 3 June 29 June 29 May 30, July 24- June 29 June 30 June 22, Aug. 3 June 30 June 9, July 14 June 30 May 4, June 22 June 30, July 17 July 1 July 1 July 2 July 2 July 2 July 2 July 2 JulyS July3 JulyS July 4 July 4 24 July5 JulyS July 5 12 July 6 July 6 July 6 June 15, July 15 April 11, July 15 June 20, Aug. 10 May 14, July 25 June 2, July 25 June 19, July 24 June 8, July 12 June 3, July 13 June 21, Aug. 3 April 21, July 6 July 19 May 15, Oct. 14 June 30, Aug. 4 June 29, July 21 Jun 24, A ng. 17 NATURALIST S CALENDAR. 345 Chrysanthemum coronarium, fl. Marigolds (calendula officinalis) fl. Little field madder (sherardia arvensis) fl. Calamint (melissa seu thymus calamintha of Smith) fl. Black horehound (ballota nigra) fl. Wood betony (betonica officinalis) fl. Round-leaved bell-flower (campanula ro- tundifolia) fl. All-good (chenopodium bonus henricus) fl. Wild-carrot (daucus carota) fl. Indian cress (epopseolum majus) fl. Cat-mint (nepeta cataria) fl. Cow- wheat (melampyrum sylvaticum seu pratense or Smith) fl. Crosswort (valantia cruciata seu galium cruciattim of Smith) fl. Cranberries ripe Tufted vetch (vicia cracca) fl. Wood vetch (vicia sylvatica) fl. Little throat-wort (campanula glome- rata) fl. Sheep's scabious (jasione montana) fl. Pastinaca sylvatica, fl. White lily (lilium candidum) fl. Hemlock (conium maculatum) fl. Caucalis anthriscus, fl. Flying ants, ap. Moneywort (lysimachia nummularia) fl. Scarlet martagon (lilium chalcedonicum) fl. Lesser stitchwort (stellaria graminea) fl. Fool's parsley (sethusa cynapium) fl. Dwarf elder (sambucus ebulus) fl. Swallows and martens congregate Potato (solanwn tuberosum) fl. Angelica sylvestris, fl. Digitalis ferruginosus, fl. Ragwort (senecio jacobsea) fl. Golden rod (solidago virgaurea) fl. Star thistle (centaurea calcitrapa) fl. Tree primrose (oenothera biennis) fl. Peas (pisum sativum) cut Galega officinalis, fl. Apricots (prunus armemaca) ripe Clown's allheal (stachys palustris) fl. Branching willow-herb (epilobium ramo- sum) fl. Rye harvest begins Yellow centaury (chlora perfoliata) fl. Yellow vetch ling (lathy rus aphaca) fl. Enchanter's nightshade (circaea luteti- ana) fl. Water hemp agrimony (eupatorium can- nabinum) fl. Giant throatwort (campanula trache- lium) fl. Eyeb right (euphrasia officinalis) fl. Hops (humulus lupulus) fl. Posltry moult Dodder (cuscuta europoea seu epithymum of Smith) fl. Lesser centaury (gentiana seu chironia centarium of Smith) fl. Creeping water parsnep (sium nodiflorum) fl. Common spurrey (spergula arvensis) fl. WHITE. July 6 July 69 July 7 July 7 July 7 July 8 19 July 8 July 8 July 8 July 8 20 July 9 July 9 July 9 July 9 27 July 10 July 10 July 11 July 11 July 12 July 12 July 13 July 13 July 13 Aug. 11 July 13 July 14 Aug. 4 July 14 July 14 July 14 29 July 14, Aug. 29 July 14 July 15 July 15 25 July 15 July 15 July 16 July 16 July 17, Aug. 14 July 17 July 17, Aug. 21 July 17 MARK WICK. May 28, July 28 April 20, July 16 Jan. 11, June 6 July 21 June 16, Sept. 12 June 10, July 15 June 12, July 29 .April 21, June 15 June 7, July 14 June 11, July 25 May 2, June 22 April 10, May 28 May 31, July 8 July 28, Aug. 18 June 10, July 25 June 21, July 22 June 4, July 20 Aug. 20, Sept. 19 June 14, Aug. 16 June 21, Aug. 6 May 8, June 23 June 9, Aug. 9 Aug. 12, Sept. 8 June 3, July 12 June 22, July 13 July 7, Aug. 29 July 16, Aug. 16 June 12, July 18 July 13, Aug. 15 July 5, Aug. 16 June 12, July 14 July 17 July 17, Aug. 7 July 18, Aug. 15 June 15, Aug. 13 July 18 July 18 July 18 July 19 July 19 July 19, Aug. 10 July 19 July 20 July 20 July 20 July 21 June 20, July 27 July 4, Aug. 6 July 13, Aug. 14 May 28, July 19 July 20, Aug. 17 July 9, Aug. 7 June 3, July 19 J uly 1 0, Sept. 1 1 April 10, July 16 346 NATURALIST S CALENDAR. WHITE. MARKWICK, Wild clover (trifolium pratensey fl. July 21 May 2, June 7 Buckwheat (polygonum fagopyrum) fl. July 21 June 27, July 10 Wheat harvest begins July 21, Aug. 23 July 11, Aug. 26 Great bur-reed (sparganium erectum) fl. July 22 June 10, July 23 Marsh St John's-wort (hypericum elodes) fl. July 2231 June 16, Aug 10 Sun-dew (drosera rotundifolia) fl. July 22 Aug. 1 Marsh cinquefoil (comarum palustre) fl. July 22 May 27, July 12 Wild cherries ripe July 22 Lancashire asphodel (anthericum ossi- fragum) fl. July 22 June 21, July 29 Hooded willow-herb (scutellaria galeri- culata) fl. July 23 June 2, July 31 Water dropwort (cenanthe fistulosa) fl. July 23 Horehound (marrubium vulgare) fl. July 23 Seseli carnifolia, fl July 24 Water plantain (alisma plantago) fl. July 24 May 31, July 21 Alopecurus myosuroides, fl. . July 25 Virgin's bower (clematis vitalba) fl. July 25, Aug. 9 July 13, Aug. 14 Bees kill the drones July 25 Teasel (dipsacus sylvestris) fl. July 26 July 16, Aug. 3 Wild marjoram (origanum vulgare) fl. July 26 July 17, Aug. 29 Swifts (hirundo apus) begin to depart July 27 29 Aug 1 . 5 Small wild teasel (dipsacus pilosus) fl. July 28, 29 Wood sage (teucrmm scorodonia) fl. July 28 June 17, July 24 Everlasting pea (lathyrus latifplius) fl. July 28 June 20, July 30 Trailing St John's-wort (hypericum humi- fusum) fl. July 29 May 20, June 22 White hellebore (veratrum album) fl. July 30 July 18 22 Camomile (anthemis nobilis) fl. July 30 June 21, Aug. 20 Lesser field scabious (scabiosa colum- baria) fl. Sun-flower (helianthus multiflorus) fl. Yellow loosestrife (lysimachia vulgaris) fl. Swift (hirundo apus) last seen Oats (avena sativa) cut Barley (hordeum sativum) cut Lesser hooded willow-herb (scutellaria minor) fl. Middle fleabane (inula dysenteriea) fl. Apis manicata ap. Swallow-tailed butterfly (papilio ma- chaon) ap. Whame or burrel-fly (oestrus bovis) lays eggs on horses Sow thistle (sonchus arvensis) fl. Plantain fritillary (papilio cinxia) ap. Yellow succory (picris hieracioides) fl. Musca mystacea, ap. Canterbury bells (campanula medium) fl. Aug. Mentha longifolia, fl. Aug. Carline thistle (carlina vulgaris) fl. Aug. Venetian sumach (-rhus cotinus) fl. Aug. Ptinus pectinicornis, ap. Aug. Burdock (arctium lappa) fl. Aug. Fell- wort (gentiana amarella) fl. Aug. Wormwood (artemisia absinthium) fl. Aug. Mugwort (artemisia vulgaris) fl, Aug. St Barnaby's thistle (centaurea solstitialis)fl. Aug. Meadow saffron (colchicum autumnale) fl. Aug. Michaelmas daisy (aster tradescanti) fl. Aug. Meadow rue (thalictrum flavum) fl. -Aug. Sea holly (eryngium maritimnm) fl. Aug. China aster (aster chinensis) fl. Aug. Boletus albuvS, ap. Aug. Aug. 1 Aug. 2 Aug. 2 Aug. 2 Aug. 3 19 Aug. 3 Aug. 3 Aug. 4 5 5 7 7 8 8, Sept. 3 -. 10 Aug. 8, Sept. 7 July 7, Aug. 3 April 20, June 7, last seen Aug. 28 June 17, July 21 June 6 25 June 5, Aug. 1 1 July 21, Aug. 18 June 5, July 20 June 17, Aug. 4 July 22, Aug. 21 July 9, Aug 7 . 10 10, Sept. 13 Aug. ?5, Sept. 29 12, Sept. 27 Aug. 11, Get 8 14 14, Sept, 28 Aug. 6. Oct. 2 14 May 10 NATURALIST S CALENDAR. Loss Venus looking-glass (campanula hybrida) fl. Carthainus tinctor, fl. Goldfinch (fringilla carduelis) young broods ap. Lapwings (tringa vanellus) congregate Black-eyed marble butterfly (papilio semele) ap. Birds reasume their spring notes Devil's bit (scabiosa succisa) fl. Thistle down floats Ploughman's spikenard (conyza squar- rosa) fl. Autumnal dandelion (leontodon autum- MARKVMcK. Aug. 15 Aug. 15 May It Aug. 15 June 15 Aug. 15, Sept. 12 Sept 25, Feb. 4 Aug. 15 Aug. 16 Aug. 17 June 22, Aug. 23 Aug. 17, Sept. 10 Aug. 18 nale) fl. Aug. 18 July 25 Flies abound in windows Aug. 18 Linnets (fringilla linota) congregate Bulls make their shrill autumnal noise Aug. 18, Nov. 1 Aug. 22, Nov. 8 Aug. 20 Aster amelius, fl. Aug. 22 Balsam (impatiens balsamina) fl. Milk thistle (carduus marianus) fl. Hop-picking begins Beech (fagus sylvatica) turns yellow Soapwort (saponaria officinalis) fl. Aug. 23 May 22, July 26 Aug. 24 April 21, July 18 Aug. 24, Sept. 17 Sept. 115 Aug. 24, Sept. 22 Sept. 529 Aug. 25 July 19, Aug. 23 Ladies' traces (ophrys spiralis) fl. Small golden black-spotted butterfly (papi- Aug. 27, Sept 12 Aug. 18, Sept. 18 lio phlaeas) ap. Aug. 29 Swallow (hirundo rustica) sings Aug. 29 April 11, Aug. 20 Althaea frutex (hibiscus syriacus) fl. Aug. 30, Sept, 2 July 20, Sept. 28 Great fritillary (papilio paphia) ap. Willow red under-wing moth (phaloona Aug. 30 pacta) ap. Aug. 31 Stone curlew (otis oedicnemus) clamours Sept. 1, Nov. 7 June 17 Phalaena russula, ap. Sept. 1 Grapes ripen Sept. 4, Oct. 24 Aug. 31, Nov. 4 Wood owls hoot Sept. 4, Nov. 9 Saffron butterfly (papilio hyale) ap. Ringousel appears on its autumnal visit Flycatcher (muscicapa grisola) last seen Sept. 4 Aug. 5, Sept. 26 Sept. 430 Sept. 629 Sept. 430 Beans (vicia