UC-NRLF , •:. . sp^ , s '^s^ ; i>Bis ^> •* ^£> s THE NATURAL HISTORY SELBORNE. LONDON: GILBERT & RIVINGTON, PRINTERS ST. JOHN'S SQUARE. Library* 9.f California- THE NATURAL HISTORY r~^/K # SELBQRNE. \*Tk> /-V */ BY THE LATE EV. GILBERT WHITE, A.M. H FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD. WITH ADDITIONS SIR WILLIAM JARDINE, BART, F.R.S.E. F.L.S. M.W. S. AUTHOR OF " ILLUSTRATIONS OF ORNITHOLOGY." NEW EDITION. PRINTED FOR WHITTAKER, TREACHER, & CO. LONDON; & WAUGH & INNES, EDINBURGH. 1832. Q H . /o o S -f- 1 INTRODUCTION. " Observatores pauci, qui, scientise mysteriis initiati, rite colligunt, collecta examinant, discrimina quaerunt, naturae arcana rimantur." SCOPOLI. THE attention that of late years has been devoted to the study of Natural History, and its importance to our commerce, manufactures, and domestic economy, must render every attempt to increase or simplify our knowledge of it at once praiseworthy and desirable ; and, it is hoped, will be a sufficient apology for the reprint of a work which has already gone through several editions. The Natural History of Selborne, by the Rev. Gilbert White, appears to have been written at the suggestion of Mr. Pennant, the A3 VI INTRODUCTION. Hon. Daines Barrington, and several distin- guished contemporary naturalists, with whom Mr. White was in frequent correspondence ; and who soon perceived that his abilities, as a careful observer of nature, might be advan- tageously employed in researches connected with the productions of his native parish. The ) work consists of a series of Letters addressed ] to these gentlemen, written in a clear and elegant, yet somewhat popular, style ; contain- ing very varied information upon most subjects connected with the Natural History of the age, and is rather the description of an extensive district than of a particular spot or village. The present work was originally printed in 1789, four years previous to the Author's decease, in a quarto volume, containing besides an Account of the Antiquities of Selborne. Copies of the work becoming scarce and expensive, a reprint was thought necessary, and accordingly it again appeared in 1802, in two volumes, octavo, chiefly under the super- intendence of Dr. Aikin, and some of Mr. White's friends. It was again reprinted in 1825. In the latter editions it was thought INTRODUCTION. vii unnecessary to include that part relative to the antiquities, and their place was supplied by The Naturalist's Calendar, and Miscel- laneous Observations, which had originally been published in a small volume after the Author's death. These, with some papers on different subjects connected with natural his- tory, and published in various Transactions of learned societies, with some Poems, which were most probably written for amusement, and without any intention of publication, are all of his writings that have ever been printed. This Edition is confined to the Natural History of Selborne alone, including extracts from the Author's Miscellaneous Observations, which are occasionally introduced as notes, and to which the present Editor has subjoined such additional memoranda, as modern discoveries and the advanced state of knowledge rendered necessary. As a naturalist, Mr. White ranked very high ; and we consequently find him in cor- respondence with many of the most eminent scientific characters of that period, and often consulted on subjects connected with the viii INTRODUCTION. natural history of his country, particularly by Mr. Pennant, who was then engaged with his British Zoology. At the present time, we find his works extensively quoted, and many of his observations borne out by more modern ex- periments. The Fauna of Great Britain is indebted to him for the first notice of the Great Bat, vespertilio noctula, and for the discovery and detailed history of the Harvest-mouse, mm messoriuS) in addition to various remarks on different productions, both animal and vegetable, and the elucidation of many facts regarding popular superstitions and abuses. In the last edition of his works, we have the following biographical sketch of his life, per- haps the only one extant : — " Gilbert White was the eldest son of John White of Selborne, Esq., and of Anne, the daughter of Thomas Holt, rector of Streatham in Surrey. He was born at Selborne, on July 18, 1720, and received his school education at Basingstoke, under the Rev. Thomas Warton, vicar of that place, and father of those two distinguished literary characters, Dr. Joseph Warton, master of Winchester school, and Mr. Thomas War- INTRODUCTION. IX ton, poetry professor at Oxford. He was ad- mitted at Oriel College, Oxford, in December, 1739, and took his degree of Bachelor of Arts in June, 1743. In March, 1744, he was elected Fellow of his College. He became Master of Arts in October, 1746, and was admitted one of the senior Proctors of the University in April, 1752. Being of an un- ambitious temper, and strongly attached to the charms of rural scenery, he early fixed his residence in his native village, where he spent the greater part of his life in literary occupations, and especially in the study of Nature. This he followed with patient assi- duity, and a mind ever open to the lessons of piety and benevolence, which such a study is so well calculated to afford. Though several occasions offered of settling upon a college living, he could never persuade' himself to quit the beloved spot, which was indeed a peculiarly happy situation for an observer. Thus his days passed tranquil and serene, with scarcely any other vicissitudes than those of the seasons, till they closed at a mature age on June 26, 1793." JARDINE HALL, August, 1829. INDEX. PAQE Affections of Birds 174 Ayles Holt 28 Barometers 306 Bat 37, 75, 107 Bat, Large 89 Birds, Language of 263 Birds of Passage 54, 190 Black Act 22 Black Cap 143 Botany 253 Botany of Selborne • 255 Bullfinch 50 Bunting 43 Burning of Heath 24 Butcher Bird 67 Buzzards, Honey 125 Canary Birds 40 Castration 235 Cat and Leveret 237 Chaffinches 42, 50, 158 Chinese Dog 301 Cliff, Fall of a 268 Coccus 288 Condensation by Trees 229 Congregation of Birds 168 Cornua Ammonis 11 Crickets, Field 271 Crickets, House 275 Crickets, Mole 277 Crossbeaks 153 Crossbills 197 Cuckoo 144, 146, 152, 232 Curious Fossil Shell 11 Curlew, Stone 51, 69, 102, 304 Xll INDEX. PAGE Deer 21, 47 Deer, Moose 92 Deer Stealers 22 Dogs 302 Dove, Ring 129 Dove, Stock 126 Eagle Owl • •••• 88 Echoes 248,306 Elm, Broad-leaved 7 Employments > 17 Falco 33 Falcon, Peregrine 299 Fieldfares 86, 91, 159 Fish 35 Fishes, Gold and Silver 290 Flight of Birds 259 Flycatcher 32, 53 Forest of Wolmer 18, 25 Forest Fly 181 Fossil Shell 11 Fossil Wood 303 Fowls, Language of 264 Freestone 12 Frogs 59 Game 19 Garden 246 German Silk-tail i , .. 39 Gipsies 220 Goatsucker 73 Gossamer 215 Gross-beaks 35 Harvest Mouse 44 Harvest Bug 102 Hawk and Hens 285 Hawk, Sparrow 125 Haws 40 Hedgehogs 90 Heliotropes 266 Herons 73 Himantopus 280 Hog 236 INDEX. Xlll PAGE Hoopoes „ . . 34 House Cat 95 Idiot Boy, Propensity of an 225 Insects, noxious 1 05 Instinct 294 Jack Daws 70 Lakes 26 Lamperns • 63 Land Springs 199 Lark, Willow 65 Lark, Grasshopper 52 Leprosy 243 Linnets 42 Lizard 68, 76 Lizard, Green . . 72 Loaches 63 Manor of Selborne '. 15 Maps of Scotland 124 Martins 110 Martins, House . Ill, 182, 285, 292 -Martins, Sand , 200 Martin, Black 204 Mice 38 Migrating Birds 77> 161 Migrations of Grallae. ,... • . . 176 Missel Thrush 214 Notes of Owls and Cuckoos 166 Nuthatch 55 Oaks - • 6, 9 Ornithology of Selborne 1 12 Otter , 96 Owl, Fern 108, 152 Owls 36 Owls, White 178 Fairing of Birds 94 Peacocks 106 Pettichaps 297 Ponds on Chalk Hills 230 Poor 17 Pulveratrices 152 XIV INDEX. PAGE Rain 16, 305 Raven, Tree 10 Red-wings 160 Reed Sparrow 149 Ringousels 67, 71, 79, 84, 98, 156, 191 Rooks 192, 305 Rooks, White 49 Rush Candles 221 Salads 247 Salicaria 80, 84 Sandpiper 66 Sandstone 14 Scopoli's Annus Primus 99, 151 Sexual distinctions in Birds 158 Sheep 189 Singing Birds, Silence of» • 147 Singing Birds] 138 145 Snipes 57 Snow-Fleck 87 Sociality of Brutes 218 Soft-billed Birds 121 Soils 5, 6 Spiracula of Animals 48 Squnck 85 Sticklebacks 62 Streams 6 Summer Birds of Passage 101, 133 Summer Birds, Return of 213 Summer Evening Walk 82 Superstitions of Selborne 226 Sussex Downs 188 Swallows 30, 41, 78, 110, 170, 180, 193, 298 Swallows, Torpidity of • • 241 Swifts 89, 204, 252, 285 Tame Snake 85 Teals 177 The Holt 29 ThePlestor '••• 8 Titlark 143 Titmouse 122 Toads 59, 72 Tortoise » 157, 170,282 15 INDEX. XV PAGE Tortoise, Land 157 Turnip Fly -••• 104 Vernal and Autumnal Crocus 258 Village of Selborne 3 Vipers 61, 234> Water Rats 33, 89 Water Newt 60 Water Eft 64 Weather , 307 Wheatear 43 Winter Birds of Passage 136 Wolmer Pond 27 Woodcocks 159, 167 Woodpigeons • ^ • 128 Worms 239 Wren, Golden Crowned 57 Wren, Willow .••• 52 Yellow Hammer • • • 145 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. PART I. IN A SERIES OP LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. PART I.— LETTER I. THE parish of Selborne lies in the extreme eastern corner of the county of Hampshire, bordering on the county of Sussex, and not far from the county of Surrey; is about fifty miles south-west of London, in latitude 5 1 , and near midway between the towns of Alton and Peterfield. Being very large and extensive, it abuts on twelve parishes, two of which are in Sussex, viz. Trotton and Rogate. If you begin from the south, and pro- ceed westward, the adjacent parishes are Emshot, Newton Valence, Faringdon, Harteley, Mauduit, Great War d-le -ham, Kingsley, Hedleigh, Bramshot, Trotton, Rogate, Lysse, and Greatham. The soils of this district are almost as various and diversified as the views and aspects. The high part to the south-west consists of a vast hill of chalk, rising three hundred feet above the village ; and is divided into a sheep down, the high wood, and a long hanging wood, called the Hanger. The covert of this eminence is altogether beech, the most lovely of all forest trees, whether we consider its smooth rind, or bark, its glossy foliage, or graceful B 2 4 VILLAGE OF SELBORNE. pendulous boughs ! . The down, or sheep-walk, is a pleasing park-like spot, of about one mile by half that space, jutting out on the verge of the hill-country, where it begins to break down into the plains, and commanding a very engaging view, being an assemblage of hill, dale, woodlands, heath, and water. The prospect is bounded to the south- east and east by the vast range of mountains called the Sussex Downs, by Guild-down near Guildford, and by the Downs round Dorking, and Ryegate in Surrey, to the north-east ; which altogether, with the country beyond Alton, and Farnham, form a noble and extensive outline. At the foot of this hill, one stage, or step from the uplands, lies the village, which consists of one single straggling street, three quarters of a mile in length, in a sheltered vale, and running parallel with the Hanger. The houses are divided from the hill by a vein of stiff clay, (good wheat land,) yet stand on a rock of white stone, little in appearance removed from chalk ; but seems so far from being calcareous, that it endures extreme heat. Yet that the freestone still preserves somewhat that is analogous to chalk, is plain from the beeches, 1 The beech is certainly a beautiful tree, either when planted singly or in clumps ; but I cannot agree with our author, in thinking it the " most lovely of all forest trees.'1 The ash and birch, and perhaps the Huntingdon willow, are certainly more elegant and graceful : the former, I think, has been termed by Gilpin, the " Venus" of British trees. The plane and horse-chestnut will outvie it in a dense and deep rich foliage, while the oak will far outstrip all in an imposing and venerable aspect. The beech was formerly much more frequently planted than at present. It was ad- mirably suited for the landscape gardening of the last cen- tury ; and the wood was of more value, being much in re- quest for various parts of machinery, which the extensive us2 of iron has now superseded. — W. J. VILLAGE OF SELBORNE — STREAMS. 5 which descend as low as those rocks extend, and no farther, and thrive as well on them, where the ground is steep, as on the chalks. The cart- way of the village divides, in a remark- able manner, two very incongruous soils. To the south-west a rank clay, which requires the labour of years to render it mellow ; while the gardens to the north-east, and small enclosures behind, consist of a warm, forward, crumbling mould, called black malm, which seems highly saturated with vegetable and animal manure; and these may perhaps have been the original site of the town ; while the woods and coverts might have extended down to the opposite bank. At each end of the village, which runs from south-east to north-west, arises a small rivulet; that at the north-west end frequently fails ; but the other is a fine perennial spring, little influenced by drought or wet seasons, called Well-head1. This breaks out of some high grounds adjoining to Nore Hill, a noble chalk promontory, remarkable for sending forth two streams into two different seas. The one to the south becomes a branch of the Arun, running to Arundel, and so falling into the British Channel ; the other to the north. The Selborne stream makes one branch of the Wey ; and, meeting the Black-down stream at Hedleigh, and the Alton and Farnham stream at Titford- bridge, swells into a considerable river, navigable at Godalming; from whence it passes to Guild- 1 This spring produced, September 14, 1781, after a severe hot summer, and preceding dry spring and winter, nine gallons of water in a minute, which is five hundred and forty in an hour, and twelve thousand nine hundred and sixty, or two hundred and sixteen hogsheads, in twenty-four hours, or one natural day. • At this time many of the wells failed, and all the ponds in the vales were dry. 6 SOILS — OAKS. ford, and so into the Thames at Weybridge ; and thus at the Nore into the German Ocean. Our wells, at an average, run to about sixty- three feet, and, when sunk to that depth, seldom fail ; but produce a fine limpid water, soft to the taste, and much commended by those who drink i the pure element, but which does not lather well 1 with soap. To the north-west, north and east of the village, is a range of fair enclosures, consisting of what is called a white malm, a sort of rotten, or nibble stone, which, when turned up to the frost and rain, moulders to pieces, and becomes manure to itself1. Still on to the north-east, and a step lower, is a kind of white land, neither chalk nor clay, neither fit for pasture nor for the plough, yet kindly for hops, which root deep into the freestone, and have their poles and wood for charcoal growing just at hand. This white soil produces the brightest hops. As the parish still inclines down towards Wolmer Forest, at the juncture of the clays and sand, the soil becomes a wet, sandy loam, remarkable for timber, and infamous for roads. The oaks of Temple and Blackmoor stand high in the estimation of purveyors, and have furnished much naval timber ; while the trees on the free- stone grow large, but are what workmen call shakey, and so brittle as often to fall to pieces in sawing 2. Beyond the sandy loam the soil becomes 1 This soil produces good wheat and clover. 2 The common larch is very soon lost when planted above a substratum of red sandstone. In the Vale of the Annan, wherever the sloping banks have a substratum of this rock, or one composed of a sort of red sandstone, shingle, or gravel, the outward decay of the tree is visible at from fifteen to twenty-five years of age. The internal BROAD-LEAVED ELM. 7 a hungry lean sand, till it mingles with the forest ; and will produce little without the assistance of lime and turnips. II. IN the court of Norton farm-house, a manor farm to the north-west of the village, on the white malms, stood within these twenty years a broad- leaved elm, or wych hazel, ulmus folio latissimo scabro 1 of Ray, which, though it had lost a con- siderable leading bough in the great storm in the year 1703, equal to a moderate tree, yet, when felled, contained eight loads of timber ; and being too bulky for a carriage, was sawn off at seven feet above the butt, where it measured near eight feet in the diameter 2. This elm I mention, to show to decay commences sooner, according to the depth of the upper soil, in the centre of the trunk at the root, in the wood being of a darker colour, extending by degrees in circumfer- ence and up the stem, until the lower part of it becomes en- tirely deprived of vegetation, and assumes a tough and corky appearance. This extends to the whole plant, which gra- dually decays and dies. On the same soil the oak grows and thrives well. The "freestone" to which Mr. White refers is the white or grey, and may have a different effect on these trees. — W. J. 1 The ulmus montana, Sir J. E. Smith, and the most common in Scotland. There are four additional species ad- mitted into the Flora of Great Britain, which are now to be generally met with in plantations that have been made within the last ten or twelve years. — W. J. 2 The dimensions here alluded to are insignificant when compared with those of a witch elm recorded by Mr. Evelyn, growing in Sir Walter Baggot's park, in the county of Stafford, which, after two men had been five days felling, lay 40 yards in length, and was at the stool 17 feet diameter. It broke in the fall, 14 loads of wood ; 48 in the top : yield- ing 8 pair of naves, 8660 feet of boards and planks ; it cost 8 THE PLESTOR LARGE OAKS. what a bulk planted elms may attain ; as this tree must certainly have been such, from its situation. In the centre of the village, and near the church, is a square piece of ground, surrounded by houses, and vulgarly called the Plestor l. In the midst of this spot stood, in old times, a vast oak2, with 10/. 17«. the sawing. The whole esteemed 97 tons. — EVELYN'S Sylva, II. 189. Pitte's elm, in the Vale of Gloucester, was, in 1783, about 80 feet high, and the smallest girth of the principal trunk was 16 feet. — W. J. Dr. Plot mentions an elm growing on Blechington Green, which gave reception and harbour to a poor great-bellied woman, whom the inhospitable people would not receive into their houses, who was brought- to-bed in it of a son, now a lusty young fellow. — PLOT'S Oxfordshire. — W. J. 1 We have the following explanation of the Plestor in the Antiquities of Selborne. It appears to have been left as a sort of redeeming offering by Sir Adam Gordon, in olden times an inhabitant of Selborne, well known in English history during the reign of Henry III., particularly as a leader of the Mountfort faction. Mr. White says: " As Sir Adam began to advance in years, he found his mind influenced by the prevailing opinion of the reasonableness and efficacy of prayers for the dead ; and, therefore, in con- junction with his wife Constantia, in the year 1271, granted to the prior and convent of Selborne all his right and claim to a certain place, placea, called La Pleystow, in the village aforesaid, ' in liberam, puram, et perpetuam elemosinam.' This pleystow, locus ludorum, or play -place, is in a level area near the church, of about 44 yards by 36, and is known now by the name of the Plestor. It continues still, as it was in old times, to be the scene of recreation for the youths and children of the neighbourhood ; and impresses an idea xm the mind, that this village, even in Saxon times, could not be the most abject of places, when the inhabitants thought proper to as- sign so spacious a spot for the sports and amusements of its young people." — W. J. 2 Two species of oak only are admitted into the British Flora, quercus roburandsessiliflora. Several others, however, have been introduced, and grow well ; the quercus robur is nevertheless superior to all of them. The other species are said to be more susceptible of the dry rot. — W. J. LARGE OAKS. a short squat body, and huge horizontal arms extending almost to the extremity of the area. This venerable tree, surrounded with stone steps, and seats above them, was the delight of old and young, and a place of much resort in summer evenings ; where the former sat in grave debate, while the latter frolicked and danced before them. Long might it have stood, had not the amazing tempest in 1703 overturned it at once, to the infinite regret of the inhabitants, and the vicar, who bestowed several pounds in setting it in its place again : but all his care could not avail ; the tree sprouted for a time, then withered and died. This oak I mention, to show to what a bulk planted oaks also may arrive ; and planted this tree must certainly have been, as appears from what is known concerning the antiquities of the village l . On the Blackmoor estate there is a small wood called Losel's, of a few acres, that was lately furnished with a set of oaks of a peculiar growth 1 The celebrated Cowthorpe oak, upon an estate near Wetherby, belonging to the Right Hon. Lady Stourton, measures, within three feet of the surface, 16 yards in circumference, and close by the ground 26 yards. Its height is about 80 feet, and its principal limb extends 16 yards from the boll. The Greendale oak, at a foot from the ground, is in circumference 33 feet 10 inches. The Shire oak covers nearly 707 square yards ; the branches stretching into three counties, — York, Nottingham, and Derby. The Fairlop oak, in Essex, at a yard from the ground, is 36 feet in circumference. Damory's oak, in Dorsetshire, at the ground, was in circumference 68 feet, and when decaying became hollow, forming a cavity capable of containing 20 men. An oak felled at Withy Park, Shropshire, in 1697? was nine feet in diameter, without the bark. The Baddington oak, in the Vale of Gloucester, was 54 feet in circumference at the base ; and Wallace's oak, in Torwood, in the county of Stirling, must have been at least 11 or 12 feet in diameter. — W. J. 10 THE RAVEN TREE. and great value ; they were tall and taper, like firs, but standing near together, had very small heads, — only a little brush, without any large limbs. About twenty years ago the bridge at the Toy, near Hampton Court, being much decayed, some trees were wanted for the repairs that were fifty feet long without bough, and would measure twelve inches diameter at the little end l. Twenty such trees did a purveyor find in this little wood, with this advantage, that many of them answered the description at sixty feet. These trees were sold for 207. apiece. In the centre of this grove there stood an oak, which, though shapely and tall on the whole, bulged out into a large excrescence about the middle of the stem. On this a pair of ravens had fixed their residence for such a series of years, that the oak was distinguished by the title of the Raven Tree. Many were the attempts of the neighbouring youths to get at this eyry : the difficulty whetted their inclinations, and each wras ambitious of surmounting the arduous task. But when they arrived at the swelling, it jutted out so in their -way, and was so far beyond their grasp, that the most daring lads were awed, and acknowledged the undertaking to be too hazardous. So the ravens built on, nest upon nest, in perfect security, till the fatal day arrived in which the wood was to be levelled. It was in the month of February, when those birds usually sit. The saw was applied to the butt, the wedges were inserted into the opening, the woods echoed to the heavy blows of 1 Dr. Plot mentions a table of one solid plank, of above TO feet long, and a yard broad through the whole length, to be seen in Dudley Castle hall, in the park of which the oak grew.— Nat. Hist, of Staffordshire.— W. J. CORNUA AMMONIS. 11 the beetle or mallet, the tree nodded to its fall;J but still the dam sat on. At last, when it gave way, the bird was flung from her nest ; and, though her parental affection deserved a better fate, was whipped down by the twigs, which brought her dead to the ground. III. THE fossil shells of this district, and sorts of stone, such as have fallen within my observation, must not be passed over in silence. And, first, I must mention, as a great curiosity, a specimen that was ploughed up in the chalky fields, near the side of the Down, and given to me for the singularity of its appearance, which, to an incu- rious eye, seems like a petrified fish of about four inches long, the cardo passing for an head and mouth. It is in reality a bivalve of the Linnsean genus of mytilis and the species of crista galli: called by Lister, rastellum ; by Rumphius, ostreum plicatum minus; by D'Argenville, auris, porci, crista galli : and by those who make collections, cock's comb. Though I applied to several such in London, I never could meet with an entire specimen ; nor could I ever find in books any engraving from a perfect one. In the superb museum at Leicester House, permission was given me to examine for this article ; and though I was disappointed as to the fossil, I was highly gratified with the sight of several of the shells themselves, in high preservation. This bibalve is only known to inhabit the Indian Ocean, where it fixes itself to a zoophyte, known by the name gorgonia. Cornua ammonis are very common about this village. As we were cutting an inclining path up 2 FREESTONE. the Hanger, the labourers found them frequently on that steep, just under the soil, in the chalk, and of a considerable size. In the lane above Well-head, in the way to Emshot, they abound in the bank, in a darkish sort of marl; and are usually very small and soft : but in Clay's Pond, a little farther on, at the end of the pit, where the soil is dug out for manure, I have occasionally observed them of large dimensions, perhaps fourteen or sixteen inches in diameter. But as these did not consist of firm stone, but were formed of a kind of terra lapidosa, or hardened clay, as soon as they were exposed to the rains and frost they mouldered away. These seemed as if they were a very recent production. In the chalk-pit, at the north-west end of the Hanger, large nautili are sometimes observed. In the very thickest strata of our freestone, and at considerable depths, well- diggers often find large scallops or pectines, having both shells deeply stri- ated, and ridged and furrowed alternately. They are highly impregnated with, if not wholly com- posed of, the stone of the quarry. IV. As, in last letter, the freestone of this place has been only mentioned incidentally, I shall here be- come more particular. This stone is in great request for hearth-stones, and the beds of ovens ; and in lining of lime -kilns it turns to good account ; for the workmen use sandy loam instead of mortar ; the sand of which fluxes1, and runs, by the intense heat, and so cases 1 There may probably be also in the chalk itself that is burnt for lime a proportion of sand ; for few chalks are so pure as to have none. BLACK GROUSE. FREESTONE. 13 over the whole face of the kiln with a strong vitri- fied coat like glass, that it is well preserved from injuries of weather, and endures thirty or forty years. When chiselled smooth, it makes elegant fronts for houses, equal in colour and grain to the Bath stone ; and superior in one respect, that, when seasoned, it does not scale. Decent chimney- pieces are worked from it of much closer and finer grain than Portland stone ; and rooms are floored with it ; but it proves rather too soft for this pur- pose. It is a freestone, cutting in all directions ; yet has something of a grain parallel with the ho- rizon, and therefore should not be surbedded, but laid in the same position that it grows in the quarry1. On the ground abroad this fire-stone will not succeed for pavements, because, probably, some degree of saltness prevailing within it, the rain tears the slabs to pieces2. Though this stone is too hard to be acted on by vinegar ; yet both the white part, and even the blue rag, ferment strongly in mineral acids. Though the white stone will not bear wet, yet in every quarry, at intervals, there are thin strata of blue rag, which resist rain and frost, and are excellent for pitching of stables, paths, and courts, and for building of dry walls against banks ; a valuable species of fencing, much in use in this village, and for mending of roads. This rag is rugged and stubborn, and will not hew 1 To surbed stone is to set it edgewise, contrary to the posture it had in the quarry, says Dr. Plot, Oxfordsh. p. 77- But surbedding does not succeed in our dry walls ; neither do we use it so in ovens, though he says it is best for Teyn- ton stone. 2 " Firestone is full of salts, and has no sulphur : must be close-grained, and have no interstices. Nothing supports fire like salts ; saltstone perishes exposed to wet and frost." — PLOT'S Staff, p. 152. 14 SANDSTONE. to a smooth face ; but is very durable : yet, as these strata are shallow, and lie deep, large quantities can- not be procured but at considerable expense. Among the blue rags turn up some blocks tinged with a stain of yellow or rust colour, which seem to be nearly as lasting as the blue ; and every now and then balls of a friable substance, like rust of iron, called rust balls. In Wolmer Forest I see but one sort of stone, called by the workmen sand, or forest stone. This is generally of the colour of rusty iron, and might probably be worked as iron ore ; it is very hard and heavy, of a firm, compact texture, and composed of a small roundish crystalline grit, cemented toge- ther by a brown, terrene, ferruginous matter ; will not cut without difficulty, nor easily strike fire with steel. Being often found in broad flat pieces, it makes good pavement for paths about houses, never becoming slippery in frost or rain ; is excel- lent for dry walls, and is sometimes used in build- ings. In many parts of that waste it lies scat- tered on the surface of the ground ; but it is dug on Weaver's Down, a vast hill on the eastern verge of that forest, where the pits are shallow, and the stratum thin. This stone is imperishable. From a notion of rendering their work the more elegant, and giving it a finish, masons chip this stone into small fragments about the size of the head of a large nail ; and then stick the pieces into the wet mortar along the joints of their free- stone walls. This embellishment carries an odd appearance, and has occasioned strangers some- times to ask us pleasantly, " Whether we fastened our walls together with tenpenny nails ?" 12 MANOR OF SELBORNE. 15 V. AMONG the singularities of this place, the two rocky hollow lanes, the one to Alton, and the other to the forest, deserve our attention. These roads, running through the malm lands, are, by the traffic of ages, and the fretting of water, worn down through the first stratum of our freestone, and partly through the second ; so that they look more like watercourses than roads ; and are bedded with naked rag for furlongs together. In many places they are reduced sixteen or eighteen feet beneath the level of the fields ; and after floods, and in frosts, exhibit very grotesque and wild ap- pearances, from the tangled roots that are twisted among the strata, and from the torrents rushing down their broken sides ; and especially when those cascades are frozen into icicles, hanging in all the fanciful shapes of frost-work. These rugged gloomy scenes affright the ladies when they peep down into them from the paths above, and make timid horsemen shudder while they ride along them ; but they delight the naturalist with their various botany, and particularly with their curious filices, with which they abound. The manor of Selborne, was it strictly looked after, with all its kindly aspects, and all its sloping coverts, would swarm with game ; even now, hares, partridges, and pheasants, abound; and in old days woodcocks were as plentiful. There are few quails, because they more affect open fields than enclosures ; after harvest, some few land-rails are seen. The parish of Selborne, by taking in so much of the forest, is a vast district. Those who tread the bounds are employed part of three days in the 16 RAIN. business, and are of opinion that the outline, in all its curves and indentings, does not comprise less than thirty miles. The village stands in a sheltered spot, secured by the Hanger from the strong westerly winds. The air is soft, but rather moist from the effluvia of so many trees ; yet perfectly healthy and free from agues. The quantity of rain that falls on it is very con- siderable, as may be supposed in so woody and mountainous a district. As my experience in mea- suring the water is but of short date, I am not qualified to give the mean quantity.1 I only know that Inch. Hund. 28 37! 27 32 30 71 50 26! 33 71 33 80 31 55 39 57 From May 1, 1779, to the end of the year, there fell . ... From Jan. 1780, to Jan. 1 1781 From Jan. 1781, to Jan. 1782 From Jan. 1782, to Jan. 1783 From Jan. 1783, to Jan. 1784 From Jan. 1784, to Jan. 1786 From Jan. 1785, to Jan. 1786 From Jan. 1786, to Jan. 1 1787 . - The village of Selborne, and large hamlet of Oakhanger, with the single farms, and many scat- 1 A very intelligent gentleman assures me, (and he speaks from upwards of forty years' experience,) that the mean rain of any place cannot be ascertained till a person has measured it for a very long period. " If I had only measured the rain," says he, " for the four first years, from 1740 to 1743, I should have said the mean rain at Lyndon was 16^ inches for the year ; if from 1740 to 1750, 18£ inches. The mean rain before 1763 was 20| ; from 1763 and since, 25| ; from 1770 to 1780, 26. If only 1773, 1774, and 1775, had been measured, Lyndon mean rain would have been called 32 inches, increasing from 16'6 to 32." POOR— EMPLOYMENT. 17 tered houses along the verge of the forest, con- tain upwards of six hundred and seventy inha- bitants. We abound with poor; many of whom are sober and industrious, and live comfortably, in good stone or brick cottages, which are glazed, and have chambers above stairs : mud buildings we have none. Besides the employment from husbandry, the men work in hop gardens, of which we have many ; and fell and bark timber. In the spring and summer the women weed the corn ; and enjoy a second harvest in September by hop- picking. Formerly, in the dead months, they availed themselves greatly by spinning wool, for making of barragons, a genteel corded stuff*, much in vogue at that time for summer wear ; and chiefly manufactured at Alton, a neighbouring town, by some of the people called Quakers. The inhabitants enjoy a good share of health and lon- gevity; and the parish swarms with children. VI. SHOULD I omit to describe with some exactness the Forest of Wolmer, of which three-fifths perhaps lie in this parish, my account of Selborne would be very imperfect, as it is a district abounding with many curious productions, both animal and vege- table ; and has often afforded me much entertain- ment, both as a sportsman and as a naturalist. The royal Forest of Wolmer is a tract of land of about seven miles in length, by two and a half in breadth, running nearly from north to south, and is abutted on, to begin to the south, and so to proceed eastward, by the parishes of Greatham, Lysse, Rogate, and Trotton, in the county of c 1 8 FOREST OF WOLMER. Sussex by Bramshot, Hedleigh, and Kingsley. This royalty consists entirely of sand, covered with heath and fern ; but is somewhat diversified with hills and dales, without having one standing tree in the whole extent. In the bottoms, where the waters stagnate, are many bogs, which for- merly abounded with subterraneous trees : though Dr. Plot says positively *, that " there never were any fallen trees hidden in the mosses of the southern counties." But he was mistaken ; for I myself have seen cottages on the verge of this wild district, whose timbers consisted of a black hard wood, looking like oak, which the owners assured me they procured from the bogs by pro- bing the soil with spits, or some such instruments : but the peat is so much cut out, and the moors have been so well examined, that none has been found of late2. Besides the oak, I have also been 1 See his Hist, of Staffordshire. 