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II I I Oh m Natural History s & ■ OF Selborne AND OBSERVATIONS ON NATURE BY GILBERT WHITE WITH THE TEXT AND NEW LETTERS OF THE BUCKLAND EDITION INTRODUCTION BY JOHN BURROUGHS ILLUSTRATIONS BY CLIFTON JOHNSO TORONTO MUSSON BOOK CO.. Limited 1904 ' • I LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. VOL. II. Spring in a Selborne garden Frontispiece A Selborne stile House-swallows ... 2 Selborne cottages Sand martins A nightingale ! 21 A weasel .... 22 Redbreasts Swifts .... 31 A look across the Plestor Facing 37 Magpies and their nest Gypsies in front of " The Wakes " A rush-light cfi Catching bees ...... /l A pond on Selborne hill ' .' p,,^i„g ^g A walk in the vicar's garden Facing 80 An old hop-kiln Old beehives '.'.'. Facing 05 A village lane j^^ A jackdaw 107 ^''y''"-!'^ '.'.'. iti& Sparrow hawks . ^j Plowingunder the Hanger ! ! 127 A successor to White's tortoise in the garden at " The Wakes " . 137 Burning an old hedge under the Hanger. . . . Facing 141 ^J^y 142 A modem observer of nature Facing 154 V ' 1 A peregrine falcon .g, Selbornedown \ y^^^^ ,y, The tower of Selborne church „. The weather .... ,o« . 183 The vicarage at Newton Valence jgg Selliorne church seen from the fields j, . A Selborne stile. VI Tilt NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. LETTER LVII. To THE Honourable Daines Barrington. The honse-swallow,* or chimney-swallow, is un- doubtedly the first comer of all the British hirun. dines; and appears in general on or about the 13th of April, as I have remarked from many years' observa- tion. Not but now and then a straggler is seen much earlier: and, in particular, when I was a boy I ob- served 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 waj the case in the two dreadful springs of 1770 and 1771, they -mediately with- draw for a time. A circumstance is much more in favour of hiding than migration ; since it is much Chimney-Swallow, Hirundo rustica, I.innKus. I more probable that a bird should retire to its hyber- naculum just 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 House- s luallo ws. within barns and out-houses, against the rafters ; and so she did in Virgil's time :-" Garrula quam t'ignis nidos suspendat hirundo." " The twittering swallow hangs its nest from the beams." In Sweden she builds in barns, and is called Ladu swala, the barn-swallow. Besides, in the warmer parts of Europe there 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. Here and there a bird may affect some odd. peculiar place ; as we have known a swallow build down a 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 f^re, no doubt for the sak^ 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 mid- dle of May, which consists, like that of the house- martin, of a crust or shell composed of dirt or mud, mixed with short pieces of raw io render it tough and permanent : with this . ifference, that whereas the shell of the martin is nearly hemispheric, that of the swallow is open at the top, and like half a deep dish : this nest is lined with f^ne grasses, and feathers which are often collected as they float in the air. Wonderful is the address which this adroit bird 3 shows all day long in ascending and descending with security through so narrow a rss. When hov enng over the mouth of the funnel, the vibration of her w.ngs acting on the confined air occasions a rum- bl.ng 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 .-.pa. ci(- .s birds, and particularly from owls, which fre- quently fall down chimneys, perhaps in attempting to get at these nestlings. The swallow lays from four to six white eggs dotted with red specks ; ..,d brings out her first' brood about the last week in June, or the first week m 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 flyers, 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 cer- tain signal given the dam and the nestling advance rising towards each other, and meeting at an angle' the young one all the while uttering such a little quick note of gratitude and complacency, that a per- son must have paid very little regard to the wonders of nature that has not often remarked this feat. The dam betakes herself ini mediately to the busi- ness of a second brood as soon as she is disengaged from her first; which at once associates with the first broods of house-martins ; and with tiiem con- gregates, clustering on sunny roofs, towers, and trees. This liirundo brings out her second brood towards the middle and end of August. All the summer long the swallow is a most in- structive pattern of unwearied industry and affec- tion; for froPi morning to nignt, 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 htnrd, resem- bling 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-martins, 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 martins about him ; who pursue in a body, and buffet and strike their enemy till they have driven him from the village, dart,„B va„„„ a,„„. i„ genera,. „ash'<^\r'- binkl. ;■ ,■'■*■ ''"' "■™""-'- '•""scmartins and bank-marfns also dip and wash a little T.,e s>vallo«- is a delicate songster, and „ soft »unny weather sings both perching and Hyin" on also a bold flyer, ranging to distant downs and Con- dons even ,„ windy weather, which the other spe- ces seem much to dislike: nay. even fre,„e„ting osed seaport towns and making |i.„e excur 2 over the salt water. Horsemen on wide downs are often closely attended by a little party of swa Iwl them, sweeping around and collecting all the skulk ng .nsectstha, are roused by the trampli g of e he iriutp^::; ""- 'o-" - -le .o pick up Now suddenly he .skims ,he glassy pool Whisks by. I love to lie awake, and hear H.s morning song twittered to dawning day." 6 This species feeds much on little coUopura as well as on gnats and flies; and often settles on duir ground, or paths, for gravels to grind and digest its food. Before they depart, for some weeks thev for- sake houses and chimneys to a bird, and roost in ..ees; and usually withdraw about the beginning of October: though some few stragglers may appear at times till the first week in November. [September 13. ,79,. The congregating flocks of htrundtncs on the church and tower are very beau- tiful and amusing ! When they fly off . ^^ther 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 .un. seem highly to enjoy »he warm situation. Thus they spend the heat of tho 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-martins, about 400 in number; but there are other places of rendezvous about the village frequented at the same time.* It is remarkable, that though most of them sit on Of then- migration the proofs are such as will scarcely admit of a . o..bt. S„ Charles Wager and Captain Wright saw vast flocks of them XuXvw^ °" I ''"''"*^' ^'""^ """ '"""'^y '° ='"°">"- 0"r author. which hen' '?■ ^"\ '^"""' •'"■■ "■'"'" •"'«"""" "^ "'-'^ »'-J^ «h,ch he h.is descnbed at p. 6„. and again in the above extract ■ and I once observed a large flock of house-martins myself on the roof of the y"Mr m-r '"•^'^"^■"' "'"^■' "'^''' "•^^">- '" '"'' •"-"" '^"'^ '^-"i'^ed by Mr. White, sometimes preening their feathers and spreading their 7 the battlements and roof vet mn« u " '"cry remark,! L. .tr.;"T ""'""^ "• -.sapp...., ,„, some „ee,: rfew?''''' '"" ""' b", and that only fo, one day D wk ™" draw and slumber ir some Mdi ^ "°' "'"'- to warmer cime?lT '" " ""^ '""' "■«"'-<' •3 i. no. morrpr^b^ ;;"';?" "'"" "" "■" '">■ ^leep, and like the ba,Vare '' "7 ""'"''"'^ '""" ««'= '""d? Ba. app la ""■' '""•■ •" ""«' a -"- and sprin, m™ s ; ~ ''•™"'^'' ">« a' 5o», because .hen ,«„:. ^j; l";, :;7;«." « These swallows InolceH l,-u sHrnns:. young one.s._MAKKW,rK. '^^" "^ '''««' ''''"d* seemed to be 1 IWg house-martin. the close and crowded parts of the city. B(.th male and female arc distinguished from the.r congeners by the length and forkedness of the.r ta.ls. They are undoubtedly the most nimble of all the species; and when the male pursues the female in amorous chase, t ; then go beyond their usual speed, and exert a rapidity almost too quick for the eye to follow. St-lhonif cottasfs. After this circumstantial detail of the life and discernmg „ofrf^ of the swallow. I shall add. for your further amusement, an anecdote or two not much m favour of their 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, and the following year a pair, probably the same pair, built their nest in the conch, and laid their eggs. The owl and the conch make a strange grotesque appearance, and are not the least curious specimens in that wonderful collection of art and nature. Thus is instinct in animals, taken the least out of its way, an undistinguishing, limited faculty; and blind to every circumstance that does not immedi- ately respect self-preservation, or lead at once to the propagation or support of their species. Selborne, Stft. 9, 1767. to I-ETTER LVIII. To THE Honourable Daines Harrington. I RECEIVED your favour of the 8th, and am pleased to find that you read my little history of the svvallow 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 sav pre- cisely which species of /„ru.^, Virgil might in- tend m the lines in question, since the ancients did not attend to specific differences like modern natu rahsts : yet somewhat may be gathered, enough to inclme me to suppose that in the two passages quoted the poet had his eye on the swallow In the first place the epithet ^arru/a suits the swallow well, which is a great songster ; and not the martm, which is rather a mute bird ; and when it sings IS so inward as scarce to be heard. Besides If /.^««;« in that place signifies a rafter rather than a beam, as it seems to me to do, then it must be the swallow that is alluded to, and not the martin ; since the former does frequently build within the roof ag^amst the rafters ; while the latter alwavs, as far as have been able to observe, builds without the roof agamst eaves and cornices. As to the simile, too much stress must not be la^d on It; yet the epithet ,nj.ra speaks plainly in II hi i I if the eaffer oursm-f nf .k "'^'^ ' ^'^^'^'ot, so as to elude •♦Scr pursuit of the enraged ^neas Tk^ sonat also seems to impK- a birdThJ '""^ loquacious * "'''^ '' somewhat and hiVh water.; tj,» i j -^ "^'^ "^^^s Hampshire, and Wiltshire. The connfr, , ~i r jxr ^^.^" ^^ - «"■•- -^' unl.nW .K 'P""^' "" the downs and uplands, the corn-vales must be drowned ; and so it ^^^^^-ve^or these ten or eleven years past. For t|ny scraps of .J J ,, £r^:^ ^ '"^r.^^"- Pic^ing up tiny scraps of A.od f. ,:^:^;:r«'' "^'^ '"^^ ^alis, piling „p >*-Kra vel„t magnas atwHich lay loose and bleached rtHe::!"""™- In what space of tin)e these little artists'are --.le to m,ne and finish these cavities I hnve „ u able to discover, for reasons ^^^ n ab„ e'L'"" falls ,n the way of any naturalist to make his remarks of L "^r/"-'^"- "O'ice of, that several hots -■.~,rm:rrorrt:^:;^:r;r^^^ wardness for next spring is allowing p™::: niuch f„resis:h. and r„„,„ ^„„,,„„^ ,„ Places f.ll • u ^ ■ "'''>' *^^>' "°^ '" other overwhelm .he. and .heiHaboursT^ '"« '° One thing is remarkable— thit nrf» tho ^i^ L 1 "^auic mat, after some vears he old holes are forsaken and new ones bored per' haps because the old habi.a.ions grow foul and 'fe-H rrrbr^'^^^"^'*^^'^-°"^' ^nH u ^"'^^'^ '^ Strangely annoyed with fleas- and we have seen fleas, bed-fleas (Pu/er Iv. swarming at the mouths of these ho lest T '^' the stools of their hives. ' '^^ ^''' °" The following circumstance should bv no means i~-':::roftL^""T™'^^^-"' but eC; ::,;: '-^ ''"""'■ "^- ---^ - fo„„d bat r; and he " """^ "' "''''''''^"' -- tion, and the support of its young in the dark, it 17 ; would not be so easy to ascertain the time of breed- ing, were it not for the coming forth of the broods, which appear much about the time, or rather some- what earlier than those of the swallow. The nest- lings are supported in common like those of their congeners, with gnats and other small insects; and sometimes they are fed with libcllulie (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 : but whether the dams ever feed them on the wing, as swallows and house-martins do, we have never yet been able to determine : nor do we know whether they pursue and attack birds of prey. When they hr* ppen to breed near hedges anf prey was rendered very dar- ing and bold by hunger, and that hawks cannot always seize their game when they please. VVe may farther observe, that they cannot pounce on their quarry on the ground, where it might be able to make a stout resistance smce so large a fowl as a pheasant cou d not but be visible to ti.- piercmg eye of a hawk when hovenng over the field. Hence that propen- sity- of cowering and squatting till thev are almost trod on, which no doubt was intended as a mode of security; though long rendered destructive to the whole race of Gallincv by the invention of nets and guns.] When redstarts shake their tails they move them horizontally, as dogs do when they fawn : the tail of a wagtail, when in motion, bobs up and down like that of a jaded horse. 33 A 7vta.<^l. Hedge-sparrows have a remarkable flirt with their wings in brteding-time ; as soon as frosty mornings come they make a very piping plaintive noise. Many birds which become silent about Midsum- mer reassumc their notes a^ain in September ; as thr thrush, blackbird, woodlark. willow-wren. .Vc. : hence August is by much the most mute month, the spring, sumn.er. and autumn through. Are birds induced to sing again because the temperament of autumn resembles that of spring? Linnjcus ranges plants geographically : palms in- habit the tropics, grasses the temperate /ones, and mosses and lichens the polar circles ; no doubt ani- mals may be classed in the same manner with pro- priety. 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. 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 ate the common mice, refusing the red. ^ Redbreasts sing all through the spring, summer, and autumn. The reason that they are called au- 23 r i tumn songsters is, because in the first two seasons their voices are drowned and lost in the jreneral chorus ; in the latter their song becomes distin- guishable. Many songsters of the autumn seem to be the young cock redbreasts of that year : notwithstanding- the prejudices in their favour, they do much mischief in gar- dens to the sum- Redhr^asts. mer-fruits. They eat also the ber- ries of the ivy, the honeysuckle, and the Euonjmus Europceus, or spindle-tree. The titmouse, which early in Februarv begins to make two quaint notes like the whetting of a saw, is the marsh titmouse ; the great titmouse sings with three cheerful joyous notes, and begins about the same time. Wrens sing all the winter through, frost ex- cepted. House-martins came remarkably late this year 24 both in Hampshire and Devonshire. Is this cir- cumstance for or against either hiding or migration > Most birds drink sipping at intervals, but^igeons tav: . a long continued draught, like quadrupeds Notwithstanding what 1 have said in a former ratter, no grey crows were ever known to breed on Dartmoor : it was my mistake. The appearance and flying of the Scarabccus solsti- tta/is, or fern chafer, commence with the month of July, and cease about the end of it. These scarabs are the constant food of caprimu/^i, 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 Readmg 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 rolhng 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, 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 whitethroat, which is continually repeated, and often attended with odd gesticulations on the wing, is harsh and displeasing. These birds seem of a pugnacious disposition ; for they sing with »9 25 11 an erected crest and attitudes of rivalry and defi- ance; are shj and wild in breeding-time, avoiding neighbourhoods, and haunting lonely lanes and com- mons ; nay, even the very tops of the Sussex downs where there are bushes and covert ; but in July and August they bring thc^ oroods into gardens and orchards, and make great havoc among the summer fruits. The blackcap has in common a full, sweet, deep loud, and wild pipe; yet that strain is of short con^ tinuance 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 ex-presses great variety of soft and gentle modula- tions, superior perhaps to those of any of our war- biers, the nightingale excepted. Blackcaps mostly haunt orchards and gardens; while they warble, their throats are wonderfully distended ' The song of the redstart is superior, though omewhat hke that of the whitethroat: some birds have a few more notes than others. Sitting very placidly on the top of a tall tree in a village, the cock s,ngs from morning till night : he afTects neigh- bourhoods, and avoids solitude, and loves to build in orchards and about houses; with us he perches on the vane of a tall maypole. The flycatcher is of all our summer birds the most mute and the most familiar; it also appears the last of any. It builds in a vine, or a sweetbrr 26 ' against the wall of a house, or ir 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 going in and out all day long. This bird docs not make the least pretension ^o : ng, but uses a little inward wailing note when it .ks 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 shown near half the species that were ever known in Great Britain ; Sweden having two hundred and twenty-one, Great Britain two hundred and f^fty-two species. On a retrospect, I observe that my long letter carries with it a quaint and magisterial airland is very sententious; but when I recollect that you re- quested stricture and anecdote, I hope you will par- don the didactic manr.er for the sake of the informa- tion It may happen to contain. Selborne, Sept. 2, 1774. *1 I l:' I LETTER LXI. To Thomas Pennant, Esq. It is matter of curious inquiry ,o trace out how ho e sp,,,, „, 3^,^^.,,^^ ^.^^^^ ^^^^ 2 us the >v,nter through, subsist during the dead months, l-he imbecility of birds seems not to be he .et.r:he"''r'''^^''""'''^"«°-°'''-"^- ters for the robust wryneck* (so much resembling eebe'itV"""' "°°''°-^"^) -grates, while th! feeWe httle go,den.crow„ed wren, that shadow of a bird braves our severest frosts without availing himself of houses or villages, to which most of our w,nter-b,rds crowd in distressful seasons, while this keeps aloof in fields and woods; but perhaps thi may be the reason why they may often perish, and why they are almost as rare as any bird we know. -^ ^ wc I have no reason to doubt but that the soft-billed birds, which winter with us, subsist chiefly on in sects m their aurelia state. All the species of wa^- ails ,n severe weather haunt shallow streams near their spring heads, where they never freeze ; and, by as ■ wading, pick out the aurelias of the genus of Pkry. gane(C, &c.* Hedge-sparrows frequent sinks and gutters in hard weather, wh.re they pick up crumbs and other sweepings: and in mild weather they procure worms which are stirring every month in the year, as any one may see that will only be at the trouble of taking a candle to a grass-plot on any mild winter's night Redbreasts and wrens in the winter haunt out-houses stables, and barns, where they find spiders and flies that have laid themselves up during the cold season But the grand support of the soft-billed birds in win- ter IS that infinite profusion of aureli^ of the Lcpidop^ tera ordo, which i. fastened to the twigs of trees and their trunks, to the pales anc walls of gardens and buildings, and is found in every cranny and cleft of rock or rubbish, and even in the ground itself. Every species of titmouse winters with us • they have what I call a kind of intermediate bill bc'tween the hard and the soft, between the Linna^an genera of Fnn^lla and AfotaciUa. One species alone spends Its whole time in the woods and fields, never retreat- ing for succour, in the severest seasons, to houses and neighbourhoods ; and that is the delicate long- tailed titmouse, which is almost as r^'nute as the {Parus cceruleus\ the cole-mouse iParus ater), the great Derham's " Physico Theology." 39 Ill 'A ;i M black headed titmouse (/>.... A/.^//%.. now ;«.>.). and the marsh titmouse {Pan. y>ah,s^ris), all resort at times, to buildings ; and in hard weather par^ ncuar,,. The great titmouse, driven by stress of weather, n.uch frequents houses, and. in deep snows I have seen this bird, while it hung with its back downwards (to my no small delight and admira- lon), draw straws lengthwise from out the eaves of thatched houses, in order to pull out the flies that were concealed between them, and that in such num- bers that they quite defaced the thatch, and gave it a ragged appearance. The blue titmouse, or nun. is a great frequenter of houses and a general devourer. Besides insects VJu''^ "' '"' ' '"'■ •' ''■^^"^"^^>' P-J^^ bones on dunghd s: it is a vast admirer of suet, and haunts butchers shops. When a boy, I have known twenty - a morning caught with snap mouse-traps, baited V th tallow or suet. It will also pick holes in apples eft on the ground, and will be well entertained with the seeds on the head of a sunflower. The blue marsh, and great titmice will, in very severe weather' carry away barley and oat straws from the sides of ricks. How the wheatear and whinchat support them- selves in winter cannot be so easily ascertained, since hey spend their time on wild heaths and warrens • the former especially, where there are stone quar- nes: most probably it is that their maintenance 30 k i vs.-- arises from the ann.uc c.f ,he Lrpni,.^,.,,, ,,„,,^ ,,,^, funush them with a plentiful table in the wilderness. I-KTJKR I,XII. To THF. II<.XOURA.U.K. D.MNKS H.A KR.N,; TON. As^the suift or black martin is the lar<.est of the Bnt.sh /annuiines, so is it undoubtecllv the latest comer. For I remember but one instance of its ap- pearing 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 ar- rives in pairs. 