faba) cut Sept. 11 Aug. 9, Oct. 14 Ivy (hedera helix) fl. Stages congregate Wild honeysuckles fl. a second time Sept. 12, Oct. 2 Sept. 18, Oct. 28 Sept. 12, Nov. 1 June 4, March 21 Sept. 25 Woodlark sings Sept. 28, Oct 24 Woodcock (scolopax rusticola) returns Sept. 29, Nov. 11 Oct. 1, Nov. 1 ; young ones Ap.28; last seen Ap. ] 1 Strawberry-tree (arbutus unedo) fl. Oct. 1 May 21, Dec. 10 Wheat sown Oct. 3, Nov. 9 Sept. 23, Oct. 19 Swallows last seen. (N.B. The house marten the latest) Oct 4, Nov. 5 Nov. 16 Redwing 1 (turdus iliacus) comes Oct. 10, Nov. 10 Oct. 1, Dec. 18 ; sings Feb. 10, March 21; last seen April 13 Fieldfare (turdus pilaris) returns Oct. 12, Nov. 23 Oct. 13, Nov. 18 ; last seen May 1 Gossamer fills the air Oct. 15 27 Chinese holly-oak (alcea rosea) fl. Oct. 19 July 7, Aug. 21 Hen chaffinches congregate Oct. 20, Dec. 31 Wood pigeons come Oct. 23, Dec. 27 Roystoii crow (cor v us cornix) returns Oct. 23, Nov. 29 Oct. 13, Nov. 17, last seen April 15 Snipe (scolopax gallinago) returns Oct. 25, Nov 20 Sept. 29, Nov. 11 ; last seen April H 348 NATURALIST S CALENDAR. Tortoise begins to bury himself Rooks (corvus frugilegus) return to their nest trees Bucks grunt Primrose (^primula vulg-aris) fl. Green whistling 1 plover, ap. Helvella mitra, ap. Greenfinches flock Hepatica, fl. Furze (ulex europaeusl fl. Polyanthus (primula poly^ntha) fl. Young* lambs dropped Moles work in throwing up hillocks Helleborus foetidus, fl. Daisy (bellis perennis) fl. Wall-flower (cheiranthus cheiri sou fruti- culosus of Smith" fl. Mezeri'on, fl. Snowdrop, fl WHITE. MARKWfCK. Oct. 27, Nov. 26 Oct. 31, Dec. 25 June 29, Get 20 Nov. 1 Nov. 10 Oct 7, Dec. 30 Nov. 13, 14 Nov. 16 Nov. 27 Nov. 30, Dec. 29 Feb. 19 Dec. 4 21 Dec. 16 31 Dec. 7 16 Dec. 31 Dec. 11 27 D'-" on,,, MUK5fis&E^^]K^ land - marks ' whic "- nc -** 1 - >< :- Vol. II., price 5s., cloth lettered, UrnvK^ iuthor HX STODDART ' Knt LLD ' Secorid Edition, Revised by the CONTEXTS ^-Philosophy of Language ; Preliminary View of those Faculties of the Intellect and Will on which the Science of Language depends ; Of Sentences Words as Parts of Speech; Nouns; Participles; Pronouns ; Verbs ArtiSprSiH Conjunctions; Adverbs; Interjections; Particles; The Mechanism of Speech work to the attention of the public." nothing of the many interesting illustration ^^^1 e au^'s e*^** ^ e f liave s '? i ** u 1 ** hS '' Sir John Stoddart's famous Treatise on Universal Grammar, "-Critic December 1840 by many acuto and tasteful critlcim.. e selection of cat'** cordiaU y recoauueild this work to the notice of instructors. "-English Journal o/ Edu- Vol. III. price 3s., cloth lettered. B^ECost Reverend Richard Whately, D.D , Archbishoi} ihe Original. Edition, complete, with a' Comm-Ph, Din > --' sop ubim. ihe Ongmal Edition, complete, with a Comprehensive Synopsis and a Copious Index by the Editor NEW WOEKS AND NEW EDITIONS Vol. IV., price 3s. 6d., cloth lettered, RHETORIC. By the Most Reverend Richard Whately, D.D., Arch- bishop of Dublin. The Original Edition, complete, with a Compre- hensive Synopsis and a Copious Index by the Editor. CONTEXTS Introduction : Exposition of the subject. Chap. I. Of the Invention, Arrangement, and Introduction of Arguments. 1. Of Propositions to be Main- tained. 2. Of Arguments. 3. Of the various Use and Order of the several kinds of Propositions and of Arguments in different cases. 4. Of Introduction. Chap. II. Of Persuasion. Chap. III. Style. 1. Perspicuity of Style. 2. Energy of Style. 3, Elegance of Style. Chap. IV." Elocution, Vol. V., price 6s., cloth lettered, HISTORY of the CHRISTIAN CHURCH. First Division: THE BISE AND EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. By the Right Reverend SAMUEL, HINDS, D.D., Bishop of Norwich. A New Edition, Revised. To which is added, a DISSERTATION ON MIRACLES. By the Rev. J. H. NEWMAN, B.D., Oriel College, Oxford. CONTENTS. 1. Introduction to History of Early Christianity; Pteligion of the Gentiles, of the Jews, and of the Samaritans. Part 1. The Ministry of Christ. Part 2. The Apostolic Age. Part 3. Age of the Apostolical Fathers. II. Correspon- dence between Pliny the Consul and the Emperor Trajan, respecting the Early Christians. III. Life of Apollonius Tyanseus; with a Comparison between the Miracles of Scripture and those elsewhere related as regards their respective Object, Nature, and Evidence. " Erudite research is here combined with independent thought. The historical narrative flow gracefully along. A certain agreeable tone of generous and liberal feeling pervades the work." Scottish Guardian. " An admirable compend frank and liberal." United Presbyterian Magazine . Vol. VI., price 4s., cloth lettered, POLITICAL ECONOMY. By William Nassau Senior, Esq., A.M. Professor of Political Economy in the University of Oxford. CONTENTS Political Economy, the Science which Treats of the Nature, the Pro- duction, and the Distribution of Wealth. Nature of Wealth. Value. Four Ele- mentary Propositions of the Science: 1, General Desire for Wealth ; 2, Causes which limit Population; 3, Production, Instruments of Production, Capital and Labour; 4, Comparison of Manufactures with Agriculture. Distribution of Wealth; Ex- change : Monopolies ; Rent ; Wages ; Profit ; Emigration. With an Index. " Mr. Senior has long stood in the highest ranks as a teacher of the great facts of political economy, and his well-known treatise on that important science requires no aid from us in the way of introduction or recommendation. All who would understand the course and tendencies of modem civilization, its great basis, and its working principles, with their results, should study tin's volume, embracing a clear vidimus of the subject, with its later additions and improvements." Glasgow Citizen. "The proprietors of the Encyclopaedia Metropolitans are publishing a second or cabinet edition of that very learned work in crown octavo, every treatise being thoroughly revised, and this work of Mr. Senior's forms one of the volumes. It is strictly a treatise on the science of political economy, confined to the nature, production, and distribution of wealth. . . . Abat- ing these imperfections, it is demonstrative and clearly written, and the public, we are sure, will receive it in its new form with satisfaction. It is a great advantage to have the whole science in a single volume. If it be in consequence much less discursive than the large volumes of Mr. Mill, or the thick, closely printed edition of Smith by Mr. M'Culloch, it is more strictly scientific, and in that sense deserves approbation." Economist, No. 344. "A treatise of high reputation, originally published in the ' Encyclopaedia Mctropolitana,' and now rendered accessible to the public at large, by appearing in a separate form that of a small octavo volume." Westminster JReview. PUBLISHED BY GRIFFIN AND CO. Vol. VII., price 2s. 6d., cloth lettered, HISTORY of the JEWS, from the Time of Alexander the Great to the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. A.M. 3595, B.C. 409, to A.D. 70. By the Venerable WILLIAM HALE HALE, M.A., Master of the Charter House, and Archdeacon of London. CONTENTS Chap. I. From the time of Alexander the Great to the time of the Maccabees. Chap. II. Review of the State of Religion in Judaea from the time of Nehemiah to the time of the Maccabees. Chap. III. The Asamonean Princes. Chap. IV. Herod the Great Chap. V. History of the Jews, from the Death of Herod the Great to the Destruction of Jerusalem. Vol. VIII.. price 6s., cloth lettered, SACKED HISTORY and BIOGRAPHY, from the Antediluvian Period to the time of the Prophet Malachi. A.M. 1 to A.M. 3607, B.C. 397. Edited by the Itev. F. A. Cox, D.D., LL.D. CONTENTS. Introductory Dissertation : On the Claims and Uses of Sacred His- tory. Chap. L Antediluvian Period. II. Patriarchal Age. I1L Job. IV. Moses. V. Joshua. VI. The Judges of Israel to the Monarchy under David. VII. David VIII. The Israelitish Monarchy from the Reign of Solomon to the Cap- tivity of the Ten Tribes. IX. The Israelitish Monarchy from the Captivity of the Ten Tribes to the Captivity of Judah. X. Isaiah, and the Historical Events con- nected with his Prophecies. XI. Nebuchadnezzar. XII. Daniel. XIII. Jeremiah. XIV. EzekieL XV. Ezra and Nehemiah. XVI. The Latter Minor Prophets. XVII. The Illustrious Women of Ancient Israel Index. " Pleasing and good, and worthy of general attention." United Presbyterian Magazine. Vol. IX., price 7s. 6d., cloth, lettered. HISTORY of GREEK LITERATURE. By the Hon. Sir Thomas NOON TALFOURD, D.C.L. ; the Eight Reverend CHARLES JAMES BLOMFIELD, D.D., Bishop of London ; R. WHITCOMBE, Esq., M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge ; E. POCOCKE, Esq. ; the Rev. J. B. OTTLEY, M.A., late Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford ; and the Rev. HENRY THOMPSON, M.A., late Scholar of St John's College, Cam-- bridge, Curate of Wrington. CONTENTS. Early Greek Poetry: Tragic Poets of Greece, with a View of the Greek Tragedy. Chorus in Ancient Tragedy. Lyric Poets of Greece. Old Comedy of Greece. Middle and New Comedy of Greece. Poets of the Middle Comedy, Poets of the New Comedy. Ionic Logographers. Greek Historians. Greek Ora- tors. Greek Pastoral Poetry. Philological Notes.