2 Old people have assured me, that on a winter's morning they have discovered these trees in the bogs, by the hoar frost, which lay longer over the space where they were con- cealed, than on the surrounding morass. Nor does this seem to be a fanciful notion, but consistent with true philosophy. Dr. Hales saith, " That the warmth of the earth, at some depth under ground, has an influence in promoting a thaw, as well as the change of the weather from a freezing to a thawing state, is manifest from this observation ; viz. Nov. 29, 1731, a little snow having fallen in the night, it was, by eleven the next morning, mostly melted away on the surface of the earth, except in several places in Bushy Park, where there were drains dug and covered with earth, on which the snow continued to lie, whether those drains were full of water or dry ; as also where elm-pipes lay under ground : a plain proof this, that those drains intercepted the warmth of the earth from ascending from greater depths below them ; for the snow lay where the drain had more than four feet depth of earth over it. It continued also to lie on thatch, tiles, and the tops of walls." — See HALE'S Heemastatics, p. 360. Quere, Might not such observations be reduced FORSET OF WOLMER GAME. 19 shown pieces of fossil-wood, of a paler colour, and softer nature, which the inhabitants called fir ; but, upon a nice examination, and trial by fire, I could discover nothing resinous in them ; and therefore rather suppose that they were parts of a willow or alder, or some such aquatic tree1. This lonely domain is a very agreeable haunt for many sorts of wild fowls, which not only frequent it in the winter, but breed there in the summer ; such as lapwings, snipes, wild ducks, and, as I have discovered within these few years, teals. Partridges in vast plenty are bred in good seasons on the verge of this forest, into which they love to make excursions ; and in particular, in the dry summer of 1740 and 1741, and some years after, they swarmed to such a degree, that parties of unreasonable sportsmen killed twenty and some- times thirty brace in a day. But there was a nobler species of game in this forest, now extinct, which I have heard old people say abounded much before shooting flying became so common, and that was the heath-cock, or black game. When I was a little boy, I recollect one to domestic use, by promoting the discovery of old obli- terated drains and wells about houses ; and, in Roman stations and camps, lead to the finding of pavements, baths, and graves, and other hidden relics of curious an- tiquity ? 1 The remains of trees are found in most of the marshes in Great Britain ; but the mosses in the north of England, all those of Scotland, and the bogs of Ireland, contain trees often of immense size. These are generally oak, birch, different willows, or alder, and the Scotch fir, pinus sylvestris. Being imbedded to considerable depths, they are sometimes in a perfect state, and completely saturated with the soil in which they lie. In the Highlands the Scotch fir abounds, and retains so much resin as to be used for lights during winter, for which purpose it is dug out, dried, and split into narrow lengths. — W. J, c 2 20 FOREST OF WOLMER BLACK GAME. coming now and then to my father's table. The last pack remembered was killed about thirty-five years ago ; and within these ten years one solitary grey hen was sprung by some beagles in beating for a hare. The sportsman cried out, " A hen pheasant !" but a gentleman present, who had often seen black game in the north of England, assured me that it was a grey hen1. Nor does the loss of our black game prove the only gap in the Fauna Selborniensis ; for another/ beautiful link in the chain of beings is wanting — / I mean the red-deer, which toward the beginning of this century, amounted to about five hundred head, and made a stately appearance. There is an old keeper, now' alive, named Adams, whose great-grandfather, (mentioned in a perambulation taken in 1635,) grandfather, father, and self, en- joyed the head keepership of Wolmer Forest in succession for more than an hundred years. This person assures me, that his father has often told 1 Black game have increased greatly in the southern counties of Scotland and north of England within the last few years. It is a pretty general opinion, though an erro- neous one, that they drive away the red grouse ; the two species require very different kinds of cover, and will never interfere. It is to be regretted that some of our extensive and wealthy northern proprietors do not attempt the intro- duction of the wood grouse ; extensive pine or birch forests, with quiet, would be all the requisites ; and the birds them- selves, or their young, could be easily obtained, and at a trifling expense. In a late number of Mr. J. Wilson's Zoo- logical Illustrations, there is an excellent plate of the tetrao urophasianus of North America, a very handsome species, which, with some others lately discovered by Dr. Douglas, might be introduced into this country, and form a fine addition to our feathered game. The little American par- tridge, the ortyx borealis of naturalists, has been intro- duced, and is now plentiful, in some counties in England. — W. J. FOREST OF WOLMER — DEER. 21 him that Queen Anne, as she was journeying on the Portsmouth road, did not think the Forest of Wolmer beneath her royal regard. For she came out of the great road at Lippock, which is just by, and, reposing herself on a bank smoothed for that purpose, lying about half a mile to the east of Wolmer Pond, and still called Queen's Bank, saw with great complacency and satisfaction the whole herd of red- deer brought by the keepers along the vale before her, consisting then of about five hundred head. A sight this, worthy the attention of the greatest sovereign ! But he further adds, that, by means of the Waltham blacks, or, to use his own expression, as soon as they began black- ing, they were reduced to about fifty head, and so continued decreasing till the time of the late Duke of Cumberland. It is now more than thirty years ago that his highness sent down a hunts- man, and six yeoman prickers, in scarlet jackets laced with gold, attended by the stag-hounds ; ordering them to take every deer in this forest alive, and to convey them in carts to Windsor. In the course of the summer they caught every stag, some of which showed extraordinary diver- sion ; but in the following winter, when the hinds were also carried off, such fine chases were exhi- bited as served the country people for matter of talk and wonder for years afterwards. I saw my- self one of the yeomen prickers single out a stag from the herd, and must confess that it was the most curious feat of activity I ever beheld, — supe- rior to any thing in Mr. Astley's riding- school. The exertions made by the horse and deer much exceeded all my expectations, though the former greatly excelled the latter in speed. When the devoted deer was separated from his companions, they gave him, by their watches, law, as they 22 FOREST OF WOLMER — DEER-STEALING. called it, for twenty minutes ; when, sounding their horns, the stop-dogs were permitted to pursue, and a most gallant scene ensued. * VII. THOUGH large herds of deer do much harm to the neighbourhood, yet the injury to the morals of the people is of more moment than the loss of their crops. The temptation is irresistible ; for most men are sportsmen by constitution : and there is such an inherent spirit for hunting in human nature, as scarce any inhibitions can restrain. Hence, towards the beginning of this century, all this country was wild about deer- stealing. Unless he was a hunter, as they affected to call themselves, no young person was allowed to be possessed of manhood or gallantry. The Waltham blacks at length committed such enormities, that Govern- ment was forced to interfere with that severe and sanguinary act called the Black act l, which now comprehends more felonies than any law that ever was framed before ; and, therefore, a late bishop of Winchester, when urged to re-stock Waltham- chase2, refused, from a motive worthy of a pre- late, replying, " It had done mischief enough al- ready." Our old race of deer-stealers are hardly extinct yet. It was but a little while ago that, over their ale, they used to recount the exploits of their youth : such as watching the pregnant hind to her lair, and, when the calf was dropped, paring its feet with a penknife to the quick, to prevent its 1 Statute 9 Geo. I. c. 22. 2 This chase remains unstocked to this day ; the bishop was Dr. Hoadley. WOLMER FOREST — THE BLACK ACT. 23 escape, till it was large and fat enough to be killed ; the shooting at one of their neighbours with a bullet in a turnip -field by moonshine, mistaking him for a deer ; and the losing a dog in the following extraordinary manner : — Some fellows, suspecting that a calf new-fallen was deposited in a certain spot of thick fern, went with a lurcher to surprise it ; when the parent hind rushed out of the brake, and, taking a vast spring with all her feet close together, pitched upon the neck of the dog, and broke it short in two. Another temptation to idleness and sporting, was a number of rabbits, which possessed all the hillocks and dry places ; but these being incon- venient to the huntsman, on account of their burrows, when they came to take away the deer, they permitted the country people to destroy them all. Such forests and wastes, when their allurements to irregularities are removed, are of considerable service to neighbourhoods that verge upon them, by furnishing them with peat and turf for their firing ; with fuel for the burning their lime ; and with ashes for their grasses ; and by maintaining their geese and their stock of young cattle at little or no expense. The manor farm of the parish of Greatham has an admitted claim, I see, (by an old record taken from the Tower of London,) of turning all live stock on the forest, at proper seasons, bidentibus exceptis1. The reason, I presume, why sheep2 are excluded is, because, being such close grazers, 1 For this privilege the owner of that estate used to pay to the king annually seven bushels of oats. 2 In the Holt, where a full stock of fallow-deer has been kept up till lately, no sheep are.admitted to this day. 24 BURNING HEATH. they would pick out all the finest grasses, and hinder the deer from thriving. Though (by statute 4 & 5 W. and Mary, c. 23.) " to burn on any waste, between Candlemas and Midsummer, any grig, ling, heath and furze, goss, or fern, is punishable with whipping and confinement in the house of correction ;" yet, in this forest, about March or April, according to the dryness of the season, such vast heath-fires are lighted up, that they often get to a masterless head, and, catching the hedges, have sometimes been communicated to the underwoods, woods, and coppices, where great damage has ensued. The plea for these burnings is, that, when the old coat of heath, &c., is consumed, young will sprout up, and afford much tender browse for cattle ; but where there is large old furze, the fire, following the roots, consumes the very ground; so that for hundreds of acres nothing is to be seen but smother and desolation, the whole circuit round looking like the cinders of a volcano ; and the soil being quite exhausted, no traces of vegetation are to be found for years. These conflagrations, as they take place usually with a north-east or east wind, much annoy this village with their smoke, and often alarm the country ; and once, in particular, I remember that a gentleman, who lives beyond Andover, coming to my house, when he got on the downs between that town and Winchester, at twenty-five miles' distance, was surprised much with smoke and a hot smell of fire ; and concluded that Alresford was in flames ; but, when he came to that town, he then had apprehensions for the next village, and so on to the end of his journey. On two of the most conspicuous eminences of this forest, stand two arbours, or bowers, made of the boughs of oaks ; the one called Waldon Lodge, BOUNDARIES OF WOLMER FOREST. 25 the other Brimstone Lodge : these the keepers renew annually on the feast of St. Barnabas, taking the old materials for a perquisite. The farm called Blackmoor, in this parish, is obliged to find the posts and brushwood for the former; while the farms at Greatham, in rotation, furnish for the latter ; and are all enjoined to cut and deliver the materials at the spot. This custom I mention, because I look upon it to be of very remote antiquity. VIII. ON the verge of the forest, as it is now cir- cumscribed, are three considerable lakes : two in Oakhanger, of which I have nothing particular to say ; and one called Bin's or Bean's Pond, which is worthy the attention of a naturalist or a sports- man ; for, being crowded at the upper end with willows, and writh the car ex cespitosa l, it affords such a safe and pleasant shelter to wild ducks, teals, snipes, &c., that they breed there. In the winter this covert is also frequented by foxes, and sometimes by pheasants ; and the bogs produce many curious plants2. By a perambulation of Wolmer Forest and the Holt, made in 1635, and in the eleventh year of Charles the First, (which now lies before me,) it appears that the limits of the former are much 1 I mean that sort which, rising into tall hassocks, is called by the foresters turrets ; a corruption, I suppose, of turrets. NOTE. — In the beginning of the summer 1787> the royal forests of Wolmer and Holt were measured by persons sent down by Government. 2 For which consult Letter XLII.Part II. 26 FOREST -OF WOLMER — LAKES. circumscribed. For, to say nothing of the farther side, with which I am not so well acquainted, the bounds on this side, in old times, came into Bins- wood, and extended to the ditch of Ward-le-ham Park, in which stands the curious mount called King John's Hill and Lodge Hill, and to the verge of Hartley Mauduit, called Mauduit-hatch ; comprehending also Shortheath, Oakhanger, and Oakwoods ; a large district, now private property, though once belonging to the royal domain. It is remarkable, that the term purlieu is never once mentioned in this long roll of parchment. It contains, besides the perambulation, a rough estimate of the value of the timbers, which were considerable, growing at that time in the district of the Holt; and enumerates the officers, superior and inferior, of those joint forests, for the time being, and their ostensible fees and perquisites. In those days, as at present, there were hardly any trees in Wolmer Forest. Within the present limits of the forest are three considerable lakes, Hogmer, Cranmer, and Wolmer; all of which are stocked with carp, tench, eels, and perch : but the fish do not thrive well, because the water is hungry, and the bottoms are a naked sand. A circumstance respecting these ponds, though by no means peculiar to them, I cannot pass over in silence ; and that is, that instinct by which in summer all the kine, whether oxen, cows, calves, or heifers, retire constantly to the water during the hotter hours ; where, being more exempt from flies, and inhaling the coolness of that element, some belly-deep, and some only to mid-leg, they ruminate and solace themselves from about ten in the morning till four in the afternoon, and then return to their feeding. During this great WOLMER POND. Zt proportion of the day, they drop much dung, in which insects nestle, and so supply food for the fish, which would be poorly subsisted but for this contingency. Thus Nature, who is a great economist, converts the recreation of one animal to the support of another ! Thomson, who was a nice observer of natural occurrences, did not let this pleasing circumstance escape him. He says, in his Summer : " A various group the herds and flocks compose : on the grassy bank Some ruminating lie ; while others stand, Half in the flood, and, often bending, sip The circling surface." Wolmer Pond, so called, I suppose, for eminence sake, is a vast lake for this part of the world, con- taining, in its whole circumference, 2646 yards, or very near a mile and a half. The length of the north-west and opposite side is about 704 yards, and the breadth of the south-west end about 456 yards. This measurement, which I caused to be made with good exactness, gives an area of about sixty-six acres, exclusive of a large irregular arm at the north-east corner, which we did not take into the reckoning. On the face of this expanse of waters, and perfectly secure from fowlers, lie all day long, in the winter season, vast flocks of ducks, teals, and widgeons, of various denominations ; where they preen, and solace and rest themselves, till towards sunset, when they issue forth in little parties (for in their natural state they are all birds of the night) to feed in the brooks and meadows ; return- ing again with the dawn of the morning. Had this lake an arm or two more, and were it planted round with thick covert, (for now it is perfectly naked,) it might make a valuable decoy. 28 AYLES HOLT. Yet neither its extent, nor the clearness of its water, nor the resort of various and curious fowls, nor its picturesque groups of cattle, can render this mere so remarkable, as the great quantity of coins that were found in its bed about forty years ago1. IX. BY way of supplement, I shall trouble you once more on this subject, to inform you that Wolmer, with her sister forest Ayles Holt, alias Alice Holt 2, as it is called in old records, is held by grant from the crown for a term of years. The grantees that the author remembers are, Brigadier- General Emanuel Scroope Howe, and his lady, Ruperta, who was a natural daughter of Prince Rupert by Margaret Hughs ; a Mr. Mor- daunt, of the Peterborough family, who married a dowager Lady Pembroke; Henry Bilson Legge and lady ; and now Lord Stawel, their son. The lady of General Howe lived to an advanced age, long surviving her husband; and, at her death, left behind her many curious pieces of mechanism of her father's constructing, who was a distinguished mechanic and artist3, as well as 1 Some of these coins came afterwards into the possession of the author. They were all copper ; part were of Marcus Aurelius, and the Empress Faustina, his wife, the father and mother of Commodus. — W. J. 2 " In Rot. Inquisit. de statu forest, in Scaccar. 36 Ed. III. it is called Aisholt." In the same, " Tit. Wolmer and Aisholt Hantisc. Dominus Rex habet unam capellam in liaia sua de Kingesle." " Haia, sepes, sepimentum, parcus : a Gall, hale gmdhaye." — Spelman's Glossary. 3 This prince was the inventor of mezzotinto. NOTE.— The invention of mezzotinto is generally attributed to Prince Rupert; but it is also by some assigned to Lieutenant-Colonel Seigend, an officer in the service of the Landgrave of Hesse, so early as the year 1643, from whom the prince derived the secret. — W. J. THE HOLT. 29 warrior ; and, among the rest, a very complicated clock, lately in possession of Mr. Elmer, the cele- brated game painter at Farnham, in the county of Surrey. Though these two forests are only parted by a narrow range of enclosures, yet no two soils can be more different ; for the Holt consists of a strong loam, of a miry nature, carrying a good turf, and abounding with oaks that grow to be large timber, while Wolmer is nothing but a hungry, sandy, barren waste. The former, being all in the parish of Binsted, is about two miles in extent from north to south, and near as much from east to west, and contains within it many woodlands and lawns, and the Great Lodge where the grantees reside, and a smaller lodge called Goose Green ; and is abutted on by the parishes of Kingsley, Frinsham, Farnham, and Bentley, all of which have right of common. One thing is remarkable, that, though the Holt has been of old well stocked with fallow-deer, unrestrained by any pales or fences more than a common hedge, yet they are never seen within the limits of Wolmer : nor were the red- deer of Wol- mer ever known to haunt the thickets or glades of the Holt. At present the deer of the Holt are much thin- ned and reduced by the night-hunters, who per- petually harass them, in spite of the efforts of nu- merous keepers, and the severe penalties that have been put in force against them as often as they have been detected, and rendered liable to the lash of the law. Neither fines nor imprisonment can deter them ; so impossible is it to extinguish the spirit of sporting, which seems to be inherent in human nature. General Howe turned out some German wild 30 SWALLOWS. boars and sows in his forests, to the great terror of the neighbourhood ; and, at one time, a wild bull, or buffalo ; but the country rose upon them, and destroyed them. A very large fall of timber, consisting of about one thousand oaks, has been cut this spring (viz. 1784) in the Holt Forest; one-fifth of which, it is said, belongs to the grantee, Lord Stawel. He lays claim also to the lop and top ; but the poor of the parishes of Binsted and Frinsham, Bentley and Kingsley, assert that it belongs to them : and, assembling in a riotous manner, have actually taken it all away. One man, who keeps a team, has carried home for his share forty stacks of wood. Forty-five of these people his lordship has served with actions. These trees, which were very sound, and in high perfection, were winter-cut, viz. in February and March, before the bark would run. In old times, the Holt was estimated to be eigh- teen miles, computed measure, from water-carriage, viz. from the town of Chertsey, on the Thames, but now it is not half that distance, since the "Wey is made navigable up to the town of Godalming, in the countv of Surrey. IT has been my misfortune never to have had any neighbours whose studies have led them to- wards the pursuit of natural knowledge ; so that, for want of a companion to quicken my industry and sharpen my attention, I have made but slender progress in a kind of information to which I have been attached from my childhood. As to swallows (hirundines rusticce) being found in a torpid state during the winter in the Isle of Wight, or any part of this country, I never heard COMMON SWALLOW. SWALLOWS. 31 any such account worth attending- to, But a clergyman, of an inquisitive turn, assures me, that when he was a great bo,y, some workmen, in pulling down the battlements of a church tower early in the spring, found two or three swifts (hirundines apodes) among the rubbish, which were, at first appearance, dead; but, on being carried toward the fire, revived. He told me that, out of his great care to preserve them, he put them in a paper bag, and hung them by the kitchen fire, where they were suffocated. Another intelligent person has informed me that, while he was a schoolboy at Brighthelmstone, in Sussex, a great fragment of the chalk cliff fell down one stormy winter on the beach, and that many people found swallows among the rubbish ; but, on my questioning him whether he saw any of those birds himself, to my no small disappoint - • ment he answered me in the negative, but that others assured him they did. Young broods of swallows began to appear this year on July the llth, and young martins (hirun- dines nrbicce) were then fledged in their nests. Both species will breed again once ; for I see by my Fauna of last year, that young broods came forth so late as September the 18th. Are not these late hatchings more in favour of hiding than migration ? Nay, some young martins remained in their nests last year so late as September the 29th ; and yet they totally disappeared with us by the 5th of October. How strange it is, that the swift, which seems to live exactly the same life with the swallow and house -martin, should leave us before the middle of August invariably ! while the latter stay often till the middle of October ; and once I saw numbers of house-martins on the 7th of November. The 32 THE FLY-CATCHER. martins and red-wing fieldfares were flying in sight together; an uncommon assemblage of summer and winter birds ! A little yellow bird (it is either a species of the alauda trivialis, or rather, perhaps, of the mota- cilla trochilus) still continues to make a sibilous {shivering noise in the tops of tall woods. The stoparola of Ray (for which we have as yet no name in these parts) is called, in your Zoology, the fly-catcher. There is one circumstance charac- teristic of this bird, which seems to have escaped observation ; and that is, it takes its stand on the top of some stake or post, from whence it springs forth on its prey, catching a fly in the air, and hardly ever touching the ground, but returning still to the same stand for many times together. I perceive there are more than one species of the motadlla trochilus : Mr. Derham supposes, in Ray's Philosophical Letters, that he has discovered three. In these, there is again an instance of some very common birds that have as yet no English name. Mr. Stillingfleet makes a question whether the black-cap (motadlla atricapilla) be a bird of passage or not. I think there is no doubt of it ; for, in April, in the first fine weather, they come troop- ing all at once into these parts,' but are never seen in the winter. They are delicate songsters. Numbers of snipes breed every summer in some moory ground on the verge of this parish. It is very amusing to see the cock bird on wing at that time, and to hear his piping and humming notes. I have had no opportunity yet of procuring any of those mice which I mentioned to you in town. The person that brought me the last says they are plenty in harvest, at which time I will take care WATER-RATS — THE FALCO. 33 to get more ; and will endeavour to put the matter out of doubt whether it be a nondescript species or not. I suspect much there may be two species of water-rats. Ray says, and Linnaeus after him, that the water-rat is web-footed behind . Now I have discovered a rat on the banks of our little stream that is not web-footed, and yet is an excellent swimmer and diver : it answers exactly to the mus amphibius, (See Syst. Nat.) which, he says, " natat infossis et urinatur." I should be glad to procure one " plantis palmatis." Linnaeus seems to be in a puzzle about his mus amphibius, and to doubt whether it differs from his mus terrestris ; which, if it be, as he allows, the " mus agrestis capite grandi brachyuros" of Ray, is widely dif- ferent from the water-rat, both in size, make, and manner of life. As to the falco, which I mentioned in town, 1 shall take the liberty to send it dow^n to you into Wales ; presuming on your candour, that you will excuse me if it should appear as familiar to you as it is strange to me. Though mutilated, " qualem dices . . . antehac fuisse, tales cum sint reliquiae !" It haunted a marshy piece of ground in quest of wild ducks and snipes ; but, when it was shot, had just knocked down a rook, which it was tearing in pieces. I cannot make it answer to any of our English hawks ; neither could I find any like it at the curious exhibition of stuffed birds in Spring Gardens. I found it nailed up at the end of a barn, which is the countryman's museum. The parish I live in is a very abrupt uneven! country, full of hills and woods, and therefore full' of birds. 34 HOOPOES. XL IT will not be without impatience that I shall wait for your thoughts with regard to the/a/co .- as to its weight, "breadth, &c., I wish I had set them down at the time ; but to the best of my remem- brance, it weighed two pounds and eight ounces, and measured, from wing to wing, thirty-eight inches. Its cere and feet were yellow, and the circle of its eyelids a bright yellow. As it had been killed some days, and the eyes were sunk, I could make no good observation on the colour of the pupils and the irides. The most unusual birds I ever observed in these parts were a pair of hoopoes, (upupa,) which came several years ago in the summer, and fre- quented an ornamented piece of ground, which joins to my garden, for some weeks. They used to march about in a stately manner, feeding in the walks, many times in the day: and seemed disposed to breed in my outlet ; but were frighted and persecuted by idle boys, who never lei them be at rest l. 1 Specimens have been killed at different times in this country, and instances are recorded of their having even bred ; the species, however, can only be placed among our occasional visitants. The specimen from which the figure in Mr. Selby's elegant Illustrations of British Ornithology was drawn, was taken on the coast near Bamborough Castle, Northumberland. Colonel Montague mentions a pair that began a nest in Hampshire, and Dr. Latham records a young hoopoe shot in the month of June. The species is abundantly met with in the south of Europe ; it also occurs in Holland, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. In the GROSS-BEAKS — FISH. 35 Three gross-beaks (loxia coccothraustes) ap- peared some years ago in my fields, in the winter ; one of which I shot. Since that, now and then, one is occasionally seen in the same dead season1. A cross -bill (loxia curvirostrd) was killed last year in this neighbourhood. Our streams, which are small, and rise only at the end of the village, yield nothing but the bull's- head or miller V thumb (gobius fluviatilis capitatus), the trout (trutta fluviatilis), the eel (anguillaf, winter it retires to Asia and Africa, where it is also a perma- nent resident. — W. J. One specimen was shot in the county of Dublin, and ano- ther in the county of Tiuperary, in 1828. — LOUDON'S Maga- zine.—W. J. 1 This also can only be placed as an occasional visitant, appearing most frequently in the southern counties of Eng- land, during hard and stormy winters. Mr. White (as we learn from the Naturalist's Calendar and Miscellaneous Ob- servations, published in a separate volume since the author's decease by Dr. Aikin, and to which we shall occasionally refer) met with this species at different times, and found it feeding on the stones of damson plums, which still remained on and about the trees in his garden. This species forms the type of the genus coccothraustes. — " On the 14th of May, 1828, the nest of a hawfinch was taken in an orchard belong- ing to Mr. Waring, at Chelsfield, Kent. The old female was shot on the nest, which was of a slovenly loose form, and shallow, not being so deep as those of the greenfinch or lin- net, and was placed against the large bough of an apple-tree, about ten feet from the ground. It was composed externally of dead twigs and a few roots, mixed with coarse white moss, or lichen, and lined with horse-hair and a little fine dried grass. The eggs were five in number, about the size of a skylark's, but shorter and rounder, and spotted with bluish ash and olive brown, some of the spots inclining to dusky or blackish brown. The markings were variously distributed on the different eggs." — J. C. LOUDON, Jour, of Nat. Hist. — W. J. 2 Mr. Yarrel of London, a most accurate and observant naturalist, in a late number of the Zoological Journal, hints D2 36 OWLS. the lampern (lampatra parva et fluviatilis) , &n.d the stickleback (pisciculus aculeatus). We are twenty miles from the sea, and almost as many from a great river, and therefore see but little of sea-birds. As to wild fowls, we have a few teams of ducks bred in the moors where the snipes breed ; and multitudes of widgeons and teals, in hard weather, frequent our lakes in the forest. Having some acquaintance with a tame brown owl, I find that it casts up the fur of mice, and the feathers of birds in pellets, after the manner of hawks : when full, like a dog, it hides what it cannot eat. The young of the barn-owl are not easily raised, as they want a constant supply of fresh mice ; whereas the young of the brown owl will eat indiscriminately all that is brought ; snails, rats, kittens, puppies, magpies, and any kind of carrion or offal. The house-martins have eggs still, and squab- young. The last swift I observed was about the 21st of August ; it was a straggler. Red-starts, fly-catchers, white-throats, and re- gull non cristati, still appear ; but I have seen no black- caps lately. I forgot to mention, that I once saw in Christ Church College quadrangle, in Oxford, on a very sunny warm morning, a house-martin flying about at the possibility of two species of eels being natives of this country. In this I certainly think Mr. Yarrel correct, their similarity rendering them easily confused. The species with which the London markets are supplied from Holland, may also be discovered, as our researches in the ichthyo- logy of Great Britain, so long comparatively neglected, become more frequent. The grig of Pennant, which seems to be Mr. Yarrel's second species, appears in the Thames, at Oxford, at a different season from the common eel. — W. J. BATS. 37 and settling on the parapet, so late as the 20th of November. At present, I know only two species of bats, the common vespertilio murinus and the vesper- tilio auribus.1 I was much entertained last summer with a tame bat, which would take flies out of a person's hand. If you gave it any thing to eat, it brought its wings round before the mouth, hovering and hiding its head in the manner of birds of prey when they feed. The adroitness it showed in shearing off the wings of the flies, which were always rejected, was worthy of observation, and pleased me much. Insects seemed to be most acceptable, though it did not refuse raw flesh when offered; so that the notion, that bats go down chimneys and gnaw men's bacon, seems no improbable story. While I amused myself with this wonderful quadruped, I saw it several times confute the vulgar opinion, that bats, when down on a flat surface, cannot get on the wing again, by rising with great ease from the floor. It ran, I observed, with more despatch than I was aware of ; but in a most ridiculous and grotesque manner. Bats drink on the wing, like swallows, by sip- ping the surface as they play over pools and streams. They love to frequent waters, not only for the sake of drinking, but on account of the insects, which are found over them in the greatest plenty. As I was going some years ago, pretty late, in a boat from Richmond to Sunbury, on a warm sum- mer's evening, I think I saw myriads of bats be- 1 Dr. Fleming, in his description of British animals, 1828, enumerates seven species included in the general rhinolophus, or those having membranes upon the nose ; vespertilio, com- prising our common bat ; and plecotus, those with large ears. — W. J. 38 MICE. tween the two places ; the air swarmed with them all along the Thames, so that hundreds were in sight at a time. XII. IT gave me no small satisfaction to hear that thefalco1 turned out an uncommon one. I must confess I should have heen better pleased to have heard that I had sent you a hird that you had never seen before ; but that, I find, would be a difficult task. I have procured some of the mice mentioned in my former letters, — a young one, and a female with young, both of which I have preserved in brandy. From the colour, shape, size, and manner of nesting, I make no doubt but that the species is nondescript. They are much smaller, and more slender, than the mus domesticus medius of Ray, and have more of the squirrel or dormouse colour. Their belly is white ; a straight line along their sides divides the shades of their back and belly. They never enter into houses ; are carried into ricks and barns with the sheaves ; abound in har- vest ; and build their nests amidst the straws of the corn above the ground, and sometimes in thistles. They breed as many as eight at a litter, in a little round nest composed of the blades of grass or wheat. One of these nests I procured this autumn, most artificially platted, and composed of the blades of wheat; perfectly round, and about the size of a cricket-ball ; with the aperture so inge- 1 This hawk proved to be the falco peregrinus — a va- riety. MICE GERMAN SILK-TAIL. 39 niously closed, that there was no discovering to what part it belonged. It was so compact and well filled, that it would roll across the table without being discomposed, though it contained eight little mice that were naked and blind. As this nest was perfectly full, how could the dam come at her litter respectively, so as to administer a teat to each? Perhaps she opens different places for that purpose, adjusting them again when the business is over : but she could not possibly be contained herself in the ball with her young, which, moreover, would be daily increasing in bulk. This wonderful procreant cradle, an elegant instance of the efforts of instinct, was found in a wheat field suspended in the head of a thistle. A gentleman, curious ir. birds, wrote me word that his servant had shot one last January, in that severe weather, which he believed would puzzle me. I called to see it this summer, not knowing what to expect; but the moment I took it in hand, I pronounced it the male garrulus Bohe- micus, or German silk-tail, from the five peculiar crimson tags, or points which it carries at the ends of five of the short remiges. It cannot, I suppose, with any propriety, be called an English bird ; and yet I see, by Ray's Philosophical Letters, that great flocks of them, feeding on haws, appeared in this kingdom, in the winter of 16851. The mention of haws puts me in mind that there 1 In 1810, large flocks of this species were dispersed through various parts of the kingdom ; and from that period, lew appear to have visited the island until February, 1822, when several occurred, and one was killed on the Calton Hill, Edinburgh. They appeared also during the severe storm of 1823, and several were killed in East Lothian in the winter of 1828.