31 ^h IJ The s«„(,, like the sand.mar.i„, is very defective n archuecure. n.aking „„ erus., „- .h ,1, i."Z V ry rudely a,.d inar-ificially p„. .„ge.her. Wi h a my a„e„.io„ .„ these birds, . have never be „ able once ,„ discover one in ,he act of collec.inror carryn, ,„ materials: so that , have suspected sfnce he,r nests are exactly the same) that they s„n,etimel usurp upon the house-sparrows, and expel theris sparrows do the house and sand.n,artf„ ; weu're fows „„ ' "^"'""""f "-!■• holes; and the spar, rows up ,„ arms, and much disconcerted at these n such matters, that they do collect feathers for «.e.r nests in Andalusia; and that he has shot Im « .th such materials in their mouths nidirrat','on'"''r"''"T"'"' """^ °" "" l"--"- of n.d,ncat,on qu„e ,n the dark, in crannies „f castles and towers, and steenlp« n„^ , ^'*='"es, *ieepies, and upon the tone r^f tu^ .vans of churches under the roof ; and the^efle c „ not be so narrowly watched a« .!,„ build more openlv br, , u 'P"'" ""« observe th, k •' ' "" "•"" ' ™"W "er Mav !:. ^K '*'" """"» ^''™' "■- ""ddie of th y have s t r'nT^K'^"' '"■" '^^^ '=^-' »•'" I'lcy nave sat hard bv the ofh of t..«^ t fi,^ i_ ■'^ 91" oi June. In P-eneml they haunt tall buildine-s chumh. j general brppH ^„i • " , '"§^^' churches, and steeples, and breed only ;„ such : yet in this village some ^airs frequent the West and meanest cottUrd'ed! 32 ll cale thar young under those thatehed roots, r re. n>emb...r but one instance where they bred out of b".ld,„gs ; and that was in the sides of a deep cl.alk p.. near the town of Odiha™, in this count :t; 1 have seen many pairs entering the crevices ,"„d sk,mn„„g and squeaking round the precipices As I have regarded these amusive birds with no -U attentton. i, , should advance something new and pecuhar with respect to them, and differenf from all other b.rds, I might perhaps be credited • esp" cally as my assertion is the result „, many 3 ""at" :;:""■■• ''' '"" "■"' ' -""' ^"v e wish anv T"^"" °" "■' "'"«^ ••'"'' ' """W wish any nice observer, that is startled at this sup pos,t.o„, to use his own eyes, and , think hi Z soon be convinced. In another class of animals, vi^ he msect, nothing is so common as to see the differ! ent speces o many genera in conjunction as they and I . " '""'°'' '"""""""y ™ "■= wing' and as ,t never settles on the ground, on trees or roo s, would seldom find opportunity for amo^o, me^, was u not enabled to indulge them in the air If any person would watch these birds of a fine morntng ,„ May, as they are sailing round, at a grea an7t he / ''"""'■ "^ ''""'' -' ""V nTw oflhem "r, "" ™ '"^ '""' "' "-"■-^ -d both o them s,nk down together for many fathoms with a loud piercmg shriek. This I tak^ f„ k. .1, • whpn ih. K • ' nis 1 take to be the juncture When the busmess of generation is carrying on. 33 V i I il nest, a,„l, as ,t socn.s, pro,,.^-,„,,s „„ „,, ,,-, ,., pears ,„ live ™„re i„ „„ „(, ,„„„ a„v ..her bird a, d to perform all (u„c.i.„,s there save those of sleep" ' and incubation. ^'ccping This hiruiido differs widelv frf.m ,-»c ^ ... "luti^ irom Its conveners in laying uuanably but >„.„ e^gs a. a time, which a e n. Ik.wh„c l„„g. and peaked a. the small end ■■.nr to SIX, I, ,s a most alert bird, rising very earlv n 'he hetght of summer at least sixteen hours. 1^ •h<.- longest d.-,ys i, does not withdraw to rest till " all day birds. Just bel re thev retire whole groups of them assemble high in the air. and sqnej and shoot about with wonderful rapidity. But this b rd ,s nev-er so much alive as in sultry thundery > her when ,t expresses great alacrity, calls forth all „s powers. In hot mornings, several, get- <.ng together in little parties, dash round the steeples a. d churches, squeaking as they go in a very clam. orous manner r the,,e, by nice observers, are sup. posed to be males seren.adi„jj their sitting hens .• and no, without reason, since they seldom squeak till hey come close to the walls or eaves, and since those w.thn, utter at the same time a little inward note of complacency. When the hen has sat hard all day, she rushes 34 /orth for a few minutes, just as it is almost dark to stretch and relieve her weary Iin,bs. and snatch a scanty meal, and then returns to her dutv of incuba- tion Swifts, when wantonly and cruelly shot while they have young, discover a lump of insects in their mouths, which they pouch and hold under their tongue. In general they feed in a much higher dis- trict than the other species; a proof that gnats and other insects do also ab.und to a considerable height |n 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 al- most 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 hnd re- marked that swifts were hawking very low for hours together over pools and streams ; and could not help inquiring into the object of the pursuit that induced them to descend so much below their usual range. After some trouble I found that they were taking Phryganc^. epkancr^ and HMlul^ (caddis-flies, may- flies and dragon-flies) that were just emerged from 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 succulenl nourish- 35 ; ih They bring out their young about the middle or latter end of July : but as 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 m)torious as in the other species. On the 30th of last June 1 untiled the eaves of a house where many pairs build, and found in each nest only two squabs, naked //////.• on the 8th of July I repeated the same inquiry, and found they had made very little progress towards a fledged state but were still naked and hejpless. 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 martins, that have numerous families, are con- tinually 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 ar ' strike at hawks that come in their wax ; but not with that vehemence and tury that swallows express on the same occa- sion. They are out all day long in wet days, feed- ing about, and disregarding still rain: from'whence two things may be gathered : Hrst, 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. Windy, and particularly wmdy weather with heavy showers, they dislike; 36 /WP': '%1HL A^v and on such days withdraw, and are scarce ever seen. There is a circumstance respecting the colour of swifts which seems not to be unworthy of our atten- tion. 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 re- turn glossy again in the spring. Now, if they pur- sue 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 hirundincs breed invariably twice. It is past all doubt that swifts can breed but once, since they withdraw in a short time after the fiight of their young, and some time 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 time, and the other hirundincs twice, the latter, who lay from four to six eggs, increase at an average five times as fast as the former. 37 \h n But in nothing are swifts more singular than in their early retreat. They retire, as to the main body of them, by the loth of August, and sometimes a few days sooner: and every straggler invariably withdraws by the 20th, 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 extraordmary. they begin to retire still earlier in the most southerly parts of Andalusia, where they can be no ways influenced by any defect of heat; or as one might suppose, defect of food. Are they regu- lated 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 searches, but almost eludes our guesses! These Atrun^ines 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 by 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 h/>Moscce {A.aperce htrundinis. Leach), and often wriggle and scratch themselves, in their flight, to get rid of that cling- ing annoyance. 38 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 uc count 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, the> can enter a very narrow crevice • and when they cannot pass on ihcir bellies they will turn up edgewise. The particular formation of the foot discrimi- nates the swift from all the British hiruudines ■ and indeed from all other known birds, the Hirundo me/ba, or great white-bellied swift of Gibraltar, ex- cepted ; for it is so disposed as to carry "omncs quatuor digitos anticos "-" all its four toes for- ward;" besides, the least toe, which should be the back one, consists of one bone only, and the other three of only two apiece: a construction most rare nnd peculiar, but nicely adapted to the purposes in which their feet are employed. This, and some peculiarities attending the nostrils and under mandi- ble, have induced a discerning naturalist to suppose that this species might constitute a genus by itself. In London a party of swifts frequent the Tower 20 39 1; i i 1 1 >t 1 - I 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-martin, 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 pro- cure gravel to grind their food, as swallows do since they never settle on the ground. Young ones,' overrun with hippobosccB, are sometimes found under their nests, fallen to the ground ; the number of vermin rendering their abode insupportable any longer. They frequent in this village several abject cottages ; yet a succession still haunts the same un- likely 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 a part of a roof over the nest of a swift. The dam sat in the nest; but so strongly was she affected by her natural arofri^ 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, permitting 40 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 disproportioned abdomina, and their heads too heavy for their necks to support we could not but wonder when we reflected that these shiftless beings in little more than a fortnight would be able to dash through the air almost with the mconceivable swiftness of a meteor; and per- haps, in their emigration, must traverse vast conti- nents and oceans as distant as the equator. So soon does Nature advance small birds to their ri^Kia, or state of perfection; while the progressive growth of men and large quadrupeds is slow and tedious ! Selborne, Sept. 28. 1774. LETTER LXIII. To THE Honourable Daines Barrington. Bv means of the straight cottage-chimnev I had an opportunity this summer of remarking at my hrihafr;""""" ^^^-^ ^-^ descend^through the shaft; but my pleasure in contemplating the address ,h which this feat is performed to a con- siderable depth in the chimney was somewhat inter- 41 Ill rupted by apprehensions lest my eves might undergo the same fate with those of Tobit. Perhaps it may be some amusement to you to hear at what times the different species of /«r««^.W, arrived this spring in three very distant counties of this kingdom. With us the swallow was seen first on April the 4th, the swift on April the 24th, the bank-martin on April the unh, and the house-martin not till April the 30th. At South Zele, Devonshire, swallows did not arrive till April the 2Sth; swifts in plenty, on May the ist, and house-martins not till the middle of May. At Blackburn, in Lancashire swifts were seen on April the 28th, swallows April the 29th, house-martins May the ist. Do these dif- ferent dates in such distant districts prove anything for or against migration? A farmer near Weyhill fallows his land with two teams of asses; one of which works till noon, and the other in the afternoon. When these animals have done their work, they are penned all night, like sheep, on the fallow. In the winter they are confined and foddered in a yard, and make plenty of dung. Linnasus says that hawks " make a truce with other birds as long as the cuckoo is heard : " '< pacis- cuntur inducias cum avibus, quamdiu cuculus cucu- lat: • but it appears to me that, during that period many little birds are taken and destroyed by birds' of prey, as may be seen by the feathers left in lanes and under hedges. 42 The missel-thrush is, while breeding, fierce and pugnacioL., driving such birds as approach its nest with great fury to a distance. The Welsh call it " pen y llwynn," the head or master of the coppice He suffers no magpie, jay, or blackbird to enter the Magpies and their nest. garden where he haunts ; and is, for the time, a good guard to the new-sown legumens. In general he is very successful in the defence of his family ; but once 43 t 11 '.; i I observed in my garden, that several magpies came determined to storm the nest of a missel-thrush : the dams defended their mansion with great vigour and fought resolutely for •< their faith and for their homes:" pro ans et focis ; but nurSers at last pre- va,led. they tore the nest to pieces, and swallowed the young alive. [Thrushes during long droughts are of great serv- ice m hunting out shell-snails,* which they pull in pieces for their young, and are thereby very service able in gardens. Missel-thrushes do not destroy the fruit in gardens like the obher species of turdi, but feed on the berries and mistletoe, and in the spring on ivy-berries, which then begin to ripen.f In the summer, when their young become fledged, they leave neighbourhoods, and retire to sheep-walks and wild commons. This species of thrush, though wild at other times, delights to build near houses, and in frequented walks and gardens.] my windows, and' T. g '.e ^Z llT ^"' "'' ^""^ '^^'^ "^ attack so. f;'e S d t^:;: r°' '''''\'':'' 'y "P -P-'edly and orchard uttering at ,hp • ^^"''^ ^''''''^'"^ '^^'" "«' '" n,y above. ZTfJ^ IteTln""'^ "'"^"- ^''^'^- '''""^^ -"""« ^^' magpies that ^T .ZXai:^.!'''^' '"'^^^ '>"^^-"-k son,e shrieks.-MARKW.cK. ' """^ «'""' ^'^'^""^^ ^"^^ '°"d 44 I \ In the season of nidification the wildest birds are comparatively tame. Thus the ring-dove breeds in my fields, though they are continually frequented • and the missel-thrush, though most shy and wild in the autumn and winter, builds in ray garden close to a walk where people are passing all day long. Wall-fruit abounds with me this year; but my grapes, that used to be forward and good, are at present backward beyond all precedent: and this IS not the worst of the story ; for the same ungenial weather, the same black cold solstice, has injured the more necessary fruits of the earth, and dis- coloured and blighted our wheat. The crop of hops promises to be very large. Frequent returns of deafness incommode me sad- ly, and half disqualify me as a naturalist; for when those fits are upon me, I lose all the pleasing notices and httle intimations arising from rural sounds; and May IS to me as silent and mute with r-spect to the notes of birdc .. ^s August. My eyesight is. thank God. q.ick and good; but with respect to the other sense, I am. at times, disabled : "And wisdo.n at one entrance quite shut out." Selborne, Sept. 13, 1774. 45 4 3 1-ETTER LXIV. To Thomas Pknnani, Esq. Some future faunist. a man of fortune, will I hope extend his visits to the kingdom of Ireland' n w he d. and a country Httle known to the natural! t He W.11 not. u is to be wished, undertake that T "-CC -panied by a botanist, because the moun ams have scarcely been sufficiently examin d possbly afford some plants little to be expected vvuhm the British dominions. A person of Ttbink -g turn of mind will draw many just remarks from the modern improvements of that country, both in arts and agriculture, where premiums obtained, long before they were heard of with us. The manners of he w..d natives, their superstitions, their prejudices he. sordid way of life, w extort from' ;m ma: ; useful reflections. He si .Id also take with him an able draughtsman ; for he must by no means pass over the noble castles and seats, the extensive and picturesque lakes and waterfalls, and the 'ofty stu- pendous mountains, so little known, and so engagip. to ;he imagination when described and exhibited in a lively manner: such a work would be well re- ceived. As I have seen no modern map of Scotland, I cannot pret.nd to say how accurate or particular 46 any such may be ; but this I know, that the best old maps of that kingdom are very defective. The great obvious defect that I have remarked in all maps of Scotland that have fallen in my way is the x.ant of a coloured line or stroke that shall exactly define the just limits of that district called the Highlands. Moreover, all the great avenues to that mountain- ous and romantic country want to be well distin- guished. The military roads formed by General Wade are so great and Roman-like an undertaking that they will merit attention. My old map, Moll's map, takes notice of Fort William ; but could not mention the other forts that have been erected long since : therefore a good representation of the chain of forts should not be onitted. The celebrated zigzag up the Coryarich must not be passed over. Moll takes notice of Hamilton and Drumlanrig, and such capital houses; but the new survey, no doubt, should represent every seat and castle remarkable for any great event, or cele- brated for its paintings. &c. Lord Brcadalbane's seat and beautiful policy o-e too curious and ex- traordinary to be omitted. The seat of the Earl of Eglintoun, near Glasgow, is worthy of notice. The pine-plantations of that nobleman are very grand and extensive indeed. Selborne, March g, 1775. 47 LKTTKR LXV. To THE HONOURAHU: DaINKs IURklN(;roN. On September the 2ist. 174,. being then on a "isit.and intent on field-diversions. I rose before day- break wi,en i came into the inclosures, I found the -i>'^'"" <.d clovergrounds matted all over with a ' ■ < coft of cobweb, in the meshes of which a copi- leavy dew hung so plentifully that the whole -u - '1 the country seemed, us it were, covered with two or three setting-nets drawn one over another When the dogs attempted to hunt, their eyes were so bhnded and hoodwinked that they could not pro- ceed, but were obliged to lie down and scrape the incumbrances from their faces with their fore-feet, so that, finding my sport interrupted. I returned home, musing in my mind on the oddness of the occurrence. As the morning advanced the sun became bright and warm, and the day turned out one of those most lovely ones which no season but the autumn pro- duces, cloudless, calm, serene, and worthy of the South of France itself. About nine an appearance very unusual began to demand our attention, a shower of cobwebs falling from very elevated regions, and continuing, without any mterruption, till the close of the day. These webs were not single filmy threads, floating in the 48 air m all directions, but perfect flakes or rags; some near an incli broad, and five or six long, which fell with a degree of velocity that sh.^wed they were considerably heavier than the atmosphere. On every side, as the observer turned his eyes might he behold a continual succession of fresh flakes falling into his sight, a ,1 twinkling like stars as they turned their sides towards the sun. How far this wonderful shower exter.dcd it would be difficult to say: but we know that it reached Bradley, Selborne, and Alresford. three places which lie in a sort of triangle, the shortest o. whose sides is about eight miles in extent. At the second of those places there was a gen- tleman (for whose veracity and intelligent turn we have the greatest veneration) who observed it the moment he got abroad ; but concluded that, as soon as he came upon the hill above his house, where he took his morning rides, he should be higher than this meteor, which he imagined might have been blown, like thistledown, from the common above; but. to his great astonishment, when he rode to the most elevated part of the down, 300 feet above his fields, he found the webs in appearance still as much above him as before ; still descending into sight in a constant succession, and twinkling in the sun. so as to draw the attention of the most incurious. Neither before nor after was any such fall ob- served ; but on this day the flakes hung in the trees 49 M and hedges so thick, that a diligent person sent out might have gathered baskets full. The remark that I shall make on these cobweb- like appearances, called gossamer, is, that, strange and superstitious as the notions about them were for- merly, nobody in these days doubts but that they are the real production of small spiders, which swarm in the fields in fine weather in autumn, and have a power of shooting out webs from their tails so as to render themselves buoyant, and lighter than air. But why these apterous insects should that day take such a wonderful aerial excursion, and why their webs should at once become so gross and ma- terial as to be considerably more weighty than air, and to descend with precipitation, is a matter be- yond my skill. If I might be allowed to hazard a supposition, I should imagine that those filmy threads, when first shot, might be entangled in the rising dew, and so drawn up, spiders and all, by a brisk evaporation, into the regions where clouds are formed : and if the spiders have a power of coiling and thickening their webs in the air, as Dr. Lister says they have, then, when they were become heavier than the air, they must fall.* * One day when the air was full of such gossamers. Dr. Lis.erTrelat^ that he mounted to the h.ghest part of York Cathedral and found the gossamer webs still far above him. " Its sone some wonder at the cuuse of thunder. On ebbe and flode, on gossamer and mist, And on all things till that the cause is wist."