- The Greek Article; Digamma; Dithyrambus Greek Literary Chronology, Index. "We need only to refer to the names prefixed to this notice of the editors of this volume, as amongst the most eminent Greek scholars of the day, as a guarantee for the completeness of the work." Glasgow Citizen. " The present volume comprises papers on the early Greek Poets the tragic, comic, and lyric poets of Greece, and the Greek historians and orators. Those by Mr. Justice Talfourd are par- ticularly interesting. They are full of information, expressed in the choicest language. Biogra- phical details &EO interspersed with masterly criticisms and eloquent tributes of admiration. Classic elegance and gracefulness shine forth on every pa,ge. All the questions revised in con- nection with Homer are treated very fully and ably. The tragedians, also, are faithfully sketched, the cluu-actoriatics of each pointed out, and their remaining works briefly described." Athenaum, December 28, 1850. .... " These papers appeared in several separate volumes of the original work, in quarto, but Are now happily blended in this graceful volume, full of information and reading, not to be for- gotten by v,-ell-educated persons. Mr. Justice Talfourd has much improved his four contributions -on Early Greek 1'oetry, Tragedy, Lyrics, and History. They are elegant productions, without diving into the depths of Colonel Mure; and may advantageously be perused either as a step towards, or a ' refresher' after pondering on the immense research of that accomplished author. .Altogether we are much delimited with this classical selection, and cordially recommend it to afl students emulous of belonging to the ranks of superior cultivation." Literary Gazette. NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS History of Greek Literature, continued. "The present volume is the most attractive of the series yet published, as the names of the writers will show .... .A volume which might advantageously be read in schools, and which will be a valuable addition to the classical library." Critic. "The volume, as a whole, is admirable minute in its details, felicitous in its criticism, and gen orally lively and graphic in its style The work is one of distinguished literary ex- cellence. Scottish Guardian. ' A multum in parvo of blended elegance and erudition." United Presbyterian Magazine. Vol. X. } price 5s., cloth lettered, MORAL and METAPHYSICAL PHILOSOPHY. By the Rev. F. D. MAURICE, Chaplain to Lincoln's Inn, Professor of Ecclesiastical History, King's College, London. A New Edition, entirely Re-written. Part I. ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY. This work treats of the Philosophy before the Coming of Christ. The subjects considered are, 1st, The Hebrew Philosophy; 2cl, the Egyptian, Phoenician, Assyrian; 3d, the Hindoo; 4th, the Chinese; 5th, the Persian; 6th, the Greek; 7th, the Roman; 8th, The Graeco-Hebraic or Alexandrian Philosophy. "The Rev. Mr. Maurice's Article on Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy is now expanded into a good-sized volume, and is rendered much more complete and satisfactory. From the earliest dates in the annals of the human race the author follows up his inquiries, and de- fines, as far as they are susceptible of definition from their remains and obscurities, the philoso- phies of the Hebrews, Egyptians. Phoenicians, Hindoos, Chinese, Persian, Grecian, and Roman. Of course, the Grecian occupies the iar largest share of the work, and we have the doctrines of the Schools explained from their beginning, to the end of the later sects." Literary Gazette. " Replete with striking and original thought." United Presbyterian Magazine. "The volume now before us is the first of the two that are to comprise the History of Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy. Mr. Maurice treats fully of the Ancient Philosophy, commencing with that of the Hebrews, and then proceeding to describe successively that of the Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Assyrians. Thence he turns to the Hindoo Philosophy, of which he presents by far the most clear and intelligible sketch we have ever seen. The Chinese Philosophy follows": then that of Persia, then that of Greece, This he reviews under four grand divisions, the Philo- sophy before the time of Socrates : its progress from Socrates to Aristotle, and to the philosophy of Aristotle he devotes an enth-e section. The succeeding later sects are grouped together and described more briefly. The Roman and the Alexandrian Philosophies complete the subject, which is treated with the fulness of information that proves how intimately the author is ac- quainted with his theme." Critic. Vol. XL, price 5s., cloth lettered, INTRODUCTION to UNIVERSAL HISTORY. Two Dissertations: 1. On the USES of HISTORY as a STUDY; 2. On the SEPARA- TION of the EARLY FACTS of HISTORY from FABLE. By Sir JOHN STODDART, Kut., LL.D. A New Edition, Re-written. SYNOPSIS Meaning of the Word History Manner of Relating Utility, History a Source of Pleasure Qualifications of the Historian Particular Historians Order of Study SEPARATION OF FACT FROM FABLE Chronology Geography Origin of Mythology Political Fictions- Profane History Egypt, Scriptural and Classical Account ~of Egypt, Modern Accounts of India, Scriptural and Classical Account of India, Literature and Religions of China Scythians Tartars Samatians Huns Goths Celts Babylonian and Assyrian Empires Medes and Persians Arabians Syrians and Phoenicians Greeks Italy Romans Africa Ethiopians America JSorth America Red Indians Central America South America. " The third is Sir John Stoddart's most instructive Introduction to the Study of Universal His- tory, re-written,' in which, after illustrating the uses of History as a study, the well-read author gives us a second Dissertation on the separation of the early facts of History from Fable, so full of curious and interesting matter, that we cannot speak too highly in its praise. The facts are very concisely stated, are as numerous as they are important for the true understanding of a vast proportion of those works which are held to be needed for our education and studious toils." Literary Gazette. "It is impossible to speak too highly of the enlarged and enlightened views of the author : his estimate of the qualities requisite to an historian should be rc;ul by all who think of venturing upon the composition of history, that they may try their own competency, or make due prepara- tion before they begin. His sketch of the usns of history is of no less interest and importance to the reader. This is a book to bo read in schools, as well as to be placed upon the historical shelf in every library." Critic. PUBLISHED BY GRIFFIN AND CO. Vol. XII., price 8s. Gd., cloth lettered, A MANUAL of ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. By William Samsay, A.M., Trinity College, Cambridge, Professor of Humanity in the University of Glasgow. With Map and numerous Engravings. CONTEXTS. Topography of Rome Origin of the Roman People,, and Political and Social Organization General Principles of the Roman Constitution The Comitia Magistrates The Senate Public Lands, and Agrarian Laws Roman Revenues- Roman Laws and Administration of Justice Religion Calendar Military and Naval Affairs Weights, Measures, and Coins Private Life of the Romans Com- prehensive Index. " This compact and complete Manual comprises all tho results of modern improved scholarship within a modern compass. The divisions and sub divisions are admirably drawn, and plainly marked out, with headings printed in such a type as to catch the eye at once. Pictorial illus- trations are given whenever they are wanted, authorities are freely cited at the bottom of the page, and an excellent index is found at the end of the book." Athenaum. " This is one of the many valuable volumes now issuing from the press, as portions of the new edition