— W. J. 40 HAWS CANARY BIRD. is a total failure of that wild fruit, so conducive to the support of many of the winged nation. For the same severe weather, late in the spring, which cut off all the produce of the more tender and curious trees, destroyed also that of the more hardy and common. Some birds, haunting with the missel-thrushes, and feeding on the berries of the yew-tree, which answered to the description of the merula torquata, or ringousel, were lately seen in this neighbour- hood. I employed some people to procure me a specimen, but without success. See Letter VIII. Query — Might not Canary birds be naturalized to this climate, provided their eggs were put, in the spring, into the nests of some of their con- geners, as goldfinches, greenfinches, &c. ? Before winter, perhaps, they might be hardened, and able to shift for themselves. About ten years ago, I used to spend some weeks yearly at Sunbury, which is one of those pleasant villages lying on the Thames, near Hampton Court. In the autumn I could not help being much amused with those myriads of the swallow kind which assemble in those parts. But what struck me most was, that from the time they began to congregate, forsaking the chimneys and houses, they roosted every night in the osier-beds of the aits or islets of that river. Now, this resorting towards that element, at that season of the year, seems to give some countenance to the northern opinion (strange as it is) of their retiring under water. A Swedish naturalist is so much per- suaded of that fact, that he talks, in his Calendar of Flora, as familiarly of the swallow's going under water in the beginning of September, as he would of his poultry going to roost a little before sunset. An observing gentleman in London writes me SWALLOWS. 41 word, that he saw a house -martin, on the 23d of last October, flying in and out of its nest in the Borough ; and I myself, on the 29th of last Octo- ber, (as I was travelling through Oxford,) saw four or five swallows hovering round and settling on the roof of the County Hospital. Now, is it likely that these poor little birds (which, perhaps, had not been hatched but a few weeks) should, at that late season of the year, and from so midland a county, attempt a voyage to Goree or Senegal, almost as far as the equator l ? I acquiesce entirely in your opinion, that, though most of the swallow kind may migrate, yet some do stay behind and hide with us during the winter. As to the short- winged soft-billed birds, which come trooping in such numbers in the spring, I am at a loss even what to suspect about them. I watched them narrowly this year, and saw them abound till about Michaelmas, when they appeared no longer. Subsist they cannot openly among us, and yet elude the eyes of the inquisitive ; and as to their hiding, no man pretends to have found any of them in a torpid state in the winter. But with regard to their migration, what difficulties attend that supposition ! that such feeble bad fliers (who the summer long never flit but from hedge to hedge) should be able to traverse vast seas and continents, in order to enjoy milder se.asons amidst the regions of Africa ! XIII. As, in one of your former letters, you expressed the more satisfaction from my correspondence on 1 See Adamson's Voyage to Senegal. 42 CHAFFINCHES LINNETS. account of my living in the most southerly county ; so now I may return the compliment, and expect to have my curiosity gratified by your living much more to the north. For many years past I have observed, that towards Christmas, vast flocks of chaffinches have appeared in the fields — many more, I used to think, than could be hatched in any one neigh- bourhood. But, when I came to observe them more narrowly, I was amazed to find that they seemed to me to be almost all hens. I commu- nicated my suspicions to some intelligent neigh- bours, who, after taking pains about the matter, declared that they also thought them all mostly females ; at least fifty to one. This extraordinary occurrence brought to my mind the remark of Linnseus, that, " before winter, all their hen chaffinches migrate through Holland into Italy." Now I want to know, from some curious person in the north, whether there are any large flocks of these finches with them in the winter, and of which sex they mostly consist ? For, from such intelligence, one might be able to judge whether our female flocks migrate from the other end of the island, or whether they come over to us from the continent. We have, in the winter, vast flocks of the common linnets, more, I think, than can be bred in any one district. These, I observe, when the spring advances, assemble on some tree in the sunshine, and join all in a gentle sort of chirping, as if they were about to break up their winter quarters, and betake themselves to their proper summer homes. It is well known, at least, that the swallows and the fieldfares do congregate with a gentle twittering before they make their respective departure. 12 WHEATEAR AND WHIN-CHAT. BUNTING — WHEAT EAR. 43 You may depend on it that the bunting, em- beriza miliaria, does not leave this country in the winter. In January, 1767, 1 saw several dozens of them, in the midst of a severe frost, among the bushes on the downs near Andover : in our woodland enclosed districts it is a rare bird \ Wagtails, both white and yellow, are with us all the winter2. Quails crowd to our southern coast, and are often killed in numbers by people that go on purpose. Mr. Stillingfleet, in his Tracts, says, that " if the wheatear (ananthej doth not quit England, it certainly shifts places ; for about harvest they are not to be found where there was before great plenty of them." This will account for the vast quantities that are caught about that time on the south downs near Lewes, where they are esteemed a delicacy. There have been shepherds, I have been credibly informed, that have made many pounds in a season by catching them in traps. And though such multitudes are taken, I never saw (and I am well acquainted with those parts) above two or three at a time ; for they are never gregarious. They may perhaps migrate in general ; and, for that purpose, draw towards the coast of Sussex in autumn ; but that they do not all withdraw I am sure, because I see a few stragglers in many counties, at all times of the year, especially about warrens and stone quarries. 1 A proportion of the common buntings do not migrate, but we certainly receive a considerable number at the great general migration, at the commencement of winter, most probably from Sweden and Norway. They generally breed in and frequent unenclosed countries, and assemble in flocks during winter. — W. J. 2 Motacilla flava, yellow wagtail, is a summer bird of passage, arriving about the end of May, and leaving us about the end of August or middle of September. — W. J. 44 HARVEST MOUSE. I have no acquaintance at present antong the gentlemen of the navy, but have written to a friend, who was a sea-chaplain in the late war, desiring him to look into his minutes, with respect to birds that settled on their rigging during their voyage up or down the Channel. What Hassel- quist says on that subject is remarkable ; there were little short-winged birds frequently coming on board his ship all the way from our Channel quite up to the Levant, especially before squally weather. What you suggest with regard to Spain is highly probable. The winters of Andalusia are so mild, that, in all likelihood, the soft-billed birds that leave us at that season may find insects sufficient to support them there. Some young man, possessed of fortune, health, and leisure, should make an autumnal voyage into that kingdom, and should spend a year there, investigating the natural history of that vast country. Mr. Willoughby1 passed through that kingdom on such an errand; but he seems to have skirted along in a superficial manner and an ill humour, being much disgusted at the rude, dissolute manners of the people. I have no friend left now at Sunbury to apply to about the swallows roosting on the aits of the Thames ; nor can I hear any more about those birds which I suspected were merulce torquatte. As to the small mice2, I have farther to 1 See RAY'S Travels, p. 466. 2 The mus messorius of Shaw is the least of British quadrupeds. Mr. White has the merit of discovering it, and has added some interesting information regarding it in his different letters. The Rev. W. Bingley, in his Memoirs of British Quadrupeds, has the following very interesting remarks, illustrating the habits of an individual HARVEST MOUSE. 45 remark, that though they hang their nests for breeding up amidst the straws of the standing corn, for some time kept alive in his possession. " About the middle of September, 1804, I had a female harvest mouse given to me. It was put into a dormouse cage imme- diately when caught, and a few days afterwards produced eight young ones. I entertained some hope that the little animal would have nursed these, and brought them up, but having been disturbed in her removal, about four miles from the country, she began to destroy them, and I took them from her. The young ones, at the time I received them, (not more than two or three days old,) must have been at least equal in weight to the mother. After they were removed, she became reconciled to her situation ; and when there was no noise, would venture to come out of her hiding-place at the extremity of the cage, and climb about among the wires of the open part before me. In doing this, I remarked that her tail was prehensile, and that, to render her hold the more secure, she generally coiled the extremity of it round one of the wires. The toes of all the feet were particularly long and flexile, and she could grasp the wires very firmly with any of them. She frequently rested on her hind feet, somewhat in the manner of the jerboa, for the purpose of looking about her ; and, in this attitude, could extend her body at such an angle as at first greatly surprised me. She was a beautiful little animal, and her various attitudes, in cleaning her face, head, and body, with her paws, were peculiarly graceful and elegant. For a few days after I received this mouse, I neglected to give it any water ; but when I afterwards put some into the cage, she lapped it with great eagerness. After lapping, she always raised herself on her hind feet, and cleaned her head with her paws. She continued, even till the time of her death, exceedingly shy and timid, but whenever I put into the cage any favourite food, such as grains of wheat, or maize, she would eat them before me. On the least noise or motion, however, she immediately ran off, with the grains in her mouth, to her hiding-place. One evening, as I was sitting at my writing-desk, and the animal was playing about in the open part of its cage, a large blue fly happened to buzz against the wires ; the little creature, although at twice or thrice the distance of her own length from it, sprang along the wires with the greatest agility, and would 46 HARVEST MOUSE. above the ground, yet I find that, in the winter, they burrow deep in the earth, and make warm certainly have seized it, had the space betwixt the wires been sufficiently wide to have admitted her teeth or paws to reach it I was surprised at this occurrence, as I had been led to believe that the harvest mouse was merely a granivorous animal. I caught the fly, and made it buzz in my fingers against the wires. The mouse, though usually shy and timid, immediately came out of her hiding-place, and, running to the spot, seized and devoured it. From this time I fed her with insects whenever I could get them ; and she always preferred them to every other kind of food that I offered her. When this mouse was first put into her cage, a piece of fine flannel was folded up into the dark part of it as a bed, and I put some grass and bran into the large open part. In the course of a few days all the grass was removed ; and, on examining the cage, I found it very neatly arranged between the folds of the flannel, and rendered more soft by being mixed with the nap of the flannel, which the animal had torn off in con- siderable quantity for the purpose. The chief part of this operation must have taken place in the night ; for although the mouse was generally awake and active during the day- time, yet I never once observed it employed in removing the grass. On opening its nest about the latter end of October, 1804, I remarked that there were among the grass and wool at the bottom about forty grains of maize. These appeared to have been arranged with some care and regu- larity, and every grain had the corcule, or growing part, eaten out, the lobes only being left. This seemed so much like an operation induced by the instinctive propensity that some quadrupeds are endowed with for storing up food for support during the winter months, that I soon afterwards put into the cage about a hundred additional grains of maize. These were all in a short time carried away, and on a second examination I found them stored up in the manner of the former. But though the animal was well supplied with other food, and particularly with bread, which it seemed very fond of; and although it continued perfectly active through the whole winter, on examining its nest a third time, about the end of November, I observed that the food in its repository was all consumed except about half a dozen grains." — YT. J. HARVEST MOUSE DEER. 47 beds of grass ; but their grand rendezvous seems to be in corn ricks, into which they are carried at harvest. A neighbour housed an oat rick lately, under the thatch of which were assembled near .a hundred, most of which were taken ; and some I saw. I measured them, and found that, from nose to tail, they were just two inches and a quarter, and their tails just two inches long. Two of them, in a scale, weighed down just one copper halfpenny, which is about the third of an ounce avoirdupois ; so that I suppose they are the smallest quadrupeds in this island. A full- grown mus medius domesticus weighs, I find, one ounce, lumping weight, which is more than six times as much as the mouse above, and measures from nose to rump four inches and a quarter, and the same in its tail. We have had a very severe frost and deep snow this month. [Jan. 1768.] My thermometer was one day fourteen degrees and a half below the freezing point, within doors. The tender evergreens were injured pretty much. It was very providential that the air was still, and the ground well covered with snow, else vegetation in general must have suffered prodigiously. There is reason to believe that some days were more severe than any since the year 1739-40. XIV. IP some curious gentleman would procure the head of a fallow deer, and have it dissected, he would find it furnished with two spiracula, or breathing-places, besides the nostrils; probably analogous to the puncta lachrymalla in the human head. When deer are thirsty, they plunge their noses, like some horses, very deep under water 48 SPIRACULA OF ANIMALS. while in the act of drinking, and continue them in that situation for a considerable time; but, to obviate any inconveniency, they can open two vents, one at the inner corner of each eye, having a communication with the nose. Here seems to be an extraordinary provision of nature worthy our attention, and which has not, that I know of, been noticed by any naturalist. For it looks as if these creatures would not be suffocated, though both their mouths and nostrils were stopped. This curious formation of the head may be of singular service to beasts of chase, by affording them free respiration ; and no doubt these addi- tional nostrils are thrown open when they are hard run 1. Mr. Ray observed, that at Malta the owners slit up the nostrils of such asses as were hard worked ; for they, being naturally strait or small, did not admit air sufficient to serve them when they travelled or laboured in that hot climate. And we know that grooms and gentle- men of the turf, think large nostrils necessary, and a perfection, in hunters and running horses. Oppian, the Greek poet, by the following line, seems to have had some notion that stags have four spiracula : oi, piveg, TTiffvpeg Tr Quadrifidse nares, quadruplices ad respirationem canales." OPP. CYN. Lib. ii. 1, 181. 1 In answer to this account, Mr. Pennant sent me the following curious and pertinent reply : — "I was much surprised to find in the antelope something analogous to what you mention as so remarkable in deer. This animal also has a long slit beneath each eye, which can be opened and shut at pleasure. On holding an orange to one, the creature made as much use of those orifices as of his nostrils, applying them to the fruit, and seeming to smell it through them." WHITE ROOKS. 49 Writers, copying from one another, make Aris- totle say, that goats breathe at their ears, whereas he asserts just the contrary: — " AAtyicuwj' yap OVK aXrjdr) Xeyet, (bap-tvog ava.7rvf.LV TCIQ aiyaq Kara ra wra. — Alcmseon does not advance what is true, when he avers that goats breathe through their ears." — History of Animals. Book i. chap. xi. XV. SOME intelligent country people have a notion that we have, in these parts, a species of the genus mustelinum, besides the weasel, stoat, ferret, and polecat ; a little reddish beast, not much bigger than a field mouse, but much longer, which they call a cane. This piece of intelligence can be little depended on ; but farther inquiry may be made. A gentleman in this neighbourhood had two milk-white rooks in one nest. A booby of a | carter, finding them before they were able to fly, threw them down, and destroyed them, to the regret of the owner, who would have been glad to have preserved such a curiosity in his rookery. I saw the birds myself nailed against the end of a barn, and was surprised to find that their bills, legs, feet, and claws, were milk-white \ 1 The common rook, corvus fragile >gus, seems to be more subject to a white variation than its other British con- geners. Specimens entirely white are not often seen, but individuals with parts of the wings and tail pure white, occur in almost every rookery. A pair of magpies, entirely of a cream colour, were hatched at a farm-steading in Eskdale, Dumfries-shire, and, being much thought of by the tenant, were strictly preserved, and continued near the spot for many years,— W. J. E 50 BULLFINCH — CHAFFINCHES. A shepherd saw, as he thought, some white larks on a down above my house this winter; were not these the emberiza nivalis, the snow-flake of the Brit. Zool. ? No doubt they were. A few years ago, I saw a cock bullfinch in a cage, which had been caught in the ' fields after it was come to its full colours. In about a year, it began to look dingy, and blackening every succeeding year, it became coal-black at the end of four. Its chief food was hempseed. Such influence has food on the colour of animals ! The pied and mottled colours of domesticated animals are supposed to be owing to high, various, and unusual food. I had remarked, for years, that the root of the cuckoo -pint (arum) was frequently scratched out of the dry banks of hedges, and eaten in severe snowy weather. After observing, with some exactness, myself, and getting others to do the same, we found it was the thrush kind that searched it out. The root of the arum is remark- ably warm and pungent. Our flocks of female chaffinches have not yet forsaken us. The blackbirds and thrushes are very much thinned down by that fierce weather in January. In the middle of February I discovered, in my tall hedges, a little bird that raised my curiosity ; it was of that yellow- green colour that belongs to the salicaria kind, and, I think, was soft-billed. It was no parus, and was too long and too big for the golden- crowned wren, appearing most like the largest willow- wren. It hung sometimes with its back downwards, but never continuing one moment in the same place. I shot at it, but it was so desultory that I missed my aim. I wonder that the stone curlew, charadrius STONE CURLEW. 51 cedicnemus, should be mentioned by the writers as a rare bird ; it abounds in all the champaign parts of Hampshire and Sussex, and breeds, I think, all the summer, having young ones, I know, very late in the autumn. Already they begin clamouring in the evening. They cannot, I think, with any propriety, be called, as they are by Mr. Ray, " circa aquas versantes;" for with us, by day at least, they haunt only the most dry, open, upland fields and sheep-walks, far removed from water ; what they may do in the night I cannot say. Worms are their usual food, but they also eat toads and frogs. I can show you some good specimens of my new mice. Linnaeus perhaps would call the species mus minimus. XVI. THE history of the stone curlew, charadrius cedicnemus, is as follows : — It lays its eggs, usually two, never more than three, on the bare ground, without any nest, in the field, so that the countryman, in stirring his fallows, often destroys them. The young run immediately from the egg like partridges, &c., and are withdrawn to some flinty field by the dam, where they skulk among the stones, which are their best security ; for their feathers are so exactly of the colour of our grey spotted flints, that the most exact observer, unless he catches the eye of the young bird, may be eluded. The eggs are short and round, of a dirty white, spotted with dark bloody blotches. Though I might not be able, just when I pleased, to procure you a bird, yet I could show you them almost any day ; and any evening you may hear them round the village, for they make a clamour E 2 52 WILLOW-WREN. — GRASSHOPPER LARK. which may be heard a mile. (Edicnemus is a most apt and expressive name for them, since their legs seem swollen like those of a gouty man. After harvest I have shot them before the pointers in turnip-fields. I make no doubt but there are three species of the willow-wrens1 ; two I know perfectly, but have not been able yet to procure the third. No two birds can differ more in their notes, and that con- stantly, than those two that I am acquainted with-; for the one has a joyous, easy, laughing note, the other a harsh loud chirp. The former is every way larger, and three-quarters of an inch longer, and weighs two drachms and a half, while the latter weighs but two ; so that the songster is one- fifth heavier than the chirper. The chirper (being the first summer bird of passage that is heard, the wry-neck sometimes excepted,) begins his two notes in the middle of March, and continues them through the spring and summer till the end of August, as appears by my journals. The legs of the larger of these two are flesh-coloured ; of the less, black. The grasshopper lark began his sibilous note in my fields last Saturday2. Nothing can be more amusing than the whisper of this little bird, which seems to be close by, though at an hundred yards' distance ; and, when close at your ear, is scarce any louder than when a great way off. Had I not been a little acquainted with insects, and known 1 Sylvia trochilis, S. sibilatrix, and S. Mppolais, are the species found in Great Britain. Mr. White afterwards dis- covers three distinct species, but may probably confound S. hortensis, the greater petty-chaps, as one of them. — W. J. 2 Sylvia locustella, Lath. Grasshopper warbler, SELBY'S Ornith.—W. J. FLY-CATCHER. 53 that the grasshopper kind is not yet hatched, I should have hardly believed but that it had been a locusta whispering in the bushes. The country people laugh when you tell them that it is the note of a bird. It is the most artful creature, skulking in the thickest part of a bush, and will sing at a yard distance, provided it be concealed. I was obliged to get a person to go on the other side of the hedge where it haunted ; and then it would run, creeping like a mouse before us for an hundred yards together, through the bottom of the thorns, yet it would not come into fair sight ; but in a morning early, and when undisturbed, it sings on the top of a twig, gaping, and shivering with its wings. Mr. Ray himself had no knowledge of this bird, but received his account from Mr. Johnson, who apparently confounds it with the reguli non cristati, from which it is very distinct. See RAY'S Philos. Letters, p. 108. The fly-catcher (stoparola) has not yet appeared ; it usually breeds in my vine. The redstart be- gins to sing ; its note is short and imperfect, but is continued till about the middle of June. The wTillow-wrens (the smaller sort) are horrid pests in a garden, destroying the pease, cherries, cur- rants, &c., and are so tame that a gun will not scare them. 54 BIRDS OF PASSAGE. A List of the Summer Birds of Passage discovered in this neighbourhood, ranged somewhat in the order in which they appear. Linnaei Nomina. Smallest willow-wren, Motacilla trochilus. Wry-neck, Jynx torquilla. House-swallow, Hirundo rustica. Martin, Hirundo urbica. Sand-martin, Hirundo riparia. Cuckoo, Cuculus canorus. Nightingale, Motacilla luscinia. Blackcap, Motacilla atricapilla. Whitethroat, Motacilla sylvia. Middle willow-wren, Motacilla trochilus. Swift, Hirundo apus. Stone curlew ? Charadrius oedicnemus ? Turtle-dove ? Turtur Aldrovandi ? Grasshopper lark, Alauda trivialis. Landrail, Rallus crex. Largest willow-wren, Motacilla trochilus. Redstart, Motacilla phcenicurus. Goatsucker, or fern-owl, Caprimulgus europteus. Fly-catcher, Muscicapa grisola. My countrymen talk much of a bird that makes a clatter with its hill against a dead bough, or some old pales, calling it a jar-bird. I procured one to be shot in the very fact ; it proved to be the sitta Europcea (the nuthatch). Mr. Ray says, that the less spotted woodpecker does the same. This noise may be heard a furlong or more1. 1 The nuthatch, sitta Europeea, Linn., is the only species of the genus inhabiting Europe ; in this country it appears confined to England, never having been traced farther north than Northumberland. The following animated sketch, a good deal in the style of our author, I have extracted from Loudon's Journal of Natural History, as giving a correct idea of the manners of this curious species : — " I had never seen the little bird called the nuthatch, when one day, THE NUTHATCH. 55 Now is the only time to ascertain the short- winged summer birds ; for, when the leaf is out, when I was expecting the transit of some wood-pigeons under a birch tree, with my gun in my hand, I observed a little ash-coloured bird squat himself on one of the large lateral trunks over my head, and after some observation, began to tap loudly, or rather solidly, upon the wood, and then proceed round and round the branch, it being clearly the same thing to him whether his nadir or zenith were uppermost. I shot, and the bird fell ; there was a lofty hedge between us, and when I got over, he had removed himself. It was some time before I secured him ; and I mention this, because the man- ner in which he eluded me was characteristic of his cunning. He concealed himself in holes at the bottom of a ditch, so long as he heard the noise of motion ; and when all was still, he would scud out and attempt to escape. A wing was broken, and I at length got hold of him. He proved small, but very fierce, and his bite would have made a child cry out. The elbow joint of his wing being thoroughly shattered, and finding that he had no other wound, I cut off the dangling limb, and put him into a large cage with a common lark. The wound did not in the least diminish his activity, nor yet his pugnacity, for he instantly began to investigate all means of escape ; he tried the bores, then tapped the wood- work of the cage, and produced a knocking sound, which made the room re-echo ; but after finding his efforts vain, he then turned upon the lark, ran under him with his ga- ping beak to bite, and effectually alarmed his far more gentle and elegant antagonist. Compelled to separate them, the nuthatch (for this bird I discovered him to be, by turning over the leaves of an Ornithologia) was put into a smaller cage of plain oak wood and wire. Here he remained all night ; and the next morning his knocking, or tapping with his beak, was the first sound I heard, though sleeping in an apartment divided from the other by a landing place. He had food given to him, minced chicken and bread crumbs, and water. He ate and drank with a most perfect impudence, and the moment he had satisfied himself, turned again to his work of battering the frame of his cage, the sound from which, both in loudness and prolongation of noise, is only to be compared to the efforts of a fashionable footman, upon a fashionable door, in a fashionable square. He had a particular fancy for the extremities of the corner THE NUTHATCH. there is no making any remarks on such a restless tribe ; and, when once the young begin to appear, pillars of the cage ; on these he spent his most elaborate taps, and at this moment, though he only occupied the cage a day, the wood is pierced and worn like a piece of old worm-eaten timber. He probably had an idea, that if these main beams could once be penetrated, the rest of the super- structure would fall, and free him. Against the doorway he had also a particular spite, and once succeeded in opening it ; and when, to interpose a further obstacle, it was tied in a double knot with a string, the perpetual application of his beak quickly unloosed it. In ordinary cages, a circular hole is left in the wire for the bird to insert his head to drink from a glass ; to this hole the nuthatch constantly repaired, not for the purpose of drinking, but to try to push out more than his head, but in vain, for he is a thick bird, and rather heavily built ; but the instant he found the hole too small, he would withdraw his head, and begin to dig and hammer at the circle, where it is rooted in the wood, with his pick- axe of a beak, evidently with a design to enlarge the orifice. His labour was incessant, and he ate as largely as he worked ; and, I fear, it was the united effects of both that killed him. His hammering was peculiarly laborious, for he did not peck as other birds do, but, grasping his hold with his im- mense feet, he turned upon them as upon a pivot, and struck with the whole weight of his body, thus assuming the appearance, with his entire form, of the head of a hammer ; or, as I have sometimes seen birds, in mechanical clocks, made to strike the hour by swinging on a wheel. We were in hopes that when the sun went down, he would cease from his labours, and rest ; but no ; at the interval of every ten minutes, up to nine or ten in the night, he resumed his knocking, and strongly reminded us of the coffin-maker's nightly and dreary occupation. It was said by one of us, ' he is nailing his own coffin ;' and so it proved. An awful fluttering in the cage, now covered with a handkerchief, announced that something was wrong; and we found him at the bottom of his prison, with his fea- thers ruffled and nearly all turned back. He was taken out, and for some time he lingered away in convulsions, and occasional brightenings up. At length he drew his last gasp : and will it be believed, that tears were shed on his demise ? The fact is, that the apparent intelligence SNIPES — GOLDEN-CROWNED WREN. 57 it is all confusion ; there is no distinction of genus, species, or sex. In breeding-time, snipes play over the moors, piping and humming; they always hum as they are descending. Is not their hum ventriloquous, like that of the turkey ? Some suspect that it is made by their wings. This morning I saw the golden -crowned wren, whose crown glitters like burnished gold. It often hangs like a titmouse, with its back down- wards. XVII. Ox Wednesday last arrived your agreeable let- ter of June the 10th. It gives me great satisfac- tion to find that you pursue these studies still with such vigour, and are in such forwardness with re- gard to reptiles and fishes. The reptiles, few as they are, I am not ac- quainted with, so well as I could wish, with re- gard to their natural history. There is a degree of dubiousness and obscurity attending the propa- gation of this class of animals, something analo- gous to that of the cryptogamia in the sexual sys- tem of plants ; and the case is the same with re- gard to some of the fishes, as the eel, &c. The method in which toads procreate and bring forth, seems to be very much in the dark. Some authors say that they are viviparous ; and yet Ray of his character, the speculation in his eye, the assiduity of his labour, and his most extraordinary fearlessness and familiarity, though coupled with fierceness, gave us a con- sideration for him that may appear ridiculous to those who have never so nearly observed the ways of an animal as to feel interested in its fate. With us it was different." — W. J. 58 TOADS — FROGS. classes them among his oviparous animals, and is silent with regard to the manner of their bringing forth. Perhaps they may be tVw per woro/coi, t^w Se ZWOTOKOL, as is known to be the case with the viper *. The copulation of frogs (or at least the appear- ance of it, for Swammerdam proves that the male has no penis intrans,) is notorious to every body ; because we see them sticking upon each other's backs for a month together in the spring ; and yet I never saw, or read, of toads being observed in the same situation2. It is strange that the matter with regard to the venom of toads has not been yet settled. That they are not noxious to some animals is plain : for ducks, buzzards, owls, stone curlews, and snakes, eat them, to my knowledge, with impunity. And I well remember the time, but was not an eye-witness to the fact, (though numbers of persons were,) when a quack, at this village, ate a toad to make the country people stare : afterwards he drank oil. 1 Toads are oviparous. Mr. Bell of London, a zealous ophiologist, has lately confirmed the fact recorded by Schnei- der, that toads devour the skin which they shed. In one in- stance, he witnessed the whole process of the shedding of the cuticle: it became divided longitudinally along the back and the abdomen ; by the action of the hinder leg on one side, the skin was detached as far as the fore leg ; the same operation was next effected on the other side. The loosened exuvia were then drawn forward by the combined action of the mouth and of the anterior legs, and were immediately swal- lowed.