— Chaucer, 5Q Every day in fine weather, in autumn chiefly, do I see those spiders shooting out their webs and mounting aloft : they will go off from your finger if you will take them into your hand. Last summer one alighted on my book as I was reading in the par- lour ; and, running to the top of the page, and shoot- ing out a web, took its departure from thence. But what I most wondered at was, that it went off with considerable velocity in a place where no air was stirring ; and I am sure that I did not assist it with my breath. So that these little crawlers seem to have, while mounting, some locomotive power with- out the use of wings, and so move in the air faster than the air itself. Selborne. June 8, 1775. LETTER LXVI. To THE Honourable Daines Barrington. There is a wonderful spirit of sociality in the brute creation, independent of sexual attachment. Of this the congregation of gregarious birds in the winter is a remarkable instance. Many horses, though quiet with company, will not stay one minute in a field by themselves : the strongest fences cannot restrain them. My neigh- bour's horse will not only not stay by himself abroad, 51 but he will not bear to be left alone in a strange stable without discovering the utmost impatience and endeavouring to break the rack and manger with his fore-feet. He has been known to leap .ut at a stable-window, through which dung was thrown after company ; and jet in other respects is remark^ ably quiet. Oxen and cows will not fatten by them- selves : but will neglect the finest pasture that is not recommended by society. It would be needless to add instances in sheep, which constantly flock to- gether. But this propensity seems not to be confined to animals of the same species; for we know a doe, still ahve, that was brought up from a little fawn with a dairy of cows ; with them it goes a-field, and with them it returns to the yard. The dogs of the house ta-.e no notice of this deer, being used to her; bnt, if strange dogs come by. a chase ensues ; while the master smiles to see his favourite securely leading her pursuers over hedge, or gate, or stile, till she returns to the cows, who. with fierce lowings and menacing horns, drive the assailants quite out of the pasture. Even great disparity of kind and size does not always prevent social advances and mutual fellow- ship. For a very intelligent and observant person has assured me that, in the former pa-t of his life, keeping but one horse, he happened also on a time to have but one solitary hen. These two incongru- 52 ous animals spent much of their time together in a lonely orchard, where they saw no creature but each other. By degrees an apparent regard began to take place between these two sequestered individu- als. The fowl would approach the quadruped with notes of complacency, rubbing herself gently against his legs: while the horse would look down with satisfaction, and move with the greatest caution and circumspection, lest he should trample on his diminu- tive companion. Thus by mutual good offices, each seemed to console the vacant hours of the other : so that Milton, when he puts the following senti- ment in the mouth of Adam, seems to be somewhat mistaken : — " Much less can bird with beast, or fish with fowl, So well converse, nor with the ox the ape." Selborne, Aug. 15, 1775. h LETTER LXVII. To THE Honourable Daines Barrington. We have two gangs or hordes of gypsies which infest the south and west of England, and come round in their circuit two or three times in the year. One of these tribes calls itself by the noble name of Stanley, of which I have nothing particular to say ; but the other is distinguished by an appellative 53 Jmewhat remarkable-as far as their harsh gibber- ■sh can be understood, they seem to say that the Gypsies in front of " The VVakesr name of their clan is Curleople. Now the termina- tion of this word is apparently Grecian : and as Me- zeray and the gravest historians all agree that these vagrants did certainly migrate from Egypt and the East, two or three centuries ago, and so spread by degrees over Europe, may not this family name, a little corrupted, be the very name they brought with them from the Levant? It would be matter of some curiosity, could one meet with an intelligent 54 'it person among them, to inquire whether, in their jargon, they still letain any Greek words : the Greek radicals will appear in hand, foot, head, water, earth, &c. It is possible that amidst their cant and corrupted dialect many mutilated re- mains of their native language might still be dis- covered. With regard to those peculiar people, the gyp. sies, one thing is very remarkable, and especially as they came from warmer climates ; and that is, that while other beggars lodge in barns, stables, and cow- houses, these sturdy savages seem to pride them- selves in braving the severities of winter, and in living in the open air the whole year round. Last September was as wet a month as ever was known ; and yet during those deluges did a young gypsy- girl lie-in in the midst of one of our hop-gardens, on the cold ground, with nothing over her but a piece of blanket extended on a few hazel-rods bent hoop- fashion, and stuck into the earth at each end, in cir- cumstances too trying for a cow in the same con- dition: yet within this garden thee was a large hop-kiln, into the chambers of which he might have retired had she thought shelter an object worthy her attention. Europe, itself, it seems, cannot set bounds to the rovings of these vagabonds ; for Mr. Bell, in his re- turn from Pekin, met a gang of these people on the confines of Tartary, who were endeavouring to 31 55 penetrate those deserts and try their fortune in China.* Gypsies are called in French, Bohemians; in Italian and modern Greek, Zingari. Seluorne. Oe/. 2, 1775. Ill LETTER LXVIII. To THE Honourable Daines Barrington. " *'"-■ - - - - twdae pingiies, htc plurimus ignis .Semper, et assidua postes fuli^ine nigri." (VIRG. />/. vii. 49. 50.) Here are fat torches, here abundant fire, Here constant smoke has black'd each side the door." I SHALL make no apology for troubling you with the detail of a very simple piece of domestic econ- omy^ being satisfied that you think noth- ing beneath your attention that tends to utility : the matter alluded to is the use of rushes instead of candles, which I am well aware prevails in many districts besides this; r-t^^, ^"' ^s I know there are countries |a^^ also where it does not obtain, and as ^■■P*^ I have considered the subject with w rusA./i^A, some degree of exactness, I shall pro- • .See Bell's " Travels in China." 56 ceed with my humble story, and leave you to judge of the expediency. The proper species of rush for this purpose seems to be the/««r;« conglomeratus, or common soit rush, which is to be found in most moist pastures, by the sides of streams, and under hedges. These rushes are in best condition in the height of summer; but may be gathered, so as to serve the purpose well, quite on to autumn. It would be needless to add that the largest and longest are best. Decayed la- bourers, women, and children, make it their business to procure and prepare them. As soon as they are cut they must be flung into the water, and kept there; for otherwise they will dry and shrink, and the peel will not run. At first a person « ould find It no easy matter to divest a rush of its peel or rind, so as to leave one regular, narrow, even rib from top to bottom that may support the pith : but this, like other feats, soon becomes familiar even to children ; and we have seen an old woman, stone- blind, performing this business with great despatch, and seldom failing to strip them with the nicest reg- ularity. When these junci are thus far prepared, they must lie out on the grass to be bleached, and take the dew for some nights, and afterwards be dried in the sun. Some address is required in dipping these rushes m the scalding fat or grease; but this knack also is to be attained by practice. The careful wife of an 57 !■«! industrious Hampshire labourer obtains all her fat for nothing; for she saves the scummings of her bacon-pot for this use ; arid, if the grease abounds with salt, she causes the salt to precipitate to the bottom, by setting the scummings in a warm oven. Where hogs are not much in use, and especially by the sea-side, the coarser animal oils will come very cheap. A pound of common grease may be pro- cured for fourpence ; and about six pounds of grease will dip a pound of rushes ; and one pound of rushes may be bought for one shilling ; so that a pound of rushes, medicated and readytfor use, will cost three shillings. If men that keep bees will mix a little wax with the grease, it will give it a consistency, and render it more cleanly, and make the rushes burn '■nger; mutton-suet will have the same effect. A good rush, which measured in length two feet four inches and a half, being minuted, burnt only three minutes short of an hour : and a rush still of greater length has been known to burn one hour and a quarter. These rushes give a good clear light. Watch- lights (coated with tallow), it is true, shed a dismal one, " darkn--s visible ; " but then the wicks of those have two ribs of the rind, or peel, to support the pith, while the wick of the dipr ' rush has but one. The two ribs are intended to ■ > )ede the progress of the fiame and make the candle last. In a pound of dry rushes, avoirdupois, which I 58 caused to be weighed and numbered, we found up- wards of one thousand six hundred individuals. Now suppose each of these burns, one with another, only half an hour, then a poor man will purchase eight hundred hours of light, a time exceeding thirty-three entire days, for three shillings. Accord- ing to this account each rush, before dipping, costs A of a farthing, and ^ afterwards. Thus a poor family will enjoy five and a half hours of comfort- able light for a farthing. An experienced old house- keeper assures me that one pound and a halt of rushes completely supplies his family the year round, since working people burn no candle in the long days, because they rise and go to bed by day- light. Little farmers use rushes much, in the short days, both morning and evening, in the dairy and kitchen ; but the very poor, who are always the worst econo^ mists, and therefore must continue very poor, buy a halfpenny candle every evening, which, in their blowing open rooms, does not burn much more than two hours. Thus have they only two hours' light for their money instead of eleven. While on the subject of rural economy, it may not be improper to mention a pretty implement of housewifery that I have seen nowhere else ; that is, little neat besoms which our foresters make from' the stalk of the Polytriaim commune, or great golden maiden-hair, which they call silk-wood, and find 59 plenty in the bogs. When this moss is well combed and dressed, and divested of its outer skin, it be- comes of a beautiful bright chestnut colour; and being soft and pliant, is very proper for the dusting of beds, curtains, carpets, hangings. &c. If these besoms were known to the brushmakers in town, it IS probable they might come much more into use for the purpose above mentioned.* Ski.bornk, .W-r. I, 1776. LETTER I.XIX. To THE Honourable Daines Barrinoton. We had in this village more than twenty years ago an idiot boy. whom I well remember, who, from a child, showed a strong propensity to bees ; they were his food, his amusement, his sole object. And as people of this cast have seldom more than one point in view, so this lad exerted all his few facul- ties on this one pursuit. In the winter he dozed away his time, within his father's house, by the fire- side, in a kind of torpid state, seldom departing from the chimney-corner; but in the summer he was all alert, and in quest of his game in the fields, and on sunny banks. Honey-bees, humble-bees, and wasps ^ A Lesoni ..f this -or! i. to he see,, i„ Sir A,l 60 itoii Lever's Museum. "srr were his prey wherever he found then: he had no apprehensions from their stint's, but he would "Stj^t^ ' Catc/tim;; bees. seize them nudis manibus, and at once disarm them of their weapons, and suck their bodies for the sake of their honey-bags. Sometimes he would fill his bosom between his shirt and his skin with a number of these captives: and sometimes would confme them in b<.ttlcs. He was a very Mcr, apiaster, or bee-bird ; and very injurious to men that kept bees : for he would slide into their bee-gardens, and. sifting down before the stools, would rap with his fingpr on the hives, and so take the bees as they came out. He 6l latfaE ■iiiii has been known to overturn hives for the sake of honey, of which he was passionately fond. Where metheglin was making he would linger round the tubs and vessels, begging a draught of what he called bee-wine. As he ran about he used to make a humming noise with his lips, resembling the buzzing of bees. This lad was >ean and sallow, and of a cadaverous complexion ; and, except in his favourite pursuit, in which he was wonderfully adroit, dis- covered no manner of understanding. Had his ca- pacity been better, and directed to the same object, he had perhaps abated much of our wonder at the* feats of a more modern exhibiter of bees ; and we may justly say of him now,— II _^ ^^ — — — — Thou, Hail thy presiding star propitious shone, Shouldst IViUman be » When a tall youth he was removed from hence to a distant village, where he died, as I understand, before he arrived at manhood. Selborne, D,f. 12, 1775. LETTER LXX. To THE Honourable Daines Barringtov. It is the hardest thing in the world to shake off superstitious prejudices ; they are sucked in, as it 6a were, with our mother's milk ; and. growing up with us at a time when they talce the fastest hold and .i.ake the most lasting impressions, become so inter- w'.ven into our very constitutions, that the strongest good sense is required to disengage ourselves from them. No wonder, therefore, that the lower people retam them their whole lives throu-h. since their mmds are not invigorated by a liberal education, and therefore not enabled to make any efforts adequate to the occasion. Such a pn.aml.L seeius to be neco.sary bciore we ente! .„. the superstitions of this uistrict, lest we should >c sns,«ected ol exaggeration in a recital of practices too gross for this enlightened age. But the people of Trirg. in Hertfordshi, •, would do well to remember, that no longer ag-. i^an the year 175 1, and within twenty miles 'u<: they seized on two superannuated v,.-t. ..,<., with age, and overwhelmed with i; ijiu ,., - suspicion of witchcraft ; and. by tr\ :: g .:,p. ;-,^,l^V drowned them in a horse-pond. In a farm-yard near the middle of thi. . -.age stands, at this day, a row of pollard-ashes, which, by the seams and long cicatrices down their sides manifestly show that, in former times, they have' been cleft asunder. These trees, when young and flexible, were severed and held open bv wedges while ruptured children, stripped naked, were pushed through the apertures, under a persuasion 63 i aK ZBiiZ that, by such a process, the poor babes would be cured of their infirmity. As soon as the operation was over, the tree, in the suffering part, was plas- tered with loam, and carefully swathed up. If the parts coalesced and soldered together, as usually fell out where the feat was performed with any adroitness at all, the party was cured; but where the cleft continued to gape, the operation, it was sui)posed, would prove ineffectual. Having occa- sion to enlarge my garden not long since! 1 cut down two or three such trees, one of which did not grow together. , We have several persons now living in the vil- lage, who, in their childhood, were supposed to be healed by this superstitious ceremony, derived down perhaps from our Saxon ancestors, who practised it before their conversion to Christianity. --Vt the south corner of the Plestor, or area, near the church, there stood, about twenty years ago, a very old grotesque hollow pvllard-ash, which for ages had been looked on with no small veneration as a shrew-ash. Now a shrew-ash is an ash whose twigs or branches, when gently applied to the limbs of cattle, will immediately relieve the pains which a beast suffers from the running of a shrew-mouse over the part affected ; for it is supposed that a shrew- mouse is of so baneful and deleterious a nature, that wherever it creeps over a beast, be it horse, cow. or sheep, the suffering animal is afflicted with cruel f'4 anguish, and threatened with the loss of the use of the limb. Against this accident, to which they are continually liable, our provident forefathers always kept a shrew-ash at hand, which, when once medi- cated, would maintain its virtue forever. A shrew- ash was made thus:*~Into the body of the tree a deep hole was bored with an auger, and a poor de- voted shrew-mouse was thrust in alive, and plugged in, no doubt, with several quaint incantations long since forgotten. As the ceremonies necessary for such a consecration are no longer understood, all succession is at an end, and no such tree is known to subsist in the manor, or hundred. As to that on the Plestor, for " The late vicar stubb'd and burnt it," when he was way-warden, regardless of the remon- strances of the bystanders, who interceded in vain for its preservation, urging its power and efficacy, and alleging that it had been "guarded through many years by the piety of our ancestors ; " " Keligione patrum multos servata !>er anno-.." Selborne. Jan. 8, 1776. ' For a similar practice, White refers us to riot's " Staffordshire." 65 LETTER LXXI. To THE Honourable Daines Barri NGTON. In heavy fogs, on elev?.ted situations especially, trees are perfect alembics: and no one that has not attended to such matters can imagine how much water one tree will distil in a nights time, by con- densing the vapour which trickles down the twigs and boughs, so as to make the ground below quite in a float. In Newton-lane, in October, 1775, on a misty day, a particular oak in leaf dropped so faot that the cartway stood in {iuddles and the ruts :an with water, though the ground in general was dusty. In some of our smaller islands in the West indies, if I mistake not, there are no springs or rivers ; but the people are supplied with that necess? y element, water, merely by the dripping of sor.e large tall trees, which, standing in the bosom of a mountain, keep their heads constantly enveloped with fogs and clouds, from which they dispense their kindly, never- ceasing moisture ; and so render those districts hab- itable by condensation alone. Trees in leaf have such a vast proportion more of surface than those that are naked, that, in theory, their condeniations should greatly exceed those that are stripped of their leaves; but, as the former im- bibe also a great quantity of moisture, it is difficult to say which drip most : but this I know, that de- 66 ciduous trees that are entwined with much ivy seem to distil the greatest quantity. Ivy leaves are smooth, and thick, and cold, and therefore condense very fast; and besides, evergreens imbibe very little. These facts may furnish the intelligent with hints concerning what sorts of trees they should plant round small ponds that they would wish to be per- ennial; and show them how advantageous some trees are in preference to others. Trees perspire profusely, condense largely, and check evaporation so much, that woods are always moist: no wonder therefore that they contribute much to fjools and streams. That trees are great promoters of lakes and rivers appears from a well known fact in North America; for, since the woods and forests have been grubbed and cleared, all bodies of water are much diminished ; so that some streams, that were very considerable a century ago, will not now drive a common mill.* Besides, most woodlands, forests, and chases, with us abound with pools and mo- rasses ; no doubt for the reason given above. To a thinking mind few phenomena are more strange than the state of little ponds on the sum- mits of chalk-hills, many of which are never dry in the most trying droughts of summer. On chalk- hills, I saj , because in many rocky and gravelly soils * Vide Kalin's " Travels in North America." 67 _l ■^ppww springs usually break ,,ut pretty high on the sides of elevated grounds and mountains; but no person acquainted with chalky districts will allow that they ever saw springs in such a soil, but only in valleys and bottoms, since the waters of so pervious a stratum as chalk all lie on one dead level, as well- diggers have assured me again and again. Now we have many such little round ponds in this district ; and one in particular on our sheep- down, three hundred feet above my house; which, though never above three feet deep in the middle,' and not more than thirty feet in diameter, and con' taining perhaps not more than two or thre? hundred hogsheads of water, yet nbver is it known to fail, though it affords drink for three hundred or four hundred sheep, and for at least twenty head of large cattle beside. This pond, it is true, is overhung with two moderate-sized 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 per- petual consumption by cattle, yet constantly main- tain a moderate share of water, without overflowing in the wettest seasons, as they would do if supplied by springs. By my journal of May, ,775, it appears that " the small and even considerable ponds in 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 68 ' ^ O' I I which certainly is more prevalent in bottoms? or rather, have not those elevated pools some unnoticed recruits, which in the night time counterbalance the waste of the day, without which the cattle alone must soon exhaust them ? And here it will be neces- sary to enter more minutely into the cause. Dr. Hales, in his Vegetable Statics, advances, from ex- periment, 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 a surface of water than there does 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 re- source. Persons that are much abroad, and travel early 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. Selborne, Feb. 7, 1776. aa 69 li^iBiMiHliiiii I iMiiinitiMI LETTER LXXII. To THE Honourable Dainf.s Barrington. Monsieur HERissANT.a French anatomist, seems persuaded that he has discovered the reason why cuckoos do not hatch their own eggs; the impedi- ment, he supposes, arises from the internal structure of their parts, which incapacitates them for incuba- tion. 