of that elaborate and comprehensive work, the ' Encyclopaedia Metropolitana.' Professor Ramsay has here produced, within a moderate and useable compass, a singularly perfect and complete manual of all that has been accumulated by a long succession of writers, touching the national character and peculiarities, the laws, literature, language, manners, and habits of the ancient Romans, with a general view of their antiquities, civil and sacred, their mixed origin, and the topography of the ancient city of republican Rome. '1 he volume is profusely illustrated with engravings on wood of every thing remarkable which can throw light upon the subject." Glas- gow Citizen. " This volume is one of which it would be difficult to over-estimate the value. It presents in a clear ani concise form a body of information on the topography, the manners and customs, on the religious, civil, and military institutions and ceremonies of ancient Rome. There is no sub- ject left unexplained, and the arrangement of the various matters under the several chapters makes this volume exceedingly easy of reference. We heartily recommend this work to public attention ; and before we conclude our very hasty notice, we have to add that the volume, which is beautifully got up, and well printed, is profusely illustrated with excellently drawn wood-cuts from ancient coins, gems, bronzes, and other genuine relics of the ancient time of P,ome, when she called herself mistress of the world." Glasgow Herald. "While this volume will be invaluable to the youthful classical student, it is in reality a most agreeable companion, as a mere library book, for those of more advanced age, who will find is pleasant and profitable reading." Glasgow Courier. " We have examined the work with considerable attention, and can give it our warmest com- mendation. Jn accuracy of scholarship, in clearness of arrangement, in fulness of information, it is all that can be desired. The best modern writers on each department of the subject are cited ; the most important references to the classical authors are given at the foot of the page : and the whole work is enlivened and illustrated by numerous wood-cuts taken from antique ob- jects. The Manual will serve as an excellent introduction to the study of Roman Antiquities." Literary Gazette. " Far from being a mere class-book, this work should be in every library where ancient history holds a place It is a vast improvement upon Adam's well-known work, and will be a lasting monument of the classical acquirements and taste of the esteemed author." Scottish Guardian. " We can truly say that it meets the wants of the present day, which no other work of the kind does; and we trust that it will forthwith become a general class book in our colleges and gram- mar schools." Witness. Vol. XIII., price 12s. 6d., cloth lettered, A MANUAL of BOTANY, being an Introduction to the Study of the STRUCTURE, PHYSIOLOGY, and CLASSIFICATION of PLANTS. By JOHN HUTTON BALFOUII, M.D.. F.L.S., F.R.S.E., Professor of Medicine and Botany in the University of Edinburgh. With numer- ous Illustrations. CONTEXTS Vegetable Anatomy, Organography, and Physiology. Systematic Botany, or the Classification of Plants. Systems' of Classification^ Geographical Botany, Fossil Botany. Use of the Microscope. Collecting Plants Index. " Besides a comprehensive view of all the departments of Botany, the important application of the science to agriculture has obtained its due share of consideration, and the works of Liebig, Mulder, and our own Johnston, have furnished valuable matter for this purpose. The volume is copiously illustrated with cuts, and a fine tono of religious feeling runs through and consecrates the whole." Literary Gazette. " We here record it as our belief that ' Balfour's Manual' is the most complete work in the English language." North. J'ritish Agriculturist. " For a mass of valuable and interesting information as a monument of industry and research we can hardly speak too highly of the Manual of Botany.' " Weekly Aews. 8 NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS Balfour's Botany, continued. " This is the best introduction, beyond all comparison, which has yet appeared, to the mosft delightful of all sciences. We are glad that the merit of it is due to the talent of a Scottish bo- tanist, and the enterprise of a publishing firm connected with Scotland.'' Worth British Mail. " The book of Dr. Balfour is a very complete one, much more so than the generality of elemen- tary books. The chapters devoted to the structure of plants are particularly well done." Atlas. " Dr. Balfour's ' Manual of Botany' is entitled to gi'eat praise, for the clear and comprehensive manner in which he has presented the student with this most serviceable introduction to the science. The work is admirably arranged." Bentley's Magazine. " An elementary book of this kind has long been wanted. Hitherto the student has had to seek his knowledge of physiology from one source, of classifications from a second, of medical botany from a third, of agricultural chemistry from a fourth, of botanical geography from a fifth, and of geological botany from a sixth ; all equally expensive works, and some of them not generally accessible. Thanks to the talent of a zealous and accomplished botanist and excellent teacher, and the enterprise of a publishing firm long identified with the interests of science, the element* of all these departments of the study are embodied within the plan of the present work, which i* as remarkable for comprehensiveness as for cheapness " Scottish Guardian. " We can recommend the volume as a convenient and pleasant manual to snch of our readers us may wish to study the curious phenomena of vegetable life." Scotsman. " Now for the fruits, and we have done sufficient justice to this rare and most readable work of the Avhole botanic library for we have gleaned a full and fair example of its varied, interesting, and instructive contents. It is not a mere system ; it is a philosophy of botany, to which the systematic part serves subordinately the office of an index. . . . Whoever wants to know all the rest, with the least possible trouble, within the most limited extent of verbiage, and without absolutely a single grain of humbug, will not fail to consult Professor Balfour's model Manual of Botany." Tait's Magazine. " Perhaps the most masterly digest of the science which has yet appeared, and, at the same time, one of the most readable Professor Balfour's Manual will be found of peculiar value. To an amazing amount of fact, condensed into rather more than six hundred closely-printed pages, and illustrated by more than eight hundred wood-cuts, it adds the higher philosophy of the science. It is the work of a man to whom botany has been the passion and study of a life- time ; and who. to an intimate acquaintance with what had been previously known, adds much that has been the result of original observation." Witness. Vol. XIV., price 3s. 6cL, cloth lettered, A MANUAL of ELECTRO-METALLURGY, including the Applica- TIONS OF THE ART TO MANUFACTURING PURPOSES. By JAMES NAPIER, F.C.S. With numerous Illustrations. History of the Art of Electro-Metallurgy. Description of Galvanic Batteries. Electrotype Processes. Bronzing. Deposition of Metals. Electro-Plating, Electro- Gilding, &c. It is by far the most comprehensive treatise which has been yet published." Critic. Vol. XV., price 9s., cloth lettered, HISTORY of GREECE. From its Earliest Records to the Close of the Peloponnesian War. By the Hon. Sir T. N. TALFOURD, D.C.L. ; the Rev. J. B. OTTLEY, M.A., late Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford ; J. T. RUTT, Esq.; and E. POCOCKE, Esq. With numerous Illustra- tions. Preliminary View of the Influence of Mythology over the early Greeks. Oracles, Mysteries, Festivals, and National Games Oriental Sources of Greek Mythology. Popular Legends of the Gods. Legends of Heroes Sketch of the Geography of Greece. Early History of the Peloponnesian States. Athens and other Greek States. The Persian War. Supremacy of Athens. Alcibiades. Recapitiilation. . Social Condition of the Ancient Greeks. Early Sculptors of Greece. Early Painters of Greece. Chronological Tables. PUBLISHED BY GRIFFIN AND CO. Early History of Greece, continued. " The ' Early History of Greece ' appears under the care of Mr. Pococke, and includes Talfourd's Life of Alcibiades, and his beautiful papers on the Grecian painters and sculptors ; Mr. Ottley's amusing account of the social life of the ancients ; and Mr. Rutt's Lives of