— Zool. Jour. Mr. Bell adfls, that in others of the bactrachian reptiles, the ranee and salamandrtz, no swallow- ing of the exuvicR took place. — W. J. 2 The copulation of frogs and toads is performed in the same manner. The spermatic fluid is passed upon the ova at the time they are expelled from the female. The ova of the frog are laid in conglutinated masses ; those of the toad in long chain-like strings. The ova of the latter are also much smaller. — W. J. TOADS — FROGS. 59 I have been informed also, from undoubted au- thority, that some ladies (ladies, you will say, of peculiar taste) took a fancy to a toad, which they nourished, summer after summer, for many years, till he grew to a monstrous size, with the maggots, which turn to flesh flies. The reptile used to come forth every evening from a hole under the garden steps ; and was taken up, after supper, on the table to be fed. But at last a tame raven, kenning him as he put forth his head, gave him such a severe stroke with his horny beak as put out one eye. After this accident, the creature languished for some time and died. I need not remind a gentleman of your exten- sive reading of the excellent account there is from Mr. Derham, in Ray's Wisdom of God, in the Creation (p. 365), concerning the migration of frogs from their breeding ponds. In this account, he at once subverts that foolish opinion of their dropping from the clouds in rain ; showing that it is from the grateful coolness and moisture of those showers that they are tempted to set out on their travels, which they defer till those fall. Frogs are as yet in their tadpole state ; but in a few weeks, our lanes, paths, fields, will swarm for a few days with myriads of those emigrants, no larger than my little finger nail. Swammerdam gives a most accurate account of the method and situation in which the male impregnates the spawn of the female. How wonderful is the economy of Pro- vidence with regard to the limbs of so vile a rep- tile ! While it is an aquatic it has a fish-like tail, and no legs ; as soon as the legs sprout, the tail drops off as useless, and the animal betakes itself to the land ! Merret, I trust, is widely mistaken when he ad- 60 FROGS THE WATER-NEWT. vances that the rana arborea is an English reptile ; it abounds in Germany and Switzerland. It is to be remembered that the salamandra aquatica of Ray, (the water-newt, or eft,) will fre- quently bite at the angler's bait, and is often caught on his hook. I used to take it for granted that the salamandra aquatica was hatched, lived and died, in the water. But John Ellis, Esq. F.R.S. (the coralline Ellis) asserts, in a letter to the Royal Society, dated June the 5th, 1766, in his account of the mud inguana, an amphibious bipes from South Carolina, that the water-eft, or newt, is only the larva of the land- eft, as tadpoles are of frogs. Lest I should be suspected to mis- understand his meaning, I shall give it in his own words. Speaking of the opercula or coverings to the gills of the mud inguana, he proceeds to say, that " The form of these pennated coverings approaches very near to what I have some time ago observed in the larva or aquatic state of our English lacerta, known by the name of eft, or newt, which serve them for coverings to their gills, and for fins to swim with while in this state ; and which they lose, as well as the fins of their tails, when they change their state, and become land animals, as I have observed, by keeping them alive for some time myself1." 1 Mr. Ellis is right. The young of the triton palustris and aquaticus of Fleming, salamandra exigua and platicauda of Dr. Rusconi, remain in a tadpole, or comparatively imperfect, state for some time after exclusion from the egg, arid undergo several metamorphoses previous to arriving at maturity. Dr. Rusconi says, the young of salamandra platicauda is not capable to reproduce for three years. See some very interest- ing information upon the transformation of these animals, in a long paper published at Pavia by Mauro Rusconi, on the natural history and structure of the aquatic salamander. — W. J. VIPERS. 61 Linnaeus, in his Sy sterna Naturce, hints at what Mr. Ellis advances, more than once. Providence has been so indulgent to us as to allow of but one venomous reptile of the serpent kind in these kingdoms, and that is the viper. As you propose the good of mankind to be an object of your publications, you will not omit to mention common salad oil as a sovereign remedy against the bite of the viper. As to the blind worm, (anguis fragilis, so called because it snaps in sunder with a small blow,) I have found, on examination, that it is perfectly innocuous. A neighbouring yeoman (to whom I am indebted for some good hints) killed and opened a female viper about the 27th of May ; he found her filled with a chain of eleven eggs, about the size of those of a blackbird ; but none of them were advanced so far towards a state of maturity as to contain any rudiments of young. Though they are oviparous, yet they are viviparous also, hatching their young within their bellies, and then bringing them forth. Whereas snakes lay chains of eggs every summer in my melon beds, in spite of all that my people can do to prevent them ; which eggs do not hatch till the spring following, as I have often expe- rienced. Several intelligent folks assure me, that they have seen the viper open her mouth and admit her helpless young down her throat on sudden surprises, just as the female opossum does her brood into the pouch under her belly, upon the like emergencies ; and yet the London viper catchers insist on it, to Mr. Barrington, that no such thing ever happens. The serpent kind eat, I believe, but once in a year ; or, rather, but only just at one season of the year. Country people talk much of a water-snake, but, I am pretty sure, STICKLEBACKS. * without any reason ; for the common snake (coluber natrix) delights much to sport in the water, per- haps with a view to procure frogs and other food. I cannot well guess how you are to make out your twelve species of reptiles1, unless it be by the various species, or rather varieties, of ouFI&cerfa*, of which Ray enumerates five. I have not had opportunity of ascertaining these, but remember well to have seen, formerly, several beautiful green lacerti on the sunny sandbanks near Farnham, in Surrey ; and Ray admits there are such in Ireland. XVIII. I RECEIVED your obliging and communicative letter of June the 28th, while I was on a visit at a gentleman's house, where I had neither books to turn to, nor leisure to sit down, to return you an answer to many queries, which I wanted to resolve in the best manner I am able. A person, by my order, has searched our brooks, but could find no such fish as the gasterosteus pungi- tius ; he found the gasterosteus aculeatus in plenty. This morning, in a basket, I packed a little earthen pot full of wet moss, and in it some sticklebacks, male and female, the females big with spawn ; some lamperns ; some bull-heads ; but I could procure no minnows. This basket will be in Fleet- street by eight this evening ; so I hope Mazel will have them fresh and fair to-morning morning. I gave 1 Dr. Fleming enumerates just twelve species, of which one, the Natrix Dumfrisiensis, seems to be of very dubious authority as a species. I think it very probable that there may be more than one species of lacerta yet undiscovered, which will make up the number. — W. J. LAMPERNS LOACHES. 63 some directions, in a letter, to what particulars the engraver should be attentive1. Finding, while I was on a visit, that I was within a reasonable distance of Ambresbury, I sent a ser- vant over to that town and procured several living specimHas of loaches, which he brought, safe and brisk, in a glass decanter. They were taken in the gulleys that were cut for watering the meadows. From these fishes (which measured from two to four inches in length) I took the following description : " The loach, in its general aspect, has a pellucid appearance ; its back is mottled with irregular collections of small black dots, not reaching much below the linea lateralis, as are the back and tail fins ; a black line runs from each eye down to the nose ; its belly is of a silvery white ; the upper jaw projects beyond the lower, and is surrounded with six feelers, three on each side ; its pectoral fins are large, its ventral much smaller; the fin behind its anus small ; its dorsal fin large, con- taining eight spines ; its tail, where it joins to the tail fin, remarkably broad, without any taperness, 1 The manner in which the common lamprey, petromyzon marinus, and the lesser species, commonly known as lam- perns, form their spawning-beds, is curious. They ascend our rivers to breed about the end of June, and remain until the beginning of August. They are not furnished with any elongation of jaw, afforded to most of our fresh water fish, to form the receiving furrows in this important season ; but the want is supplied by their sucker-like mouth, by which they individually remove each stone. Their power is immense. Stones of a very large size are trans- ported, and a large furrow is soon formed. The lampreys remain in pairs, two on each spawning place, and while there employed, retain themselves affixed by the mouths to a large stone. The patromyzonftuviatilis, or river-lamprey, and another small species which I have not determined, are gre- garious, acting in concert, and forming, in the same manner, a general spawning bed. — W. J. 64 WATER-EFT. so as to be characteristic of this genus ; the tail fin is broad, and square at the end. From the breadth and muscular strength of the tail, it appears to be an active nimble fish." In my visit I was not very far from Hungerford, and did not forget to make some inquiries con- cerning the wonderful method of curing cancers by means of toads. Several intelligent persons, both gentry and clergy, I find, give a great deal of credit to what was asserted in the papers ; and I myself dined with a clergyman who seemed to be persuaded that what is related is matter of fact ; but, when I came to attend to his account, I thought I discerned circumstances which not a little invalidated the woman's story of the manner in which she came by her skill. She says of herself, " that, labouring under a virulent cancer, she went to some church where there was a vast crowd : on going into a pew, she was accosted by a strange clergyman, who, after expressing compassion for her situation, told her, that if she would make such an application of living toads as is mentioned, she would be well." Now, is it likely that this unknown gentleman should express so much ten- derness for this single sufferer, and not feel any for the many thousands that daily languish under this terrible disorder ? Would he not have rn^de use of this invaluable nostrum for his own emolument ; or, at least, by some means of publication or other, have found a method of making it public for the good of mankind ? In short, this woman (as it appears to me) having set up for a cancer doctress, finds it expedient to amuse the country with this dark and mysterious relation. The water-eft has not, that I can discern, the least appearance of any gills ; for want of which it is continually rising to the surface of the water WILLOW-LARK. 65 to take in fresh air. I opened a big-bellied one, indeed, and found it full of spawn. Not that this circumstance at all invalidates the assertion that they are larva: for the larvts of insects are full of eggs, which they exclude the instant they enter their last state. The water-eft is continually climb- ing over the brims of the vessel, within which we keep it in water, and wandering away ; and people every summer see numbers crawling out of the pools where they are hatched, up the dry banks. There are varieties of them, differing in colour; and some have fins up their tail and back, and some have not1. XIX. I HAVE now, past dispute, made out three distinct species of the willow-wrens, (motacillce trochili,) which constantly and invariably use distinct notes. But, at the same time, I am obliged to confess that I know nothing of your willow-lark2. In my letter of April the 18th, I had told you peremptorily that I knew your willow-lark, but had not seen it then ; but, when I came to procure it, it proved, in all respects, a very • motacilla trochilus; only that it is a size larger than the two other, and the yellow-green of the whole upper part of the body is more vivid, and the belly of a clearer white. I have specimens of the three sorts now lying before me ; and can discern that there are three gradations of sizes, and that the least has black legs, and the other 1 The fins, or membrane on the tail and back, increase greatly at the season of generation ; at other times they are hardly perceptible. — W. J. * Brit. Zool. edit. 1776, octavo, p. 38L F 66 SANDPIPER. two flesh-coloured ones. The yellowest bird is considerably the largest, and has its quill feathers and secondary feathers tipped with white, which the others have not. This last haunts only the tops of trees in high beechen woods, and makes a sibilous grasshopper-like noise now and then, at short intervals, shivering a little with its wings when it sings ; and is, I make no doubt now, the regulus non cristatus of Ray; which he says, " cantat voce striduld locusta V Yet this great ornithologist never suspected that there were three species. XX. IT is, I find, in zoology as it is in botany ; all nature is so full, that that district produces the greatest variety which is the most examined. Several birds, which are said to belong to the north only, are, it seems, often in the south. I have discovered this summer three species of birds with us, which writers mention as only to be seen in the northern counties. The first that was brought me (on the 14th of May) was the sandpiper, tringa hypoleucus ; it was a cock bird, and haunted the banks of some ponds near the village ; and, as it had a companion, doubtless intended to have bred near that water. Besides, the owner has told me since, that, on recollection, he has seen some of the same birds round his ponds in former summers 2. 1 Without doubt, sylvia sibilatrix. or wood-wren. — W. J. 2 This species, the totanus hypoleucus of modern orni- thologists, is most abundant on all the rocky brooks in the north of England and Scotland, arriving to breed early in spring, and in autumn again retiring to our coasts, in small BUTCHER-BIRD RINGOUSELS, 67 The next bird that I procured (on the 21st of May) was a male red-backed butcher bird, lanius collurio. My neighbour, who shot it, says that it might easily have escaped his notice, had not the outcries and chattering of the white-throats and other small birds drawn his attention to the bush where it was ; its craw was filled with the legs and wings of beetles. The next rare birds (which were procured for me last week) were some ringousels, (turdi torquati 1.) This week twelvemonths a gentleman from London, being with us, was amusing himself with a gun, and found, he told us, on an old yew- hedge, where there were berries, some birds like blackbirds, with rings of white round their necks : a neighbouring farmer also at the same time observed the same ; but, as no specimens were procured, little notice was taken. I mentioned this circumstance to you in my letter of November the 4th, 1767 : (you, however, paid but small regard to what I said, as I had not seen these birds myself:) but last week the aforesaid farmer, seeing a large flock, twenty or thirty of these birds, shot two cocks and two hens ; and says, on recollection, that he remembers to have observed flocks, with its young. About October, they are again dispersed, migrating to warmer shores. I have received specimens from Africa, the Delft Islands, and various parts of India and China. — W. J. 1 Before migrating to their winter quarters, and often ere the duties of incubation are over, they leave their mountainous haunts, and descend to the nearest gardens, where they commit severe depredations among the cherries, gooseberries, &c. They also frequent holly hedges and the mountain ash, whenever the fruit of these trees is so early as to be of service during their passage. They are known to the country people under the title of " Mountain Blackbirds." — W. J. F2 68 RINGOUSELS LIZARD. these birds again last spring, about Lady-day, as it were, on their return to the north. Now, perhaps these ousels are not the ousels of the north of England, but belong to the more northern parts of Europe ; and may retire before the excessive rigour of the frosts in those parts ; and return to breed in spring when the cold abates. If this be the case, here is discovered a new bird of winter passage, concerning whose migrations the writers are silent; but if these birds should prove the ousels of the north of England, then here is a migration disclosed within our own kingdom never before remarked. It does not yet appear whether they retire beyond the bounds of our island to the south ; but it is most probable that they usually do, or else one cannot suppose that they would have continued so long unnoticed in the southern counties. The ousel is larger than a blackbird, and feeds on haws ; but last autumn (when there were no haws) it fed on yewberries : in the spring it feeds on ivy-berries, which ripen only at that season, in March and April. I must not omit to tell you (as you have been so lately on the study of reptiles) that my people, every now and then, of late, draw up with a bucket of water from my well, which is 63 feet deep, a large black warty lizard, with a fin-tail and yellow belly. How they first came down at that depth, and how they were ever to have got out thence without help, is more than I am able to say. My thanks are due to you for your trouble and care in the examination of a buck's head. As far as your discoveries reach at present, they seem much to coiToborate my suspicions ; and I hope Mr. may find reason to give his decision in my favour ; and then, I think, we may advance this extraordinary provision of nature as a •s RING OUZEL. STONE CURLEW. 69 new instance of the wisdom of God in the crea- tion. As yet I am not quite done with my history of the cedicnemus, or stone curlew ; for I shall desire a gentleman in Sussex (near whose house these birds congregate in vast flocks in the autumn) to observe nicely when they leave him, (if they do leave him,) and when they return again in the spring : I was with this gentleman lately, and saw several single birds. XXL WITH regard to the cedicnemus, or stone curlew, I intend to write very soon to my friend near Chichester, in whose neighbourhood these birds seem most to abound ; and shall urge him to take particular notice when they begin to congregate, and afterward to watch them most narrowly whether they do not withdraw themselves during the dead of the winter. When I have obtained information with respect to this circumstance, I shall have finished my history of the stone curlew, which I hope will prove to your satisfaction, as it will be, I trust, very near the truth. This gen- tleman, as he occupies a large farm of his own, and is abroad early and late, will be a very pro- per spy upon the motions of these birds ; and besides, as I have prevailed on him to buy the Naturalist's Journal, (with which he is much delighted,) I shall expect that he will be very exact in his dates. It is very extraordinary, as you observe, that a bird so common with us should never straggle to you1. 1 This species is extremely local, being scarcely found out of Hampshire, Norfolk, and one or two of the eastern coun- ties of England— W. J. 70 JACK-DAWS. And here will be the properest place to men- tion, while I think of it, an anecdote which the above-mentioned gentleman told me when I was last at his house ; which was, that in a warren joining to his outlet, many daws (corvi monidulce) build every year in the rabbit burrows under ground. The way he and his brothers used to take their nests, while they were boys, was by listening at the mouths of the holes, and if they heard the young ones cry, they twisted the nest out with a forked stick. Some water-fowls (viz. the puffins) breed, I know, in this manner ; but I should never have suspected the daws of building in holes on the flat ground. Another very unlikely spot is made use of by daws as a place to breed in, and that is Stone- henge. These birds deposit their nests in the inter- stices between the upright and the impost stones of that amazing work of antiquity ; which circum- stance alone speaks the prodigious height of the upright stones, that they should be tall enough to secure those nests from the annoyance of shepherd boys, who are always idling round that place. One of my neighbours last Saturday, November the 26th, saw a martin in a sheltered bottom ; the sun shone warm, and the bird was hawking briskly after flies. I am now perfectly satisfied that they do not all leave this island in the winter. You judge very right, I think, in speaking with reserve and caution concerning the cures done by toads ; for, let people advance what they will on such subjects, yet there is such a propensity in mankind towards deceiving and being deceived, that one cannot safely relate any thing from com- mon report, especially in print, without expressing some degree of doubt and suspicion. JACK-DAW. RINGOUSEL. 71 Your approbation, with regard to my new discovery of the migration of the ringousel, gives me satisfaction ; and I find you concur with me in suspecting that they are foreign birds which visit us. You will be sure, I hope, not to omit to make inquiry whether your ringousels leave your rocks in the autumn. What puzzles me most, is the very short stay they make with us, for in about three weeks they are all gone. I shall be very curious to remark whether they will call on us at their return in the spring, as they did last year. I want to be better informed with regard to ichthyology. If fortune had settled me near the sea- side, or near some great river, my natural propensity would soon have urged me to have made myself acquainted with their productions ; but as I have lived mostly in inland parts, and in an upland district, my knowledge of fishes extends little farther than to those common sorts which our brooks and lakes produce. XXII. As to the peculiarity of jack-daws building with us under the ground, in rabbit burrows, you have, in part, hit upon the reason ; for, in reality, there are hardly any towers or steeples in all this country. And perhaps, Norfolk excepted, Hamp- shire and Sussex are as meanly furnished with churches as almost any counties in the kingdom. We have many livings of two or three hundred pounds a-year, whose houses of worship make little better appearance than dovecots. When I first saw Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire, and the Fens of Lincolnshire, 7£ TOADS — GREEN LIZARD. I was amazed at the number of spires, which presented themselves in every point of view. As an admirer of prospects, I have reason to lament this want in my own country, for such objects j i are very necessary ingredients in an elegant J \ landscape. What you mention with respect to reclaimed toads raises my curiosity. An ancient author, though no naturalist, has well remarked, that " Every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed, of mankind1." It is a satisfaction to me to find that a green lizard has actually been procured for you in Devonshire, because it corroborates my discovery, which I made many years ago, of the same sort, on a sunny sandbank near Farnham, in Surrey. I am well acquainted with the south hams of Devonshire, and can suppose that district, from its southerly situation, to be a proper habitation for such animals in their best colours. Since the ringousels of your vast mountains do certainly not forsake them against winter, our suspicions that those which visit this neighbour- hood about Michaelmas are not English birds, but driven from the more northern parts of Europe by the frosts, are still more reasonable ; and it will be worth your pains to endeavour to trace from whence they come, and to inquire why they make so very short a stay. In your account of your error with regard to the two species of herons, you incidentally gave me great entertainment in your description of the heronry at Cressi-hall, which is a curiosity I never could manage to see. Fourscore nests of such a 1 James, chap. iii. 7- GOATSUCKER . HERONS — GOATSUCKER. 73 bird on one tree is a rarity which I would ride half as many miles to have a sight of. Pray be sure to tell me in your next whose seat Cressi- hall is, and near what town it lies1. I have often thought that those vast extent of fens have never been sufficiently explored. If half-a-dozen gentlemen, furnished with a good strength of water- spaniels, were to beat them over for a week, they would certainly find more species. There is no bird, I believe, whose manners I have studied more than that of the cuprimulgus , (the goat- sucker,) as it is a wonderful and curious creature : but I have always found, that though sometimes it may chatter as it flies, as I know it does, yet in general it utters its jarring note sit- ting on a bough ; and I have for many an half hour watched it as it sat with its under mandible quivering, and particularly this summer. It perches usually on a bare twig, with its head lower than its tail, in an attitude well expressed by your draughtsman in the folio British Zoology. This bird is most punctual in beginning its song exactly at the close of day; so exactly, that I have known it strike up more than once or twice just at the report of the Portsmouth evening gun, which we can hear when the weather is still. It appears to me past all doubt, that its notes are formed by organic impulse, by the powers of the parts of its windpipe, formed for sound, just as cats pur. You will credit me, I hope, when I assure you, that, as my neighbours were assembled in an hermitage on the side of a steep hill where we drank tea, one of these churn-owls came and settled on the cross of that little straw edifice and began to chatter, and continued his note for many 1 Cressi-hall is near Spalding, in Lincolnshire. 74 GOAT-SUCKER. minutes ; and we were all struck with wonder to find that the organs of that little animal, when put in motion, gave a sensible vibration to the whole building ! This bird also sometimes makes a small squeak, repeated four or five times ; and I have observed that to happen when the cock has been pursuing the hen in a toying manner through the boughs of a tree1. 1 Mr. White's excellent description of this curious species, in the present and subsequent letters, is only equalled by those of a most accurate American ornithologist, whose deli- neations of the manners of the different species that oc- curred to him, ought to be examined as models by every describing naturalist. Mr. Wilson thus beautifully describes the calling of the Whip-poor-will of the Americans : " On or about the 25th of April, if the season be not uncommonly cold, the Whip-poor-will is heard in Pennsylvania, in the evening, as the dusk of twilight commences, or in the morning, as soon as dawn has broke. The notes of this solitary bird, from the ideas which are naturally associated with them, seem like the voice of an old friend, and are listened to by almost all with great interest. At first they issue from some retired part of the woods, the glen, or mountain ; in a few evenings, perhaps, we hear them from the adjoining coppice, the garden fence, the road before the door, and even the roof of the dwell- ing-house, hours after the family have retired to rest. Some of the more ignorant and superstitious consider this near ap- proach as foreboding no good to the family, nothing less than the sickness, misfortune, or death, of some of its members. Every morning and evening, his shrill and rapid repetitions are heard from the adjoining woods ; and when two or more are calling at the same time, as is often the case in the pair- ing season, and at no great distance from each other, the noise, mingling with the echoes from the mountains, is really surprising. Strangers, in parts of the country where these birds are numerous, find it almost impossible for some time to sleep : while to those long acquainted with them, the sound often serves as a lullaby, to assist their repose. The notes seem pretty plainly to articulate the words which have been generally applied to them, ' Whip-poor-will,'' the first and last syllables being uttered with great emphasis, and the whole in about a second to each repetition ; but when two BATS. t O It would not be at all strange if your bat, which you have procured, should prove a new one, since five species have been found in a neighbouring kingdom. The great sort that I mentioned is certainly a nondescript : I saw but one this summer, and that I had no opportunity of taking. Your account of the Indian grass was enter- taining. I am no angler myself; but inquiring of those that are, what they supposed that part of their tackle to be made of, they replied, " of the intestines of a silkworm." Though I must not pretend to great skill in entomology, yet I cannot say that I am ignorant of that kind of knowledge ; I may now and then perhaps be able to furnish you with a little infor- mation. The vast rain ceased with us much about the same time as with you, and since, we have had delicate weather. Mr. Barker, who has measured the rain for more than thirty years, says in a late letter, that more rain has fallen this year than in any he ever attended to ; though, from July, 1763, to January, 1764, more fell than in any seven months of this year. or more males meet, their whip-poor-will altercations be- come much more rapid and incessant, as if each were strain- ing to overpower or silence the other. When near, you often hear an introductory cluck between the notes. At these times, as well as almost at all others, they fly low, not more than a few feet from the surface, skimming about the house, and before the door, alighting on the wood- pile, or settling on the roof. Towards midnight they gene- rally become silent, unless in clear moonlight, when they are heard with little intermission till morning." — W. J. 76 LIZARDS. XXIII. IT is not improbable that the Guernsey lizard and our green lizards may be specifically the same ; all that I know is, that when, some years ago, many Guernsey lizards were turned loose in Pem- broke college garden, in the university of Oxford, they lived a great while, and seemed to enjoy themselves very well, but never bred. Whether this circumstance will prove any thing either way I shall not pretend to say. I return you thanks for your account of Cressi- hall ; but recollect, not without regret, that in June, 1746, I was visiting for a week together at Spalding, without ever being told that such a curiosity was just at hand. Pray send me word in your next what sort of tree it is that contains such a quantity of herons' nests; and whether the heronry consist of a whole grove or wood, or only of a few trees. It gave me satisfaction to find we accorded so well about the caprimulgus; all I contended for was to prove that it often chatters sitting as well as flying, and therefore the noise was voluntary, and from organic impulse, and not from the resistance of the air against the hollow of its mouth and throat. If ever I saw any thing like actual migration, it was last Michaelmas-day *. I was travelling, 1 The subject of migration appears to have been a very favourite one with our author, occupying the greater part of many of his subsequent letters, and evidently often the subject of his private thoughts. He sometimes seems puzzled with regard to the possibility of many of the migrating species being able to undergo the fatigue of long or continued journeys ; and often wishes almost to believe, MIGRATING BIRDS. and out early in the morning : at first there was a vast fog, but, by the time that I was got seven or eight miles from home towards the coast, the though contrary to his better judgment, that some of these enter into a regular torpidity. We find torpidity occurring among animals, fishes, the amphibiae, and reptiles, and among insects ; but we have never found any authenticated instance of this provision taking place among birds. Their frames are adapted to a more extensive locomotive power ; and the changes to climates more congenial to their con- stitutions, preventing the necessity of any actual change in the system, is supplied to those animals deprived of the power for extensive migration, by a temporary suspension of the most of the faculties, which, in other circumstances, would be entirely destroyed. Birds, it is true, are occa- sionally found in holes, particularly our summer birds of passage, in what has been called a torpid state, and have revived upon being placed in a warmer temperature ; but this, I consider, has always been a suspended animation, where all the functions were entirely bound up as in death, and which, by the continuance of a short period, would have caused death itself — not torpidity, where various functions and 'secretions, capable for a time of sustaining the frame, are still going on. The possibility of performing long journeys, as we must believe some species are obliged to do before arriving at their destination, at first appears nearly incredible ; but when brought to a matter of plain calculation, the difficulty is much diminished. The flight of birds may be estimated at from 50 to 150 miles a'n hour ; and if we take a medium of this as a rate for the migrating species, we shall have little difficulty in reconciling the possibility of their flights. This, however, can only be applied to such species as, in their migrations, have to cross some vast extent of ocean, without a resting place. Many that visit this country, particularly those from Africa, merely skirt the coast, crossing at the narrowest parts, and again progressively advancing, until they reach their final quarters ; and during this time having their supply of suitable food daily augmented. The causes influencing the migration of birds appear more difficult to solve, than the possibility of the execution of it. They seem to be influenced by an innate law, 78 SWALLOWS. sun broke out into a delicate warm day. We were then on a large heath or common, and I could discern, as the mist began to break away, great numbers of swallows (hirundines rustics) clustering on the stunted shrubs and bushes, as if they had roosted there all night. As soon as the air became clear and pleasant, they were all on the wing at once; and, by a placid and easy flight, proceeded on southward, towards the sea : after this I did not see any more flocks, only now and then a straggler. I cannot agree with those persons that assert, that the swallow kind disappear some and some, gradually, as they come, for the bulk of them seem to withdraw at once ; only some stragglers stay behind a long while, and do never, there is the greatest reason to believe, leave this island. Swallows seem to lay themselves up, and to come forth in a warm day, as bats do continually of a warm evening, after they have disappeared for weeks. For a very respectable gentleman assured me, that, as he was walking with some friends under Merton-wall, on a remarkably hot noon, either in the last week in December, or the first week in January, he espied three or four swallows huddled together on the moulding of one of the which we do not, and cannot, comprehend, though in some measure dependent on the want of food or climate con- genial to the system of each, and which acts almost without the will of the individual. Neither this, however, nor the duties incumbent on incubation, can be the only exciting causes, as we may judge by the partial migrations of some to different parts of the same country, where food and the conveniences for breeding are alike ; by the partial migration only, of a species from one country to another, differing decidedly in temperature, and where the visiting species thrives equally with the resident one ; and by the males of some species migrating, while the females re- main.