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 poultry, galiina, and pigeons, columba, &c., but ipmediately behind it, on and over the bowels, so as to make a large protuber- ance 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 men- tioned above. This stomach was large and round, and stuffed hard like a pincushion with food, which, upon nice examination, we found to consist of various insects ; such as small scarabs, spiders, and dragon- flies ; the last of which we have seen cuckoos catch- ing 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, cranberries, or some U( * Histoire de I'Acad^mie Royale, 1752. 70 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. The sternum in this bird seemed to us to be re- markably short, between which and the anus lay the crop, or craw, and immediately behind that the bow- els against the back-bone. It must be allowed, as this anatomist observes, that the crop placed just upon 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 man- ner. This inquiry I proposed to myself to make wi !i a fern-owl, or goat-sucker, as soon as opportunity offered : because, if their formation 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 habit and shape, we suspected might resem- ble the cuckoo in its internal construction. Nor were our suspicions ill-grounded ; for upon dissec- tion, the crop, or craw, also lay behind the slprnum, immediately on the viscera, between them and ;ht skin of the belly. It was bulky, and stuffed hard with large phalteme, moths of several sorts, and thea- eggs, which no doubt had been forced out of those insects by the action of swallowing. 71 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 conjec- ture, 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 in- stance of the Cuatlus 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 graniv- orous. \ SeLBORNE, April I, 1776. LETTER LXXIII. To THE Honourable Daines Harrington. 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 earthworms. This little fry issued into the world with the true viper spirit about them, showing great alertness as soon as disengaged from 7a the belly of the dam : they twisted and wriggled about, and set themselv( s up, and gaped very wide when touched with a slick, showing manifest tokens of menace and defiance, though as yet they had no manner of fangs that we could find, even with the help of our glasses. To a thinking mind nothing is more wonderful than that early instinct which impresses young ani- mals 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 adver- sary before his spurs are grown ; and a calf or a lamb 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 scissors. There was little room to suppose that this brood had ever been in the open air before ; and that thev 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. Selborne, April 21), \Tit. 73 Mictoconr risoiution tbt chart (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) A APPLIED IfVMGE 1653 Eost Main Street Rochester, New York 14609 USA (716) 482 - 0300 - Phone (716) 288 - 5989 - Fox LETTER LXXIV. It To THE Honourable Daines Rarrington. Cas iKATiox 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 lips, 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 thou-h 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 over chickens like hens.* Barrow-hogs have also small tusks like sows. Thus far it is plain that the deprivation of mascu- line 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 hus- bandry, 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 he hitch! n"' ''« ^T:"" ''"'^ "'• ""'"^'^ "I'°"^ '" "--' 'h- ^hi^kens nurse! ''"'''^' "'"'''"'' ^'^' ^'"' """^ P'"^^'' e°°'l 74 and vcnereous, 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 hi and he neglected those females to whom before he was passionately attached, and from whom no fences could restrain him. LETTER LXXV. To THE HONOURABLI DaINES BaRRINGTON. The natural term of a hog's life is little known, and the reason is plain- because it is neither profit- able nor convenient to keep that turbulent animal to the full extent of its time : however, my neigh- bour, 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 showed 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 -rown very sagacious and artful ;— when 75 HI she found occasion to converse with a boar she used to open all the intervening gates, and march, by her- self, 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 fatting-pen. She proved, when fat, good bacon, juicy, and tender; the rind, or sward, was remarkably thin. At a moderate com- putation she was allowed to have been the fruitful parent of three hundred pigs ; .'; prodigious instance of fecundity in so large a quadruped ! She was killed in spring 1775. * LETTER LXXVI. To THE Honourable Daines Barrington. U ' " — — — — — — admorunt ubera tigres." " By tigers suckled." We have remarked in a former letter how much incongruous animals, in a lonely state, may be at- tached to each other from a spirit of sociality ; in this it may not be amiss to recount a different mo- tive 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, 76 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 fondlings, to be killed by some dog or cat. How- ever, 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 some- thing gamboling after, which proved to be the lev- eret 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 ! Why so cruel and sanguinary a beast as a cat, of the ferocious genus of Files, the Murium ho, as Lin- naeus calls it, should be affected 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 complacency and case she de- rived to herself from the procuring her teats to be drawn, which were too much distended with milk, till, from habit, she became as much delighted with this fondling 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 77 f * I i1' im't 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 mar- vellous that Romulus and Remus, in their infant state, should be nursed by a she-wolf, than that a poor little suculing leveret should be fostered and cherished by a bloody grimalkin. " — — — — viridi fd'tam Mavortis in antro rrociibuisse lupam : gcniiiio.> huir ubera circum Lutlere penilenles pueros, et lamliere matrcm Imi)avi(los ; illam tereti cervic; rcflexain Mulcc ; alternos, et corpora fintj-rc liiijjuil," (VlRi;. yEn. viii. 630-634.) 1 Or, as Christopher Pitt renders the Roman poet :— " Here in a verdant cave's embowering shade, The fostering wolf and martial twins were laid ; The indulgent mother, half reclined along, Look'd fondly back, and formed them with her tongue." [Again a boy has taken three little squirrels in their nest, or drey, as it is calleu 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 if they were her own offspring. So many people went to see the little squirrels suckled by a cat, that the foster-mother became jeal- ous of her charge, and in pain for their safety ; and therefore hid them over the ceiling, where one died This circumstance shows her affection for these ford- 78 >1 lings, 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.] — OiiSEkVATioxs on Na- TURK. SELnoRNE, May 9, 1776. LETTER LXXVII. To THE Honourable Daines Harrington. Lands that are subject to frequent inundations are always poor ; and probably the reason may be because the worms are drowned. The most insig- nificant insects and reptiles are of much more conse- quence, and have much more influence in the econ- omy 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 nothing of half the birds, and some quadrupeds which are almost en- tirely supported by them, worms seem to be great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely without them ; by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and rendering it pervious to rains 79 i I f I i and the fibres of plants; by drawing straws and stalks of leaves and twigs into it ; and, most of all, by throwing up such infinite numbers of lumps of earth called worm-casts, 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, prob- ably to avoid being flooded. Gardeners and farmers express their detestation of worms; the former be- cause 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 sterile: 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 tipulce (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. Farmer Young, of Norton farm, says that this spring (1777) 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 it sprang. 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 80 A walk in the vicar's garden. much entertainment and information at the same ♦iiuc, and would open a large and new field in natural history. Worms work most in ♦he spring; but by no means lie torpid in the dead months; t.iey are out every mild night in the winter, as any person may satisfy himself. They are hermaphro- dites, and are, consequei tly, very prolific. Selbornk, May 20, 1777. LETTER LXXVIII. To THE Honourable. Daines Barrington, You cannot but remember that the 26th and 27th of last March were ve/y hot days; so sultry that everybody complained, and were restless under those sensations to which they had not been recon- ciled by gradual approaches. This sudden summer-like heat was attended by many summer coincidences: for on those two days the thermometer rose to sixty-s'x in the shade; many species of insects revived and came forth ; some bees swarmed in this neighbourhood ; the old tortoise, near Lewes in Sussex, awakened and came forth out of its dormitory ; and, what is most to my pres'^nt purpose, many house-swallows appeared, and were very alert in many places, and particularly at C .bham, 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 w.nds, the in- sects withdrew, the tortoise returned again into the ground, and the swallows were seen no more until the loth 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-martins retire, to a bird, about the beginning of October ; so that a person very observ- ant 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 dis- covered themselves again in the first week of No- vember, 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 cuse in the beginning of this very month ; for, on the 4th of November, more tha twenty house-martins, which, in appearance, had all departed about the 7th 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 bluster- ing, b'- he 4th was dark and mild, and soft, the wind at south-west, and the thermometer at 58^° ; a pitch not common at that season of the year. More- over, it may not be amiss to add in this place, that whenever the thermometer is above 50' the brt comes flit.mg out in every autumnal and winter moniii. From all these circumstances laid together, it is obvious that to.pid insects, reptiles, and quadru- peds, are awakened from their profoundest slum- bers by a litile untimely warmth ; and t! reiore that nothing so much promotes this den > :i e stu- por as a defect of heat. And farther, it .^ reason- -^ble to suppose that two whole species, or at least ..any individuals of those two species, of British hiriindincs, do never leave this island at all, but par- take of the same benumbed state: for we cannot suppose that, after a month's absence, house-martins 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 summ r of a couple of days. Selborne, A'ov. 22, 1777. LETTER LXXIX. To THE Honourable Daines Barrington. There was in this village several vears ago a miserable pauper, who, from his birth, was afflicted with a leprosy, as far as we are aware, of a singular 33 83 1 ij I 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 ten- der that neither his hands nor feet were able to per- form 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 in- activity. His habit was lean, lank, and cadaverous. In this sad plight he dragged on a miserable e.xist- ence, 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 good women, who kWe to account for every defect in children by the doctrine of longing, said that his mother felt a violent propensitv for oysters, which she was unable to gratify ; and that the black rough scurf on his hands and feet were the shells of that f^sh. I knew his parents, neither of whom were lepers ; his father in particular lived to be far ad- vanced 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 peculiar and repeated injunc- tions given them in the Levitical law.* Nor was the rancour of this foul disorder much abated in the last See I.evilieus xiii. and xiv. 84 period of their commonwealth, as may be seen in many passages of the New Testament. Some centuries ago this horrible distemper pre- vailed all Europe over ; and our forefathers were by no means exempt, as appears by the large provisions made for objects labouring under this calamity. There was a hospital for female lepers in the dio- cese of Lincoln, a noble one near Durham, three in London and South wark, and perhaps many more in or near our great towns and cities. Moreover, some crowned heads, and 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 now is a rare sight. He will, moreover, when engaged in such a train of thought, naturally inquire for the reason. This happy change perhaps may have origi- nated and been continued from the much smaller quantity of salted meat and fish now eaten in these kingdoms ; from the use of linen next the skin ; from the plenty of better bread ; and from the profusion of fruits, roots, legumes, and greens, so common now m every family. Three or four centuries ago, before there were any inclosures, sown-grasses, field-turnips, or tield-carrots, or hay, all the cattle which had grown fat in summer, and were not killed for winter 85 { iii 'I if '■I use, were turned out soon after Michaelmas to shift as they could through the dead -nonths ; 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, viz. six hundred bacons, eighty carcases of beef, and six hundred muttons, in the days of Edward the Second, even so late in the spring as the 3rd of May. It was from magazines like these that the turbulent barons supported in idleness their riotous swarms of retain- ers ready for any disorder or mischief. But agri- culture is now arrived at such a pitch of perfection, that our best and fattest meats are killed in the win- ter ; and no man need eat salted flesh, unless he pre- fers it. One cause of this distemper might be, no doubt, the quantity of wretched fresh and salt fish con- sumed by the commonalty at all seasons as well as in Lent ; which our poor now would hardly be per- suaded to touch. The use of linen changes, shirts or shifts, in the room of sordid and filthy woollen, long worn next the skin, is a matter of neatness comparatively mod- ern ; 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 sub- ject to foul eruptions. The plenty of good wheaten bread that now is found among all ranks of people in the south, instead 86 of that miserable sort which used in old days to be made of barley or beans, may contribute not a little to the sweetening their blood and correcting their juices; for the inhabitants of mountainous districts, to this day, are still liable to the itch and other cuta- neous disorders, from 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, whilst gardeners get fortunes. Every decent labourer has his garden, which is half his support, as well as his delight; and common farmers provide plenty of beans, peas, 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 depend- ants. 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. Our Saxon ancestors certainly had some sort of cabbage, because they call the month of February sprout-cale;* but, long after their days, the cultiva- * March was the stormy month with our Saxon ancestors ; May, Thromilchi, the cows being then milked three times a-day ; June, dig and weed month ; September, barley month.— Mitkord 87 • 1 I !lj tion of gardens was little attended to. The religious, being men of leisure, and keeping up a constant cor- respondence with Italy, were the first' people among us that had gardens and fruit-trees in any perfection, within the walls of their abbeys, priories, and monas- teries, where the lamp of knowledge continued to burn, however dimly. In them men of business were formed for the state ; the art of writing was culti- vated by the monks ; they were the only proficients in mechanics, gardening, and architecture. * The bar- ons neglected every pursuit that did not lead to war or tend to the pleasure of the chase. It was not till gentlemeh took up the study of horticulture themselves that the knowledge of gar- dening made such hasty advances. Lord Cobham, Lord I la, and Mr. Waller of Beaconsfield, were some of the first people of rank that promoted the elegant science of ornamenting without despising the super- intendence of the kitchen quarters and fruit walls. A remark made by the excellent Mr. Ray in his Tour of Europe at once surprises us, and corrobo- rates what has been advanced above ; for we find him observing, so late as his days, that " the Italians use several herbs for sallets, which are not yet or have not been but lately used in England, viz. selUri (celery), which is nothing else but the sweet small- age ; the young shoots whereof, with a little of the • Dalrymple's " Annals of Scotland." 88 l; li head of the root cut off, they eat raw with oil and pepper." And farther he adds, " curled endive blanched is much used beyond seas ; and, for a raw sallet, seemed to excel lettuce itself." Now this journey was undertaken no longer ago than in the year 1663. SF.LBOr.NE, /<;/». 8. 1 778. LETTER LXXX. To THE Honourable Daines Barrington. " Forti puer, comiium seductiis ah agmine fido, Dixerat, Ecquis adf-t ? et, Adest. responclerat Echo. Hie stupct ; utque acitm partes divisit in omnes ; Voce, Veni, clamat magnl V'ocat ilia vocantcm." (Ovid, Aht. iii. 379.) " The youth being separate>s neighbcur, grows ; d m 93 There is a natural .ccurrencc to be met with upon the highest part of our do-vns in hot summer days, which always amuses me m jch, without giving me any satisfaction with respect to the cause of it ; and that is a loud audible humming as of bees in ihr air, though not one insect is to be seen. This sound is to be heard distinctly the whole common through, from the Moneydells, to my avenue gate. Any person would suppose that a largs swarm of bees wac in n otion, and playing about over his head. This noise was heard last week, on June 28th. " Resounds tht living surfaced of the ground, Nor undclightful is the cciselcss hum To him who muses . , , at noon." " Thick in yon stream of light a thousand ways, Upward and downward, thwarting and convolved, The quivering nations sport." This wild and fanciful assertion will hardly be admitted by the philosophers of these days; espe- cially as they all no.v seem agreed that insects are not furnished with any organs of hearing 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 im- pressions are distasteful or hurtful, I deny, because Nor near the steaming stench of muddy ground, AW holUnv rocks that >viij,r />ack the sound, And double images of voice rebound" (Drvden's Virg. Georg. iv. 47-50.) 94 f f t< ""■ ' ■ "It? ' ^■^^ "; ■* ^ i v»:'-.'» \j bees, in good sutnmcrs, thrive well in my outlet, where the echoes are very stronj; : lor this villafje is another Anathoth, a place of responses or echoes. Besides, it does not appear from experiment that bees are in any way capable of beinj; afTected by sounds: for I have often tried mv own with a larjje speaking-trumpet held close to th • hives, and with such an exertion of voice as would have hailed a ship at the distance of a mile, and still these insects I)ursued their various employments undisturbed, and without showinif the least sensibility or resentment. Some time since its discovery this echo is be- come totally silent, thoiijjh the object, or hop-kiln, remains: nor is there any mystery in this defect ; for the field between is planted as a hop-jrarden, and the voice of the speaker is totally absorbed and lost amonjj the poles and entangled foliage of the hops. And when the jioles are removed in autumn the disappointment is the same ; because a tall quick-set hedge, nurtured up for the - urpose of shelter to the hop.ground, interrupts the repercussion of the voice: so that till those obstructions are removed no more of its garrulity can be expected. Should any gentleman of fortune think an echo in his park or outlet a pleasing incident, he might build one at little or no expense. For whenever he had occasi(m for a new barn, stable, dog keni.ci, or the like structure, it would be only needful to erect this building on the gentle declivity of a hill, with a 95 like rising opposite to it, at a few hundred yards distance; and perhaps success might be the easier insured could some canal, lake, or stream, intervene. From a seat at the centrum phonicum he and his friends might are use themselves sometimes of an evening with the prattle of this loquacious nymph ; of whose complacency and decent reserve more may be said than can with truth of every individual of her sex; since she is "always ready with her vocal response, but never intrusive : "— — — qu» nee reticere loqiienti, Nee prior ipsa loqui didicit resonabilis eeho." The classic reader will, 1 ti'ust, pardon the follow- ing lovely quotation, so finely describing echoes, and so poetically accounting for their causes:— " Quae beni quom videas, rationem reddere possis Tute til)i atquc aliis, quo pacto per loca sola Saxa pareis formas verhorum ex or.linc reddant, Palanteis comiles (|uom nionteis inter opaios * Quoerimus, et magna disperos voce ciemus. Sex etiam, aut septem loca vidi reddere voces Unam quom jaceres : ita colles collihus ipsis Verba repulsanles iterabant (' .ta referre. H.xc loca capripedes Satyros Nymphasque tenere Finitimi (ingunt, et Faunos esse loquuntur; Quorum noctivago stre|iitu, ludoque jocanti Adfirmant volgo taciturna silentla rumpi, Chordarumque sonos fieri, dulceisque (juerelas, Tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum : Et genus agricoluni latd sentiscere, quom Pan I'inea seniiferi capitis velamina quassans, Unco sKpe lal)ro calamos pereurrit hianteis, Fistula silvestrem ne cesset fundere musam." (Llcreths, lib. iv. I. 576.) 