Lycurgus, Draco, and Solon. The volume opens with an examination of the strange influence of a wild mythology over a race so masculine in intellect as the Greeks. The legends of the gods and heroes, so intimately mingled with the traditions of the Hellenic nation, are next eloquently and simply related by the aid of the Homeric poems,. Upon this portion of the work Mr. Pococke has brought to bear the inferential results of German philology, and throws great light upon the origin of the Greeks by identifying their myths with the remote Indian theogonies. In execution, this chapter is as skil- ful as it is unpretending, and it may be usefully contemplated as an instance of learning without pedantry, and a criticism which knows when to believe as well as when to doubt. The history, properly so called, succeeds ; then the aesthetic and social chapters already mentioned ; and an ample chronology closes the work. The engravings, which are of the first order , are one hundred and forty in number. We can only, in conclusion, express our gratification that the ' Encyclo- paedia Metropolitana' has fallen into the hands of men able and willing to make not only the most but the best of its capabilities : for under no other circumstances could such a volume us this be offered to the public under double the price." Express. " The book is altogether a gem, and for the family library, or for presents to young men, there has seldom been such a volume offered to the public at so low a price." Glasgow Citizen. " Rich as the volume (particularly the portions detailing history and home life) is in interest, we take the pages devoted to the oracles, mysteries, games, and legends of Greece to be, perhaps, the most charming and attractive in the book. It is not only that they are marked by a most grace- ful as well as profound ability, but that they are remarkable for their novelty and originality. We regret that we cannot quote more largely from the interesting pages, wherein importance accompanies the interest and ability, and refinement of taste illustrates both. We are convinced, however, that we have said enough to direct the public patronage to this very clever volume." Church, and State Gazette. Vol. XVI., price 5s., cloth lettered, PHOTOGRAPHY. A Treatise on the Chemical changes produced by Solar Radiation, and the Production of Pictures from Nature by the Daguerreotype, Calotype, and other Photographic Processes. By ROBERT HUNT, Esq., Professor of Mechanical Science in the Museum of Practical Geology. With numerous Illustrations. Early History of Photography. General Remarks on Solar Agency. Selection of Paper. Modes of Manipulation. Apparatus for Vapour Process Fixing the Pic- tures. Talbot's Processes. Glass Process. Herschel's Processes. Daguerreotype Theory. Thermograph y. " It contains an immense amount of information on the subject, which must prove of infinite service to those engaged in the pursuit of this most entertaining science. It is a complete history of Photography in all its varied ramifications and processes, and is published at so cheap a rate as to come within the reach of all who can afford to make it a study." Art Journal. Vol. XVII., price 3s., cloth lettered, VETERINARY ART. A Practical Treatise on Diseases of tlie HORSE. By W. C. SPOONER, Esq., Illustrated by Engravings. Introduction. Anatomy and Physiology of the Horse. General Principles by which the Diseases of the Horse are to be combated and overcome. Diseases of the Chest and Passage. The Abdominal Viscera and Brain. Specific Diseases. Local Diseases. Index. Vol. XVIII., price 8s., cloth lettered, Literature to the United Presbyterian Church. With Illustrations from the most authentic sources. Introduction. Egypt. Geography. Topography. History, Political and Social. -Assyria. Geography and History. Nineveh. Babylon. Persia, Geography. :opography. Social and Political History. Phrygia, Political and Social History. 'hoanicia, Political and Social History. Chronology and Index 10 NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS Early Oriental History, continued. " We sincerely congratulate the editor, Dr. Eadie, on the success with which he has accom- plished his task, lie has done much for the cause of sacred literature, and this edition of the ' Early Oriental History' is not the least important part of his many labours." Witness. " We have been much delighted with the unaffected ease, and almost colloquial vivacity of the editor's language and manner, which impart a charm to the driest details, and light up tin; entire work with a pleasing and chastened glow." Gl-isgow Citizen. " This is one of the volumes of the new edition of the ' Encyclopaedia. Metropolitana,' which is .it present in course of publication. When we opened it, it was with the impression that it \vouU be an elaborate treatise on those ancient kingdoms of the East ; having ample materials, indeed, for the pains-taking student, but possessing little to interest the general reader. We were, how- ever, speedily undeceived. It is as far as possible removed from the dull monotony and heavy writing of the Dryasdust school. It is a fine combination of laborious research and of animated composition. . . . The graphic pen of the Professor (for the greater part of the volume, it appears to us, is his own) is powerfully assisted by about one hundred and fifty illustrations, taken principally from the British Museum. And while no sources of information have been overlooked, especial use has been made of those monuments which have, within these few years, been dis- covered in the valley of the Nile, and on the banks of the Tigris. Interesting as is the account which Layard gives of his labours in excavating Nineveh, his discoveries seem to acquire an additional value, when wrought, as they are here, into the history of Assyria. ' Her walls are gone, her palaces are dust, The desert is around her, and within, Like shadows, have the mighty passed away.' And yet, after a sleep of nearly two milleniums and a half, the ancient capital of Nimroud i.s raised up to give evidence in favour of the Hebrew oracles." Scotsman. " The results of the many recent discoveries have been embodied, and, indeed, the entire work appears to have been re-written. It should be understood that this is not a dry, formal history, very learned, but very dull ; it comprises the geography of the various countries, descriptions of their monumental antiquities, and illustrations of their social life, their arts and science. . . . Besides all these recommendations to the reader, the volume is copiously illustrated with engrav- ings of the antiquities of the nations whose history is recorded, and a careful chronology and copious index make it valuable for reference, as its composition renders it attractive for present reading. It should be added to all school libraries and literary institutions. The book clubs' will have it, of course." Critic. " The volume contains the early annals of Egypt, Nineveh, Babylon, Persia, Lydia, Phrygia, and Phoenicia. The chief object has been to present an accurate and popular history of these nations, with special descriptions of their antiquities, religion, language, customs, and other subjects of their internal as well as their general history. The best authorities have been con- sulted and used in the preparation of the work such as Heeren, Wilkinson, Lep-i"s, Champol- lion, Layard, Rawlins.