— W. J. 12 SWALLOWS RINGOUSELS. 79 windows of that college. I have frequently re- marked that swallows are seen later at Oxford than elsewhere ; is it owing to the vast, massy buildings of that place, to the many waters round it, or to what else ? When I used to rise in a morning last autumn, and see the swallows and martins clustering on the chimneys and thatch of the neighbouring cottages, I could not help being touched with a secret delight, mixed with some degree of morti- fication : with delight, to observe with how much ardour and punctuality those poor little birds obeyed the strong impulse towards migration, or hiding, imprinted on their minds by their great Creator ; and with some degree of mortification, when I reflected that, after all our pains and inquiries, we are yet not quite certain to what regions they do migrate ; and are still farther embarrassed to find that some do not actually migrate at all. These reflections made so strong an impression on my imagination, that they became productive of a composition that may perhaps amuse you for a quarter of an hour when next I have the honour of writing to you. XXIV. THE srarab&us fullo I know very well, having seen it in collections ; but have never been able to discover one wild in its natural state. Mr. Banks told me he thought it might be found on the sea-coast. On the 13th of April, I went to the sheep- down, where the ringousels have been observed 80 SALICARIA. to make their appearance at spring and fall, in their way, perhaps, to the north or south ; and was much pleased to see three birds about the usual spot. We shot a cock and a hen; they were plump and in high condition. The hen had but very small rudiments of eggs within her, which proves they are late breeders ; whereas those species of the thrush kind that remain with us the whole year have fledged young before that time. In their crops was nothing very distin- guishable, but somewhat that seemed like blades of vegetables nearly digested. In autumn they feed on haws and yew-berries, and in the spring on ivy-berries. I dressed one of these birds, and found it juicy and well-flavoured. It is remark- able that they make but a few days' stay in their spring visit, but rest near a fortnight at Michael- mas. These birds, from the observations of three springs, and two autumns, are most punctual in their return ; and exhibit a new migration unnoticed by the writers, who supposed they never were to be seen in any of the southern counties. One of my neighbours lately brought me a new salicaria, which, at first, I suspected might have proved your willow-lark1, but on a nicer exami- nation, it answered much better to the description of that species which you shot at Revesby, in Lincolnshire. My bird I describe thus : " It is a size less than the grasshopper lark ; the head, back, and covert of the wings, of a dusky brown, without those dark spots of the grasshopper lark ; over each eye is a milk-white stroke ; the chin and throat are white, and the under parts of a yellowish white ; the rump is tawny, and the feathers of the tail sharp pointed ; the bill is dusky J For this salicaria, see Letter XXV, p. 89. SAL1CARIA. 81 and sharp, and the legs are dusky, the hinder claw long and crooked1." The person that shot it says that it sung so like a reed-sparrow, that he took it for one ; and that it sings all night : but this ac - count merits farther inquiry. For my part, I sus- pect it is a second sort of locustella, hinted at by Dr. Derham in Ray's Letters : see p. 74. He also procured me a grasshopper lark. The question that you put with regard to those genera of animals that are peculiar to America, viz. how they came there, and whence ? is too puzzling for me to answer; and yet so obvious as often to have struck me with wonder. If one looks into the writers on that subject, little satis- faction is to be found. Ingenious men will readily advance plausible arguments to support whatever theory they shall choose to maintain ; but then the misfortune is, every one's hypothesis is each as good as another's, since they are all founded on conjecture. The late writers of this sort, in whom may be seen all the arguments of those that have gone before, as I remember, stock America from the western coast of Africa, and the south of Europe ; and then break down the isthmus that bridged over the Atlantic. But this is making use of a violent piece of machinery : it is a diffi- culty worthy of the interposition of a god ! " In- credulus odi" 1 Sylvia phrasmites. Bechst. Sedge-warbler. SELBY'S Ornith.—W.J. 82 SUMMER EVENING WALK. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. THE NATURALISTS SUMMER EVENING WALK. equidem credo, quia sit divinitus illis Ingenium. VIRG. Georg. WHEN day, declining, sheds a milder gleam, What time the May-fly1 haunts the pool or stream ; When the still owl skims round the grassy mead, What tune the timorous hare limps forth to feed. Then he the time to steal adown the vale, And listen to the vagrant cuckoo's2 tale ; To hear the clamorous curlew3 call his mate, Or the soft quail his tender pain relate ; To see the swallow sweep the dark'ning plain, Belated, to support her infant train ; To mark the swift in rapid giddy ring Dash round the steeple, unsubdued of wing : Amusive birds ! say where your hid retreat, When the frost rages and the tempests beat ? Whence your return, by such nice instinct led, When Spring, soft season, lifts her bloomy head ? 1 The angler's May-fly, the ephemera vulgata, Linn., comes forth from its aurelia state, and emerges out of the water about six in the evening, and dies about eleven at night, de- termining the date of its fly state in about five or six hours. They usually begin to appear about the 4th of June, and continue in succession for near a fortnight. See SWAMMER- DAM, DERHAM, SCOPOLI, &c. 2 Vagrant cuckoo ; so called, because, being tied down by no incubation or attendance about the nutrition of its young, it wanders without control. 3 Charadrius oedicnemus. SUMMER EVENING WALK. 83 Such baffled searches mock man's prying pride, The God of Nature is your secret guide ! While deep'ning shades obscure the face of day, To yonder bench, leaf- shelter' d, let us stray, Till blended objects fail the swimming sight, And all the fading landscape sinks in night ; To hear the drowsy dorr come brushing by With buzzing wing, or the shrill cricket * cry ; To see the feeding bat glance through the wood ; To catch the distant falling of the flood ; While o'er the cliff th' awaken'd churn-owl hung, Thro' the still gloom protracts his chattering song ; While, high in air, and poised upon his wings, Unseen, the soft enamour' d woodlark2 sings : These, Nature's works, the curious mind employ, Inspire a soothing, melancholy joy : As fancy warms, a pleasing kind of pain Steals o'er the cheek, and thrills the creeping vein ! Each rural sight, each sound, each smell, combine ; The tinkling sheep -bell, or the breath of kine ; The new-mown hay that scents the swelling breeze, Or cottage chimney smoking through the trees. The chilling night-dews fall : — away, retire ; For see, the glow-worm lights her amorous fire ! 3 Thus, ere night's veil had half obscured the sky, Th' impatient damsel hung her lamp on high : True to the signal, by love's meteor led, Leander hasten'd to his Hero's bed4. 1 Gryllus campestris. 2 In hot summer nights, woodlarks soar to a prodigious height, and hang singing in the air. 8 The light of the female glow-worm (as she often crawls up the stalk of a grass to make herself more conspicuous) is a signal to the male, which is a slender, dusky scara- be us. 4 See the story of Hero and Leander. G2 84 RINGOUSELS — SALICARIA. XXV. IT gives me satisfaction to find that my account of the ousel migration pleases you. You put a very shrewd question when you ask me how I know that their autumnal migration is southward ? Were not candour and openness the very life of natural history, I should pass over this query just as a sly commentator does over a crabbed passage in a classic ; but common ingenuousness obliges me to confess, not without some degree of shame, that I only reasoned in that case from analogy. For as all other autumnal birds migrate from the northward to us, to partake of our milder winters, and return to the northward again when the rigor- ous cold abates, so I concluded that the ringousels did the same, as well as their congeners the field- fares ; and especially as ringousels are known to haunt cold mountainous countries : but I have good reason to suspect since, that they may come to us from the westward ; because I hear from good au- thority, that they breed on Dartmoor : and that they forsake that wild district about the time that our visiters appear, and do not return till late in the spring. I have taken a great deal of pains about your salicaria and mine, with a white stroke over its eye and a tawny rump. I have surveyed it alive and dead, and have procured several specimens ; and am perfectly persuaded myself (and trust you will soon be convinced of the same) that it is no more nor less than the passer arundinaceits minor of Ray1. This bird, by some means or other, seems to be entirely omitted in the British Zoology ; and one reason probably was, because it is so 1 See p. 85. TAME SNAKE SQUNCK. 85 strangely classed in Ray, who ranges it among his pici affines. It ought, no doubt, to have gone among his aviculcs caudd unicolore, and among your slender-billed small birds of the same division. Linnaeus might with great propriety have put it into his genus of motacilla ; and the motacilla salicaria of his Fauna Suecica seems to come the nearest to it. It is no uncommon bird, haunting the sides of ponds and rivers where there is covert, and the reeds and sedges of moors. The country people in some places call it the sedge-bird. It sings incessantly night and day during the breed- ing time, imitating the note of a sparrow, a swallow, a skylark ; and has a strange hurrying manner in its song. My specimens correspond most minutely to the description of your fen-salicaria shot near Revesby. Mr. Ray has given an excellent charac- teristic of it when he says, "Rostrum etpedes in hoc aviculd multo major es sunt quampro corporis rationed I have got you the egg of an cedicnemus, or stone curlew, which was picked up in a fallow on the naked ground : there were two ; but the finder inadvertently crushed one with his foot before he saw them. When I wrote to you last year on reptiles, I wish I had not forgot to mention the faculty that snakes have of stinking se defendendo. I knew a gentleman who kept a tame snake, which was in its person as sweet as any animal while in good humour and unalarmed ; but as soon as a stranger: or a dog or cat, came in, it fell to hissing, and filled the room with such nauseous effluvia, as rendered it hardly supportable. Thus the squnck, or stonck, of Ray's Synop. Quadr. is an innocuous and sweet animal ; but, when pressed hard by dogs and men, it can eject such a most pestilent and fetid smell and excrement, that nothing can be more horrible. 86 FIELDFARES. A gentleman sent me lately a fine specimen of the lanius minor cinerascens cum maculd in scapulis albd, Raii; which is a bird that, at the time of your publishing your two first volumes of British Zoo- logy, I find you had not seen. You have described it well from Edwards' s drawing. XXVI. I WAS much gratified by your communicative letter on your return from Scotland, where you spent, I find, some considerable time, and gave yourself good room to examine the natural curio- sities of that extensive kingdom, both those of the islands, as well as those of the Highlands. The usual bane of such expeditions is hurry ; because men seldom allot themselves half the time they should do ; but, fixing on a day for their return, post from place to place, rather as if they were on a journey that required despatch, than as philosophers investigating the works of nature. You must have made, no doubt, many discoveries, and laid up a good fund of materials for a future edition of the British Zoology, and will have no reason to repent that you have bestowed so much pains on a part of Great Britain that perhaps was never so well examined before. It has always been matter of wonder to me, that fieldfares, which are so congenerous to thrushes and blackbirds, should never choose to breed in England : but that they should not think even the Highlands cold and northerly, and sequestered enough, is a circumstance still more strange and wonderful. The ringousel, you find, stays in Scotland the whole year round ; so that we have reason to conclude that those migrators that RINGOUSEL SNOW-FLECK. 87 visit us for a short space every autumn, do not come from thence. And here, I think, will be the proper place to mention, that those birds were most punctual again in their migration this autumn, appearing, as before, about the 30th of September : but their flocks were larger than common, and their stay protracted somewhat beyond the usual time. If they come to spend the whole winter with us, as some of their congeners do, and then left us as they do, in spring, I should not be so much struck with the occurrence, since it would be similar to that of the other winter birds of pas- sage ; but when I see them for a fortnight at Michaelmas, and again for about a week in the middle of April, I am seized with wonder, and long to be informed whence these travellers come, and whither they go, since they seem to use our hills merely as an inn or baiting place. Your account of the greater brambling, or snow-fleck, is very amusing; and strange it is, that such a short-winged bird should delight in such perilous voyages over the northern ocean ! Some country people in the winter time have every now and then told me that they have seen two or three white larks on our downs ; but, on considering the matter, I begin to suspect that these are some stragglers of the birds we are talking of, which, sometimes, perhaps, may rove ^so far to the southward l . It pleases me to find that white hares are so frequent on the Scottish mountains, and especially 1 In the snow-fleck, which is now separated from the buntings, and with the Lapland finch forms the genus plectrophanes of Meyer, and modern ornithologists, the wings are of considerable length, fitting them for more extensive journeys than the true emberigae. — W. J. 88 EAGLE-OWL WATER-RAT. as you inform me that it is a distinct species ; for the quadrupeds of Britain are so few, that every new species is a great acquisition. The eagle-owl l, could it be proved to belong to us, is so majestic a bird, that it would grace our fauna much. I never was informed before where wild geese are known to breed. You admit, I find, that I have proved your fen-salicaria to be the lesser reed- sparrow of Ray : and I think you may be secure that I am right ; for I took very particular pains to clear up that matter, and had some fair specimens ; but, as they were not well preserved, they are decayed already. You will, no doubt, insert it in its pro- per place in your next edition. Your additional plates will much improve your work. De Buffon, I know, has described the water shrew-mouse ; but still I am pleased to find you have discovered it in Lincolnshire, for the reason I have given in the article of the white hare 2. As a neighbour was lately ploughing in a dry chalky field, far removed from any water, he turned out a water-rat, that was curiously laid up in an hybernaculum artificially formed of grass and leaves. At one end of the burrow lay above a gallon of potatoes regularly stowed, on which it was to have supported itself for the winter. But the difficulty with me is how this amphibius mus came to fix its winter station at such a distance from the water. Was it deter- mined in its choice of that place by the mere accident of finding the potatoes which were planted there ? or is it the constant practice of the 1 This is now admitted into the British Fauna, having been killed at different times in various parts of Great Bri- tain.—W. J. 2 Lepus variaUlis. — W. J. WATER RAT SWIFTS. 89 aquatic rat to forsake the neighbourhood of the water in the colder months ? Though I delight very little in analogous reasoning, knowing how fallacious it is with respect to natural history ; yet, in the following instance, I cannot help being inclined to think it may conduce towards the explanation of a difficulty that I have mentioned before, with respect to the invariable early retreat of the hirundo apus, or swift, so many weeks before its congeners ; and that not only with us, but also in Andalusia, where they also begin to retire about the beginning of August. The great large bat1 (which by the by is at present a nondescript in England, and what I have never been able yet to procure) retires or migrates very early in the summer : it also ranges very high for its food, feeding in a different region of the air ; and that is the reason I never could procure one 2. Now, this is exactly the case with the swifts ; for they take their food in a more exalted region than the other species, and are very seldom seen hawking for flies near the ground, or over the surface of the water. From hence I would conclude, that these hirundines, and the larger bats, are supported by some sorts of high-flying gnats, scarabs, or phal&nce, that are of short continuance ; and that the short stay of these strangers is regulated by the defect of their food. 1 The little bat appears almost every month in the year ; but I have never seen the large ones till the end of April, nor after July. They are most common in June, but never in any plenty : are a rare species with us. 2 Mr. White has the merit of first noticing this species in England : it is the vespertilio noctula of Dr. Fleming, and said by that naturalist to winter in Italy. — W. J. 90 HEDGE-HOGS. By my journal it appears, that curlews clamoured on to October the thirty-first ; since which, I have not seen or heard any. Swallows were observed on to November the third. XXVIL HEDGE-HOGS1 abound in my gardens and fields. The manner in which they eat the roots of the plantain in my grass walk is very curious : with their upper mandible, which is much longer than their lower, they bore under the plant, and so eat the root off upwards, leaving the tuft of leaves untouched. In this respect they are serviceable, as they destroy a very troublesome weed; but they deface the walks in some measure by digging little round holes. It appears, by the dung that they drop upon the turf, that beetles are no inconsiderable part of their food. In June last, I procured a litter of four or five young hedge- hogs, which appeared to be about five or six days old; they, I find, like puppies, are born blind, and could not see when they came to my hands. No doubt their spines are soft and flexible at the time of their birth, or else the poor dam would have but a bad time of it in the critical moment of parturition : but it is plain that they soon harden ; for these little pigs had such stiff 1 The hedge-hog feeds indiscriminately on flesh and vege- tables, is very fond of eggs, doing considerable mischief by destroying game during the breeding season. It will even enter a hen-house, and when within its reach, will turn off the hens and devour the eggs. They are frequently caught in traps, baited with eggs, for the carrion crows. They are easily tamed, and become familiar in a state of confinement; will eat bread, potatoes, fruit, flesh, raw or cooked, without any apparent choice. — W. J. HEDGE-HOGS — FIELDFARE. 91 prickles on their backs and sides as would easily have fetched blood, had they not been handled with caution. Their spines are quite white at this age ; and they have little hanging ears, which I do not remember to be discernible in the old ones. They can, in part, at this age, draw their skin down over their faces ; but are not able to contract themselves into a ball, as they do, for the sake of defence, when full grown. The reason, I suppose, is, because the curious muscle that enables the creature to roll itself up in a ball was not then arrived at its full tone and firmness. Hedge-hogs make a deep and warm hybernaculum with leaves and moss, in which they conceal themselves for the winter ; but I never could find that they stored in any winter provision as some quadrupeds certainly do. I have discovered an anecdote with respect to the fieldfare, (turdus pilaris,) which I think is particular enough : this bird, though it sits on trees in the day-time, and procures the greatest part of its food from white-thorn hedges; yea, moreover, builds on very high trees, as may be seen by the Fauna Suetica, yet always appears with us to roost on the ground. They are seen to come in flocks just before it is dark, and to settle and nestle among the heath on our forest. And besides, the larkers, in dragging their nets by night, frequently catch them in the wheat- stub- bles ; while the bat-fowlers, who take many red- wings in the hedges, never entangle any of this species. Why these birds, in the matter of roost- ing, should differ from all their congeners, and from themselves also with respect to their pro- ceedings by day, is a fact for which I am by no means able to account. I have somewhat to inform you of concerning 92 MOOSE-DEER. the moose- deer ; but in general foreign animals seldom fall in my way ; my little intelligence is confined to the narrow sphere of my own observa- tions at home. XXVIII. ON Michaelmas day, 1768, I managed to get a sight of the female moose belonging to the Duke of Richmond, at Goodwood ; but was greatly dis- appointed, when I arrived at the spot, to find that it died, after having appeared in a languishing way for some time, on the morning before. How- ever, understanding that it was not stripped, I proceeded to examine this rare quadruped; I found it in an old greenhouse, slung under the belly and chin by ropes, and in a standing pos- ture ; but, though it had been dead for so short a time, it was in so putrid a state that the stench was hardly supportable. The grand distinction between this deer, and any other species that I have ever met with, consisted in the strange length of its legs ; on which it was tilted up much in the manner of the birds of the gratia order. I measured it, as they do a horse, and found that, from the ground to the wither, it was just five feet four inches ; which height answers exactly to sixteen hands, the growth that few horses arrive at : but then, with this length of legs, its neck was remarkably short, no more than twelve inches ; so that by straddling with one foot forward and the other backward, it grazed on the plain ground, with the greatest difficulty, between its legs : the ears were vast and lopping, and as long as the neck; the head was about twenty inches long, and ass -like ; and had such MOOSE-DEER. 93 a redundancy of upper lip as I never saw before, with huge nostrils. This lip, travellers say, is esteemed a dainty dish in North America. It is very reasonable to suppose that this creature supports itself chiefly by browsing of trees, and by wading after water plants; towards which way of livelihood the length of legs and great lip must contribute much. I have read somewhere that it delights in eating the nymphcea, or water lily. From the fore-feet to the belly behind the shoulder it measured three feet and eight inches ; the length of the legs before and behind consisted a great deal in the tibia, which was strangely long ; but in my haste to get out of the stench, I forgot to measure that joint exactly. Its scut seemed to be about an inch long ; the colour was a grizzly black ; the mane about four inches long ; the fore -hoofs were upright and shapely, the hind flat and splayed. The spring before, it was only two years old, so that most probably it was not then come to its growth. What a vast tall beast must a full grown stag be ! I have been told some arrive at ten feet and a half ! This poor creature had at first a female companion of the same species, which died the spring before. In the same garden was a young stag, or red deer, between whom and this moose it was hoped that there might have been a breed ; but their inequa- lity of height must have always been a bar to any commerce of the amorous kind. I should have been glad to have examined the teeth, tongue, lips, hoofs, &c. minutely; but the putrefaction precluded all farther curiosity. This animal, the keeper told me, seemed to enjoy itself best in the extreme frost of the former winter. In the house they showed me the horn of a male moose, which had no front-antlers, but only a broad palm with 94 PAIRING OF BIRDS. some snags on the edge. The noble owner of the dead moose, proposed to make a skeleton of her bones. Please to let me hear if my female moose cor- responds with that which you saw ; and whether you think still that the American moose and Eu- ropean elk are the same creature. XXIX. LAST month [April] we had such a series of cold turbulent weather, such a constant succession of frost and snow, and hail and tempest, that the regular migration or appearance of the summer birds was much interrupted. Some did not show themselves (at least were not heard) till weeks after their usual time ; as the black-cap and white- throat ; and some have not been heard yet, as the grasshopper-lark and largest willow- wren. As to the fly-catcher, I have not seen it ; it is indeed one of the latest, but should appear about this time ; and yet, amidst all this meteorous strife and war of the elements, two swallows discovered them- selves so long ago as the eleventh of April, in frost and snow ; but they withdrew quickly, and were not visible again for many days. House - martins, which are always more backward than swallows, were not observed till May came in. Among the monogamous birds, several are to be found, after pairing time, single, and of each sex ; but whether this state of celibacy is matter of choice or necessity, is not so easily discoverable. When the house- sparrows deprive my martins of their nests, as soon as I cause one to be shot, the other, be it cock or hen, presently procures a mate, and so for several times following. HOUSE CAT. 95 I have known a dove -house infested by a pair of white owls, which made great havock among the young pigeons : one of the owls was shot as soon as possible ; but the survivor readily found a mate, and the mischief went on. After some time the new pair were both destroyed, and the annoyance ceased. Another instance I remember of a sportsman, whose zeal for the increase of his game being greater than his humanity, after pairing time, he always shot the cock bird of every couple of par- tridges upon his grounds ; supposing that the rivalry of many males interrupted the breed. He used to say, that, though he had widowed the same hen several times, yet he found she was still pro- vided with a fresh paramour, that did not take her away from her usual haunt. Again ; I knew a lover of setting, an old sports- man, who has often told me that soon after harvest he has frequently taken small coveys of partridges, consisting of cock birds alone ; these he pleasantly used to call old bachelors. There is a propensity belonging to common house cats that is very remarkable ; I mean their violent fpndness for fish, which appears to be their most favourite food ; and yet nature in this in- stance seems to have planted in them an appetite that, unassisted, they know not how to gratify : for of all quadrupeds, cats are the least disposed towards water ; and will not, when they can avoid it, deign to wet a foot, much less to plunge into that element1. 1 In the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, on the au- thority of Dr. Darwin, cats fish : he says, " Mr. Leonard, a very intelligent friend of mine, saw a cat catch a trout by darting upon it in a deep clear water, at the mill at Weaford, 96 OTTER, Quadrupeds that prey on fish are amphibious : such is the otter, which by nature is so well formed for diving, that it makes great havoc among the inhabitants of the waters. Not sup- posing that we had any of those beasts in our shallow brooks, I was much pleased to see a male otter brought to me, weighing twenty-one pounds, that had been shot on the bank of our stream be- low the Priory, where the rivulet divides the parish of Selborne from Harteley-wood. XXX. THE French, I think, in general, are strangely prolix in their natural history, What Linnaeus says with respect to insects, holds good in every other branch : " verbositas prtesentis sceculi, cola- mitas artis" Pray how do you approve of Scopoli's new work ? As I admire his Entomologia, I long to see it. near Lichfield. The cat belonged to Mr. Stanley, who had often seen her catch fish in the same manner in summer, when the mill-pool was drawn so low that the fish could be seen. I have heard of other cats taking fish in shallow water, as they stood on the bank. This seems to be a natural method of taking their prey, usually lost by do- mestication, though they all retain a strong relish for fish." The Rev. W. Bingley mentions another instance of a cat freely taking the water, related by his friend Mr. Bill of Christchurch. When he lived at Wallington, near Carshalton, in Surrey, he had a cat that was often known to plunge, without hesitation, into the river Wandle, and swim over to an island at a little distance from the bank. To this there could be no other inducement than the fish she might catch on her passage, or the vermin that the island afforded.— W. J. SPECIMENS OF BIRDS. 97 I forgot to mention in my last letter (and had not room to insert in the former) that the male moose, in rutting time, swims from island to island, in the lakes and rivers of North America, in pur- suit of the females. My friend, the chaplain, saw one killed in the water, as it was on that errand, in the river of St. Lawrence : it was a monstrous beast, he told me ; but he did not take the dimen^ sions. When I was last in town, our friend Mr. Harrington most obligingly carried^ me to see many curious sights. As you were then writing to him about horns, he carried me to see many j strange and wonderful specimens. There is, I' remember, at Lord Pembroke's, at Wilton, a horn-room furnished with more than thirty dif- ferent pairs : but I have not seen that house lately. Mr. Barrington showed me many astonishing collections of stuffed and living birds from all quarters of the world. After I had studied over the latter for a time, I remarked that every species almost that came from distant regions, such as South America, the coast of Guinea, &c. were thick-billed birds of the loxia and fringilla genera; and no motacillce or muscicapce1, were to be met with. When I came to consider, the reason was obvious enough; for the hard-billed birds subsist on seeds which are easily carried on board, while the soft-billed birds, which are supported by worms and insects, or, what is a succedaneum for them, fresh raw meat, can meet 1 This collection must have been very limited, and, of course, the conclusions erroneously drawn from a few species. The muscicapidce and sylviadce abound in all South America. — W. J. H 98 RINGOUSELS. with neither in long and tedious voyages. It is from this defect of food that our collections (curious as they are) are defective, and we are deprived of some of the most delicate and lively genera. XXXI. You saw, I find, the ringousels again among their native crags : and are farther assured that they continue resident in those cold regions the whole year. From whence then do our ringousels migrate so regularly every September, and make their ap- pearance again, as if in their return, every April ? They are more early this year than common, for some were seen at the usual hill on the fourth of this month. An observing Devonshire gentleman tells me that they frequent some parts of Dartmoor, and breed there, but leave those haunts about the end of September, or beginning of October, and return again about the end of March. Another intelligent person assures me, that they breed in great abundance all over the Peak of Derby, and are called there torousels, withdraw in October and November, and return in spring. This information seems to throw some light on my new migration. Scopoli's new work 1 (which I have just pro- cured) has its merits, in ascertaining many of the birds of the Tyrol and Carniola. Monographers, come from whence they may, have, I think, fair pretence to challenge some regard and approbation from the lovers of natural history ; for, as no man 1 Annus Primus Historico-Naturalis* SCOPOLl's ANNUS PRIMUS. 