96 This shows thee why. whilst men, through caves and groves Call their lost frien.ls, or mourn unhappy loves. The pitying rocks, the groaning caves return Their sad complaints again, and seem to mourn : This all observe, and I myself have known I5oth rocks and hills return six words for one : The dancing words from hill to hill rebound. They all receive, and all restore the sound : The vulgar and the neighbours think, and tell. That there the Nymphs, and Fauns, and Satyrs dwell : And that their wanton sport, their loud delight, Breaks through the (juiet silence of the night : ' Their music's softest airs fill all the plains, And mighty Pan delights the list'ning swains: The goat-faccd I'an, whose flocks securely feed ; With long-hung lip he blows his oaten reed : The horned, the half-beast god, when brisk and gay. With pine-leaves crowned, provokes the swains to play." e , (Creech's Translation.) Selborne, feb. 12, 1778. * I LETTER LXXXI. To THE Honourable Daines Barrington. Among the many singularities attending those amusing birds the swifts, I am now confirmed in the opmion that we have every year the same number of pairs mvariably ; at least the result of my inquiry has been exactly the same for a long time past. The swallows and martins are so numerous, and so wide- ly distributed over the village, that it is hardly pos- sible to re-count them ; while the swifts, though they do not all build in the church, yet so frequently haunt 34 97 ^ V\ 'it 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 of this annual increase; and what determines every spring which pairs shall visit us, and reoccupy their ancient haunts? Ever since 1 have attended to that subject of ornith -logy, I have always supposed that the sud- den reverse of affection, that strange avTiaropy^, or antipathy, which immediately succeeds in , feath- ered 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 fa- vourite district would be crowded with inhabitants, while others would be destitute and forsaken. But the parent birds seem to maintain a jealous supe- riority, 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-martins return in the same exact number annually 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:. Selborne, Afay 13, 1778. 98 LETTER F.XXXII. To THE HONOURAKI-F. D.MNKS BaRRINCJTON. The Standing objection to botany has always been, that it is a pursuit that amuses the fancy and exercises the memory, without improving the mind or advancing ap^ ' knowledge: and, where the science is carric larther than a mere system- atic classification, me charge is but too true. But the botanist that is desirous of wiping off this asper- sion should be by no means content with a list of names; he should study plants philosophically, should investigate the laws of vegetation, should examine the powers and virtues of efficacious herbs, should promote their cultivation ; and graft the gar- dener, the planter, and the husbandman, on the phy- tologist. Not that system is by any means to be thrown aside; without system the field of Nature would be a pathless \' ilJerness: but system should be subservient to, not the main object of, pursuit. Vegetation is highly worthy of our attention; and in itself is of the utmost consequence to man- kind, and productive of many of the greatest com- forts and elegancies of life. To plants we owe tim- ber, bread, beer, honey, wine, oil, linen, cotton, &c., what not only strengthens our hearts, and exhila- rates our spirits, but what secures us from inclemen- cies of weather and adorns our persons. Man, in 99 his true state of nature, seems to be subsisted by spontaneous vegetation: in middle climes, where grasses prevail, he mixes some animal food with the produce of the field and garden : and it is towards the polar extremes only that, like his kindred bears and wolves, he gorges himself with fiesh alone, and is driven to what hunger has never been known to compel the very beasts, to prey on his own species. The productions of vegetation have had a vast influence on the commerce of nations, and have been the great promoters of navigation, as may be seen in the articles of sugar, tea, tobacco, opium, ginseng, betel, paper, &c. As every olimate has ;u peculiar produce, our natural wants bring on a mutual inter- course ; so that by means of trade each distant part is supplied with the growth of every latitude. But without .he knowledge of plants and their culture we must have been 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 ac quainted 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 100 grazier seems to distinguish the annual from the perennial, the hardy from the tender, nor the sue- culent and nutritive from the dry and juiceless. The study of grasses would be of great conse- quence 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 only one was seen before." Selborne, /««<• 2, 1778. LETTER LXXXIII. To THE Honourable Daines Barrington. 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 want- ing, it must be in the large aquatic plants, which are not to be e.xpected on a spot far removed from lOI rivers, and lying up amidst the hill country at the spring-heads. To enumerate all the plants that have A village lane. been discovered within our limits would be a need- less work ; but a short list of the more rare, and the spots where they are to be found, may be neither unacceptable nor unentcrtaining :— Stinking Hellebore (Ilcllehonis fatiJtts), Bear's foot or Setterwort, all over the High-wood and Coney-croft-hnnger ; this continues a great I03 •1 branching plant the winter through, blossoming about January, and is very ornamental in shady walks and shrubberies. The good women give the leaves powdered to children troubled with worms; but it is a violent remedy, and ought to be adniini-tered with caution. Green Hellebore {//f/le/ioriis viri,/is), in the deep stony lane on the left hand ju^t before the turning to Norton farm, and at the top of Mid- dle Dorton u.uler the hedge ; this plant dies down to the ground early in autumn, and sjirings again about February, flowering almost as soon as it appe.irs above ground. Creeping liilberry, or Cranberries {raainium oxyiiucof), in the 1 ogs of Bin's-pond. Whortle, or Bilberries (Facaiiiuui myrtillus), on the dry hillocks of Wolmer Forest. Round-leaved Sundew {Drosera rotunJi flora), and long-leaved Sun- dew {^Drosera loii^i folia), in the l>')gs of HinS-pond. I'urple Comarum (Comarum palustiv), or Marsh Cinquefoil, in the bogs of Bin's-pond. Tustan, or St. John's Wort (//yf>,-r)cuin androsamwn), in the stony, hollow lanes. Lesser Periwinkle (Vinca minor), in Sel borne-hanger and Shrub, wood. Yellow Monolropa {Monotrofa hypopithys), or Bird's nest, in Selborne- hanger under the shady beeches, to whose roots it seems to be parasit- ical, at the north-west end of the Hanger. Perfoliated Vellow-wort {Chlora perfoliita, Rlackstonia per/oliata, Ilndsonii), on the banks in the King's-field. Herb Paris {Paris quadrifolia). True-love, or One-berry, in the Church-litten-coppice. Opposite Golden Saxifrage (Chiysosplctium oppositifolium), in the dark and rocky hollow lanes. Autumnal Gentian (Gentiana amarelta), or Fellwort, on the Zig-zag and Hanger. Tooth-wort {[.athraa squammaria\ in the Church-litten-coppice under some ha/els near the foot-bridge, in Trimming's garden hedge, and on the dry wall opposite Grange-yard. Small Teasel {Dipsacus pilosus), in the Short and Long Lithe. Narrow-leaved, or WiUl Lathyrus {Lathyrus svhvs/ris), in the bushes at the foot of the Short Lithe, near the p.ith. Ladies' Traces {Op^>ys spiralis), in the Long Lithe, and towards the south corner of the common. Birds' Nest Ophrys (Ophrys nidus avis), in the Long Lithe, under 103 the shady beeches among the dead leaves ; in Great Dorton among the bushes, and on the Manger plentifully. He!lehorinc(&'>a//„j latifolia), in the High-wood under the shady beeches. Spurge Laurel i^Daphnt launcla), in Selborne-hanger and the Mich- wood. The Mezereon (Daphne Mezereum), in .Selborne-hanger, among the shrubs at the south-east end above the cottages. Truffles (Lycoferdon tuber), in the Hanger and the High-wood. Dwarf Elder, Walwort or Danewort (Sam/'ucus eiu/us), 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 dawnings of spring; many when the spring is established; some at midsummer, and some not till autumn. When we see the Helleborus fatidus and Helleborus niger blowing at Christmas, the Helle- borus 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 vernal and the autumnal crocus, which have such an affinity, that the best botanists only make them v^irieties of the same genus, of which there is only c.i ,- species ; not being able to discern any dif- ference in the corolla, or in the internal structure. Yot the vernal crocus expands its flowers by the beginning of March at farthest, and often even in 104 1 very rigorous weather ; they 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 it ought not to be over- looked because it is familiar, since it would be as difficult to be explained as the most stupendous phe- nomenon in nature. " Say, what impels, amidst surrounding snow Congealed, the crocus' flamy bud to glow ? Say, what retards, amidst the summer's blaze, Th' auljmnal bulb, till pale, declining tardis mora noctibiis obstet." (ViRc. Georg. ii. 477-482.) " How winter suns in ocean plunge so soon, And what belates the tardy nights of June." Gentlemen who have outlets might contrive to make ornament subservient to utility; a pleasing "5 * eye-trap might also contribute to promote science : an obelisk in a garden or park might be both an em- bellishment and a heliotrope. Any person that is curious, and enjoys the advan, tage 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 erec- tions might be constructed with very little expense ; for two pieces of timber framework, about ten or twelve feet high, and four feet broad at the base, 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 line summer's even- ing, the utmost extent that the sun makes to the northward at the season of the longest da vs. 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 ; the whole disc of the sun clearing the summer helio- trope to the north of it at the longest day. By this simple expedient it would soon appear that there is no such thing, strictly speaking, as a sol- stice ; for, from the shortest day, the owner would, u6 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 west- ward, till, in a few nights, it would set quite behind it, and so by degrees to the west of it : lor 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 diame- ter 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 reced- ing from the summer tropic, it would continu"? more and more to be hidden every night, till at length it would descend behind the object again ; and sc nightly more and more to the westward. Selborne. ft "7 i.i:ri"KR i.xxwii. To IIIK. HoNOt'KAIII.K D.MNIS HARKINdlON. " — — — Miii^iu' vidrliis Sill) pfillliu". toirain, tl (loccniliTf nuinlil)its miios." (ViKC. A^n. iv. 4<)<), 491.) '• Farth Ix'llows, Trci> If.TVc lliiir nioiititniiis at Iut |ine thing may fairly be deduced, li.ru I :--',. come over to us from the Continent, since . . ' jan suppose that a species not noticed once m ar. age, and of such a remarkable make, can constantly breed unobserved in this kingdon). Selborne, M.iy 7, 1779. Li r LETTER X(II. To THE HONOURABI.K DaINKS BaRRINOTON. 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 hiss- ing ; 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 136 I' \ turned it out r)n a border, it walked twice down to the bottom of my fjarden ; however, in the evcnin^f, the weather being cold, it buried itself in the loose mould, and con- tinues still con- cealed. A sucessor to ll'hit.-'s In/oise in the ;' when his exertions are remark- able. He then walks on tiptoe, and is stirring by five in the morning; and, traversing the garden, examines every wicket and interstice 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 139 I to undertake these rambles seem to be of the amor- ous 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.* Summer birds are, this cold and backward spring, unusually late: I have seen but one swallow yet. This conformity with the weather convinces me more and more that they sleep in the winter. Selborne, ^/n7 2i, 1780. • " We think we see the worthy pastor," writes the late Mr. Brod- erip, " looking flown with the air of the mel.nncholy J.iqiies on his favourite, as those thoughts occur to' him. It is very possible that Cupid may have been bestriding the reptile. White's description looks like the restlessiiLss of passion : but the love of liberty, and not im- probably an annual migratory impulse to search for fresh pasture, may have been the prevailing motive. The tenacity of life with which the testudinata are gifted is hardly credible. Rede's operations would have been inst-nt death to any more warm-blooded animal. He opened the skull of a land tortoise, and removing every particle of brain, cleaned the cavity out. It still groped its way about freely, for with the brain its sight departed ; but it lived from November till )>Iay. After many other equally cruel experiments, one November he cut off the head of a large tortoise, and it lived for twenty-three days. But, retiring within its shell, it has its privileges. " The tortoise securely from danger does well When he tucks up his head and his tail in his shell." «40 Burning an old ludge undet the Hanger. LETTER XCTII. To Thomas Pknnani, Esg. A PAIR of honey-buzzards — Ihitco apivorus, Linn., sive Vcspivorus, Raii — built them a large shallow nest, composed of twigs, and lined with dead beechen leaves, upon a tall slender beech near the middle of Selborne Hanger, in the summer of 1780. In the middle of the month of June a bold boy climbed this tree, though standing on so steep and dizzy a situa- tion, and brought down an egg, the only one in the nest, which had been sat on for some time, and con- tained the embryo of a young bird. The t^% was smaller, and not so round as those ol 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 a learance, small head, wings not so blunt, and longer tail. This specimen contained in its craw some limbs ol frogs and many grey snails without shells. The irides of the eyes of this bird were of a beautiful bright yel- low colour. About the loth of July in the same summer a pair I4X 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 A Jay. 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-martin, all clean-picked, and some half devoured. The old bird had been observed to make 3ad havoc for some days among the new-flown swallows and martins, 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. 14a LETTER XCIV. To Thomas Pennant, Esq. Every incident that occasions a renewal of our correspondence will ever be pleasing and agreeable to me. As to the wild wood-pigeon, the (ph,ts, 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 cenas, 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 be 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 Novem- ber perhaps to February — lives the same wild life with the ring-dove, Pahimbus torqiiatiis ; frequents coppices and groves, supports itself chiefly by mast, and delights to roobt 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 VI 143 breed in that county. But why did not your cor- respondent 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 with us perpetually confound the stock-dove with the ring-dove. For my own part I readily concur with you in supposing that house-doves are derived from the small blue-rock pigeon, Columba iivia, for many rea- sons. In the first place the wild stock-dove is mani- festly 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 characteristic of the species, would not one should think, be totally lost by its being re- claimed ; but would often break out among its de- scendants. 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 cf Ormshead, and deposit their young in safety amidst the inaccessible caverns and preci- pices of that stupendous promoi ' ^ry. "You may drive nature out with a pitchfork, i she will always return : " " jS'aturam expellas furc4 . . . tamen usque recurret." M4 I have consulted a sportsman, now in his seventy- eighth year, who tells me that fifty or sixty years back, when the beechen woods were much more ex- tensive 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 emi- grants was beech-mast and some acorns ; and partic- ularly 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 sup- port in hard weather ; and the holes they pick in these roots greatly damage the crop. From this food their flesh has contracted a rancidness which occa- sions 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 evening, 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 relat- ing 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 Seiborne high-wood about a hundred of these doves ; ^ but in former times the flocks were so vast, not only with us but all the district round, 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 hap. pened to be suddenly roused from their roost-trees on an evening, " Their rising all at once was like the sound Of thuiulcr heard remote." It will by no means be foreign to the present pur- pose to add, that I had a relation in this neighbour- hood 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 sup- port themselves by mast ; the plan was plausible, but something .-Iways interrupted the success; for though the birds were usually hatched, and some- times 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 from want of proper sustenance ; but the owner thought that by their fierce and wild de- meanour they frighted their foster-mothers, and so were starved. 146 Virgil, as a familiar occurrence, by way of simile, describes a dove hauntiiijj the cavern of a rock in such engaging numbers, that I cannot refrain from quoting the passage : — " Qualis xp«luiK-ft subito commota « 'olumba, Cui ilomu*. et dulccs latebro<. Radit iter liquidum, ccleres nequc conunovft alas." (ViR(;. ^n. V. 213-217.) " As when a dove her rocky hold forsakes. Roused, in a frighr her sounding wings she shakes; The cavern rings with clattering : — out she flies. And leaves her callow care, an iv •S/'; day they were missing at once; nor c 1 ■ i i-- r observe them with their dam coursing nn u • 1 ;,• church in the act of learning to fly, as the first bi-u-i evidently do. On the 31st 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 Hippohosae hiriindiuis. The following remarks (m this unusual incident 149 are obvious. The first is, that though it may be dis- agreeable to swifts to remain beyond the beginning of August, yet that they can subsist longer is unde- niable. 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 regu- larly 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 Rutland, in 1780, so late as the 3rd of September. Selborne, Sept. 9, 17S1. I LETTER XCVII. To THE Honourable Daines Barrington. As I have somefimes known you make inquiries about several kinds of insects, I shall here send you an account of one sort which 1 lii-le expected to have found in this kingdom. I have often observed that one particular part of a vine growing on the walls of my house was covered in the autumn with a black dust-like appearance, on which the Hies fed eagerly ; and that the shoots and leaves thus affected did not thrive ; nor did the fruit ripen. To this sub- stance I applied my glasses; but could not discover that it had anything to do with animal life, as I at 150 first expected: but, upon a closer examination be- hind the larger boughs, we were surprised to find that they were coated over with husky shells, from whose sides proceeded a cotton-like substance, sur- rounding a multitude of eggs. This curious and un- common production put me upon recollecting what I have heard and read concerning the Coccus vitis vinifene of Linnaeus, which, in the south of Europe, infests many vines, and is a horrid and loathsome pest. As soon as I had turned to the accounts given of this insect, I saw at once that it swarmed on my vine ; and did not appear to have been at all checked by the preceding winter, which had been uncommon- ly severe. Not being then at all aware that it had anything to do with England, 1 was much inclined to think that it came from Gibraltar among the many boxes and packages of plants and birds which I had former- ly received from thence ; and especially as the vine infested grew immediately under my study window, where I usually kept my specimens. True it is that I had received nothing from thence for some years ; but as insects are, we know, conveyed from one country to another in a very unexpected manner, and have a wonderful power of maintaining their existence till they fall into a nidus proper for their support and increase, 1 cannot but suspect still that these cocci came to me originally from Andalusia. Yet, all the while, candour obliges me to confess •51 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 sea-port 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 Gi- braltar, written by the Reverend John White, late vicar of Blackburn in Lancashire, but not yet pub- lished : — " 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 over- spread on all the woody branches with large lumps of a white fibrous substance resembling spider/ webs, or rather raw cotton. It was of a very c'lm- my quality, sticking fast to everything that to ched it, and capable of being spun into long threads. At first I suspected it to be the product of spiders, hut 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 CI op of grapes set, when this pest appeared upon it; but ti;e fruit was manifestly injured by this foul incumbra.ice. It remained all the summer, still increasing, and loaded the woody and bearing branches to a vast degree. I often pulled off great 152 ^1 quantities by handfuls: but it was so slimy and tena- cious 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 cocms, from whose sides this cotton-like sub- stance exudes, and serves as a covering and security for their eggs." To this accoimt 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 these insects, yet the attention of the gar- dener 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 un- accountable manner, I shall here mention an emigra- tion of small aphides, which was observed in the village of Selborne no longer ago than August the ist, 1785. At about three o'clock in the afternoon of that day. which v.as very hot, the people of this village were surprised by a shower of aphides, or smother- »53 fl flies, which fell in these parts. Those that were walking in the streets at that juncture found them- selves covered with these insects, which settled also on the hedges and gardens, blackening all the vege- tables where they alighted. My annuals were dis- coloured with them, and the stalks of a bed of onions were quite coated over for six days after. These armies were 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.