~n Sketches are given of the Assyrian marbles, and other treasures of the British Museum, as well as copies from tho illustrated works of authors, such as Kosellini and Sir R. K. Porter. There are about a hundred arid fifty illustrations in all, together with a good index, a list of contents, and a chronological table, 'Literary Gazette. " This very complete and excellent compendium, forming tho virtual essence of a large library , is a collection of the various articles bearing upon the subject in the ' Encyclopaedia Metropoli- tana,' The whole has been pift together and thoroughly revised by the able hands of Dr. Eadie, who has made most material and valuable additions of his own, not only in common history, but also in accounts of the social antiquities, religion, and languages of these ancient countries. In all this he has, as he declares, and as we can, from our inspection, avouch, consulted the best authorities, and availed himself of the most recent sources of information throughout, giving especial heed to whatever might tend to the illustration of the sncred records. This is a valuable feature of the work, which would alone entitle it to especial commendation at our hands. Though in all respects a thoroughly good book, it probably owes this valuable characteristic to the accident, (so to speak,) of the task having fallen into tho hands of Dr. Eadie." Kitto's Jour- nal of Sacred Literature. " The volume is one of the series, consisting of re-issues of the articles of the ' Encyclopcedia Metropolitana.' H comprises the substance of the original articles furnished by Renouard, Rus- sell, and others ; the whole having been carefully revised by Dr. Eadie, arid brought down to the important discoveries of the present time. The work enters sufficiently into detail to be in- teresting and useful, without overloading the memory by masses of legendary matter. Thero are nearly two hundred illustrations, consisting of representations of sculptures and architectural remains. We know of no volume so well calculated to furnish a correct notice of the early history of the eastern nations." Baptist Magazine. " Dr. Eadie has executed his task with his usual talent, readiness, and rapid vigour. He has partly compiled from others, and partly supplied from original researches, first, an account of the geography and topography of Egypt ; then the dynastic history of Egypt; then its social history : and, in fine, similar but shorter accounts of Assyria, Persia, Phrygia, and Phoenicia. The most remarkable feature of the volume is its elegant compression of events. No Robertsonian dif- fusion no Rollin-like moralising no Gibbonian strut of statement, or indirectness of allusion- all is clear, succinct, rapid, and full of interest and life. The chapters on Babylon and Nineveh those masses of divine decay, resembling in tbeir breadth of interest and mysterious doom rather tho ruins of planets than of cities, and near whose awful heaps you see resting, like a sated and slumbering vulture, the appeased wrath of tho Eternal are peculiarly interesting. Dr. Eadie reads them with the prophecies open in his hand, and ever and anon stops to compare he event with the prediction." Rev. George Gilfillan in Hogg's Weekly Instructor. " This is another volume of the new cabinet edition of the ' Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, ' an I well deserves to rank with tho rest of the treatises composing that valuable work. The greater part of it has been composed by Dr. Eadie, who has also carefully revised and enlarged tho remainder. His object has been to set belore the reader a clear and succinct view of the present PUBLISHED BY GRIFFIX AND CO. 11 Early Oriental History, continued. state of our knowledge with regard to the ancient nations of which he treats. Not merely tho 'ilstory. but the geography, climate, customs, religion, policy, and social characteristics of each re described. Advantage has been taken of the latest discoveries with regard to Egypt and Assyria. Bunsen, Lepsius, and Layard have been carefully consulted. On the subject of chro- nology Dr. Eadie writes in a liberal, yet not random spirit. He shows clearly, from the great iiscrepancy existing between tho several authorities all possessing claims to our respect that we have no reason to bind ourselves to any one, but may without hesitation accept such conclu- sions as tbe monuments fairly warrant, however they may clash with our preconceived notions. While he is careful to point out every confirmation of Scripture that ancient history supplies, he does not go out of his way or resort to any unjustifiable means for the purpose. Sobriety, good sense, distinctness of arrangement, clearness of style, and general completeness, are tho qualities in r which his treatise are distinguished. It is rendered more attractive, as well as more useful, by the numerous woodcuts from authentic sources with which it is illustrated." Atltenceuvi. Vol. XIX., price 8s. 6d., cloth lettered, HISTORY of the ROMAN REPUBLIC. From tlie Earliest Records to the Death of Sylla. In Three Divisions. By the late Rev. THOMAS ARNOLD, D.D., of Rugby; the Rev. J. if. B. MOUNTAIN, D.D., Prebendary of Lincoln ; the Rev. G. C. RENOUARD, B.D., Fellow of Sidney-Sussex College, Cambridge; the Right Rev. M. RUSSELL, D.C.L., LL.D., Bishop of Glasgow; and the Hon. Sir THOMAS NOON TALFOURD, D.C.L. Edited by E. POCOCKE, Esq. With an Introductory Dissertation on the Credibility of Early Roman History, by the late Rev. THOMAS ARNOLD, D.D. Introductory Dissertation. Legendary History of Rome The Republic, L. J. Brutus, Coriolanus, Cincinnatus, Camillus. Samnite Wars Dionysius. Hamilcar. Hannibal. Punic Wars. The Gracchi. Sylla. Mithridates. Ancient Spain. Chronology and Index. " After a careful survey of the contents of the volume, we feel warranted instating, that a mutv nportant contribution to the domestic and popular historical library has not been made in out- day The volume is illustrated with wood-engravings, presenting a series of pictorial historic memoranda, useful and interesting. As a prize for the ingenious alumni of our schools and seminaries, or for a Christmas present to young persons, a more appropriate volume is rarely offered to the public at so comparatively low a price." Glasgow Citizen. The entire Roman History, to the fall of the Western Empire, will be comprised in Three Volumes. Vol. XX., price 7s. 6d., cloth lettered, BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. With some collateral subjects, including the Language, Geography, and Early History of Palestine, by F. A. Cox, DD., LL.D., with Maps and numerous Engravings. Nature and Design of the Jewish Economy. On the Hebrew Language and Literature. Manners and Customs of the Israelites. Religion Civil Polity. Domestic Life. Distribution of Time Ordinary Pursuit. Tabernacle in the Wil- derness. Temple of Solomon. Jewish Synagogues. Sabbath Early Possessors of Canaan. Political and Physical Geography of Canaan. Natural History. Modern Judaism. Sects, Chronology and Index. NEW WORKS AND SEW EDITIONS Biblical Antiquities, continued. the subject of Biblical Antiquities, are here collected in the form of a continuous treatise, with the addition of all the new knowledge that has been obtained by recent researches, so as to bring down tho information to the present time." Critic. " This volume constitutes one of the valuable series now beins? issued in the form of the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Metropolitan. It furnishes us with the results of the most recent investigations in this most important field of Biblical inquiry. Nearly two hundred well-executed woodcuts add very greatly to the utility of the book, which, for its condensed comprehensiveness, is the best, as it certainly is the most readable on the subject in our language. Chronological tables and an index enhance the worth of the volume." liaptist Magazine. " The substance and the spirit of the best writings on the subject, ancient and modern." Scottish Guardian. " The volume cannot fail to be very popular." Evangelical Magazine. ',' The . best sources of information have been consulted and used with much skill. . . . The volume is exact, comprehensive, and interesting, one which it must be a great satisfaction to the writer to have produced, which the critic must commend as the fruit of much diligent labour guided by good taste and judgment, and which every intelligent reader of the Bible will, we are persuaded, thank us for introducing to his notice. It is the most complete and elegant manual of Biblical antiquities with which we are acquainted." Eclectic Review. Vol. XXI., price 12s. 6d., cloth lettered, METALLURGY: A Practical Treatise on the Chemistry of the METALS. By JOHN ARTHUR PHILLIPS, Esq., F.C.S. Illustrated by nearly two "hundred Engravings. Physical and Chemical Properties of the Metals, and their Alloys, Salts, and other Compounds. State in which the Metals are found in nature. Properties by which Minerals are discriminated. Crystallography. Constitution of the external crust of the Earth. Principal kinds of Rocks. Strata that contain Ores. Localities in which the principal Ores are found. Description of the most important Ores of each Metal. Chief operations of Mining. The mechanical preparation of Ores pre- vious to Smelting. FUEL AND ITS ECONOMY. Wood, Peat, Lignite, Coal, and Anthracite, PREPARED FUELS Charcoal, Peat Charcoal, Coke. The Assay of Fuels Estimation of their comparative value. Furnace Materials. METALLURGY PROPER Iron, Copper, Cobalt, Nickel, Tin, Zinc, Antimony, Bismuth, Mercury, Lead, Silver, Gold, Platinum. The Processes which relate to the useful Metals smelted in Great Britain, and those regarding the Crushing, Washing, Amalgama- tion, and Assaying of Gold and Silver Ores, are given in considerable detail. The important subject of ASSAYING is treated of fully and practically. Volumes of the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana in Active Preparation, A HISTORY OF ROMAN LITERATURE, By the late Dr. Arnold, Rev. HENRY THOMPSON, M.A., Rev. J. H. NEWMAN, D.D., the Rev. J. M. NEALE, and other Contributors. HISTORY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. By the late Dr, Arnold of Rugby, Right Rev. Bishop RUSSELL, Rev. J. B. OTTLEY, M.A.j and other Contributors. With numerous Illustrations. HISTORY OF GREECE AND MACEDONIA. History of Greece from the Age of Xenophon to the Absorption of Greece in the Roman Empire, including the Age of Alexander the Great. By WILLIAM ROE LYALL, D.D., Rev. J. H. B. MOUNTAIN, D.D., Rev. G. C. RENOU- ARD, B.D., and others. Illustrated by numerous Engravings. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. SECOND DIVISION, Christianity in the Middle Ages. By the Rev. J. A. JEREMIE, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge, and other Contributors, PUBLISHED BY GRIFFIN AND CO. 13 IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE WORLD. INDIA IN GREECE: or Truth in Mythology. By E. Pococke, Esq. Illustrated by Maps of India and Greece, post 8vo. Price 12s. cloth. CONTENTS. --The Colonization of Greece, Palestine, and Egypt, by Indian Tribes from the Punjab, Cashmir, Thibet, and the Himalayan Mountains; the Tartarian and Rajpoot Tribes in Egypt and Palestine; the Greek Mythology rendered plain Histoiy upon Geographical evidence ; Crishna, the Hindoo Chief, the same as the Apollo of Delphi; Cadmus, a Budhist Missionary; the Wars of the Grand Lama in Greece; Repression of the Solar Worship ; the Nomenclature of the Ancient Geo- graphy of Hellas, shown to be Sanscrit in Greek disguise. Maps of Greece and India (emonstrate the Parent States and their Hellenic Settlements. " We never met with a volume in which there was so much of bold assertion, cleverly sustained by startling proof. We have all been tolerably familiar with a conviction of the national unity of Egypt, Greece, and India 5 but no one has yet so satisfactorily settled this question as Mr. Pococke. He has hit upon an intellectual California, and his ' diggins' are auriferous." Gentle- man's Magazine. " The name of Pococke is auspicious on the part of a writer on eastern antiquities ; and, sooth to say, this is a very remarkable book. It aims at proving that Greece was colonized from India. (Ve a're not prepared to assent with perfect confidence to this conclusion, but we freely admit that Mr. Pococke has distinctly and satisfactorily traced a vast variety of close affinities between names and places, and also between modes of thinking, in the two countries. . . . For some time past, scholars have been well aware that there subsist very striking affinities between the Sanscrit and Greek languages. But it remained for Mr. Pococke to systematize the whole sub- ect and this he has done, "with occasional extravagance, and with a tendency, here and there, o unwarrantable dogmatism, but with great learning, with gushing enthusiasm, and with very considerable success." Scottish Guardian. 4 This is a work of prodigious industry and research, bold and original in its views and specula- tions, and daringly startling in its range of inquiry and prehistoric investigation. The author is well known as an accomplished oriental scholar, and whether, in the estimation of the learned, le may be considered to have established his general theory or not, the work claims an earnest and respectful attention." Glasgow Citizen. " Like the discovery of America by Columbus, now that it is known, people marvel that the western continent was not sooner found. So it is with Mr. Pococke and his investigations into the origin of the Greeks and their mythology, and the Hebrews and their country ; we can only wonder that their common parentage was not sooner discovered." Forth British Mail. " The whole of the chapters on Budhism are admirably written, replete with the most intense interest. The satisfactory dispersings of old and impenetrable mists, is something quite marvel- lous and mirthful. We regret that we cannot reproduce the sparkling pages, which show the corrupt forms in the Romish worship are but old Lamaic and Budhistic forms. When we add that Mr. Pococke takes nearly every name of note in Grecian history that he shows for nearly every locality in Greece a locality correspondingly named in India, possessing people of corres- )onding manners and religion we surely have said enough to demonstrate that the book must >e, what it really is a rich and welcome addition to the library of every thinking man. We mow of no work that has appeared within our recollection, so likely to set men thinking as the one before us." Church and State Gazttte. ' Therefore we recommend Mr. Pococke's volume to the curious student as one of interest and erudition ; if it fail to gain converts, if it excites many a smile, on the other hand it will suggest thought and amuse the scholar." Leader. " No one, after the perusal of Mr. Pococke's work, can doubt the substantial truth of his theory. Some of his facts and illustrations may be regarded as open to objection, but the historical value of his discoveries is placed beyond question. The whole of our ancient history will require to be re-written. A new meaning must henceforth be attached to the word mythology. The old idea ias no existence in fact. Not only will this discovery effect an entire revolution in the narrative of ancient history, but a new element is introduced into the very philosophy of history itself. Now ;hat the discovery is made, one wonders that it has been unknown for so many ages. What piles of erudite literature, extending over a period of little less than 3000 years, is consigned to the old ' ! wand of Mr. Pococke!" Witness. 14 SEW WORKS AXD NEW EDITIONS PROFESSOR EADIE'S WORKS. BIBLICAL CYCLOPEDIA: A Complete Dictionary of the Holy Scrip- tures, containing full Explanations and Descriptions of Eastern Anti- quities, Biography, Manners and Customs, Geography, Literature, Theology, &c. &c. By the REV. JOHN EADIE, D.D., LL.I)., Professor of Biblical Literature to the United Presbyterian Church. Illus- trated with nearly Two Hundred Engravings and Four Maps, post 8vo, containing as much matter as three ordinary 8vos. Cloth, 10s. 6cl. ' This first-rate Biblical Cyclopaedia." M'PJiaiL " We give it our most cordial and unhesitating recommendation." Evangelical Magazine. ' ' It is a Publication of extraordinary merit. . . . We have a number of Dictionaries of this ort, adapted to Sunday Schools, but this greatly out-distances them." British Manner. ' It is the best Dictionary of the kind we have yet seen." Nonconformist. ' ' Fitted to meet the wants of the present day." Dublin Christian Examiner. " The book is a really pood one rich in sound and useful matter, neatly printed, and of a nice manageable size." Scottish Guardian. " Altogether we consider Dr. Eadie's Work one of the highest merit in its own department of literature." Zfortli British Mail. " Dr. Eadie manifests his possession of the happy art of saying enough for his object and no more. . . . For a student who, however he may long to have a library, is forced to content himself with a book-shelf, or for an emigrant, whose effort is to compress within the smallest practicable space the greatest quantity of the materials for self-improvement, this is a thesaurus." 