99 can alone investigate all the works of nature, these partial writers may, each in their department, be more accurate in their discoveries, and freer from errors, than more general writers, and so by degrees may pave the way to an universal correct natural history. Not that Scopoli is so circumstantial and attentive to the life and conversation of his birds as I could wish : he advances some false facts ; as when he says of the hirundo urbica, that " pullos extra nidum non nutrit1." This assertion I know to be wrong, from repeated observation this summer ; for house-martins do feed their young flying, though, it must be acknowledged, not so commonly as the house-swallow, and the feat is done in so quick a manner as not to be perceptible to indifferent ob- servers. He also advances some (I was going to say) improbable facts ; as when he says of the woodcock that " pullos rostro port at fugiens ab hoste 2." But candour forbids me to say absolutely that any fact is false, because I have never been witness to such a fact. I have only to remark, that the long unwieldy bill of the woodcock is perhaps the worst adapted of any among the winged creation for such a feat of natural affection. XXXII. AFTER an ineffectual search in Linnaeus, Brisson, &c. I begin to suspect that I discern my brother's hirundo hyberna in Scopoli's new-discovered hi- rundo rupestris, p. 167. His description of "Supra murina, subtus albida ; rectrices macula ovali albd in latere interno ; pedes nudi, nigri; rostrum nigrum; 1 " The house-martin does not feed its young outside the nest." 2 " It carries its young in its beak when flying from an enemy." H2 100 SCOPOLI'S ANNUS PRIMUS, remiges obscuriores quam pluma dorsales ; rectrices remigibus concolores ; caudd emarginatd nee ford- paid *," agrees very well with the bird in question ; but when he comes to advance that it is " statura hirundinis urbictf*," and that " definitio hirundinis riparia Linntei huic quoque convenit 3" he in some measure invalidates all he has said ; at least he shows at once that he compares them to these spe- cies merely from memory ; for I have compared the birds themselves, and find they differ widely in every circumstance of shape, size, and colour. However, as you will have a specimen, I shall be glad to hear what your judgment is in the matter. Whether my brother is forestalled in his non- descript or not, he will have the credit of first dis- covering that they spend their winters under the warm and sheltery shores of Gibraltar and Barbary. Scopoli's characters of his ordines and genera are clear, just, and expressive, and much in the spirit of Linnaeus. These few remarks are the result of my first perusal of Scopoli's Annus Primus. The bane of our science is the comparing one animal to the other by memory. For want of caution in this particular, Scopoli falls into errors. He is not so full with regard to the manners of his indigenous birds as might be wished, as you justly observe : his Latin is easy, elegant, and expressive, and very superior to Kramer's 4. 1 " Mouse -coloured above, whitish beneath: the wings having a white oval spot on the inside ; the feet naked and black ; the beak black ; the pinions darker than the dorsal plumage; the wings and pinions of the same colour; the tail clear and not indented." 2 The size of the house-martin. 3 The definition agrees with that of Linnaeus' hirundo ri- paria. 4 See his Elenchus Fegetalilium et Animalium per Austrian inferiorem, 8$c. SUMMER BIRDS OF PASSAGE. 101 I am pleased to see that my description of the moose corresponds so well with yours. XXXIII. I WAS much pleased to see, among the collection of birds from Gibraltar, some of those short- winged English summer birds of passage, concerning whose departure we have made so much inquiry. Now, if these birds are found in Andalusia to mi- grate to and from Barbary, it may easily be sup- posed that those that come to us may migrate back to the continent, and spend their winters in some of the warmer parts of Europe. This is certain, that many soft-billed birds that come to Gibraltar appear there only in spring and autumn, seeming to advance in pairs towards the northward, for the sake of breeding during the summer months, and retiring in parties and broods towards the south at the decline of the year : so that the rock of Gib- raltar is the great rendezvous and place of observa- tion, from whence they take their departure each way towards Europe or Africa. It is therefore no mean discovery, I think, to find that our small short- winged summer birds of passage are to be seen, spring and autumn, on the very skirts of Europe ; — it is a presumptive proof of their emi- grations. Scopoli seems to me to have found the hirundo melba, the great Gibraltar swift, in Tyrol, without knowing it. For what is his hirundo alpina, but the aforementioned bird in other words ? Says he, " Omnia prior is, (meaning the swift,) sed pectus album; paulo major priore." I do not suppose this to be a new species. It is true also 102 STONE CURLEW. of the melba, that " nidiftcat in excelsis Alpium rupibus" Vid. Annum Primum. My Sussex friend, a man of observation and good sense, but no naturalist, to whom I applied on account of the stone curlew, cedicnemus, sends me the following account : — " In looking over my Na- turalist's Journal for the month of April, I find the stone curlews are first mentioned on the 17th and 18th, which date seems to me rather late. They live with us all the spring and summer, and at the beginning of autumn prepare to take leave, by get- ting together in flocks. They seem to me a bird of passage that may travel into some dry hilly country south of us, probably Spain, because of the abundance of sheep-walks in that country ; for they spend their summers with us in such districts. This conjecture I hazard, as I have never met with any one that has seen them in England in the winter. I believe they are not fond of going near the water, but feed on earth-worms, that are common on sheep-walks and downs. They breed on fallows and lay-fields abounding with grey mossy flints, which much resemble their young in colour, among which they skulk and conceal themselves. They make no nest, but lay their eggs on the bare ground, producing in common but two at a time. There is reason to think their young run soon after they are hatched, and that the old ones do not feed them, but only lead them about at the time of feeding, which, for the most part, is in the night." Thus far my friend. In the manners of this bird, you see, there is something very analogous to the bustard, whom it also somewhat resembles in aspect and make, and in the structure of its feet. For a long time I have desired my relation to 12 HARVEST BUG. 103 look out for these birds in Andalusia ; and now he writes me word that, for the first time, he saw one dead in the market, on the 3d of September. When the cedicnemus flies, it stretches out its legs straight behind, like a heron. XXXIV. THERE is an insect with us, especially on chalky districts, which is very troublesome and teasing all the latter end of the summer, getting into peo- ple's skins, especially those of women and chil- dren, and raising tumours, which itch intolerably. This animal (which we call an harvest bug) is very minute, scarce discernible to the naked eye, of a bright scarlet colour, and of the genus of acarus1. They are to be met with in gardens on kidney beans, or any legumens, but prevail only in the hot months of summer. Warreners, as some have assured me, are much infested by them on chalky downs, where these insects swarm sometimes to so infinite a degree as to discolour their nets, and to give them a reddish cast ; while the men are so bitten as to be thrown into fevers. There is a small, long, shining fly in these parts, very troublesome to the housewife, by getting into the chimneys, and laying its eggs in the bacon while it is drying. The eggs produce maggots, called jumpers, which, harbouring in the gammons and best parts of the hogs, eat down to the bone, and make great waste. This fly I suspect to be a 1 Most probably acarus autumnalis. It buries itself at the roots of the hairs on the extremities, producing intolerable itching, attended by inflammation and considerable tumours, and sometimes even occasioning fevers. — W. J. 104' TURNIP FLY. variety of the musca putris of Linnaeus. It is to be seen in the summer in farm kitchens, on the bacon- racks, and about the mantel-pieces, and on the ceilings. The insect that infests turnips, and many crops in the garden, (destroying often whole fields, while in their seedling leaves,) is an animal that wants to be better known. The country people here call it the turnip fly and black dolphin ; but I know it to be one of the coleoptera, the " chrysomela oleracea, saltatoria, femoribus posticis crassissimis V In very hot summers they abound to an amazing degree, and, as you walk in a field, or in a garden, make a pattering like rain, by jump- ing on the leaves of the turnips or cabbages. 1 This is most probably the haltica nemorum, called by the farmers the Fly and Black Jack, so well described by Messrs. Kirby and Spence, in their admirable chapters on Indirect Injuries. It attacks and devours the first cotyledon leaves, as soon as they are unfolded; so that, on account of their ravages the land is often obliged to be resown, and with no better success. By these entomologists it is stated, on the authority of an eminent agriculturist, that from this cause alone, the loss sustained in the turnip crops in Devonshire, in 1786, was not less than 100,000/. Great damage is also sometimes done by the little curculio contractus, which in the same manner pierces a hole in the cuticle. When the plant is more advanced, and out of danger from these pigmy foes, the black larva of a saw-fly takes their place, and occasionally does no little mischief, whole districts being sometimes stripped by them, and in 1783 many thousand acres were on this account ploughed up. The caterpillar of Papilio brassica is sometimes found in great numbers, and the wire-worm also does occasionally great damage, both to turnips and other vegetable and flower roots. Mr. Kirby mentions a field in which one-fourth was destroyed, and which the owner calculated at 100/. One year the same person sowed a field three times with turnips, which were twice wholly, and the third time a great part, cut off by this insect. — W. J. NOXIOUS INSECTS. 105 There is an oestrus known in these parts to every ploughboy, which, because it is omitted by Linnaeus, is also passed over by late writers ; and that is the curvicauda of old Moufet, mentioned by Derham in his Physico -Theology, p. 250 : an insect worthy of remark, for depositing its eggs as it flies, in so dexterous a manner on the single hairs of the legs and flanks of grass -horses. But then Derham is mistaken when he advances that this oestrus is the parent of that wonderful star- tailed maggot which he mentions afterwards ; for more modern entomologists have discovered that singular production to be derived from the egg of the musca chameleon. See Geofrroy, t. 17, f. 4. A full history of noxious insects, hurtful in the field, garden, and house, suggesting all the known and likely means of destroying them, would be al- lowed by the public to be a most useful and im- portant work. What knowledge there is of this sort lies scattered, and wants to be collected ; great improvements would soon follow of course. A knowledge of the properties, economy, propaga- tion, and, in short, of the life and conversation, of these animals, is a necessary step to lead us to some method of preventing their depredations. As far as I am a judge, nothing would recom- mend entomology more than some neat plates that should well express the generic distinctions of insects according to Linnseus; for I am well assured that many people would study insects, could they set out with a more adequate notion of those distinctions than can be conveyed at first by words alone. XXXV. HAPPENING to make a visit to my neighbour's peacocks, I could not help observing, that the 106 PEACOCKS. trains of those magnificent birds appear by no means to be their tails, those long feathers grow- ing not from their uropygium, but all up their backs. A range of short, brown, stiff feathers, about six inches long, fixed in the uropygium, is the real tail, and serves as \hefulcrum to prop the train, which is long and top -heavy, when set on (end. When the train is up, nothing appears of the bird before but its head and neck; but this . would not be the case, were these long feathers fixed only in the rump, as may be seen by the turkey cock, when in a strutting attitude. By a strong muscular vibration, these birds can make the shafts of their long feathers clatter like the swords of a sword- dancer ; they then trample very quick with their feet, and run backwards towards the females. 1 should tell you that I have got an uncommon calculus tegogropila, taken out of the stomach of a fat ox. It is perfectly round, and about the size of a large Seville orange : such are, I think, usually flat. XXXVI. THE summer through I have seen but two of that large species of bat which I call vespertilio altivolans, from its manner of feeding high in the air. I procured one of them, and found it to be a male, and made no doubt, as they accompanied together, that the other was a female ; but, hap- pening in an evening or two to procure the other likewise, I was somewhat disappointed when it appeared to be also of the same sex. This cir- cumstance, and the great scarcity of this sort, at least in these parts, occasions some suspicions in my mind whether it is really a species, or whether BATS. 107 it may not be the male part of the more known species, one of which may supply many females, as is known to be the case in sheep, and some other quadrupeds. But this doubt can only be cleared by a farther examination, and some attention to the sex, of more specimens. All that I know at present is, that my two were amply furnished with the parts of generation, much resembling those of a boar. In the extent of their wings they measured fourteen inches and a half, and four inches and a half from the nose to the tip of the tail : their heads were large, their nostrils bilobated, their shoulders broad and muscular, and their whole bodies fleshy and plump. Nothing could be more sleek and soft than their fur, which was of a bright chestnut colour; their maws were full of food, but so macerated, that the quality could not be distinguished; their livers, kidneys, and hearts, were large, and their bowels covered with fat. They weighed each, when entire, full one ounce and one drachm. Within the ear there was some- what of a peculiar structure that I did not under- stand perfectly, but refer it to the observation of the curious anatomist. These creatures send forth a very rancid and offensive smell. XXXVII. ON the twelfth of July, I had a fair opportunity of contemplating the motions of the caprimulgusy or fern-owl, as it was playing round a large oak that swarmed with scarabeei solstitiales, or fern- chafers1. The powers of its wing were wonderful, 1 We find the following additional information regarding the goat-sucker, in Mr. White's Miscellaneous Observations : — " The country people have a notion that the fern-owl, or 108 FERN-OWL. exceeding, if possible, the various evolutions, and quick turns of the swallow genus. But the cir- cumstance that pleased me most was, that I saw churn-owl, or eve-jar, which they also call a puckeridge, is very injurious to weaning calves, by inflicting, as it strikes at them, a fatal distemper, known to cow-leeches by the name of puckeridge. Thus does this harmless, ill-fated bird fall under a double imputation, which it by no means deserves, — in Italy, of sucking the teats of goats, whence it is called caprimulgus ; and with us, of communicating a deadly disorder to cattle. The least obser- vation and attention would convince men, that these birds neither injure the goat-herd nor the grazier, but are per- fectly harmless, and subsist alone, being night-birds, on night-insects, such as scarabcei and phalcence, and through the month of July on scarab feus solstitialis, which in many districts abounds at that season. Those that we have opened have always had their craws stuffed with large night-moths and their eggs, and pieces of chafers ; nor does it anywise appear how they can, weak and unarmed as they seem, inflict any harm upon kine, unless they possess the powers of animal magnetism, and can affect them by fluttering over them. A fern-owl, this evening, (August 27,) showed off, in a very unusual and entertaining manner, by hawking round the circumference of my great spreading oak, for twenty times following, keeping mostly close to the grass, but occasionally glancing up amongst the boughs of the tree. This amusing bird was then in pursuit of a brood of some particular phalana belonging to the oak, and exhibited on the occasion a command of wing superior, I think, to the swallow itself. " When a person approaches the haunts of fern-owls in an evening, they continue flying round the head of the obtruder, and by striking their wings together above their backs, in the manner that pigeons called twisters are known to do, make a smart swap l. Perhaps at that time they are jealous for their young, and their noise and gesture are intended by way of menace. Fern-owls have attach- ment to oaks, no doubt on account of food ; for the next evening we saw one again several times among the boughs 1 1 believeHhis is also done by the bill, in the manner of owls when disturbed.— W. J. FERN-OWL. 109 it distinctly more than once put out its short leg while on the wing, and, by a bend of the head, deliver somewhat into its mouth. If it takes any part of its prey with its foot, as I have now the greatest reason to suppose it does these chafers, I no longer wonder at the use of its middle toe, which is curiously furnished with a serrated claw. Swallows and martins, the bulk of them, I mean, of the same tree ; but it did not skim round its stem over the grass, as on the evening before. In May, these birds find the scaralxBus melalontha on the oak, and the scarabaus solstitmlis of midsummer. These peculiar birds can only be watched and observed for two hours in the twenty -four, and then in a dubious twilight, an hour after sunset, and an hour before sunrise." Several species of phaltence live upon the oak ; but one, the phalana viridana of Donovan's British Insects, and which also appears to have been known to Mr. White, does considerable damage among the young oak copses in Scotland, while in the larva state. In the summer of 1828, and again in that of 1829, I met with this species in immense profusion about Inverary, and near % Loch Katrine, where many hundred acres of oak copse appeared as in early spring, with the leaves much destroyed by this insect. This must undoubtedly check the growth, and, of course, when so extensively dispersed, be of some consequence to the proprietor. Though White describes it as phalfena quercus, it is undoubtedly this species which he means. In his Observations, he says, " Many of our oaks are naked of leaves, and even the half, in general, have been ravaged by the caterpillars of a small phaltena*, which is of a pale yellow colour. These insects, though of a feeble race, yet, from their infinite number, are of wonderful effect, being able to destroy the foliage of whole forests and districts. At this season they leave their animal, and issue forth in their fly state, swarm- ing and covering the trees and hedges. In a field near Greatham, I saw a flight of swifts busied in catching their prey near the ground, and found they were hunting after these phaleenfE. The aurelia of this moth is thin, and as black as jet, and lies wrapped up in a leaf of the tree, which is rolled round it, and secured at the ends by a web, to prevent the maggot from falling out." — W. J. 110 SWALLOWS AND MARTINS. have forsaken us sooner this year than usual ; for, on September the 22d, they rendezvoused in a neighbour's walnut tree, where it seemed probable they had taken up their lodgings for the night. At the dawn of the day, which was foggy, they rose all together in infinite numbers, occasioning such a rushing from the stroke of their wings against the hazy air, as might be heard to a considerable distance ; since that, no flock has appeared, only a - few stragglers. Some swifts staid late, till the 22d of August ; a rare instance ! for they usually withdraw within the first week l. On September the 24th, three or four ringousels appeared in my fields for the first time this season. How punctual are these visitors in their autumnal and spring migrations ! XXXVIII. BY my journal for last autumn it appears that the house-martins bred very late, and staid very late in these parts ; for, on the 1 st of October, I saw young martins in their nests nearly fledged ; and again, on the 21st of October, we had, at the next house, a nest full of young martins just ready to fly, and the old ones were hawking for insects with great alertness. The next morning the brood forsook their nest, and were flying round the village. From this day I never saw one of the swallow kind till November the 3d ; when twenty, or perhaps thiity, house-martins were playing all day long by the side of the Hanging wood, and over my fields. Did these small weak birds, some of which were nestlings twelve days ago, shift 1 See Letter LIII. Part II. HOUSE-MARTINS. Ill their quarters at this late season of the year, to the other side of the northern tropic ? Or rather, is it not more probable, that the next church, ruin, chalk-cliff, steep covert, or perhaps sand-bank, lake, or pool, (as a more northern naturalist would say,) may become their hybernaculum, and afford them a ready and obvious retreat ? We are beginning to expect our vernal migrations of ringousels every week. Persons worthy of credit assure me, that ringousels were seen at Christmas, 1770, in the forest of Bere, on the southern verge of this county. Hence we may conclude, that their migrations are only internal, and not extended to the continent southward, if they do at first come at all from the northern parts of this island only, and not from the north of Europe. Come from whence they will, it is plain, from the fearless disregard that they show for men or guns, that they have been little accustomed to places of much resort. Navigators meation, that, in the Isle of Ascension, and other such desolate districts, birds are so little acquainted with the human form, that they settle on men's shoulders, and have no more dread of a sailor than they would have of a goat that was grazing. A young man at Lewes, in Sussex, assured me, that about seven years ago, ringousels abounded so about that town in the autumn, that he killed sixteen himself in one afternoon : he added farther, that some had appeared since in every autumn ; but he could not find that any had been observed before the season in which he shot so many. I myself have found these birds in little parties in the autumn cantoned all along the Sussex downs, wherever there were shrubs and bushes, from Chichester to Lewes ; particularly in the autumn of 1770. 112 ORNITHOLOGY OF SELBORNE. XXXIX. As you desire me to send you such observations as may occur, I take the liberty of making the following remarks, that you may, according as you think me right or wrong, admit or reject what I here advance in your intended new edition of the British Zoology. The osprey l was shot about a year ago at Frinsham-pond, a great lake, at about six miles from hence, while it was sitting on the handle of a plough and devouring a fish ; it used to precipi- tate itself into the water, and so take its prey by surprise. A great ash- coloured 2 butcher-bird was shot last winter in Tisted Park, and a red-backed butcher-bird at Selborne. They are rarce aves in this country. Crows 3 go in pairs the whole year round. Cornish choughs 4 abound, and breed on Beechy Head, and on the cliffs of the Sussex coast 5. The common wild pigeon 6, or stock- dove, is a bird of passage in the south of England, seldom appearing till towards the end of November ; is usually the latest winter bird of passage. Before our beechen woods were so much destroyed, we had myriads of them, reaching in strings for a mile together, as they went out in a morning to feed. They leave us early in spring; — where do they breed ? 1 British Zoology, vol. i. p. 128. 2 p. 161. 3 P. 167. 4 P. 198. 5 Cornish choughs abound in the Isle of Man. and breed there. They are also found on the Galloway and Kirkcud- bright coasts. — W. J. 6 British Zoology, vol. i. p. 216. Library, GIlEY WAGTAIL. ORNITHOLOGY OF SELBORNE. 113 The people of Hampshire and Sussex call the missel-bird1 the storm-cock, because it sings early in the spring in blowing, showery weather. Its song often commences with the year ; with us it builds much in orchards. A gentleman assures me he has taken the nests of ringousels 2 on Dartmoor ; they build in banks on the sides of streams. Titlarks 3 not only sing sweetly as they sit on trees, but also as they play and toy about on the wing ; and particularly while they are descending, and sometimes as they stand on the ground 4. Adanson's 5 testimony seems to me to be a very poor evidence that European swallows migrate during our winter to Senegal; he does not talk at all like an ornithologist, and probably saw only the swallows of that country, which I know build within Governor O'Hara's hall against the roof. Had he known European swallows, would he not have mentioned the species ? The house- swallow washes by dropping into the water as it flies; this species appears commonly about a week before the house-martin, and about ten or twelve days before the swift. In 1772, there were young house-martins 6 in their nest till October the 23d. The swift 6 appears about ten or twelve days later than the house- swallow ; viz. about the 24th or 26th of April. 1 British Zoology, vol. i. p. 224. 2 P. 229. 3 Vol. ii. p. 237. 4 Mr. White must have mistaken this for anthus arboreus, or tree-lark. The titlark, anthus pratensis, seldom sits on trees. — W. J. 5 British Zoology, vol. ii. p. 242. 6 P. 244. e British Zoology, vol. ii. p. 245. I 114 ORNITHOLOGY OF SELBORNE. Whin chats1 and stone-chatters2 stay with us the whole year. Some wheatears3 continue with us the winter through4. Wagtails, all sorts, remain with us all the winter 5. Bullfinches 6, when fed on hempseed, often be- come wholly black. We have vast flocks of female chaffinches 7 all the winter, with hardly any males among them. When you say that in breeding time the eock snipes 8 make a bleating noise, and a drumming, (perhaps I should have rather said a humming,) I suspect we mean the same thing. However, while they are playing about on the wing, they certainly make a loud piping with their mouths ; but whether that bleating or humming is ventrilo- quous, or proceeds from the motion of their wings, I cannot say ; but this I know, that when this noise happens, the bird is always descending, and his wings are violently agitated. 1 Whin-chat, saxicola rubetra, Bechst, certainly does migrate. Stone-chat, saxicola rubicola, Bechst., is a resi- dent, but we receive an accession of numbers yearly. — W. J. 2 British Zoology, vol. ii. pp. 270, 271. 3 P. 269. 4 The great body of wheaters migrate regularly ; and it is just possible that a few pairs may remain during the winter, in the southern counties : but I strongly suspect Mr. White, though quoting, must be wrong. — W. J. 5 Mr. White seems only to have known two species of wagtail, the pied and grey. The yellow wagtail is a regular rnigrater, but is very local in its distribution. Both the others partially migrate in Scotland — flocks of the first appear in spring, and a few pairs only remain during the winter.—^ W. J. 6 British Zoology, vol. ii. p. 300. 7 P. 30G. s P. 358. ORNITHOLOGY OF SELBORNE. 115 Soon after the lapwings l have done breed- ing, they congregate, and, leaving the moors and marshes, betake themselves to downs and sheep- walks. Two years ago 2 last spring the little auk was found alive and unhurt, but fluttering and unable to rise, in a lane a few miles from Alresford, where there is a great lake ; it was kept a while, but died. I saw young teals 3 taken alive in the ponds of Wolmer Forest in the beginning of July last, along with flappers, or young wild ducks. Speaking of the swift4, that page says, " it drinks the dew;" whereas it should be, " it drinks on the wing ;" for all the swallow kind sip their water as they sweep over the face of pools or rivers : like Virgil's bees, they drink flying — " flumina summa libant" In this method of drink- ing perhaps this genus may be peculiar. Of the sedge-bird5, be pleased to say it sings most part of the night; its notes are hurrying, but not unpleasing, and imitative of several birds, — as the sparrow, swallow, skylark. When it happens to be silent in the night, by throwing a stone or clod into the bushes where it sits, you immediately set it a- singing; or, in other words, though it slumbers sometimes, yet as soon as it is awakened it re -assumes its song. XL. BEFORE your letter arrived, and of my own accord, I had been remarking and comparing the tails of the male and female swallow, and this ere 1 British Zoology, vol. ii. p. 360. a p. 409. 3 P. 475. 4 P. 15. s P. 16. I 2 116 ORNITHOLOGY OF SELBORNE. any young broods appeared ; so that there was no danger of confounding the dams with their pulli; and besides, as they were then always in pairs, and busied in the employ of nidification, there could be no room for mistaking the sexes, nor the individuals of different chimneys the one for the other. From all my observations, it constantly appeared that each sex has the long feathers in its tail that give it that forked shape ; with this difference, that they are longer in the tail of the male than in that of the female. Nightingales, when their young first come abroad, and are helpless, make a plaintive and a jarring noise; and also a snapping or cracking, pursuing people along the hedges as they walk : these last sounds seem intended for menace and defiance. The grasshopper lark chirps all night in the height of summer. Swans turn white the second year, and breed the third. Weasels prey on moles, as appears by their being sometimes caught in mole-traps. Sparrow-hawks sometimes breed in old crows' nests ; and the kestrel in churches and ruins. There are supposed to be two sorts of eels in the island of Ely. The threads sometimes discovered in eels are perhaps their young : the generation of eels is very dark and mysterious. Hen-harriers breed on the ground, and seem never to settle on trees. When red- starts shake their tails, they move them horizontally, as dogs do when they fawn : the tail of the wagtail, when in motion, bobs up and down like that of a jaded horse. Hedge-sparrows have a remarkable flirt with their wings in breeding time : as soon as frosty HEN HARRIERS. ORNITHOLOGY OF SELBORNE. 117 mornings come, they make a very piping, plaintive noise. Many birds which become silent about midsum- mer, re-assume their notes again in September ; as the thrush, blackbird, woodlark, willow-wren, &c. ; hence August is by much the most mute month, the spring, summer, and autumn through. Are birds induced to sing again because the temperament of autumn resembles that of spring ? Linnaeus ranges plants geographically : palms inhabit the tropics, grasses the temperate zones, and mosses and lichens the polar circles ; no doubt animals may be classed in the same manner with propriety. House-sparrows build under eaves in the spring ; as the weather becomes hotter, they get out for coolness, and rest 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 ob- served 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. Red-breasts sing all through the spring, sum- mer, and autumn. The reason that they are called autumn songsters is, because in the two first seasons their voices are drowned and lost in the general chorus ; in the latter, their song becomes distinguishable. Many songsters of the autumn seem to be the young cock red-breast of that year : notwithstanding the prejudices in their favour, they do much mischief in gardens to the summer fruits l. 1 They eat also the berries of the ivy, the honeysuckle, and the euonymus europaus, or spindle-tree. 118 ORNITHOLOGY OF SELBORNE. The tit-mouse, which early in February 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, both in Hampshire and Devonshire : is this circum- stance for or against either hiding or migration ? Most birds drink sipping at intervals ; but pigeons take a long continued draught like qua- drupeds. Notwithstanding what I have said in a former letter, no grey crows were ever known to breed on Dartmoor ; it was my mistake. The appearance and flying of the scarabceus solstitialis, or fern- chafer, commence with the month of July, and cease about the end of it. These scarabs are the constant food of capri- mulgi, or fern-owls, through that period. They abound on the chalky downs, and in some sandy districts, but not in the clays. In the garden of the Black Bear Inn, in the town of Reading, is a stream or canal running under the stables and out into the fields on the other side of the road: in this water are many carps, which lie rolling about in sight, being fed by travellers, who amuse themselves by tossing them bread; but as soon as the weather grows at all severe, these fishes are no longer seen, 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 ? 1 It is undoubtedly the great titmouse, p. major, which whets like a saw. I have watched for a quarter of an hour together ; it has also cheerful notes. — W. J. ORNITHOLOGY OF SELBORNE. 119 The note of the white-throat, which is conti- nually repeated, and often attended with odd gesticulations on the wing, is harsh and displeas- ing. These birds seem of a pugnacious disposition ; for they sing with an erected crest, and attitudes of rivalry and defiance ; are shy and wild in breeding time, avoiding neighbourhoods, and haunting lonely lanes and commons ; nay, even the very tops of the Sussex downs, where there are bushes and covert ; but in July and August they bring their broods into gardens and orchards, and make great havoc among the summer fruits. The black-cap has, in common, a full, sweet, deep, loud, and wild pipe; yet that strain is of short continuance, and his motions are desultory ; but when that bird sits calmly and engages in song in earnest, he pours forth very sweet, but inward melody, and expresses great variety of soft and gentle modulations, superior perhaps to those of any of our warblers, the nightingale excepted. Black- caps mostly haunt orchards and gardens ; while they warble, their throats are wonderfully distended. The song of the red- start is superior, though somewhat like that of the white-throat ; some birds have a few more notes than others. Sitting very placidly on the top of a tall tree in a village, the cock sings from morning to night : he affects 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 fly-catcher 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 sweet- brier, against the wall of a house, or in the hole of a wall, or on the end of a beam or plate, and 120 ORNITHOLOGY OF SELBORNE. often close to the post of a door where people are going in and out all day long. The bird does not make the least pretension to song, but uses a little inward wailing note when it thinks its young in danger from cats and other annoyances : it breeds but once, and retires early1. 