* SelBORNE, J/.,aptain 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 ow , though he is remarkable for finding that sort of 1 68 game, nut when we came to offer the bones of partridj^jcs to the two Chinese do^s, they devoured them with mucii j^reediness, and liciik1 of v.i]«>ur indicates increased mdialion of heat ^nd con- sequent evaporation where it occurs ; as the clear sky is indicative of their absence. The foliowinjj figures represent the temi)er.TMre in the open air, at one foot and at two feet under jjnnind, the top fit,ures repre- senting the months, those below, the mean average of each during the ten years. I (t. 40.07 ■ 39.4 40.Q0I46.47 53.11 ' 60.0a :6a. 85 61.80 57.54 51.13 46.05 41.13 aft. 41.03 40.1 41.59 46.25 52. oj 58.47 61.71 61. a6 57.89 52.79 47.28 42.83 Air. 38.2 38.1 40.47' 46.57 53.34 60.45 63.40 5'-i8 56.14 49-35 4'.89 38.14 It thus appears that the temperature at two feet below the surface is 2° 33' higher than in the air in Janu.iry ; 17' in February ; 0° 77' in .\larch; o 25' in .\ugust ; l' 57' in September; 2" 80' in Octol)er ; 3° 75 in November ; and 3° 84' in December. On tlu- other hnnd, the temperature is higher by 0° 21' in the open air in April ; 0° 98' in May ; 1° 21' in June ; and 1° 12 in Vuly. 179 / I datum, yet thaws do not usually come on by so regular a declension of cold ; but often take place .mmediatcly after intense freezing; as men in sick- ness oft^.n mend at once from a paroxysm. To the great credit of Portugal laurels and Amer- ■can jumpers, be it remembered that they remained untouched amidst the general havoc: hence men should learn to ornament chiefly with such trees as are able to withstand accidental severities, 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 th. whole course of their lives. As it afterwards appe!ared. the ilexes were much injured, the cypresses were half destroyed, the ar- butuses 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' By the 14th of January the snow was entirely gone : the turnips emerged not damaged at all. save »n sunny j 'aces; the wheat looked delicate, 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 northerlv regions. Vet 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. rSo 1-KTTKR CVI. To THK H0N0URABI.K Dainks Barrinoton. Tfif.RK were some circumstances attending' the remarkable frost in January 1776, so singular and striking, that a short detail of them may not be un- acceptable. 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 rema. , that the first week in January was uncommonly wet, and drowned with vast rains from every quarter : from whence it may be inferred, as there is great reason to believe is the case, that atense frosts seldom take place till the earth is perfectly glutted and chilled with water;* and hence dry autumns are seldom followed by rig- orous winters. January 7///.— Snow driving all the day, which was followed by frost, sleet, and some snow, till the 1 2th, when a prodigious mass overwhelmed all the works of men, drifting over the tops of the g ites, and filling the hollow lanes. * The autumn prececlinR January 1 768 was very wet, and particularly the month of September, -'uring which there fell at Lyndon, in the county of Rutland, six inches and a half of rain. And the terrible long frost in 1739-40 set in after a rainy se.xson, and when the springs were very high. i3t ^ i On the 14th the writer was obliged to be much abroad ; and thinks he never, before or since, has encountered such rugged Siberian weather. Many of the narrow roads were now hlled above the t.)ps of the hedges; through which the snow was driven into most romantic and grotesque shapes, so strii; iheir roosting-places ; for cocks and hens ere d dazzled and confounded by the glr-e of snow that they would S(M)n perish without assistance. The hares also lay si.llenly in their seats, and would not move till com- pelled by hunger ; being conscious, poor animals, that the drifts and heaps treacherously betray their foot- steps, and prove fatal to num'uers of them. From the 14th the ^now continued to increase, and began to stop the road-waggons and coaches, which could no longer keep on their regular stages: more especially on the western roads, where the fall ap- pears to have been deeper than in the south. The company at Bath, that wanted to attend the Queen's birthday, were strangely incommoded : the carriages of many persons, who got on their way to town from Bath as far as Marlborough, after strange embarrass- ments, here met with a nr plus ultra. The ladies fretted, and offered large rewards to labourers if they would shovel them a track to London : but the relentless heaps of snow were too bulky to be re- moved; and so the i8th passed over, leaving the 182 company in very uncomfortable circumstances at the Castle and other inns. On the 20th the sun shone out for the first time since the frost began ; a circumstance that has been Tht ivtather. remarked on before as much in favour of vcgfctation. All this time the cold ws not very intense, for the thermometer stood at 29, 28, 25, and thereabout : but on the 2ist it descended to 20. The birds now be- 183 II 1 gan to be in a very pitiable and starving condition. Tamed by the season, skylarks settled in the st/eets 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 the gardens, and, scraping away the snow, de- voured such plants as they could find. On the 22nd the author had occasion to go to London through a sort of Laplandian scene, very wild and grotesque indeed. But the metropolis itself exhibited a still more singular appearance than the country; for, being beddeti deep in snow, the pave- ment 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 deso- lation : 'psa silentia terrent." " By silence terrified." On the 27th much snow fell all day, and in the evening the frost became very intense. At South Lambeth, for the four following nights, the thermom- eter fell to II, 7, 6, 6; and at Selborne to 7 6 10 • and on the 31st of January, just before sunrise, with rime on the trees and on the tube of the glass, the quicksilver sank exactly to zero, being 32 degrees below the freezing-point : but by eleven in the morn- 184 if i i i ing, though in the shade, it sprang up to i6^* — a most unusual degree of cold this for the south of England ! During these four nights the cold was so penetrating, that it occasion;.'d ice in warm cham- bers, 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 frozen over both above and below bridge, so that crowds ran about on the ice. The streets were now strangely incumbered with snow, which crumbled and trod dusty ; and soon turning grey, resembled bay-salt : what had fallen on the roofs was 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. Ac- cording to all appearances, we might now have ex- pected the continuance of this rigorous weather for weeks to come, since every night increased in sever- ity : but behold, without any apparent cause, on the 1st 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, with- out any gradual declension of cold. On the 2d of February the thaw persisted ; and on the 3d swarms * At Selborne the cold was greater than at any other place that the author could hear of with certainty : though it was reported at the time, that at a village in Kent, the thermometer fell two degrees below zero, viz. 34 degrees below the freezing-point. The thermometer used at Selborne was graduated by Benjamin Martin. 185 « f f of httle 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. Severe frosts seem to be partial, or to run in cur- rents; for, at the same juncture, as the author was informed by accurate correspondents, at Lyndon, in the county of Rutland, the thermometer stood at m • at Blackburn, in Lancashire, at 19; and at Manches- ter at 21, 20 and 18. Thus does some unknown cir- cumstance strangely overbalance atitude, and render the cold sometimes n^uch, greater in the southern than m the northen arts 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 evergreens were quite destroyed ; and not half the damage sustained that befell in January 1768. Those laurels that were a little scorched on the south side were perfectly un- touched on their north sides. The care taken to shake the snow day by day from the branches seemed greatly to avail the authors evergreens. A neigh- bour's laurel-hedge, in a high situation, and facfng to the north, was perfectly green and vigorous ; and the Portugal laurels remained unhurt. As to the birds; the thrushes and blackbirds 186 ■/ I ■!l were mostly destroyed ; and the partridges were so thinned by the weather and poachers, that few re- mained to breed the following year. LETTER CVII. To IHK HoNOURAULE UaINKS BarR1N(;T<)N. As the frost in December 1784 was very extraor- dinary, 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 7th, with the ba- rometer at 28 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 9th the works of men were quite overwhelmed, the L'u.s filled so as to be impassable, and the ground covered twelve or fifteen inches without any drift- ing. In the evening of the 9th, the air began to be so very sharp, that we thought it would be curious to attend to the motions of a thermometer : we there- fore hung out two, one made by Martin and one by Dollond, which soon began to show us what we were to expect; for, by ten o'clock, they fell to 21, and at eleven, to 4. when we went to bed. On the loth, in 30 187 the morning, the quicksilver of Dollond's glass was down to half a degree below zero ; and that of Mar- tin's, which was absurdly graduated only to four de- 19 T/ie viavage at Newton Valence. grees above zero, sank quite into the brass guard of the ball ; so that when the weather became most in- teresting, this was useless. On the loth, at eleven at night, though the air was perfectly still, Dollond's glass went down to one degree below zen^ ! This strange severity of the weather made me very desir- ous 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 loth. written to ^If"- . ''"id entreated him to hang out his ther- mometer, made by Adams ; and to pay some attention to it, morning and evening; expecting wonderful i83 Bi phenomena, in so elevated a rejjion as two hundred feet or more above my house. But, behold ! on the loth, at eleven at night, it was down only to i;°, and the next morning at 22°, when mine was at 10° ! We were so disturbed at this unexpected reverse of com- parative local cold, that we sent one of my glasses up, thinking that of Mr. must, somehow, be wrongly constructed. But, when the instruments came to be confronted, they went exactly together : so that, for one night at least, the cold at Newton was 18° less than at Selborne ; and, through the whole frost, 10° or 12°; indeed, when we came to observe the consequences, we could readily credit this: for all my laurustines, bays, ilexes, arbutuses, cypresses, and even my P -♦-•—il laurels, and (which occasions more regret) my nuc 'oping laurel-hedge, were scorched up ; while, at Newton, the same trees had not lost a leaf ! We had steady frost on to the 25th, when the ther- mometer in the morning was down to 10° with us, and at Newton only to 21°. Strong frost continued till the 31st, when some tendency to thaw was ob- served; and by the 3rd of January, 1785, 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 loth, being bright sunshine, the air was full of icy spicule, floating in all directions, like atoms in a sunbeam let into a dark room. We thought them, at first, par- 189 tides of the rime falling from my 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 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, &.c., into the cellar, and warm closets; while those who had not such warnings, or neglected them, 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 in- sulated, the shock might have been given to a whole circle of people. i forgot to mention before, that, during the two severe days, two men, who were tracking hares in the snow, had their feet frozen ; and two others, who were much better employed, had their fingers so affected by the frost, while they were thrashing in a barn, that a mortification followed, from which they did not recover for many weeks. This frost killed all the furze and 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, be- fore old November ended ; and yet may be allowed from its effects to have exceeded any since 1739-40. igo i \ it. I. i.E'i TKR cvnr. To THE HoNoiRAiii.K Dainks Barri \(; to\. As the eiTccts of heat are seldom very remarkable in the northerly climate of England, where the sum- mers are often so defective in warmth and sunshine as not to ripen the fruits ol the earth so well as mijrht be wished, I shall be more concise in my account of the intensity of a summer season, and so make a little amends for the prolix account of the degrees of cold, and the inconveniences that we suffered from some late rigorous winters. The summers of 1781 and 1783 were unusi lly hot and dry ; to them therefore I 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 were 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 continuance. 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 they did not keep in the winter. This circumstance put me in mind of what I have heard travellers assert, that they never ate a good apple, or 191 apricot, in the south of Europe, where the heats are so great as to render the juices vapid and insipid. The great pests of a garden are wasps, which destroy all the riner 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 not we set the boys to take the nests ; we caught thousands with hazel-twigs tipped with bird-lime : and have since employed 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 then, as I* have instanced in the two years above mentioned. In the sultry season of 1783, 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 the eye could be- hold, became, the next, the most loathsome ; being enveloped in a viscous substance, and loaded with black aphides, or smother-flies. The occasion of this clammy appearance seems to be this, that, in hot weather, the effluvia of f owers in fields, and mead- ows, 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 192 senses will inform us; and that this sweet clammy substance is of the vegetable kind we may learn from bees, to whom it is very grateful : we may also be assured that it falls in the night, because it is always first seen in still warm mornings. On chalky and sandy soils, and in the hot villages about London, the thermometer has been often ob- served to mount as high as 83 or 84; but with us, in this hilly and woody district, I have hardly ever seen it exceed 80; 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 throusfh as those above mentioned : and besides, our mountains cause currents of air and breezes ; and the vast evaporation from our woodlands tempers and moderates our heats. l.KrTER CIX. To THK HoNOURAIil.K DaINKS UaRKINGTON. TllK summer of the year 1783 was an amazing and a portentous one, and full of horrible phenom- ena ; for, besides the alarming meteors and tremen- dous thunderstorms 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 193 beyond its limits, was a most extraordinary appear- ance, unlike anything known within the memory of man. By my journal I hnd that I had noticed this strange occurrence from June 23 to July 20 inclu- sive, 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 par- ticularly lurid and blood-coloured at rising and set- ting. All the time the heat wub so intense, that butchers' meat couic! hardly be eaten on the day after it was killed ; and the flies swarmed so in the lanes and hedges that tiiey rendered the horses half frantic, and riding irksome. The country peo- ple began to look with a superstitious awe at the red louring aspect of the sun ; and indeed there was reason for t'.ie 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 tne 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 applica- ble, because, towards the end, it alludes to a super- stitious kind of dread, with which the minds of men are always impressed by such strange and un- usual phenomena. 194 i — — — A* when the sun, new rUin, I.(Hik> tlir(>U);h the huri/ntilnt, mi»ty air, Shiirti (if hi-< l>eanis : or fniii) liehind the iiiixiii, 111 dim e^■h;l^e, ili->a-.tr()us tuilijjht »lieiU On half the iiatiim-., ami with (ear of thainje J'erplexcs nionarchs — — — — " LKITKR ex. To THK HllN()t'kAllI,K DaISKS BARRINtlTON. Wi; are very sculoin 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 the summer of 1783. when, though the country round was contit\ually harassed with tempests, and often from the south ; yet we escaped them all, as appears by my journal of that summer.* The onlv wav that I can at all account • .S7('/VH.i.— Ti) this awful suininer ■ f 17S3, diwiier aNo alludes in his "Ta>k," l»i>k ii. p. 41 :— " A world that seems To toll the death-bell of its own decease ; And hy the voice ;)f all the elements To preach the gem-ral doom." IQ5 i for this fact— (or such it is— is that on that quarter between us and the sea there are continual moun- tains, hill behind hill, such as Nore-hill, the Barnet, Butser-hill, and Ports-down, which somehow d'vert the storms, and give them a different direction. High promontories and elevated grounds have al- ways been observed to attract ciouds, and disarm them of their mischievous contents, which arc dis- charged into the trees and summits as soon as they come in contact with those turbulent meteors ; while the humble vales escape, because they are so far be- neath 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 thunderstorms at all ; for on June 5th. 1784, the thermometer in the morning being at 64", and at noon at 70", the barometer at 29"— six- tenths one-half, and the wind north, I observed a blue mist, smelling strongly of sulphur, hanging along our sloping woods, and seeming to indicate that thunder was at hand. I was called in about two in the afternoon, and so missed seeing the gath- ering 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 Hartley, 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 196 ■HMI soon succeeded by round hail, and then by convex pieces of ice, which measured three inches in ijirth. 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 Hartley it did some damage to one farm; but Nor- ton, whiclj lay in the centre of thf- 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. VVe 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 sud- den ; doing great damage to the meridows and fal- lows, 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 appear- ance, the froth and spray standing up in the air three feet above the surface. The rushing and roaring of the hail as il approached was truly tremendous. 197 V II f Though the clouds at South Lambeth, near Lon- don, 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 ^.cvcc sparks were discharged. When I first took the present work in hand I proposed to have added an Annus Historico-nam, lUis , or, The Natural History of the Twelve Months of the Year ; which would have comprised many incidents and occurrences that have not fallen in my way to be mentioned in my series of letters; but as Mr. Aikin of Warrington has published somewhat of thin 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. Sf.Mioknk, June 25, 17S7. 198 NEW LETTERS. TMF. INVITATION: TO SAMl'KI. IJAKKF.k. Nk percuncteris, fundus meus, optimc Ouiucti, Arvo pascat herum, an baccis opulentet oliva', I'omisne et pratis, an amicta vitibus ulniei : Scribetur tibi forma loquaciter, ct situs agri. See, Selborne spreads her boldest beauties round. The vary'd valley, and the mountain-ground Wildly majestic : what is all the pride Of flats, with loads of ornament supplv'd ? Unpleasing, tasteless, impotent expencc, Compar'd with Nature's rude magnificence. Oft on some evening, sunny, soft, and still. The Muse shall hand thee to the beech-grown hill. To spend in tea the cool, refreshful hour. Where nods in air the pensile, nest-like bower: Or where the Hermit hangs his straw-clad cell. Emerging gently from the leafy dell : Romantic spot ! from whence in prospect lies Whate'er of landscape charms our feasting eyes ; 199 I* I t 1/ < H The pointed spire, the hall, the pasture-plain, The russet fallow, and the golden grai i ; The breezy lake that sheds a gleaming light, 'Til all the fading picture fails the sight. Each to his task : all different ways retire ; Cull the c'. • stick; call forth the seeds of fire ; Deep fix the nettle's props, a forky row ; Or give with fanning hat one 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 t|ie 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 sequester'd nook. Where skirting woods imbrown the dimpling brook. The ruin'd Abbey lies: here wont to d\\ The lazy monk within his cloister'd 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 would my stranger go, f Whose mountain-brow commands the groves below? * The ruins of a Priory founded by Peter de Rupibus, Bishop ol Winton. t The remains of a supposed lodge belonging to the Knights Templars. 