1 Watchman ( W'esleyan.) ". . . The result is a very copious, well-digested, well-arranged work . . . The private Christian, the Sabbath-school teacher, and even the minister, will find it a most pleasant, accu- rate, and helpful repository." Free Church Magazine. " It will prove a treasure to Sabbath-school teachers." United Presbyterian Magazine. COMPLETE CONCORDANCE to the OLD and NEW TESTAMENTS, on the Basis of Cruden. Edited by the REV. JOHN EADIE, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Biblical Literature to the United Presbyterian Church. With Introduction, by REV. DR. KING. Post 8vo, cloth, 5s. DICTIONARY of the HOLY EIJ3LE, for the Use of Young Persons. Edited by the REV. JOHN EADIE, D.D., LL.D , Professor of Biblical Literature to the United Presbyterian Church. Numerous Illustra- tions, 18mo, bound, 3s. Gd. " A most useful compendium of Bible lore." Aberdeen Banner. ' ' We can assure our readers that the editor has to the letter fulfilled the promises of his plain- speaking preface, and has wrought a book that will be serviceable- to youthful students in a. double sense i for it will make interesting and attractive studies which are generally unaccept- able, and, at the same time, it elucidates and simplifies that which is too often rejected, because, from the mode in which it is presented to the youthful mind, it appears obtrusive and repulsive. Parents and tutors will unanimously thank the author for this result of a labour of love." Critic. " A very good and useful compilation for youth, done from the Biblical Cyclopaedia. There an; a number of wood-cuts which add to the interest, by illustrating to the sight the physical objects mentioned in the Scriptures." Literary Gazette. EARLY ORIENTAL HISTORY: comprising the Histories of Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Lydia, Phrygia, and Phoenicia, &c. Edited by the Rev. Professor EADIE, D.D., LL.D., F.S.A., Professor of Biblical Literature to the United Presbyterian Church. With Illustrations from the most authentic sources." Crown 8vo, cloth, 8s. 1 ' We cannot render a better service to the students of history than to recommend them to make immediate and thorough acquaintance with the treasures Dr. Eadie has collected. Within narrow limits and at small cost they may obtain the result of extensive, ready, and sound scholarship, for which they would otherwise have to search through many volumes." Eclectic Review. "It is full of interest, and we read on with as much anxiety to follow our author as though the volume were a series of personal narratives. As a valuable book for the home library, and an admirable gift-book at this season, we heartily recommend Dr. Eadie's ' Oriental History,' which is profusely illustrated with excellent woodcuts, to the especial regard of all our readers." Glas - gow Herald. PUBLISHED BY GKIFFIN AND CO. 15 POPULAR INTRODUCTION TO THE NATURAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES. THE BOOK OF NATURE: An Elementary Introduction to the Sciences of Physics, Astronomy, Chemistry, Mineralogy, Geology, Botany, Zoology, and Physiology. By Professor SCHOEDLER, and H. MEDLOCK, F.C.S. With an Index of 5000 References. Post 8vo, GOO pages, with nearly 600 wood-cuts, cloth, 10s. Gd. Also, separately, THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES, 313 Cuts, 5s. THE NATURAL SCIENCES, 333 Cuts, 5s. 6d. Written with remarkable clearness, and scrupulously correct in its details." Mining Journal. " Dr. Schoedler's work, as described by Liebig, is at once the most useful and beautiful book of the class to which it belongs. Jt is a valuable addition to our scientific literature. The wood- cuts and illustrations are numerous and remarkably well executed." Economist. " The most complete and copious vidimus of the sciences that has ever been offered to the public jU a form so useable and cheap." Glasgow Citizen. " It is utterly impossible, in the space we have at command, to make our readers acquainted with the full value of this admirable volume." Glasgow Herald. " His expositions are most lucid. There are few who will not follow him with pleasure as well as with pi-oflt through his masterly exposition of the principles and primary laws of science. It should certainly be made a class book in schools." Critic. The above work in PARTS for use in Schools. ELEMENTARY TREATISES on the NATURAL and PHYSICAL SCIENCES. By FREDERICK SCHOEDLER, Ph. D., Professor of the Natural Sciences at Worms, and formerly Assistant in the Chemical Laboratory of Giessen. Edited by HENRY MEDLOCK, F.C.S., Senior Assistant in the Royal College of Chemistry. 1. NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, with 112 Engraving's, 2s. Od. 2. ASTRONOMY, with 51 Engravings, Is 6d. 3. CHEMISTRY, with 50 Engravings, 2s. Od. 4. MINERALOGY and GEOLOGY, with 128 Engravings, 2s. 6d. 5. BOTANY, with 121 Engravings Is. Od. 6. ZOOLOGY and PHYSIOLOGY, with 84 Engravings 2s. Od. POPULAR INTRODUCTION TO CHEMISTRY. CHEMICAL RECREATIONS: A Popular Compendium of Experi- mental Chemistry for the Use of Beginners. By JOHN JOSEPH (TRIFFIN, F.C.S. * Ninth Edition, with 500 Illustrations, 18mo, 7s. 6d. bound. AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. LECTUEES ON AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY, By Sir Humphry DAVY. Bart., P.R.S., &c. New Edition, with all the Recent Dis- coveries of Liebig, &c., by John Shier, LL.D., Agricultural Chemist to the Colony of British Guiana, 8vo, 5s. cloth. NATURAL HISTORY. ILLUSTRATIONS OF ZOOLOGY: A Series of Ninety Engravings, comprehending about a Thousand Figures of Quadrupeds, Birds, Fish. Reptiles, Mollusca, Insects, Crustacea, Polyps, &c., engraved by J. W. Lowry and Thomas Landseer, after Sowerby, Charles Landseer, and others. The Descriptions include Selections'from Articles contributed to the Encyclopedia Metropolitana, by JOHN FLINT SOUTH, Esq., F.L.S., J. E. GRAY, Esq., F.L.S., J. F. STEPHEN, Esq., F.L.S., F.Z.S.. and other eminent Naturalists. Imp. 4to, 31s. 6d. cloth, gilt edges. 16 NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS. REV. A. K. ARVINE. CYCLOPAEDIA OF RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES: A vast Collection of Facts, Narratives, and Examples, with Copious Index, Condensed and Eevised from the Work of Rev. A. K. Arvine, A.M. With Introductory Essay by REV. DR. CHEEVER. Third Edition, crown 8vo, 4s. 6d. cloth. " The ' Cyclopaedia' is the more comprehensive work, and a really valuable and interesting collection of facts and sayings on the chief topics of religion and morality. It has been 'care- fully gathered from a larger work,' bv the Rev. A. K, Arvine, of New York, and excludes all stories merely grotesque, or having no proofs of authenticity. This weeding process, together with the consideration of the evidence in support of the anecdotes, give to the work a higher claim and authority than attach to any other similar production." N&nconformist " The ' Cyclopaedia of Moral and Religious Anecdotes' is a book of universal and enduring in- terest. . . . They are introduced by an Essay from the pen of Dr. George Cheever, written in the lively and pointed style of that popular author, and showing the usefulness of illustration in religious teaching. ... It cannot fail to prove popular. We are glad to have it in our power to class so useful and agreeable a volume amongst the books for the season. Young and old will read it with avidity and profit." Scottish Guardian. " We have here Arvine's volume abridged by the omission of a number of stories, either too grotesque for good taste to approve in such a collection, or void of the marks of authenticity. To our mind the work loses none of its real value or usefulness by the winnowing process. . . . We will answer for the book, as a whole that it will be one of the best read in the minister's library, or on the Christian's table, where it may find a place." United Presbyterian Magazine. REV. CHARLES KINGSLEY. SEKMONS ON NATIONAL SUBJECTS. By the Rev. Chas. Kingsley, Canon of Middleham, Yorkshire, and Rector of Eversley, Hants, Author of Yeast, Alton Locke, &c., foolscap 8vo, 5s. cloth. " LITERARY STUDIES. THE IMPORTANCE OF LITERATURE TO MEN OF BUSINESS. A Series of Addresses by the Duke of Argyll Earl of Carlisle, Archbishop Whately Sir David Brewster Sir John Herschel, Archibald Alison, Esq. Lord Mahon Charles Knight Right Hon. B. D'Israeli, M.P. Sir Thomas N. Talfourd Professor Nichol Henry G. Bell, Esq., &c. &c. Foolscap 8vo, 5s. cloth. LAW OF NATIONS. PRINCIPLES OF THE LAW OF NATIONS, with Supplementary Essays on the Law of Blockade, and on Contraband in War. By ARCHER POLSON, Esq., to which is added an Essay on Diplomacy, by the REV. T. HARTWELL HORNE. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. cloth. " Mr. Poison's work is extremely valuable. It is succinct, and at the same time full. It leaves no important question untouched, and supplies numerous authorities for all the opinions. To public writers, statesmen, and politicians generally, it will be a most useful hand-book The other part of this compact little volume is a valuable treatise on: diplomacy, w'hioh will be equally useful to politicians, and may be consulted with advantage by the general reader." Economist. * RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. CYCLOPAEDIA OF ALL RELIGIONS, on a New and Authoritative Plan. Crown 8vo. Nearly ready. POPULAR RELIGIOUS BIOGRAPHY. CYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR RELIGIOUS BIOGRAPHY. By the Rev, ROBERT JAMIESON, D.D. Crown 8vo. Nearly ready.