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 Britain2. On a retrospect, I observe that my long letter carries with it a quaint and magisterial air, and is very sententious ; but when I recollect that you requested stricture and anecdote, I hope you will pardon the didactic manner for the sake of the in- formation it may happen to contain. XLI. It is matter of curious inquiry to trace out how those species of soft-billed birds, that continue with us the winter through, subsist during the dead months. The imbecility of birds seems not to be the only reason why they shun the rigour of our winters ; for the robust wry-neck (so much resembling the hardy race of woodpeckers) mi- grates, while the feeble little golden- crowned wren, that shadow of a bird, braves our severest frosts without availing himself of houses or villages, to which most of our winter birds crowd in dis- 1 The muscicapa grisola, Linn. 2 Sweden 221, Great Britain 252 species. SOFT-BILLED BIRDS. 121 tressful seasons, while this keeps aloof in fields and woods ; but perhaps this may be the reason why they often perish, and why they are almost as rare as any bird we know1. I have no reason to doubt but that the soft- billed birds, which winter with us, subsist chiefly on insects in their aurelia state. All the species of wagtails in severe weather haunt shallow streams, near their spring-heads, where they never freeze ; and, by wading, pick out the aurelias of the genus of Phryganece 2, &c. Hedge-sparrows frequent sinks and gutters in hard weather, where they pick up crumbs and other sweepings ; and in mild weather they pro- cure worms, wrhich 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. Red-breasts 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 winter is that infinite profusion of aurelise of the lepidoptera ordo, which is fastened to the twigs of trees and 1 This species extends as far as the Orkney Isles. There is a constant migration of this species, about the end of autumn, from the north of Europe, though we also have a great many that are stationary. Mr. Selby has recorded a very singular instance of migration, which occurred on the 24th and 25th of October, 1822. After a severe gale, with thick fog, from the north-east, thousands of these birds were seen to arrive on fhe sea-shore and sand-banks of the North- umbrian coast ; many of them so fatigued by the length of their flight, as to be unable to rise again from the ground ; and great numbers were in consequence caught or de- stroyed This flight must have been immense in quantity, as its extent was traced through the whole length of the coasts of Northumberland and Durham. — W. J. 3 See Derham's Physico- Theology, p. 235. 122 TITMOUSE. their trunks ; to the pales and 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 between the hard and the soft, between the Lin- naean genera of frangilla and motacilla. One species alone spends its whole time in the woods and fields, never retreating for succour in the severest seasons to houses and neighbourhoods ; and that is the delicate long-tailed titmouse, which is almost as minute as the golden-crowned wren : but the blue titmouse, or nun (parus c&ru- leus) the cole mouse (parus ater), the great black- headed titmouse (fringillago), and the marsh tit- mouse (parus palustris), all resort, at times, to buildings ; and in hard weather particularly. The great titmouse, driven by stress of weather, much frequents houses, and, in deep snows, I have seen this bird, while it hung with its back downwards (to my no small delight and admiration), 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 numbers 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 in- sects, it is very fond of flesh ; for it frequently picks bones on dunghills ; it is a vast admirer of suet, and haunts butchers' shops. When a boy, I have known twenty in a morning caught with snap mouse-traps, baited with Callow or suet. It will also pick holes in apples left on the ground, and be well entertained with the seeds on the head of a sun-flower. The blue, marsh, and great titmice ILONG-TAILKD TITMOUSE AND BLUB TITMOUSE. IRELAND. will, in very severe weather, carry away barley and oat straws from the sides of ricks. How the wheatear and whin- chat support themselves in winter, cannot be so easily ascer- tained, since they spend their time on wild heaths and warrens ; the former especially, where there are stone quarries : most probable it is, that their maintenance arises from the aurelise of the lepi- doptera or do, which furnish them with a plentiful table in the wilderness. XLII. SOME future faunist, a man of hope, extend his visits to the kingdom of JrelancN ; a new field, and a country little knowtT to *me naturalist. He will not, it is to be wished, un- dertake that tour unaccompanied by a botanist, because the mountains have scarcely been suffi- ciently examined ; and the southerly counties of so mild an island may possibly afford some plants little to be expected within the British dominions. A person of a thinking 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 1 Ireland even still remains comparatively unexplored, except in its botanical productions. The scolopax sabini, a new species of snipe, was, I may say, accidentally dis- covered there about three years since, of which specimens have been subsequently got, confirming the identity of the species ; and we have every reason to expect some novelties, particularly in ichthyology and entomology. Ledum palustre and papaver nudicale, are among the late botanical discoveries. — W. J. MAPS OF SCOTLAND. the wild natives, their superstitions, their pre- judices, their sordid way of life, will extort from him many useful reflections. He should 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 water- falls, and the lofty stupendous mountains, so little known, and so engaging to the imagination, when described and exhibited in a lively manner : such a work would be well received. As I have seen no modern map of Scotland, I cannot pretend to say how accurate or particular 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, a want 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 mountainous and romantic country want to be well distinguished. The military roads formed by General Wade, are so great and Roman -like an undertaking that they well merit attention. My old map, Moll's map, takes notice of Fort Wil- liam ; 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 omitted. The celebrated zigzag up the Coryarich must not be passed over. Moll takes notice of Hamilton and Drumlanrig, and such capital houses ; but a new survey, no doubt, should represent every seat and castle remarkable for any great event, or cele- brated for its paintings, &c. Lord Bredalbane's seat and beautiful policy are too curious and extra- ordinary to be omitted. The seat of the Earl of Eglintoun, near Glasgow, HONEY BUZZARD. HONEY-BUZZARDS — SPARROW-HAWKS. 125 is worthy of notice. The pine plantations of that nobleman are very grand and extensive indeed. XLIIL A PAIR of honey-buzzards, buteo apivorus, sive vespivorus, Raii, built them a large shallow nest, composed of twigs, and lined with dead beechen leaves, upon a tall slender beech near the middle of Selborne Hanger, in the summer of 1780. In the middle -of the month of June, a bold boy climbed this tree, though standing on so steep and dizzy a situation, and brought down an egg, the only one in the nest, which had been sat on for some time, and contained the embryo of a young bird. The egg was smaller, and not so round, as those of the common buzzard ; was dotted at each end with small red spots, and surrounded in the middle with a broad bloody zone. The hen bird was shot, and answered exactly to Mr. Ray's description of that species : had a black cere, short thick legs, and a long tail. When on the wing, this species may be easily distinguished from the common buzzard, by its hawk-like appear- ance, small head, wings not so blunt, and longer tail. This specimen contained in its craw some limbs of frogs, and many grey snails without shells. The irides of the eyes of this bird were of a beau- tiful bright yellow colour. About the tenth of July in the same summer, a pair of sparrow-hawks bred in an old crow's nest on a low beech in the same Hanger ; and as their brood, which was numerous, began to grow up, became so daring and ravenous, that they were a terror to all the dames in the village that had chickens or ducklings under their care. A boy 126 STOCK-DOVE. climbed the tree, and found the young so fledged that they all escaped from him; but discovered that a good house had been kept ; the larder was well stored with provisions ; for he brought down a young blackbird, jay, and house-martin, all clean picked, and some half devoured. The old birds had been observed to make sad 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 ene- mies at defiance. XLIV. EVERY incident that occasions a renewal of our correspondence will ever be pleasing and agreeable to me. As to the wild wood-pigeon, the cenas, 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 ap- pellation, 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 November perhaps to February, lives the same wild life with the ring-dove, palumbus torquatus ; frequents coppices and groves, sup- ports itself chiefly by mast, and delights to roost in the tallest beeches. Could it be known in what SPARROW-HAWK. DOVES. 127 manner stock-doves build, the doubt would be set- tled 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 some- times breed in that county. But why did not your correspondent determine the place of its nidi- fication, 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, for many reasons. In the first place, the wild stock- dove is manifestly larger than the common house- dove, against the usual rule of domestication, which generally enlarges the breed. Again, those two remarkable black spots on the remiges of each wing of the stock- dove, which are so characteristic of the species, would not, one should think, be totally lost by its being reclaimed; but would often break out among its descendants. But what is worth a hun- dred arguments, is the instance you give in Sir Roger Mostyn's house-doves in Caernarvonshire ; which, though tempted by plenty of food and gen- tle treatment, can never be prevailed on to inhabit their cote for any time ; but, as soon as they begin to breed, betake themselves to the fastnesses of Ormshead, and deposit their young in safety amidst the inaccessible caverns and precipices of that stupendous promontory. " Naturam expellas furca . . . tamen usque recurret." I have consulted a sportsman, now in his seventy- eighth year, who tells me that fifty or sixty years 128 WOOD-PIGEONS. 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 often shot seven or eight at a time on the wing, as they came wheeling over his head ; he moreover adds, which I was not aware of, that often, there were among them little parties of small blue doves, which he calls rockiers. The food of these numberless emigrants was beech- mast, and some acorns ; and particularly barley, which- they collected in the stubbles. But of late years, since the vast increase of turnips, that vegetable has furnished a great part of their sup- port in hard weather : and the holes they pick in these roots generally damage the crop. From this food their flesh has contracted a rancidness which occasions them to be rejected by nicer judges of eating, who thought them before a delicate dish. They were shot not only as they were feeding in the fields, and especially in snowy weather, but also at the close of the evening, by men who lay in ambush among the woods and groves to kill them as they came in to roost1. These are the principal circumstances relating to this wonderful internal migration, which with us takes place towards the end of November, and ceases early in the spring. Last winter we had, in Selborne High-wood, about 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 to- gether. When they thus rendezvoused by thou- 1 Some old sportsmen say that the main part of these flocks used to withdraw as soon as the heavy Christmas frosts were over. RING-DOVE. 129 sands, if they happened to be suddenly roused from their roost-trees on an evening, " Their rising all at once was like the sound Of thunder heard remote." r>V - ) ' •<* x&»< It will by no means be foreign to tjie present purpose to add, that I had a relation in this neigh- bourhood 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 4qves that were sitting in his own pigeon-hou^/^ioping ^^ thereby, if he could bring about a coalitiohS-%jen->^ large his breed, and teach his own doves to beat out into the woods and support themselves by mast ; the plan was plausible, but something al- ways interrupted the success ; for though the birds were usually hatched, and sometimes grew to half their size, yet none ever arrived at maturity. I myself have seen these foundlings in their nest displaying a strange ferocity of nature, so as scarcely to bear to be looked at, and snapping with their bills by way of menace. In short, they always died, perhaps for want of proper suste- nance ; but the owner thought that by their fierce and wild demeanour they frighted their foster-mo- thers, and so were starved. Virgil, as a familiar occurrence, by way of simile, describes a dove haunting the cavern of a rock, in such engaging numbers, that I cannot refrain from quoting the passage ; and John Dry- den has rendered it so happily in our language, that without further excuse, I shall add his trans- lation also. " Qualis spelunca subito commota columba, Cui domiis, et dulces latebroso in pumice nidi, Fertur in arva volans, plausumque exterrita pennis Dat tecto ingentem — mox aere lapsa quieto, Radit iter liquidum, celeris neque commovet alas." K 130 DOVES. " As when a dove her rocky hold forsakes, Roused, in a fright her sounding wings she shakes ; The cavern rings with clattering ; — out she flies, And leaves her callow care, and cleaves the skies ; At first she flutters ; — but at length she springs To smoother flight, and shoots upon her wings." THE . NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. PART II. IN A SERIES OF LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. K 2 THB NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. PART II.— LETTER I. WHEN I was in town last month, I partly en- gaged that I would some time do myself the honour to write to you on the subject of natural history ; and I am the more ready to fulfil my promise, be- cause I see you are a gentleman of great candour, and one that will make allowances, especially where the writer professes to be an outdoor naturalist, one that takes his observations from the subject itself, and not from the writings of others. The following is a List of the Summer Birds of Passage which I have discovered in this neigh- bourhood, ranged somewhat in the order in whic' they appear : — USUALLY APPEARS RAII NOMINA. .7 ABOUT 1 Wr neck $ Jynx, sive tor- \ The middle of March : /"' I quillet. ) harsh note. & <•» 2. Smallest wil- } Regulus non cris- ? March 23 : chirps till /T Yellow-wagtail, Motacilla flava. / W er^ ^i*^ Grey-wagtail, Motacilla cinerea.\ ^f^fp^' Wheatear, Whin-chat, Stone-chatter, Golden-crowned wren, Oenanthe. CEnanthesecunda. (Enanthe tertia. (nea. The smallest birds that walk. TSome of these are to ^^ be seen with us the winter through. Regulus cristatus. ' This is the smallest British bird: haunts the tops oftall trees : stays the winter through. 136 WINTER BIRDS OF PASSAGE. !. Ringousel, Merula torquata. A List of the Winter Birds of Passage round this neighbourhood, ranged somewhat in the order in which they appear. RAII NOMINA. This is a new migra- tion, which I have lately discovered about Michaelmas week, and again about the four- teenth of March. About old Michael- mas. a percher by roosts on the grou {Most frequently on downs. ( Appears about old \ Michaelmas. ( Some snipes con- Gallinago minor. < stantly breed with ^ us. Gallinago minima. ( Seldom appears till late ; not in such plenty as formerly. 2. Redwing, Turdus iliacus. *y * & ... 3. Fieldfare, Turdus pilaris. 4. Royston-crow, Comix cinerea. 5. Woodcock, Scolopax. 6. Snipe, 7- Jack -Snipe, 8. Wood-pigeon, Oenas. v mas. | Though a \ day, roo V ground. 9. Wild-swan, Cygnus ferus. On some large wa 10. Wild-goose, Anser ferus. > 11. Wild-duck, S^nas iorquata ( minor. | 12. Pochard, Anas f era fusca. V 13. Wigeon, Penelope. S On our lakes 14 Teal, breeds *J streams. with us in / n and 15. Cross-beak, Coccothraustes. rT,hese are,°nly wan- 16. Cross-bill, Loxia. \ derer.s ^at aP?ear ( Cmr—i— »-i- < occasionally, and are 17- Silk- tail, 1 not observant of any .6 - ( 7// L regular migration. WINTER BIRDS OF PASSAGE. 137 These birds, as they stand numerically, belong to the following Linnsean genera : — 1, 2, 3, Turdus. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, Anas. 4, Corvus. 15, 16, Loxia. 5, 6, 7> Scolopajc. 17, Ampelis. 8, Columba. Birds that sing in the night are but few. f " In shadiest covert Nightingale, Lusoma. | hid."-MiLTON. Woodlark, Alaudaarborea. /SusPended in mid ^ air. Less reed-sparrow, f P™er arundina- ( Among reeds and ( ceus minor. \ willows. I shall now proceed to such birds as continue to sing after Midsummer, but, as they are rather nu- merous, they would exceed the bounds of this paper : besides, as this is now the season [end of June] for remarking on that subject, I am willing to repeat my observations on some birds, concern- ing the continuation of whose song I seem at pre- sent to have some doubt. II. WHEN I did myself the honour to write to you, about the end of last June, on the subject of na- tural history, I sent you a list of the summer birds of passage which I have observed in this neigh- bourhood, and also a list of the winter birds of passage ; I mentioned, besides, those soft-billed birds that stay with us the winter through in the south of England, and those that are remarkable for singing in the night. According to my proposal, I shall now proceed to such birds (singing birds, strictly so called) as 138 SINGING BIRDS. continue in full song till after midsummer, and shall range them somewhat in the order in which they first begin to open as the spring advances. RAII NOMINA. 1. Woodlark, Alauda arborea. 2. Songthrush, 3. Wren, 4. Red-breast, 5. Hedge-spar- row, 6. Yellow-ham- mer, 7. Skylark, 8. Swallow, 9. Blackcap, 10. Titlark, ( Turdus simplici- \ ter dictus. ' In January, and con- tinues to sing through all the summer and au- tumn. iln February, and on to August, re-as- sume their song in autumn, f All the year, hard frost Rubecula. Curruca. f Emberiza flava. Alauda vulgaris. {Hirundo domes- tica. Atricapilla. Alauda pratorum. Do. (Early in February, to July the 10th. r Early in February, 1 and on through j July to August the [ 21st. fin February, and on 11. Blackbird, Merula vulgaris. 12. White-throat. 13. Goldfinch, 14. Greenfinch, Ficedults affinis. Carduelis. Chloris. ( From April to Sep- \ tember. f Beginning of April. { fojul/l3th. f From middle of April | ^ July ^ ^ Sometimes in Febru- ary and March, and so on to July the 23d : re-assumes in autumn. {In April, and on to July 23. ( April, and through to \ September 16. {On to July and Au- gust 2. SINGING BIRDS. 139 15. Less sparro reed-\ ow, j Passer arundina- ceus minor. 16. Common linnet, - Linaria vulgaris. May, on to beginning of July. Breeds and whistles on till August : re-assumes its note when they begin to congregate in Oc- tober, and again early before the flocks separate. Birds that cease to be in full song, and are usually silent at or before Midsummer : — 17. Middle w\\-\ Regulus non cm- /Middle of June; be- low-wren. j tatus. 18. Red-start, Ruticilla. 19. Chaffinch, Fringilla. 20. Nightingale, Lucsinia. \ gins in April. Do. ; begins in May. Beginning of June ; sings first in Fe- bruary. ( Middle of June ; sings ( first in April. 21. Missel-bird, Birds that sing for a short time, and very early in the spring : — ! January the 2d, 1770; in February. Is called in Hampshire and Sussex the stormcock, because its song is supposed to forbode windy wet weather ; is the largest singing bird we have. In February, March, April ; re-assumes for a short time in September. Birds that have somewhat of a note or song, and yet are hardly to be called singing birds : — 22. Great tit- mouse, or ox eye, itO < >x- > Fritigillago. J 140 SINGING BIRDS. RAII NOMINA. C Its note as minute as 23. Golden- ~) \ its person ; frequents crown- \. Regulus cristatus. s the tops of high oaks edwren, J i and firs ; the smallest V. British bird. f Haunts great woods; 24. Marsh titmouse, Parus palustris. < two harsh sharp (. notes. 25. Small willow- ? Regulus non 4 Sings in March, and wren, J cristatus. \ on to September. {Cantat voce stridula locustte ; from end of April to August. 27. Grasshopper \ Alauda minima f Chi7pS *!}, ?jghtff f°m ri V J the middle of April lark, / voce locust*. j to the end of July. ( All the breeding time ; 28. Martin, Hirundo agrestis. < from May to Sep- ^ tember. 29. Bullfinch, Pyrrhula. on T> *.- (From the end of Ja- 30. Bunting, Embenza alba. | nuary to July. All singing birds, and those that have any pre- tensions to song, not only in Britain, but perhaps the world through, come under the Linnsean ordo ofpasseres. The above-mentioned birds, as they stand nume- rically, belong to the following Linnsean genera : — 1, 7, 10, 27, 4lauda. 8, 28, Hirundo. 2, 11, 21, Turdus. 13, 16, 19, Fringilla. i8223,25,26, Motacilla' 22' 24' 6, 30, Emberiza. 14, 29, Loxia. Birds that sing as they fly are but few : — RAII NOMINA. C Rising, suspended, Skylark, Alauda vulgans. ^ an| falling. SINGING BIRDS. 141 Titlark, Woodlark, Blackbird, White-throat, Swallow, Wren, Alauda prat orum. Alauda arborea. Merula. Ficedula affinis. Hirundo domestica. Passer troglodytes. In its descent ; also sitting on trees, and walking on the ground. ( Suspended ; in hot < summer nights all (^ night long. (Sometimes from bush \ to bush. Uses when singing on the wing odd jerks and gesticulations. In soft sunny weather, f Sometimes from bush \ to bush. I Raven, Corvus. Song-thrush, Blackbird, Turdus. Merula. Rook, Comix frugilega. Woodlark, ~4lauda arborea. Ring-dove, ( Palumbus torqua- \ tus. Birds that breed most early in these parts : — f Hatches in February \ and March. In March. In March. {Builds the beginning of March. Hatches in April. f Lays the beginning of \ April. All birds that continue in full song till after , Midsummer appear to me to breed more than once. Most kind of birds seem to me to be wild and shy somewhat in proportion to their bulk ; I mean in this island, where they are much pursued and annoyed; but in Ascension Island, and many other desolate places, mariners have found fowls so unacquainted with a human figure, that they would stand still to be taken, as is the case with boobies, £c. As an example of what is advanced, I remark that the golden- crested wren, (the smallest British bird,) will stand unconcerned till you come within three or four yards of it ; while 14-2 SINGING BIRDS. the bustard, (otis), the largest British land fowl, does not care to admit a person within so many furlongs. III. IT was no small matter of satisfaction to me to find that you were not displeased with my little methodus of birds. If there was any merit in the sketch, it must be owing to its punctuality. For many months I carried a list in my pocket of the birds that were to be remarked, and, as I rode or walked about my business, I noted each day the continuance or omission of each bird's song ; so that I am as sure of the certainty of my facts as a man can be of any transaction whatsoever. I shall now proceed to answer the several que- ries which you put in your two obliging letters, in the best manner that I am able. Perhaps East- wick, and its environs, where you heard so very few birds, is not a woodland country, and therefore not stocked with such songsters. If you will cast your eye on my last letter, you will find that many species continued to warble after the beginning of July. The titlark and yellow-hammer breed late, the latter very late ; and therefore it is no wonder that they protract their song : for I lay it down as a maxim in ornithology, that as long as there is any incubation going on there is music. As to the red-breast and wren, it is well known to the most incurious observer that they whistle the year round, hard frost excepted; especially the latter. It was not in my power to procure you a black- cap, or a less reed-sparrow, or sedge-bird alive. As the first is, undoubtedly, and the last, as far 12 BLACKCAP — BIRDS IN CAGES. 143 as I can yet see, a summer bird of passage, they would require more nice and curious management in a cage than I should be able to give them : they are both distinguished songsters. The note of the former has such a wild sweetness that it always brings to my mind those lines in a song in " As You Like It :" — " And tune his merry note Unto the wild bird's throat." — SHAKSPEARE. The latter has a surprising variety of notes, re- sembling the song of several other birds ; but then it has also a hurrying manner, not at all to its advantage. It is, notwithstanding, a delicate polyglot. It is new to me that titlarks in cages sing in the night; perhaps only caged birds do so. I once knew a tame red-breast in a cage that always sang as long as candles were in the room ; but in their wild state no one supposes they sing in the night. I should be almost ready to doubt the fact, that there are to be seen much fewer birds in July than in any former month, notwithstanding so many young are hatched daily. Sure I am, that it is far otherwise with respect to the swallow tribe, which increases prodigiously as the summer advances ; and I saw, at the time mentioned, many hundreds of young wagtails on the banks of the Cherwell, which almost covered the meadows. If the matter appears, as you say, in the other species, may it not be owing to the dams being engaged in incubation, while the young are concealed by the leaves ? Many times have I had the curiosity to open the stomach of woodcocks and snipes; but nothing ever occurred that helped to explain to me what 144 CUCKOO. their subsistence might be ; all that I could ever find was a soft mucus, among which lay many pel- lucid small gravels. IV. YOUR observation, that " the cuckoo does not deposit its egg indiscriminately in the nest of the first bird that comes in its way, but probably looks out a nurse in some degree congenerous, with whom to intrust its young," is perfectly new to me ; and struck me so forcibly, that I naturally fell into a train of thought that led me to consider whether the fact was so, and what reason there was for it. When I came to recollect and inquire, I could not find that any cuckoo had ever been seen in these parts, except in the nest of the wagtail, the hedge-sparrow, the titlark, the white- throat, and the red-breast, all soft-billed insec- tivorous birds. The excellent Mr. Willughby mentions the nest of the palumbus (ring-dove), and of the fringilla (chaffinch), birds that subsist on acorns and grains, and such hard food; but then he does not mention them as of his own knowledge ; but says afterwards, that he saw himself a wagtail feeding a cuckoo. It appears hardly possible that a soft-billed bird should subsist on the same food with the hard-billed ; for the former have thin membranaceous stomachs suited to their soft food; while the latter, the granivorous tribe, have strong muscular gizzards, which, like mills, grind, by the help of small gravels and pebbles, what is swallowed. This proceeding of the cuckoo, of dropping its eggs as it were by chance, is such a monstrous outrage on maternal affection, one of the first great dictates of nature, and such a violence on instinct, that, had it only SINGING BIRDS. 145 been related of a bird in the Brazils, or Peru, it would never have merited our belief. But yet should it further appear that this simple bird, when divested of that natural oropy?) that seems to raise the kind in general above themselves, and inspire them with extraordinary degrees of cunning and address, may be still endued with a more enlarged faculty of discerning what species are suitable and congenerous nursing-mothers for its disregarded eggs and young, and may deposit them only under their care, this would be adding wonder to wonder, and instancing, in a fresh manner, that the methods of Providence are not subjected to any mode or rule, but astonish us in new lights, and in various and changeable appearances. What was said by a very ancient and sublime writer, concerning the defect of natural affection in the ostrich, may be well applied to the bird we are talking of : — " She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers : " Because God hath deprived her of wisdom ; neither hath he imparted to her understanding V Query. Does each female cuckoo lay but one egg in a season, or does she drop several in different nests, according as opportunity offers ? V. I HEARD many birds of several species sing last year after Midsummer ; enough to prove that the summer solstice is not the period that puts a stop to the music of the woods. The yellow-hammer, no doubt, persists with more steadiness than any other ; but the woodlark, the wren, the red-breast, 1 Job xxxix. 16, 17. L 146 CUCKOO. the swallow, the white-throat, the goldfinch, the common linnet, are all undoubted instances of the truth of what I advanced. If this severe season does not interrupt the re- gularity of the summer migrations, the black-cap will be here in two or three days \ I wish it was in my power to procure you one of those song- sters ; but I am no bird-catcher ; and so little used to birds in a cage, that I fear, if I had one, it would soon die for want of skill in feeding. Was your red sparrow, which you kept in a cage, the thick-billed red sparrow of the Zoology, p. 320 ; or was it the less red sparrow of Ray, the sedge bird of Mr. Pennant's last publication, p. 16? As to the matter of long-billed birds growing fatter in moderate frosts, I have no doubt within myself what should be the reason. The thriving at those times appears to me to arise altogether from the gentle check which the cold throws upon insensible perspiration. The case is just the same with blackbirds, &c. ; and farmers and warreners observe, the first, that their hogs fat more kindly at such times; and the latter, that their rabbits are never in such good case as in a gentle frost. But when frosts are severe, and of long continuance, the case is soon altered; for then a want of food soon overbalances the reple- tion occasioned by a checked perspiration. I have observed, moreover, that some human consti- tutions are more inclined to plumpness in winter than in summer. 1 Through the attention of W. Carruthers, Esq. of Dormont, I have lately received the black-cap, with some others of our summer birds, from Madeira, where it is probable they partly retire on leaving their breeding places* — W. J. SILENCE OF SINGING BIRDS. 147 When birds come to suffer by severe frost, I find that the first that come to die are the red-wing fieldfares, and then the song- thrushes. You wonder, with good reason, that the hedge sparrows, &c. can be induced at all to sit on the egg of the cuckoo without being scandalized at the vast disproportioned size of the supposititious egg; but the brute creation, I suppose, have very little idea of size, colour, or number l. For the common hen, I know, when the fury of incu- bation is on her, will sit on a single shapeless stone, instead of a nest full of eggs that have been withdrawn ; and, moreover, a hen turkey, in the same circumstances, would sit on, in the empty nest, till she perished with hunger. I think the matter might easily be determined whether a cuckoo lays one or two eggs, or more, in a season, by opening a female during the laying time. If more than one was come down out of the ovary, and advanced to a good size, doubtless then she would that spring lay more than one. I will endeavour to get a hen, and to examine. Your supposition, that there may be some natural obstruction in singing birds while they are mute, and that when this is removed the song recommences, is new and bold. I wish you could discover some good grounds for this suspicion. I was glad you were pleased with my specimen of the caprimulgus, or fern-owl ; you were, I find, acquainted with the bird before. When we meet, I shall be glad to *iave some conversation with you concerning the proposal 1 By a wise provision of nature, and to prevent the very circumstance which Mr. White here notices, we find the egg of the cuckoo scarcely larger than that of the common chaffinch. — W. J. L 2 148 RETURN OF BIRDS. you make of my drawing up an account of the animals of this neighbourhood. Your partiality towards my small abilities persuades you, I fear, that I am able to do more than is in my power ; for it is no small undertaking for a man unsup- ported and alone to begin a natural history from his own autopsia ! Though there is endless room for observation in the field of nature, which is boundless, yet investigation (where a man endea- vours to be sure of his facts) can make but slow progress ; and all that one could collect in many years would go into a very narrow compass. Some extracts from your ingenious " Investi- gations of the difference between the present temperature of the air in Italy," &c. have fallen in my way, and gave me great satisfaction. They have removed the objection that always arose in my mind whenever I came to the passages which you quote. Surely the judicious Virgil, when writing a didactic poem for the region of Italy, could never think of describing freezing rivers, unless such severity of weather pretty frequently occurred ! P.S. Swallows appear amidst snows and frost. VI. THE severity and turbulence of last month [April] so interrupted the regular process of summer migration, that some of the birds do but just begin to show themselves, and others are apparently thinner than usual ; as the white-throat, the black-cap, the red-start, the fly-catcher. I well remember, that after the very severe spring, in the year 1739-40, summer birds of passage were very scarce. They come probably hither RE ED-SPARROW. 149 with a south-east wind, or when it blows between those points ; but in that unfavourable year the winds blew the whole spring and summer through from the opposite quarters. And yet, amidst all these disadvantages, two swallows, as I mentioned in my last, appeared this year as early as the llth of April, amidst frost and snow; but they withdrew again for a time. I am not pleased to find that some people seem so little satisfied with Scopoli's new publication1. There is room to expect great things from the hands of that man, who is a good naturalist ; and one would think that a history of the birds of so distant and southern a region as Carniola would be new and interesting. I could wish to see that work, and hope to get it sent down. Dr. Scopoli is physician to the wretches that work in the quicksilver mines of that district. When you talked of keeping a reed-sparrow, and giving it seeds, I could not help wondering ; because the reed- sparrow, which I mentioned to you (passer arundinaceus minor, Raii,) is a soft- billed bird, and most probably migrates hence before winter ; whereas the bird you kept (passer torquatus, Raii,) abides all the year, and is a thick-billed bird. I question whether the latter be much of a songster ; but in this matter I want to be better informed. The former has a variety of hurrying notes, and sings all night. Some part of the song of the former, I suspect, is attributed to the latter. We have plenty of the soft-billed sort ; which Mr. Pennant had entirely left out of his British Zoology, till I reminded him of his 1 This work he calls his " Annus Primus Historico-Natu- ralis." 