200 In Jewry first this order found a name, When maddinj'- Croisades set the world in flame ; When western climes, urg'd on by Pope and priest, Pour'd forth their millions o'er the delug'd 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 lov'd, as yet a child, Unconscious why, its 'scapes grotesque and wild: High on a mound th' exalted gardens stand ; Beneath, deep valleys scoop'd by Nature's hand ! Now climb the steep, drop now your eye below, Where round the verdurous village orchards blow ; There, like a picture, lies my lowh' seat, A rural, shelter'd, unobserv'd retreat. Me, far above the rest, Selbornian scenes. The pendent forest, and the mountain-greens, Strike with delight : . . . there spreads the distant view That gradual fades, 'til sunk in misty blue : Here Nature hangs her slopy woods to sight. Rills purl between, and dart a wavy light. When deep'ning shades obscure the face of day. To yonder bench leaf-shelter'd let us stray, To hear the drowzy dor come brushing by With buzzing wing ; or the field-cricket cry ; To see the feeding bat glance thro' the wood ; Or catch the distant falling of tne flood : 20I While high in air, and poised upon his win^rs Unseen, the soft enaniour'd wood-lark sin<'s: * These, Nature's works, the curious mind employ. Inspire a soothino-, melancholy jov : 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 com- bine ; The tinkling sheep-bell, or the breath of kine ; The new-mown hay that scents the swelling breeze. Or cottage-chimney smoking thro' the trees. The chilling night-dews fall : . . . . away, retire. What time the glow-wprm lights her amorous lire, f .1 I f i \ ?;^. I Seldorne: .\'o7:- i: ittj. Dear Sam, When I sat down to write to you in verse, my whole design was to shew you at once how easy a thing it might be with a little care for a Nephew to excell his Uncle in the business of versification : but as you have fully answered that intent by your late excellent lines; you must for the future excuse my replying in the same way, and make some allowance for the difference of our asres. * In hot summer nights woocilarks soar to a prodigious height, an., hang singing in the air. t The light of the glow-worm is a signal to her paramour, a slender dusky scarab. 202 However, when at any time you find y muse propitious, I shall always rejoice to see a copy of y performance; and shall be ready to commend; and what is mc^re rare, yet more sincere, even to object and criticize where there is occasion. A little turn for En-lish poetry is no doubt a pretty accomplishment for a young Gent: and will not only enable him the better to read and relish our best poets; but will, like dancing to the body, have an happy influence even on his prose compositions. Our best poets have been our best prose- writers : of this assertion Dryden and Pope are notorious in- stances. It would be in vain to think of saying much here on the art of versification : instead of' the narrow limits of a letter such a subject would re- quire a large volume. However, I may say in few words, th •. the way to excell is to copy only from our best writers. The great grace of poetry con- sists in a perpetual variation of y cadaias : if pos- sible no two lines following ought to have their pause at the same foot. Another beauty should not be passed over, and that is the use of throwing the sense and pause into the third line, which add a dignity and freedom to y expressions. Drvden in- troduced this practice, and carryed it to great per- fection: but his successor Pope, by his over exact- ness, corrected awpv that noble liberty, and almost reduced every sentence within the narrow bounds of a couplet. Alliteration, or the art of introducing 31 203 ^f words beginning with the same letter in the same or following line, has also a fine effect when manasred with discretion. Dryden and Pope practised this art with wonderful success. As, for example, where you say "The polish'd beetle," , . the epithet "bur- nish'd " would be better for the reason above. But then you must avoid affectation in this case, and let the alliteration slide-in as it were without design ; and this secret will make your lines appear bold and nervous. There are also in poetry allusions, similes, and a thousand nameless graces, the efficacy of which noth- ing can make you sensible of but the careful readinir of our best poets, and a nice and judicious applica- tion of their beauties. I need not add that you should be careful to seem not to take any pains about y rhimes; they should fall-in as it were of themselves. Our old poets laboured as much for- merly to lug-in two chiming words, as a butcher does to drag an ox to be slaughtered : but Mr. Pope has set such a pattern of ease in that way, that few com- posers now are faulty in the business of rhiming. When I have the pleasure of meeting you we will talk over these and many other matters too copious for an Epistle. I had like to have forgotten to add that Jack copied your verses and sent them to y Uncle John who commended them much : you will be pleased to be commended by one that is the best performer and the best critic in that way that I 204 cr know. With respects to your father and moth and all the familv, I remain V' alTcct : Uncle. Gii,: Whitk. Nanny White mends apace : she is still at New- ton. To Mrs. Barkf.r. De.VRSi.STER, S.,.„ornf.: Av.-25:78. My Nep: Edm«> who is now at Newton, brings a most sad account of his mo' her, whose state of health is very deplorable, and her infirmities and sufferings very great. As to our poor brother in Lancashire, I have not heard from him for some time : the last account was but bad. Ne.xt week we expect at this place a great navi- gator, or rather navigatrcss, who within these 20 months has sailed 20,000 miles. The person alluded to is Miss Shutter, Mrs. Etty's niece, who set out for Madras in March, 1777; and returning to Europe this autumn in the Caruatic India-man, was taken by her own countrymen near the coast of France and carried to the downs, and landed at Deal. This Lady appears in great splendor; and is, it is sup- posed, to be married to a Gent : now on the seas in his way from India. Bad fevers and sore throats obtain much in these parts, and manv children die. A person at Harkley buryed three, his whole stock, 205 in one grave last Tuesday. When I was down at Ringmer I found that district was sickly. Mrs. Sn : wrote herself sonic time since, and did not complain of any particular i .firmiiies. My great parlor turns out a fine warm winter-room, and affords a pleasant equal warmth. In blustering weather the chimney smokes a little 'til the shaft becomes hot. The chief fault that I find is the strong echo, wi.ich, when many people are talking, makes confusion to my poor dull ears. Your money is disposed of among poor neighbours. I have no doubt but that y son will turn out a valuable young man ; and will be far from being injured by a public education. " Omnes omnia bona dicere, et laudare fortunas tuas, qui filium haberes tali ingenio praeditum." With re- spects and the good wishes of the season I remaii Your affect : brother, Gil: White. Dkar Niece Awe, After I had experienced the advantage of two agreeable young house-keepers, I was much at a loss when they left me ; and have nobody to make whipp'd syllabubs, and grace the upper end of my table. Molly and her father came again, and stayed near a month, during v;hich we made much use of my great room : but they also have left me some time. Whether they carryed-off any Ladies Traces I ao6 cannot recollect: but it is easy to disfinjjuish them at this season ; ft)r soon after they are out of bloom they throw-out radical /tares, which abide all the winter. The plant is rare ; but happens to abound in the Louj,'- Lithe, and will be enumerated in the list of more rare plants about L,^lborne. 1 wish we could say we had y* Parnasia : 1 have sowed seeds in our bogs several times, but to no purpose. Please to let me know how many inches of rain fell in the late wet fit, which lasted about 5 weeks. The springs from being very low mounted-up to a vast rate ; and our lavants at Faringdon began to appear last week. My Bar' is this evening at 30- 3 - ,03^, the air thick, and warm, and still. Hepaticas and winter-aconites bios- som ; and Helleborus fatidus in the High-wood, another rare plant. The clouds are all gone ; and we may expect frost. We have here this winter a weekly concert con- sisting of a first and second fiddle, two rcpianos, a bassoon, an haut-boy, a violincello, and a German- flute ; to the great annoyance of t>^e neighbouring pigs, which complain that their slumbers are inter- rupted, and their teeth set on edge. 207 To Miss Annk. Bakkkr. SKl.linKSK. : Fi-h : llh : 17S5. Dkar NiKi i:, I was just thinking to write to somebody in your family, when your agreeable letter came in. As the late frost was attended with some unusual circumstances, your father, I trust, will not be displeased to hear the particulars. The first week in Deq' was very wet, with the Baroin' very low. On the 7th with the Bar : at 28 - 5 - 10 : there 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 9th ♦he works of men were quite ovei .; ..olmed, the lanes filled so as to be rendered impassable, and the ground cov- ered 12 or 14 inches where there was no drifting. In the evening of the 9th the air began to be so very sharp that we thought it would be curious to attend to the motions of a Therm'. 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 10 o'clock they fell to 21 : — and at n'': to 4, when we went to bed. On the 208 kAI\ AT SK I.HORN K IN i7«4. inc : h Jan : - .? : iH Feb : — 0 : 77 Mar : - 3:«2 Apr : — 3 : 92 May — I :52 June -3:65 July — 2 : 40 Aug: — 3:«8 Sept' — 2 151 (Jcf — 0 : 39 Nov' - 4 : 70 Dec -3:6 Tola 33:80 f loth in the morninj^ Dolland's jjlass was clown to half a dignc hi/ini> ~tro ; and Martin's, which ab- surdly was graduated only to 4 above i,cro. was quite into the ball: so that when the weather be- came most interesting;, it was (juite useless. On the loth at eleven at night, tho" the air was perfectly still, Dolland's glass went down to 1 titt^nr IhIoxk} zero ! This strange severity had made my Bro : and me very desirous to know what degree of cold there might be in such an exalted situation as Newton: We had therefore on the morning of the loth written to Mrs. Valden, and entreated her to hang-out her Therm' made by Adams ; and to pay some attention to it morning, and evening, expecting wonderful doings in so elevated a region. But behold on the loth, at II at Night it wa<^ down only to 19 I and the next morning at 22, when mine was at 10! We were so disturbed at *s unexpected reverse of comparative local cold, that we sent one of my glasses up think- ing Mr. Y:'s must, some how be constructed wrong. But when the instruments came to be confronted, thev went exactly together. 80 that for one night at least, the cold at N : was 20 degrees less thu-. at S : and the whole frost thro' ten or twelve. And indeed, when we came to observe consequences, we could readily suppose it. For all my laurustines, bays, Ilexis, and what is much worse my fine sloping laurel-hedge, are all scorched up, and dead ! while at Newton the same trees have not lost a leaf ! We 209 \,m i Wf I had steady frost on to the 2Sth when the therm' in the morninjj was down to lo with us, and at Newton only to 21 ! Strong frost continued till the 31st when some tendency to thaw was observed : and by Jan : 3rd : 1-85 the thaw was confirmed, and some rain fell. There was a circumstance that 1 must not omit, because it was new to my brother and me ; which was that on Friday, Dec' loth, being bright sun- shine, the air was full of icy spicuUx', floating in all directions, like atoms in a sun-beam let into a dark room. We thought at first that they might have been particles of the, rime falling from my tall hedges : but were soon convinced to the contrary by making our observations in open places, where no rime could reach us. Were they the watry particles of the air frozen as they floated ; or were they the evaporations from the snow frozen as they mounted ? We were much obliged to the Therm' for y early intimations that they gave us ; and hurryed our apples, pears, onions, potatoes, &c., into the cel- lar, and warm closets: while those, that had not these warnings, lost all their stores, and had their very bread and cheese frozen. For my own part, having a house full of relations, I enjoyed the rigor- ous season much ; and found full employ in shovel- ing a path round my outlet, and up to Newton; and in observing the Thcrm'»,&c: and was only sorry for the poor and aged, who suffered much. I must not omit to tell you, that during those two Siberian !IO days my parlorcat was so electric, when stroked, that had the Stroker l)eeii properly insiilntnf, he mi^'ht have given the shock to a whole circle of people. Hro: Tho : and family left us Jan: 5th. The morning before he went away his house .'if S: Lambeth was assaulted by three villains, one of whom his Gardener shot thro' the body with slugs from the parapet just as they were entering the drawing-room. Mrs. and Miss Etty arc well ; and Charles just gone to attend his ship in the river, which sail . in March. Mr. Rich'' Chase is released from his 3 years and i captivity in India, and is re- turned to Madras. Magd : Coll : has just purchased the little life-hold estate on the PUstor, in reversion after two lives, intending hcreatter to make it glebe to the vicar.ngc. Tell y Mother I thank her for her gift, which will be very acceptable to the poor : and y' Father, that I should be glad to see his account of rain, frost, ^c. I advise y' Father and Hro' to read S' John Culhm's History of Hawstcd, the parish where he is Rector. Mrs. J. White joins in respects. Y' loving Uncle, Gil,: WmiK. Mr. Yalden, poor man, is in a bad state of health, and is gone to town for advice. Ch : Ettv's new ship is named the Duke of Montrose, Cap : Elphinstone : all the officers are Scotch except Ch : I have met with Will: Herearius, which name signifies shepherd : hence the modern name of Barker. Men arc cutting the 211 1 beeches at the top of the hill ; but not those on the hanger this year. We shall lose the beautiful fringe that graces the outline of our prospect that way : but shall gain 60 feet of Horizon. Jupiter wests so fast that at sun-set he is not much above these trees. Snow covers the ground. 1\ To Thomas Barker, Esq. Dear Sir. seu.orxk. /.„.- x...- 179. As the year 1796 is just at an end, I send you the rain of that period, which, I trust, has been regu- larly measured. Nov. and Dec. as you see, were very wet, with many ^^^^ ^^ '^^o. storms, that in various places had oc- l^Z' , , reb: casioned much damage. The fall of Mar rain from Nov. 19 to the 22, inclusive, Ap : was prodigious ! The thunder storm ^^^ on Dec. 23 in the morning before day {""^ was very aweful : but, I thank God, it Aug. did not do us any the least harm. Sept. Two millers, in a wind-mill on the ^<''^- Sussex downs near ^ d-wood, were !^°^" struck dead by ligh .ng that morn- ing : and part of the gibbet on Flind- head, on which two murderers were suspended, was beaten down. I am not sure that I was awaked 212 199 40 45 364 438 13 324 230 66 210 695 594 3227 li i soon enough to hear the whole storm : between the flashes that I saw and the thunder, I counted from ID to 14 seconds. In consequence of my Nat. Hist. I continue to receive various letters from various parts; and in particular from a Mr. Marsham of Stratton near Nor- wich, an aged Gent : who has published in the R. S. respecting the growth of trees. Do you know any thing about this person ? He is an agreeable corre- spondent. He is such an admirer of oaks, that he has been twice to see the great oak in the Holt. D'. Chander, and family, who came at first only with an intent to stay with us a few months; have now taken the vicarage house for some time. The Dr. is much busied in writing the life of his founder, William VVainflete : he lives a very studious and do- mestic life, keeps no horse, and visits few people. We have just received the agreeable news that Mrs. Clement was safely delivered, last Wednesday, of a boy, her 8th child, which are all living. Mr. Chur- ton, who is keeping his Xmas with us as usual, de- sires his best respects, and many thanks for the hospitable reception and intelligent information which he met with last summer at Lyndon. He is a good antiquary, and much employed in writing the life of Doctor Will. Smith, the founder of Brazenose Coll. of which he is now the senior fellow. Y' leg, we hope, is recovered from its accident. 213 Mrs. J. White joins in affectionate rompliments, and the good wishes of the season. I conclude Y' most humble servant, G. White. I ■(, . .. Selhonu chunk seen from the fields. i I li a«4 A COMPARATIVE VrW OF THE NATURALIST'S CALENDAR. AS KEPT AT SELBORNE, IN HAMPSHIRE. BY THE LATE REV. GILBERT WHITE, M. A., AND AT CATSFIELD, NEAR BATTLE. IN SUSSEX, BY WILLIAM MARKWICK, ESQ., F. L. S., FROM THE YEAR 1768 TO THE YEAR I793. Mill N. B. — The dates ,in the following Calendars, when more than one, express the earliest and the latest times in which the circumstance noted was observed. A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF WHITES AND MARKWICKS CALENDAR. Of the abbreviations used,_/f. signifies _/f(?7wrj«^y /. leafing ; and ap. the first appearance. Redbreast (Syh'ia ruhecula) sings Jan. WHITE. I-I3 Larks (Alauda arvensh) congregate Jan. i-i8 Nuthatch tSitta Europcra^ heard Jan. 1-14 Winter aconite KHi'llehtyrus hie$nalis) fl. Jan. i. Shrlles.s snail or slug (Lima.r) ap. Jan. 2 Gray wagtail (.'/o/rtc/V/rt i*c«»-«/<») ap. ( . White wagtail KMotacilla alha) ap. t ■' " Missel thrush ( Turdus viji irorus) sings Jan. 2-14 Bcarsfoot yUcilehortis ftrtititts) fl. Jan. 2. Polyanthus {Primula Polyanthn) fl. Jan. 2. Double daisy (Bellis pfrennis pltmi) fl. Jan. 2. Mezereiin {Dafhne mczereum) fl. Jan. 3. Pansie (/Vo/a /r/fff/or) fl. Jan. 3 Red dead-nettle (Lamiiim purpureum) fl. Jan. 3-21 Groundsel {Senecio Tulgaris) fl. Jan. 3-15 Hazel (Cory/us aTtr/and) fl. Jan. 3. Hepatica (.1 ntmone hepatica) fl. Jan. 4. Hedge sparrow ifiyivia tnodularis) sings Jan. 5-12 Common flies (Musca domesticn) seen in Jan. 5. numbers Greater titmouse (Parus major) sings Jan. 6. Thrush ( Turdiis musicus) sings Jan. 6-23 Insects swarm under sunny hedges Jan. 6 Piimrose {Primula Tulgaris) fl. Jan. 6. Bees (. tpis rielli/ica) ap. Jan. 6. 6. 6-1 1 Feb, Feb. Apr, Feb. Feb. Feb, Feb, Feb, Gnats play about Jan. Chaflinches, male and female {Fringilla Jan. Calebs), seen in equal numbers Furze or gorse (Ulex Europieus) fl. Jan. 217 I MARKWICK. Jan. 3-31, and again I Oct. 6 i Oct. 16. Feb. 9 I Mar. 3. Apr. to 18 I Feb. 28. Apr. 17 I Jan. 16. May 31 \ , Jan. 24. Mar. 36 ) '' Dec. 12. Feb. 23 ■ Feb. iQ. Apr. 14 14 Mar. I. May 5 12 ' Jan. I. Apr. q I : Mar. 17. Apr. 29 16 I Jan. 2. Apr. 4 I Jan. I. May 10 [ Jan. I. Apr. 5 I Jan. I. Apr. 9 28 1 Jan. 21. Mar. 11 18 Jan. 17. Apr. 9 Jan. 16. Mar. 13 3 I May 15 Feb. 6 Apr. 7 Mar. 19 Feb. 3 Feb. 17. Jan. 15. Mar. 17 Apr. 4 Jan. 3. Mar. 32 Jan. 31. Apr. 11; last seen Dec. 30 Dec. 2. Feb. 3 Feb. I . Jan. i. Mar. 37 Jan. Jan. Jan. Jan. Wallflower (r*„Vrt»/4„f4„V,.., ,._ , "ct/o.us „l Smith) a. ■«"/'■*- Jans Stock {CAeiraNtAus iHcanus\ fl hmt^riza alU (bunting) i„ great flocks Linnet, (fringUla /,„ota) congregate Lambs begin to fall '^iti^r^^'"'^-^'--"'--''':'- Black hellebore UMietor^, nig^r) fl. ja„ Snowdrop (Calanih^, nivalis) fl. j,„ White dead nettle (Lamium altum) fl. Un' 1 runipet honeysuckle fl. , Common creeping crow-foot (Ranunculu, iZ. repens) fl. nr„Tr''T* ^'•''■'-^'"'' domeslica) chirps Jan. Dandelion (/:,„,W«„ ,^^^^^^^ P J»"- Bat(/>j,/,r///,V,)ap. , Jan. WHITK. Apr. : ! MARKWICK. Feb. 31. May 9 Feb. I. June 3 8-12 9 " ■ Jan „ 9"" Jan. 6. Feb. j, ■o- Keb. I, Jan. aj '3 '3 «3 ■Apr. 27 Feb. 5 Jan. ,8. Mar. , Mar. 23. May ,0 I Apr. 10. .May 12 •4 '6- Mar. »«• Mar. Spiders shoot their webi Butterfly ap. Jan. Jan. Jan. Jan. Jan, Jan. Jan. Jan. Blackbird (7-«.rf« «,,./„, „hi,„^ P- Wren (ij-Zz/ja troglodyte,) sing. Earthworms lie out Crocus {Crocus vernus) fl Skylark (Alauda arvensh) sing. Ivy casts its leaves ,,„ Hellf torus hiemalis fl. ja^ ' Common dor or clock {Scaratctus stereo- Jan.' rariut) Peziza acetabulum, ap. Hellehorus viridis fl. Hazel (rflrv/a.t ar/f//«»a) fl Woodlark Ulauda arhorea) sing. Chaffinch {Fri„gill„ ca■lcts^ sing. Jackdaws bcRin to come to churches Yellow wagtail (Motacillajiava) ap 16 16 . 16 '7 «7 18. I3. 21 Feb. Mar. Feb. 17. May 9 n Feb. i. Apr. 17 34 Feb. 6. June i, lait seen Nov. 20 I Feb. 21. May 8, last i seen Dec. 22 I Jan. 10-31 feb. 15. May ,3 Feb. 7. June 12 22 22-24 23 Jan. Jan. Jan. Jan. Jan. Jan. Jan. 23 23- 23. 24- 24- 25- 25- Jan. 20. Mar. 19 ;Jan. 12. Feb. 27, sings till Nov. 13 Feb. 28. Apr. 17 Feb. ,2. Apr. ,9, last seen Nov. 24 Honeysuckle {Lonicera Periclymenum, 1 Jan. f.eld or procumbent speedwell (I'eroHica Jan. agreslis) fl. Nettle butterfly {Papilio Urtic^^ ap, Mar. Feb. Feb. Feb. Mar. Apr. Jan. 27. Jan. 28. Jan. 21. Mar. II Junes Feb. 26 Mar. •5 Apr. .3. Julys, la.st seen Sept. 8 Jan. I. Apr. 9 Feb. 12. Mar. 29 White wagtail t\Iotacii:a alia) chirps Shell snail (Helix »e,noralis) ,p. Earthworms engender Barren strawberry {Fragaria sterilis) fl. Blue titmouse (Paru, ctrruleus) chirps 31 8 Jan Jan. Jan. Jan. Feb. Feb. =>7- Apr. a ' Mar. 5. Apr. 24, last seen June 6 ="8 Mar. 16 28- Feb. 24 Apr. 2. June ti 30 •• Mar. 26 Jan. 13. Mar. 26 ' I Apr. 27 WHITE. Feb. 2 Feb. 3 Feb. , Apr. I Apr. 8 Brown wood owls hoot Hen (/'Atisiiimis (aUus) sits Marsh titm.iuse begins his two harsh sharp notes Gossamer floats Musia tiHiij[ ap. Larustine (J V/«»r«cut nigra) 1. Laurel (/'ruims laurocerasus) fl. Chrysomela Gotting. ap. Black ants (b'ormkn nigra) ap. Ephemtrtt bisciir ap. Gooseberry (Ribes grostularia) 1. Common stitchwort (Slellaria hohstea) fl. Wood anemone (A nemont nemorosa) fl. Blackbird (Tardus Merula) lays Raven (Corvus Corax) sits Wheatear (Sylvia lEnantke) ap. Mush-wood crowfoot (Adoxa moschatte!- lina) fl. Willow vnn* (Sylvia trochilus) ap. WHITE. Mar. 3-«i> Mar. 4. May 8 Mar. 4. Apr. 16 I Mar. 4 I Mar. 4 I Mar. 5-i*> I Mar. 5. Apr. 25 MARKWICK. Mar. I. May aa Mar. a. May 19 Mar. 5 I Mar. 5 i Mar. 6. I Mar. 6 ! ! Mar. 7-14 I Mar. 8 I Mar. 8 I Mar. 10 Mar. 10-18 Mar. la. Apr. jo Mar. 12 Mar. 13-ao Mar. 15. May 21 Mar. 26. Apr. aj, last seen Sept. 14 i Mar. 31 Mar. a8 Apr. 18 Feb. 28. Apr. aa ; Feb. 13. Apr. ao, last seen Dec. 25 Apr. 29 emerge July I has young ones Mar. 16. Apr. 13 .\pr. 15. May22,seen Dec. 23. Jan. 26 Feb. 36. Mar. 28 Jan. 24. Apr. 22 Apr. 3. May 27 ; Mar. 15 i Mar. 15. ; Mar. 16 Mar. 17. Mar. 17. Mar. 17. Mar. 17 Apr. 22 Mar. 2. May 18 Apr. II May 19 Apr. 22 Feb. 26. Apr. 9 Mar. 8. May 7 Feb. 27. Apr. 10 Apr. M, young ones May 19 Apr. I builds Mar. 13. May 23, last seen Oct. 26 Feb. 23. Apr. 28 Mar. 17 Mar. 18-30 Mar. 18. Apr. 13 Mar. 19. Apr. 13 Mar. 30. May 16. sits \ ; May 27, last seen j 1 Oct. 23 . Willow lfV«.-Mr. White has made strange confusion in the entries respecting the wrens in his calendar. Three sorts were known to him « "« ".^ ^ says - former passage: the Sylvia trochilus, a yellow wren ; the Sylv,a s.h.latr.x, or wood IZ-ZTlvia *'//-/"". - chiff-chaff; but he ente« the separate »PP<=--« o Tour ^uchwLs in the Calendar, although there were not four spec.es known m .h« ount; nlr ^d he ever fancy that there were four. By "='-"«/" ^he'^^reln^. L othTr Dlaces it should seem that the chiff-chaff appears the first. Therefore .n the e„^ M^ri. we m.»t read, instead of willow wren. Sylvia trocH.lu. ch.ff-chaff. 220 Fumariu htilhoia 11. Elm (I'lmus lamffstrit) fl. Turkey Oleltagris gallofavo) Uyi HouM pigeons Ho/umAa ifumtt/ica) sit Marsh marigold U'a/Iha ^Imstris) fl. Huu Ry (BomhyliHt mrdiut) ap. Sand martin KiUrundo ri/aria) ap. Snake (Voluher Malrij:) ap. Hone ant {Formica Mer, ultana) ap. Greenfinch (Loxt'a ihtoris) sings Ivy (He/era hi/ijr) berries ripe Periwinkle (I'ltiiu minor) fl. Spurge laurel (Du/tnr laureola) fl. Swallow UHrUHjo ruslica) ap. Blackcap (Sylvia atricafilla) heard Young ducks hatched Golden saxifrage (Chrytosptenium opposi- ti/olium) 11. Martin (Hirttndo urUia) ap. Double hyacinth ilfyaclHilms orientalist 11. Young geese (.tnas anser) Wood sorrel (Ojcalii acetosella) fl. Ring ouzel ( Turdus tori/uatus'f %. i ""■■ley (llitriieum sati^'um) sown i^iightingale {Sylvia luscinia) sings i Ash {/■'rajriHus ejci-lsior) d. Spiders' webs on the surface nf the ground Checiiuered daffodil (Fritiltaria melea- gris) 11. Julus trrrestris ap. Cowslip (Primula 7vris) f\. ' Ground ivy (Glecoma liederacea) 11. [ Snipe pipes Box tree (Bu.rus sempervirens) fl. , Sylvia hippolais. In page 208, Mr. White slates this bird to be be usually heard on the 25th of March.— W. H. 221 WHIT«. MARKWICK. Mar. M Mar. 19. Apr. 4 f'eb. 17. Apr. 25 j Mar. 14, Apr. 7 Mar. 18-25, sits Apr. 4, young ones Apr. 30 Mar. 20 Mar. 20, young hatched Mar. 20. Apr. 14 Mar. 22. .May 8 Mar. 21. Apr. 28 Mar. 15. Apr. jo Mar. 21. Apr. 12 Apr. 8. May 16, last seen Sept. 8 j Mar. 22-30 Mar. 3. Apr. 21), last seen Oct. 2 Mar. 22. Apr. 18 Feb. 4. Mar. 26, last seen Nov. 1 Mar. 22. Apr. 22 Mar. 6. Apr. 36 j Mar. 23. Apr. 14 Feb. ift. .May 19 Mar. 25 Feb. t. May 7 Mar. 25. Apr. I Apr. 12-22 Mar. 26. Apr. 20 .^pr. 7-27, last seen Nov. 16 Mar. 26. May 4 Apr. 14. .May 18, seen Apr. 14. .May 20. last seen Sept. «9 Mar. 27 Apr. 0. May 16 Mar. 27. Apr. 9 Feb. 7. Mar. 27 Mar. 38. May I Apr. 14. May 8, last seen Dec. 8 Mar. 39. Apr. 22 Mar. 13. Apr. 24 Mar. 39 Mar. 29. Apr. 19 Mar. 30. Apr. 22 Feb. 3(1. Apr. 26 Mar. 30. Apr. 17 Oct. J I .Mar. 31. Apr. 30 Apr. 13. May 30 Apr. I. May I Apr. 5. July 4, last seen Aug. 39 Apr. I. May 4 Apr. I Mar. 16. May 8 Apr, 3-34 Apr. 15. May i Apr. 2 Apr. 3-34 Mar. 3. May 17 Apr. 3-t5 i Mar. 3. Apr. 16 Apr. 3 j Apr. 3 Mar. 37. May 8 o chiff-<.i'aff, and to Elm ( I 'Imm cam^rttrit) I. AP' ( iuuMberry (Riiei groixula ria) H. Apr. Currant (A'/Zi-i harteMsis) fl. AP""- Pear iret (/>r»« ci'mmuHit) fl. Apr. I.actrta vulgarit (newt or eft) ap. '^P'- I)(.g«' mercury (Mtrcnr talis ftrrnnu) fl. Apr. V.>-h elm (Ulmm glabra MU Montana o( Apr. Smith) fl. I.ady«mt^k((V»»- nemoralis) comei out in trcHips Middle yellow wren • ap. Swift IHirundo a/us) ap. Stinging fly (Contif calcitrant) ap. Whitlow grau (Draha vtrna) fl. Ijirch tree (f'tntis^arijr rubra) I. Whitethroat (Sylvia cintrea) ap. Red V jrtnica rubra) ap. Mole hura Sect ,■. «iUow or laughing wrent ap. Red ..ittle {Fedicularis sylvatica) fl. Common flesh-fly (Musca carnaria) ap. Lady cow (Cocci xella hi punctata) ap. Grasshopper lark (Alauda locustct rocr) ap. Willow wren.t its fhivering note heard Middle willow wren S (AV^k/k* moh cr {sta- tus medius) ap. Wild cherry i/'runus ctrasus) fl. Garden cherry (I'runus cerasus) fl. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. 7 7 7 8-24 May lo May 8 May 9 MAMKWirK. I Apr. J. May ii» Mar. ai. May i Mar. J4. Apr. a8 Mar. J". Apr. 30 Feb. 17- Apr. 15, last '•een Oct. q I Jan. ao. Apr. i') I Apr. I'). May 10, i Feb. ai. Apr. a6 Apr. 15. May 3, last heard June a8 Mar. 16. May 8 Mar. a8. May a8 Apr. 5, sings Apr. as, last seen Sept. 30 Apr. I. May 13 Apr. 14-aq, sits June Apr. 34. May ij May 17. June nap. 13. May 7 14. May 17 >4 >4 14. May 14 Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. Apr. i Apr. I Apr, M >4 14-19-23 15-19 «5 16 16-30 17. May 7 17-27 Apr. 28. May 19 Jan 15. Mar. 24 I Apr. I. May 9 Apr. 14. May 5.«'ng» I May 3-10, last seen Sept. 23 i Apr. q. June a6 I Apr. 10. June 4 Apr. a8. May i i8. May 12 Mar. 30. May 10 18. May II Mar. 25. May 6 • YeUow wren {Sylvia lrochHus).-VI. H. Hay bird ( Trochilus asilus, Rennie). J J^ + Wood wren (Sylvia sibilatrix).-^. H. ( Trochilus sibillans Rennii.:V-J. R. X Wood wren. W. H. ., „ % Yellow wren (Sylvia trochilus).-\i . H. Hay bird (Trochilus asilus Rennie). -J.K. 222 ' WHITB. Pliim i/'rHHHi itomttliiii'i 0. Apr. iH. May Harebell {//ytniHlkui MOH-tiriflHt »«u Apr. i<>-v5 Scilla HHliiHx of Smith) fl. Turtle (( olumba lurlnr) cuo* Apr. ta-it Hawthiirn (Cratirgm leu Mti/ilmt o.ry- Apr. *>. June ii irchi* (Onhli masen/a) fl. Apr. 21 Blue floh fly (.I/hji>i rom/'/or/Vi) ap. Apr. .11, May 23 lllack Hiiail or hIuk {Limajc atrr) abuundi Apr. 22 Apple tree (l'yrm~uiatHt tativus) fl. Apr. 22. May 25 l-arg«batap. Apr. 22. June n Strawberry wild wood (Fragaria vfsca Apr. 23-2.J tylv.) fl. Sauce alone {Kryiimum alliaria) fl. Apr. 23 Wild or bird cherry (I'runut avium) fl. I Apr. 34 Afis HypHorum ap. Apr. 24 MHsca meridiana ap. ' Apr. 24. May j8 Wi.lf fly (.(///«*) ap. Apr. 25 Cabbajje butterfly {.I'afilio Brassicw) ap. Apr. 2B. May 20 l>ragon fly (LiMlula) ap. Apr. 30. May 21 ! Sycamore (-/trr/ji-Wtf/A«/a<«*x)fl. Apr. 30. June 6 liitmhytius minor ap. May 1 Glowworm (Z-dw/jr/i («ot//V«,:«) »hines May i. June 11 Fern owl or goatsucker (CaprimulgMs Ku- May 1-26 rfl^irus) ap. Common bugle i.ljuga riptam) A. May i field crickets (Cryllus lampeslrit) crink May 2-24 Chafer or maybug (Scarahaut mtlo/ontiia} May 2-26 ap. Honeysuckle {Lonicera prriclymfnum) fl. May 3-30 Toothwort (Laihrtra squamariti) fl. .May 4-12 Shell snails copulate May 4. June 17 Sedge warbler (Sylvia salicaria) sings May 4 Mealy tree (I'irturHum lantana) fl. May 5-17 Flycatcher (Stoparota or Mutcicapa gris- May 10-30 oia) ap. Apis loHgicornis ap. } May 10. June g Sedge warblf- (Sylvia salicaria) ap. ' May 11-13 Oak {Qiiercus rofur) fl. May 13-15 Admiral butterfly (/'a/('/«"o .^ /«/«>,.<») ap. May 13 Orange tip (Papilio cardamines) ap. May 14 VSixtAi (h'agus sylvaiica) &. May 15-26 Common maple (Acer campesire) fl. May 16 Barberry tree (Berhrris vulgaris) fl. May 17-21^ Wood argus butterfly (/' ^/IT/rt) ap. May 17 I Orange lily (Lilium leen Apr. I). May 26 ■Mar. 11). May 13 Feb. I. Oct. 24, ap. Apr, II. .May 26 Apr. 8-9 Mar. 31. May ; Mar. 30. May 10 Apr. 2q. June 15 Apr. 18. May 13, last seen Nov. 10 Apr. 20. June 4 June iq. Sept. 28 May 16. Sept. 14 Mar, 27. May 10 May 2. July 7 Apr, 34, June 21 Juno -30 Apr. 9;. May 23 Apr, 29. May ai Aug. 3 Apr. 29. Jy ' 4 Mar. 30. May iq Apr. 23. May 28 Apr. 24. May 27 Apr. 28. June 4 June 14. July 22 May 34. June 36 Apr. 10. June 1 4 Ijiburnum {Cylitm la^Mrmum) (I. Koreni fly ( /////<>/*f«< ine {Aqm'lfgia iMlgaris) (I. Medlar {Mei^i/ui gtt i-,mitii) fl. I'ormcntil (I'o mfxliua trtila »eii offich Halii <>f Smith) fl. Lily of the valley (Convallari.i maja- /it) fl. Bee* (.1/" mvltifica) iwarm Woodroof {/I s/itru!a odarat^i) fl. Wai>p, female {i'etpa vu/garis) ap. winrK. May i8. June j May i8, June 9 .May ii(. June 8 May 30. June 1^ May ai. June v May a I May ji— J7 May JI. June in May 91 May 32 May aa. July aj May 3a-v5 May 33 MARKWICK, May t. Jun« 13 May 31, July aS Apr. iH. May j'l Apr. ig. June 7 Apr. 1;. May 30 May 6. June 13 Apr. 8. June ig Apr. 17. Junr II Apr. June 13 />r*i a*. i«- May 33. June 8 I Mounlain A»h (Svrim »e parin of Smith) fl. Bird's-uenl ..rth»(<»/4rj'i ii/rf«i(ifi .) fl. May 34. June 11 White-beam tree {.Craltrgmt aeu />M/i May 34. June 4 aria of Smith) fl. Milkwort U'oiygala migaru) fl. May 34. June 7 Uwarf ci»tu» ^Ciitux MiliaMthemum) fl. May 35 Odder rose ( / irl,urnum opulna) fl. M^v a6 Common elder (Samhucut nigra) fl. M-'V a*. I'antharis nivtiliiia ap. "'"V '* W/M longicornis bore« holes in walki May 37. June 9 Mulberry tree (.»/«»■«.. »ii-r,.)l. May 37. June 13 Wild service tree {Cratirgm seu lyrus ti>r- May 37 minatis of Smith) fl. Sanicle {SanifK/a Eurcfitr") "• *'"'' '^• Avens {ileum urfianum) fl. "'V " Female fool's orchis (Orc*is morio) fl. May ^8 Ragged Robin (f.ycknisjlos cmulh fl. May aq. Burnet (PoteriMm sangui'orha) fl. May 3y Foxglove (nigitalis purfurta) fl. May 30. Com flag {Cladiolus a'mmuitii) «l. May 30. S,-rapiai hngifol. fl. '^'"^ 3°- Raspberry ( A'!//^-* iiifui) fl . May 30. Herb Robert {Geranium Roheriianum) fl. May 30 Figwort (Scrophulu' a nodosa') fl. May 31 rjromwel' Kl.ithospermum officinale) fl. May 31 Wood spurge (A«^Adr*i. >fUa) fl. Buckbean {,\tiHyai$llifi lrfMiali>\ fl. Kcme chafer (Scarat'itHi aHralui) ap. Sheep {Oiii uriet) »hcirn t'lilrivaipii rye (.SV.i>) ap. Ari;ii-< hutirrfly {/\tfiih'i> mi*rrtt) ap. Spearwort KKiiHuncnius /ttimmH '>i\ rt, bird»f'riin/«w/r>i/.'w.. I B. Bla>.k bryony ( litmus iummuHis) fl. Field pea {l^isitm xnth'Hm iirrfmsf) fl. Bladder campion {('lunia/us itktm seu Silene IH/Iata of Smith) fl. Bryony i Bryonia alhat fl. Hedge nettle (Slaihys sylTatica'i fl. Bittersweet (Solatium ilu/.timara) fl. Wal.'Ut (Jutflani rfgin) fl. Phal'us i*Hpiitiii US ap. Rosebay willow-herb (F.pilohium angnsti- /olium) fl. Wheat ( Triti.Hm kyh-rnum) fl. Comftv (.Syiii^hytum o/fitinalr) fl. Yellow pimpernel (I.ysimackia ufmorum) fl. fremella tiosftt- ,ip. Buckthorn (':/iamaut ca/iarticus) I. Cuckow-^pit insect (Cicada spumaria) ap. Dog-rose i,,\Wa tvio/wa) fl. Putf-ball (I.ycoperdon hovista^ ap. Mullciu (I'rrhascum tkapsus) fl. Viper's bugloss (F.cliium aug^iium seu rultrar,- of Smith) fl. Meadow hay cut 225 WHITC. M WKWtCK. June I July 1'' Apr. I,, June la June I r\pr. JO June 8 June i-8 Apr. 18 Aug, 4 June a- »J May 2, June 17 June 1 Mays. June.) June i May i7 JuUf J May fl June 7 J"""" 2. Alag. A I'lyjj. Srpl. f, June J J une J June , Af.r, 25. June ij June J Apr. 10. June 1 June j- II June 9. July 24 June 3 June j- 14 J.ine4 June 1. Auic in June 4. JuH ♦ June ;- "' J •May 3' Jul, June •. i .May 10. June jj June r Jbb«7. ily *'• June i3. July 29 June 8. ily i (une (. July 16 June 8- 'S June 18. July 19 Junc8. Aiit^. t June 8 May ,5. June 11 June i) May 15. June 21 June q May 4. July 13 June 0 May ,3. Aug. 17 June ic> ( May 28. June 24 June II j May 15. June ao June 12 j Apr. 18. June I June 12. July 23 i June 13 June 4. July a8 June 13. July 32 June 4-30 June 13 May 4. June 23 June 13-J0 Apr. 10. June 12 June 15. Aug. 34 June 16 May 25 June 16 ' June 3-21 June 17, i8 May 24. Ji-ne 21 June 17. Sept. 3 May 6. Aug. iq June 18 fune TO. July 22 June ic) 1 May 27. July 3 June I July 20 June 13. July 7 Stag beetle {[.tieanus lerT'us) ap. Borage {Horagp officinalis) (I. Spindle tree (I'.uoHymus Euro/itrus) fi. Musk thistle (( arduus nutans) fl. Dogwood {^Cornus sanguint-a} fl. Field scabious (ScafiitJsa arrrnsis) fl. Marsh thistle (Carduus palustris) fl. Dropwort (Sfirira filipendula) fl. Great wild valerian {.U'a/eriana officina- lis) fl. Quail (Perdix Coturnix) calls Mountain willow herb (EpiloHtim monta- num) fl. Thistle upon thistle (CarduHt crispus) fl. Cow parsnip (/A uleum sfihondylium) fl. Earth-nut (Bunium bulbocattanum seu flexMOsum of Smith) fl. Young frogs migrate lEstrui curt'icanda ap. | Vervain (I'erbena officinalis) fl. Corn poppy (Paparer K/toeas) fl. Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris) fl. Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria) fl. Great horse-fly (Taianus kor'inus) ap. Greater knapweed (Centaurea scaiiota) fl. Mushroom (Agaricus campestris) ap. Common mallow (Malva sylvesiris) fl. Dwarf mallow (\talva rofuHdi/olid) fl. St.]ohn\\rort(/fypericumper/oratum)n. June 26 Broom rape (Orobancie major) fl. | J""* 27. Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) fl. ' J""": ^7 Goats-beard ( Tragopogon pratense) fl. i J""' »7 Deadly nightshade {Atropa btlladonna) fl. June 27 Truflles begin 10 be found J""« »*• Young partridges fly j J"ne 28. Lime tree ( Tilia Europtra) fl. I June 28. Spear thistle (Carduus lanceolatus) fl. ] June 28. Meadow sweet (Spirira ulmaria) fl. June 28 Grecnweed (Genista tinctoria) fl. June 28 Wild thyme ( Thymus serpyllum) fl. June 28 Stachys germanic. fl. June 29. Day lily illemerocallis flara) fl. June 29. Ja.r//««ww//«(ir»Vi)fl. July 3 Perennial wild flax (Linum perennA fl. July 4 Whnrtle-berries ripe (Vaccinium ulig.) July 4-24 Yellow base rocket (Reseda lutea) fl. July 5 Blue-bottle {Cetitaurea cyaniis) fl. July 5 Dwarf carline thistle (Carduiis acaii/is) fl. July 5-12 Rull-rush or cats-tail ( Typha lati/olia) fl. July 6 Spiked willow herb (Lyihrum salicarid) fl. July 6 Black mullein (I'trhascum niger) fl. July 6 Chrysanthemum coronarium fl. July 6 Marigolds (C'ulendula officinalis) fl. July 6-9 Little field maiiet (Sherardia ar7'ensis)f[. July 7 Calamint {Me/issa seu Thymus calamin- July 7 tha of Smith) fl. Black horehound (liallota nigra) fl. July 7 Wood betony (Betonica officinalis) fl. July 8-10 Round-leaved bell-flower (Campanula ro- July 8 fundi folia) fl. All-good KChtnofiodium bonus Henricus) fl. July 8 Wild carrot (Daucus carota) fl. July 8 Indian cress (lipoptrolum majus) fl. July 8-20 Cat-mint (Xepeta cataria) fl. July 9 Cow-wheat (Melamfiyrum sylvaticum seu July 9 fratense of Smith) fl. Crosswort (I'alantia cruciata seu Galium July q cruciatum of Smith) fl. i Cranberries ripe I July 9-27 Tufted vetch (I'icia cracca) fl. July 10 Wood vetch {I'icia syt^at.) fl. July to Little thrnat-wort (Campanula glomera- July 11 «//«ttrcrt solstil.')^. Meadow saffron (CoUhicum autuwnii/f)t\. Michaelmas daisy (Aster fraiiescanti) fl. Meadow rue (I'halittrum fliivum) fl. Sea holly KEryHgimn marit.) fl. China asier {Aster ihineHsis) fl. Boletus alhus ap. Less Venus looking-glass (Camfanula hy- l>ri,/a) fl. CartAa/fiUs tinetor, fl, (ioldfinch (Fringilla carduelis) young broods ap. Lapwings ( I'ringa fanellus) congregate Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Sept. Sept. Sept. 15. Sept. Black-eyed marble butterfly (/'«//'//o «»;«•/<•) I Aug. 15 ap. ) Birds rcassume their spring notes Devil's bit (Scahiosa suuisa) fl. Thistle down floats Ploughman's spikenard (Canyza sguar- rosa) fl. Autumnal dandelion (LeontaJiiH nale) fl. Flies abound in windows Linnets (Fringilli linota) congregate Bulls make their shrill autumnal noise \ster awellu^ fl. Balsam {.Impatient halsamina\ fl. Milk thistle (Carduus marianus) fl. Hop-picking begins Beech {Fagus sylvatica) turns yellow Soapwort {Saponaria officinalis) fl. Ladies' traces (Opiirys spiralis') fl. Small golden black-spotted butterfly (Pa- pilio phltras) ap. Swallow {flirurtfio rusiica) sings Althira frutex (IliHscus tyriaeus) fl. Great fritillary {Papilio paphia) ap. Willow red under-wing moth (Phalana patta^ ap. Stone curlew {Otis wtiienemus) clamours Fhitiana russula ap. Grapes ripen Wood owls hoot Saffron butterfly {Papilio hyale) ap. Ring ousel appears on its autumnal visit Flycatcher (Muscicapa gritola) last seen Beans {Vieia /aba) cut Ivy {iledera helix) fl. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. 16 •7 17. Sept. 18 autum* Aug. x8 Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Aug. Sept. Sept. Sept. Sept. Sept. Sept. Sept. Sept. Sept. 18 18. Nov. 23 24 24. Sept. 24. Sept. 25 27. Sept. ■"> 29 30. Sept. 30 3' I. MARKWICK, July 22. Aug. 21 July 9. Aug. 10 13 Aug. 15. Sept. 39 27 Aug. II. Oct. 8 28 Aug. 6. Oct. 2 May 10 May 14 June IS Sept. 25. Feb. 4 June 22. Aug. 23 July 25 I Aug. 22. Nov. 8 N( ov 4. Oct, 4. Nov 4 4-30 6-29 ' May 22. July 26 Apr. 21. July 18 17 Sept. 1-15 22 Sept. 5-29 July 19. Aug. 23 12 Aug. 18, Sept. 18 Apr. II, Aug. 20 2 July 10. Sept. 28 7 June 17 24 ' Aug. 31. Nov. 4 9 1 I Aug. 5. Sept. 26 TI Sept. 4-30 Aug. 9. Oct. 14 Oct. 2 Sept. t8. Oct. 28 230 Stares congregate Wild honeysiiikleii fl. a second time Woodlark sings Wocjdcock (.S'( i/Hia Bulletin. "One of the handsomest of this year's Cliristmas btioks. . . . The author liai practii ally abandoned the grand tour in favor of regions le>5 known. I hrre is not much of Europe in the volume, but a great deal aboutCliina, Japan, and the K.a5t. In this good judgment is shown ... A truly elegant piece of bo.ikmaking. "—/'/«/«. delfkia JtUgrafi)! " Mr. Thomiistration, .Mr Thompson's volume de- serves very high praise. The Api>leton press has never done finer work. ... 1 he portrait of the Mohammedan she-.k i^ one of the finest illustrations in recent books of travel. But the whole volume is a picture gallery which will especially commend itself to the lartfe family of globe trotters, among whom Mr. Thompson deserves good standing for his sensible comments and his excellent taste." — Littrary H orlJ. pOEMS OF NATURE. By William Cullfn •• Bryant. Profusely illustrated by Paul de Longpi6. 8vo. Cloth, gilt, $4.00. " A very rich volume embellished with exquisite desin s. . . . The publishers have been at great pains to make this volume what it is — > le of the handsomest of the year." — PhiUuiclphia Press. " The poems included in the collection are some of the choicest of Bryant's inspi- rations, the illustrations are lovely and sympathetic, and the entire make-up of the vol- ume is eminently artistic' — Philadtlphia Telegraph. " There has probably been no more benuiiful, and certainly no more fitting, presenta- tion of Bryant's selected woik than is offered ia this volume. . . . Kach poem is ac- companie.i by special designs arranged with picturesque irregularity, and the volume is admirably printed. An exct^Ilent effect is secured Ijy the use of a little liphter ink for the text." — The Outlook. " The artist is primarily a painter of flowers, and under his faithful a-- P-iiroductions of these the poems are delicately wreathed."— AV7« Yor "The poetry of William Cullen Bryant is distinguished beyond ti ^ American poet by the fidelity with which .Nature is depicted therein. . caught the picturesque spirit of his text so successfully as Paul de Lot j^ne jXKsnsof Nature."— Richard Henrv Stoddard, i« the Hook Buyer. " In beauty of print and binding and in its artistic illustrations the book is among the best specimens of the printer's art. The illustrations by Paul de I.ongpri tell the story of green fields and woods and mountains and singing birds without the aiil of words. The book is artistically beautiful upon every page." — Chicago Inter-Ocean. f" -iretty H.:s f ai:;. 1 ther No on ; has these New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. D. APPLETON St CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. Y^/ZE FARMER'S BOY. _ By Clifton Johnson, author of " The Country School in New England," etc. With 64 Illustrations by the Author. 8vo. Cloth, %2.io. PkiuZlfhH^ttm'^"^'*^ *"** """' *'"'^""* Juvenile worki Ulely published."- " Mr. Johnion'i style i« almiHl rhythmical, and one lay» down the book with the .en«Oon of having read a poe.n an«, J •<»*/«es of th;« handsome book will unite in sayinc the suthor has been there. It is no fancy %ketch, but text and illustratiooi are both a reality. —Lhuago Inter-Ocean. " No one who is familiar with the little red schoolhouse can took at these pictures and read these chapters without having th-.- mind recall the boyhood experiences and the P'-'nory is pretty sure to be a pleasant atx."— Chicago Times. ' 1 -Perblv prepared volume, wh:;h by its reading matter and its beautiful iHustra. tlon^^ itural and finished, pleasanUy and profittbly recalls memories and a.ssociation« conn.-- 1; with the very foundations of uur national greatness."— A'. 1'. Ciservtr . . Prettily and New York : D, APPLETON & CO., 7a Fifth Avenue. Mil / « L,^j 1.