150 REED-SPARROW. omission. See British Zoology last published, p. 161. I have somewhat to advance on the different manners in which different birds fly and walk ; but as this is a subject that I have not enough considered, and is of such a nature as not to be contained in a small space, I shall say nothing further about it at present2. No doubt the reason why the sex of birds in their first plumage is so difficult to be distinguished is, as you say, " because they are not to pair and discharge their parental functions till the ensuing spring." As colours seem to be the chief external sexual distinction in many birds, these colours do not take place till sexual attachment begins to obtain. And the case is the same in quadrupeds ; among whom, in their younger days, the sexes differ but little ; but, as they advance to maturity, horns and shaggy manes, beards and brawny necks, &c. &c. strongly discriminate the male from the female. We may instance still further in our own species, where a beard and stronger features are usually characteristic of the male sex ; but this sexual diversity does not take place in earlier life; for a beautiful youth shall be so like a beautiful girl, that the difference shall not be discernible : — " Quern si puellarum insereres choro, Mire sagaces falleret hospites Discrimen obscurum, solutis Crinibus, ambiguoque vultu." — HOR. 1 See Letter XXV. Part I. 2 See Letter XLII. Part II. SCOPGLI'S ANNUS PRIMUS. 151 VII. I AM glad to hear that Kuekalm is to furnish you with the birds of Jamaica. A sight of the hirundines of that hot and distant island would be a great en- tertainment to me. The Anni of Scopoli are now in my possession ; and I have read the Annus Primus with satisfac- tion ; for, though some parts of this work are exceptionable, and he may advance some mistaken observations, yet the ornithology of so distant a country as Carniola is very curious. Men that undertake only one district are much more likely to advance natural knowledge than those that grasp at more than they can possibly be acquainted with. Every kingdom, every province, should have its own monographer. The reason, perhaps, why he mentions nothing of Ray's Ornithology, may be the extreme poverty and distance of his country, into which the works of our great naturalists may have never yet found their way. You have doubts, I know, whether this Ornithology is genuine, and really the work of Scopoli : as to myself, I think I discover strong tokens of authenticity ; the style corresponds with that of his Entomology ; and his characters of his Ordines and Genera are many of them new, expressive, and masterly.. He has ventured to alter some of the Linnsean genera, with sufficient show of reason. It might, perhaps, be mere accident that you saw so many swifts and no swrallows at Staines ; be- cause, in my long observation of those birds, I never could discover the least degree of rivalry or hos- tility between the species. 152 FERN-OWLS CUCKOOS. Ray remarks that birds of the galling order, as cocks and hens, partridges and pheasants, &c. are pulveratrices , such as dust themselves, using that method of cleaning their feathers, and ridding themselves of their vermin. As far as I can ob- serve, many birds that dust themselves never wash ; and I once thought that those birds that wash themselves would never dust : but here I find myself mistaken ; for common house -sparrows are great pulveratrices, being frequently seen grovel- ling and wallowing in dusty roads ; and yet they are great washers. Does not the skylark dust ? Query. Might not Mahomet and his followers take one method of purification from these pulve- ratrices ? because I find, from travellers of credit, that if a strict Mussulman is journeying in a sandy desert, where no water is to be found, at stated hours he strips off his clothes, and most scrupu- lously rubs his body over with sand or dust. A countryman told me he had found a young fern-owl in the nest of a small bird on the ground ; and that it was fed by the little bird. I went to see this extraordinary phenomenon, and found that it was a young cuckoo hatched in the nest of a tit- lark ; it was become vastly too big for its nest, appearing Majores pennas nido extendisse,''- and was very fierce and pugnacious, pursuing my finger, as I teased it, for many feet from its nest, and sparring and buffeting with its wings like a game-cock, — the dupe of a dam appearing at a distance, hovering about with meat in its mouth, and expressing the greatest solicitude. In July I saw several cuckoos skimming over a large pond; and found, after some observation, that they were feeding on the libellulce, or dragon- CROSS-BEAKS. 153 flies, some of which they caught as they settled on the weeds, and some as they were on the wing. Notwithstanding what Linnaeus says, I cannot be induced to believe that they are birds of prey. This district affords some birds that are hardly ever heard of at Selborne. In the first place, considerable flocks of cross-beaks (loxice curviros- trfe) have appeared this summer in the pine groves belonging to the house [Ringmer, near Lewes] * ; 1 The species of crossbills are only three in number. One, loxia curvirostra, pays frequent visits, in flocks of from ten to eighty or a hundred in number, during the winter. The loxia pittyopsittacus has only been once recorded as a native of this country, from a specimen killed in Ross- shire, and now in my possession ; it can therefore only be ranked as an occasional visitant ; it is a native of Germany and North America. The third species, loxia falcirostra, also a native of North America, has once been shot within two miles of Belfast, Ireland, — the only authenticated instance of its visiting our coasts. In a late number of the Zoological Journal, Mr. Yarrel (whom we have already had occasion to mention as a most persevering naturalist) has supplied some very interesting facts regarding the formation and direction of the beak of the common crossbill, and which, we think, are here worthy of notice : — " The beak of the crossbill is alto- gether unique in its form ; the mandibles do not lie upon each other, with their lateral edges in opposition, as in other birds, but curve to the right and left, and always in opposite direc- tions to each other. In some specimens, the upper mandibles curve downwards and to the left — the under portion turned upwards, and to the right. When holding the head of this bird in my fingers, I found I could bring the under mandible in a line underneath and touching the point of the upper, but not beyond it, towards the left side ; while, on its own side, the point passed with ease to the distance of3-8ths of an inch. The upper mandible has a limited degree of motion on the cranium — the superior maxillary and nasal bones being united to the frontal by flexible bony laminae. " The form as well as the magnitude of the processes of some of the bones of the head are also peculiar to this bird. The pterygoid processes of the palatine bones are considerably elongated downwards to afford space for the 154 CROSS-BEAKS. the water- ousel is said to haunt the mouth of the Lewes river, near Newhaven ; and the Cornish insertion of the large pterygoid muscles. The os omoideum on each side is strongly articulated to the os quadratum, affording firm support to the upper mandible. The jugal bone is united to the superior maxillary bone in front — is firmly attached by its posterior extremity to the outer side of the os quadratum : when, therefore, the os quadratum is pulled upwards and forwards by its own peculiar muscles, the jugal bone on each side, by its pressure forwards, elevates the upper mandible. " The inferior projecting process of the os quadratum, to which the lower jaw is articulated in most other birds, is somewhat linear from before backwards, and compressed at the sides, admitting vertical motion only upwards and downwards ; the same process in the crossbill is spherical. The cavity in the lower jaw, destined to receive this process, is a hollow circular cup. The union of these two portions, therefore, forms an articulation possessing the universal motion and flexibility of the mechanical ball-and- socket joint. The lower jaw is of great strength — the sides or plates elevated, with prominent coronoid processes, to which, as well as to the whole outer sides of the plates, the temporal muscle is attached ; and in a head of this bird, which had been divested of all the soft parts, I found, on sliding the lower laterally upon the upper, as performed by the bird, that before the coronoid process is brought into contact with the pterygoid on its own side, the extreme points of the mandibles were separated laterally to the extent I have already mentioned of 3-8ths of an inch. The temporal and pyramidal muscles on the right side of the head — that being the side to which the lower jaw inclined — were considerably larger than those of the left, and indicated by their bulk the great lateral power this bird is capable of exerting, to be hereafter noticed. The unusually large size of the pterygoid muscles, on each side, was very conspicuous, the space for them being obtained by the great distance to which the articulated extremities of the lower jaw were removed ; and the food of the bird being small seeds, rendered a narrow pharynx sufficient for the purpose of swallowing. The muscles depressing the lower mandible are three in number, only one of which, the greater pyramidal, is visible. This strong muscle covers two other small ones, the triangular and square muscles, CROSS-BEAKS. 155 chough builds, I know, all along the chalky cliffs of the Sussex shore. so called from their particular shape. These three muscles, all of which have their origin in the occipital portion of the cranium, are inserted by strong tendons on the under and back part of each extremity of the lower jaw, behind the centre of motion, and consequently, by their simultaneous contraction, raise the point to which they are attached, and depress the anterior part of the mandible. The lower portions of the ossa quadrata are pushed somewhat forwards by this compression, assisted by two small muscles ; one of these, a small flat muscle, arises from the septum of the orbits, behind the small aperture observed in the septum, and passes downwards to be inserted upon the projecting styloid process of the os quadratum. The second is a small pyramidal-shaped muscle, arising also from the septum, anterior to the other muscle, and, passing downwards and backwards, is inserted upon the omoideum, both by their contraction pulling the os quadratum forwards, and thus elevating the other mandible. The depressors of the lower jaw, and the elevators of the upper, therefore, act together to separate the mandibles. To close the mandibles, the temporal and pterygoid muscles elevate the lower jaw, assisted by slender slips, which, extending forwards to the superior maxillary bones, act in concert, by bringing them down. When the lateral motion is required, the great pyramidal muscle on the right side pulls the extremity of the lowrer jaw to which it is attached backwards, the pterygoid muscles on the left side at the same time powerfully assisting, by carry- ing that side of the lower jaw inwards." Mr. Yarrel next goes on to explain the uses of the tongue. Their food is the seeds of the different fir cones ; and their mode of operation, when proceeding to extract them, is this: — They first fix themselves across the cone; then, bringing the points of the maxilla from their crossed or lateral position to lie immediately over each other in this reduced compass, they insinuate their beaks between the scales, and then opening them, not in the usual manner, but by drawing the inferior maxilla sideways, force open the scales. Mr. Yarrel then proceeds: — " At this stage of the proceeding the aid of the tongue becomes necessary, and this organ is no less admirably adapted for the service required. The os hyoides, or bone of the tongue, has arti- 158 RINGOUSELS. I was greatly pleased to see little parties of ringousels (my newly- discovered migrators) scat- tered, at intervals, all along the Sussex Downs from Chichester to Lewes. Let them come from whence they will, it looks very suspicious that they are cantoned along the coast in order to pass the Channel when severe weather advances. They visit us again in April, as it should seem, in their return, and are not to-be found in the dead of winter. It is remarkable that they are very tame, and seem to have no manner of apprehensions of danger from a person with a gun. There are bustards on the wide Downs near culated to its anterior extremity an additional portion, formed partly of bone with a horny covering. In shape it is narrow, about 3-8ths of an inch in length, and extends downwards and forwards, the sides curved upwards, the distal extremity shaped like a scoop, somewhat pointed and thin on both edges — the proximal extremity ending in two small processes, elongated upwards and backwards above the articulation with the bone of the tongue, each process having inserted upon it a slender muscle extending backwards to the glottis, and attached to the os hyoides, which muscles, by their contraction, extend and raise the scoop-like point ; underneath the articulation of this horny and grooved appendage is another small muscle, which is attached at one extremity to the os hyoides, at the other to the moveable piece, and, by its action, as an antagonist to the upper muscles, bends the point downwards and backwards ; while, therefore, the point of the beak presses the shell from the body of the cone, the tongue, brought forward by its own muscle (genio-hyoideus) is enabled, by the additional muscles described, to direct and insert its cutting scoop underneath the seed, and the food thus dislodged is transferred to the mouth ; and when the mandibles are separated laterally in this operation, the bird has an uninterrupted view of the seed in the cavity, with the eye on that side to which the under mandible is curved." For further information consult Zoological Journal, vol. iv. p. 459.— W. J. LAND TORTOISE. 157 Brighthelmstone ; no doubt they are acquainted with the Sussex Downs. The prospects and rides round Lewes are most lovely. As I rode along near the coast I kept a very sharp look-out in the lanes and woods, hoping I might, at this time of the year, have discovered some of the summer short- winged birds of passage crowding towards the coast in order for their de- parture ; but it was very extraordinary that I never saw a red- start, white-throat, black-cap, uncrested wren, fly-catcher, &c. ; and I remember to have made the same remark in former years, as I usually come to this place annually about this time. The birds most common along the coast at present are the stonechatterers, whinchats, bunt- ings, linnets, some few wheatears, titlarks, &c. Swallows and house-martins abound yet [October 8th], induced to prolong their stay by this soft, still, dry season. A land tortoise, which has been kept for thirty years in a little walled court belonging to the house where I am now visiting, retires under ground about the middle of November, and comes forth again about the middle of April. When it first appears in the spring it discovers very little inclination towards food, but in the height of summer grows voracious, and then as the summer declines its appetite declines ; so that for the last six weeks in autumn it hardly eats at all. Milky plants, such as lettuces, dandelions, sow- thistles, are its favourite dish. In a neighbouring village one was kept till, by tradition, it was supposed to be a hundred years old — an instance of vast longevity in such a poor reptile ! 158 CHAFFINCHES. VIII. THE birds that I took for aberdavines were reed-sparrows (passeres torquati.) There are, doubtless, many home internal migrations within this kingdom that want to be better understood; witness those vast flocks of hen chaffinches that appear with us in the winter without hardly any cocks among them. Now, was there a due proportion of each sex, it would seem very improbable that any one district should produce such numbers of these little birds, and much more when only one half of the species appears ; therefore we may conclude, that the fringillce ccelebes, for some good purposes, have a peculiar migration of their own, in which the sexes part. Nor should it seem so wonderful that the intercourse of sexes in this species of birds should be interrupted in winter ; since in many animals, and particularly in bucks and does, the sexes herd separately, except at the season when commerce is necessary for the continuance of the breed. For this matter of the chaffinches, see Fauna Suecica, p. 85, and Sy sterna Nature, p. 318. I see every winter vast flights of hen chaffinches, but none of cocks. Your method of accounting for the periodical motions of the British singing birds, or birds of flight, is a very probable one, since the matter of food is a great regulator of the actions and proceed- ings of the brute creation : there is but one that can be set in competition with it, and that is love. But I cannot quite acquiesce with you in one circumstance, when you advance that " When they have thus feasted, they again separate into small parties of five or six, and get the best fare WOODCOCKS — FIELDFARES. 159 they can within a certain district, having no inducement to go in quest of fresh- turned earth." Now, if you mean that the business of congrega- ting is quite at an end from the conclusion of wheat- so wing to the season of barley and oats, it is not the case with us; for larks and chaffinches, and particularly linnets, flock and congregate as much in the very dead of winter as when the husbandman is busy with his ploughs and harrows. Sure there can be no doubt but that woodcocks and fieldfares leave us in the spring, in order to cross the seas, and to retire to some districts more suitable to the purpose of breeding. That the former pair before they retire, and that the hens are forward with egg, I myself, when I was a sportsman, have often experienced. It cannot indeed be denied but that now and then we hear of a woodcock's nest, or young birds, discovered in some part or other of this island; but then they are always mentioned as rarities, and some- what out of the common course of things ; but as to redwings and fieldfares, no sportsman or naturalist has ever yet, that I could hear, pre- tended to have found the nest or young of those species in any part of these kingdoms. And I the more admire at this instance as extraordinary, since, to all appearance, the same food in summer as well as in winter might support them here which maintains their congeners, the blackbirds and thrushes, did they choose to stay the summer through. From hence it appears that it is not food alone which determines some species of birds with regard to their stay or departure. Field- fares and redwings disappear sooner or later, according as the warm weather comes on earlier or later ; for I well remember, after that dreadful winter, 1739-40, that cold north-east winds con- 160 FIELDFARES — REDWINGS. tinned to blow on through April and May, and that these kinds of birds (what few remained of them) did not depart as usual, but were seen lingering about till the beginning of June. The best authority that we can have for the modification of the birds above-mentioned in any district, is the testimony of faunists that have written professedly the natural history of particular countries. Now, as to the fieldfare, Linnaeus, in his Fauna Suecica, says of it, that " maximis in arboribus nidificat;" and of the redwing he says in the same place, that " nidificat in mediis arbusculis, sive sepibus : ova sex cceruleo-viridia maculis nigris variis. Hence we may be assured that fieldfares and redwings breed in Sweden. Scopoli says, in his Annus Primus, of the woodcock, that " nupta ad nos venit circa Gquinoctium vernale" meaning in Tyrol, of which he is a native. And afterwards he adds, " nidi- ficat in paludibus alpinis : ova ponit 3 — 5." It does not appear from Kramer that woodcocks breed at all in Austria ; but he says, " Avis h&c septentrionalium provinciarum astivo tempore incola est ; ubi plerumque nidificat. Appropin- quante hyeme australiores provincias petit: hinc circa plenilunium potissimum mensis Octobris plerumque Austriam transmigrat. Tune rursus circa plenilunium potissimum mensis Martii per Austriam matrimonio juncta ad septentrionales provincias redit." For the whole passage (which I have abridged) see Elenchus, &c. p. 351. This seems to be a full proof of the emigration of woodcocks; though little is proved concerning the place of their breeding *. 1 Woodcocks arrive in Silesia about the latter end of April, or beginning of May, and leave it again in October. — W. J. MIGRATING BIRDS. 161 P.S.— There fell in the county of Rutland, in three weeks of this present very wet weather, seven inches and a half of rain, which is more than has fallen in any three weeks for these thirty years past in that part of the world. A mean quantity in that county, for one year, is twenty inches and a half. IX. [\ You are, I know, no great friend to migration ; and the well- attested accounts from various parts of the kingdom seem to justify you in your sus- picions, that at least many of the swallow kind do not leave us in the winter, but lay themselves up like insects and bats, in a torpid state, and slumber away the more uncomfortable months, till the return of the sun and fine weather awakens them. But then we must not, I think, deny migration in general; because migration certainly does subsist in some places, as my brother in Andalusia has fully informed me. Of the motions of these birds he has ocular demonstration, for many weeks together, both spring and fall ; during which periods myriads of the swallow kind traverse the Straits from north to south, and from south to north, according to the season. And these vast migrations consist not only of hirundines, but of bee-birds, hoopoes, oro pendolos, or golden thrushes, &c. &c. and also of many of our soft- billed summer birds of passage; and, moreover, of birds which never leave us, such as all the various sorts of hawks and kites. Old Belon, two hundred years ago, gives a curious account of the incredible armies of hawks and kites MIGRATING BIRDS. which he saw in the spring time traversing the Thracian Bosphorus from Asia to Europe. Besides the above-mentioned, he remarks that the procession is swelled by whole troops of eagles and vultures. Now it is no wonder that birds residing in Africa should retreat before the sun as it advances, and retire to milder regions, and especially birds of prey, whose blood being heated with hot animal food, are more impatient of a sultry climate ; but then I cannot help wondering why kites and hawks, and such hardy birds as are known to defy all the severity of England, and even of Sweden and all north Europe, should want to migrate from the south of Europe, and be dissa- tisfied with the winters of Andalusia. It does not appear to me that much stress may be laid on the difficulty and hazard that birds must run in their migrations, by reason of vast oceans, cross winds, &c.; because, if we reflect, a bird may travel from England to the equator without launching out and exposing itself to boundless seas, and that by crossing the water at Dover, and again at Gibraltar. And I with the more confidence advance this obvious remark, because my brother has always found that some of his birds, and particularly the swallow kind, are very sparing of their pains in crossing the Mediterranean; for, when arrived at Gibraltar, they do not • " Ranged in figure, wedge their way, • and set forth Their airy caravan high over seas Flying, and over lands with mutual wing Easing their flight ;" MILTON. but scout and hurry along in little detached parties of six or seven in a company ; and sweeping low, MIGRATING BIRDS. 1G3 just over the surface of the land and water, direct their course to the opposite continent at the narrowest passage they can find. They usually slope across the bay to the south-west, and so pass over opposite to Tangier, which, it seems, is the narrowest space. In former letters we have considered whether it was probable that woodcocks in moonshiny nights cross the German Ocean from Scandinavia. As a proof that birds of less speed 'may pass that sea, considerable as it is, I shall relate the follow- ing incident, which, though mentioned to have happened so many years ago, was strictly matter of fact : — As some people were shooting in the parish of Trotten, in the county of Sussex, they killed a duck in that dreadful winter, 1708-9, with a silver collar about its neck1, on which were engraven the arms of the King of Denmark. This anecdote the rector of Trotten at that time has often told to a near relation of mine ; and, to the best of my remembrance, the collar was in the possession of the rector. At present I do not know any body near the sea- side that will take the trouble to remark at what time of the moon woodcocks first come : if I lived near the sea myself, I would soon tell you more of the matter. One thing I used to observe when I was a sportsman, that there were times in which woodcocks were so sluggish and sleepy, that they would drop again when flushed just before the spaniels, nay, just at the muzzle of a gun that had been fired at them : whether this strange laziness was the effect of a recent fatiguing journey, I shall not presume to say. Nightingales not only never reach Northum- 1 I have read a like anecdote of a swan. M 2 164 MIGRATING BIRDS. berland and Scotland, but also, as I have been always told, Devonshire and Cornwall. In those two last counties we cannot attribute the failure of them to the want of warmth : the defect in the west is rather a presumptive argument that these birds come over to us from the continent at the narrowest passage, and do not stroll so far westward. Let me hear from your own observation whethe. skylarks do not dust. I think they do : and if they do, whether they wash also. The alauda pratensis of Ray was the poor dupe that was educating the booby of a cuckoo men- tion in my letter of October last 1. Your letter came too late for me to procure a ringousel for Mr. Tunstal during their autumnal visit ; but I will endeavour to get him one when they call on us again in April. I am glad that you and that gentleman saw my Andalusian birds ; I hope they answered your expectation. Royston, or grey crows, are winter birds that come much about the same time with the woodcock : they, like the fieldfare and redwing, have no apparent reason for migration ; for, as they fare in the winter like their congeners, so might they, in all appearance, in the summer2. Was not Tenant, when a boy, mistaken ? Did he not find a missel- thrush's nest, and take it for the nest of a field- fare ? The stock-dove, or wood-pigeon, cenas Raii, 1 Letter VII. Part II. 2 The Royston crow breeds, and is stationary, on all the west coast of Scotland ; and it is probable that most of those which visit England during winter, arrive from Sweden and Norway, or the countries adjacent, — few, if any, of the Scotch individuals leaving their regular abodes. — W. J. MIGRATING BIRDS. 165 is the last winter bird of passage which appears with us, and is not seen till towards the end of November. About twenty years ago they abounded in the district of Selborne, and strings of them were seen, morning and evening, that reached a mile or more ; but since the beechen woods have been greatly thinned, they have much decreased in number. The ring-dove, palumbus Raii, stays with us the whole year, and breeds several times through the summer. Before I received your letter of October last, I had just remarked in my journal that the trees were unusually green. This uncommon verdure lasted on late into November, and may be accounted for from a late spring, a cool and moist summer, but more particularly from vast armies of chafers, or tree-beetles, which, in many places, reduced whole woods to a leafless naked state. These trees shot again at Midsummer, and then retained their foliage till very late in the year. My musical friend, at whose house [Fyfield, near Andover] I am now visiting, has tried all the owls that are his near neighbours with a pitch- pipe set at concert pitch, and finds they all hoot in B flat. He will examine the nightingales next spring. X. FROM what follows, it will appear that neither owls nor cuckoos keep to one note. A friend remarks that many (most) of his owls hoot in B flat ; but that one went almost half a note below A. The pipe he tried their notes by was a com- mon half- crown pitch-pipe, such as masters use for tuning of harpsichords ; it was the common Lon- don pitch. 166 NOTES OF OWLS AND CUCKOOS. A neighbour of mine, who is said to have a nice ear, remarks that the owls about this village hoot in three different keys, in G flat or F sharp, in B flat, and A flat. He heard two hooting to each other, the one in A flat, and the other in B flat. Query: Do these different notes proceed from different species, or only from various individuals ? The same person finds upon trial that the note of the cuckoo (of which we have but one species) varies in different individuals ; for, about Selborne wood, he found they were mostly in D ; he heard two sing together, the one in D flat, and the other in D sharp, which made a disagreeable concert : he afterwards heard one in D sharp, and about Wolmer Forest some in C. As to nightingales, he says that their notes are so short, and their transitions so rapid, that he cannot well ascertain their key. Perhaps in a cage, and in a room, their notes may be more distinguishable. This person has tried to settle the notes of a swift, and of several other small birds, but cannot bring them to any criterion. As I have often remarked that redwings are some of the first birds that suffer with us in severe weather, it is no wonder at all that they retreat from Scandinavian winters ; and much more the ordo of grallce, who all, to a bird, forsake the northern parts of Europe at the approach of winter, " Grallce tanquam conjuratce unanimiter in fugam se conjiciunt ; ne earum unlearn quidem inter nos habitantem invenire possimus ; ut enim (estate in australibus degere nequeunt ob defectum lum- bricorum, terramque siccam ; ita nee in frigidis ob eandem causam" says Ekmarck the Swede, in his ingenious little treatise called Migrationes Avium, which by all means you ought to read while your thoughts run on the subject of mi- WOODCOCK. 167 gration. — See Amcenitates Academics, vol. iv. p. 565. Birds may be so circumstanced as to be obliged to migrate in one country and not in another ; but the grallcK (which procure their food from marshes and boggy ground) must in winter forsake the more northerly parts of Europe, or perish for want of food. I am glad you are making inquiries from Lin- naeus concerning the woodcock ; it is expected of him that he should be able to account for the motions and manner of life of the animals of his own Fauna. Faunists, as you observe, are too apt to acquiesce in bare descriptions, and a few synonymes : the reason is plain ; because all that may be done at home in a man's study ; but the investigation of the life and conversation of animals is a concern of much more trouble and difficulty, and is not to be attained but by the active and inquisitive, and by those that reside much in the country. Foreign systematists are, I observe, much too vague in their specific differences ; which are al- most universally constituted by one or two parti- cular marks, the rest of the description running in general terms. But our countryman, the excellent Mr. Ray, is the only describer that conveys some precise idea in every term or word, maintaining his superiority over his followers and imitators in spite of the advantages of fresh discoveries and modern information. At this distance of years it is not in my power to recollect at what periods woodcocks used to be sluggish or alert when I was a sportsman; but, upon my mentioning this circumstance to a friend, he thinks he has observed them to be remarkably listless against snowy foul weather : if this should 168 CONGREGATING OF BIRDS. be the case, then the inaptitude for flying arises only from an eagerness for food, as sheep are ob- served to be very intent on grazing against stormy wet evenings. XL WHEN I ride about in winter, and see such pro- digious flocks of various kinds of birds, I cannot help admiring at these congregations, and wishing that it was in my power to account for those appearances, almost peculiar to the season. The two great motives which regulate the proceedings of the brute creation are love and hunger; the former incites animals to perpetuate their kind, the latter induces them to preserve individuals. Whether either of these should seem to be the ruling passion in the matter of congregating is to be considered. As to love, that is out of the question at a time of the year when that soft passion is not indulged ; besides, during the amo- rous season such a jealousy prevails between the male birds that they can hardly bear to be toge- ther in the same hedge or field. Most of the sing- ing and elation of spirits of that time seem to me to be the effect of rivalry and emulation ; and it is to this spirit of jealousy that I chiefly attribute the equal dispersion of birds in the spring over the face of the country. Now as to the business of food. As these animals are actuated by instinct to hunt for ne- cessary food, they should not, one would sup- pose, crowd together in pursuit of sustenance, at a time when it is most likely to fail; yet such associations do take place in hard weather chiefly, and thicken as the severity increases. As some kind of self-interest and self-defence is, no doubt, CONGREGATING OF BIRDS. 169 the motive for the proceeding, may it not arise from the helplessness of their state in such rigorous seasons ; as men crowd together, when under great calamities, though they know not why ? Perhaps approximation may dispel some degree of cold ; and a crowd may make each individual appear safer from the ravages of birds of prey and other dangers. If I admire when I see how much congenerous birds love to congregate, I am the more struck when I see incongruous ones in such strict amity. If we do not much wonder to see a flock of rooks usually attended by a train of daws, yet it is strange that the former should so frequently have a flight of starlings for their satellites. Is it because rooks have a more discerning scent than their attendants, and can lead them to spots more productive of food ? Anatomists say that rooks, by reason of two large nerves which run down between the eyes into the upper mandible, have a more delicate feeling in their beaks than other round-billed birds, and can grope for their meat when out of sight. Perhaps, then, their associates attend them on the motives of interest, as grey- hounds wait on the motions of their finders, and as lions are said to do on the yelping of jackals. Lapwings and starlings sometimes associate. XII. As a gentleman and myself were walking on the 4th of last November round the sea-banks at Newhaven, near the mouth of the Lewes river, in pursuit of natural knowledge, we were surprised to see three house swallows gliding very swiftly by us. That morning was rather chilly, with the 1 70 SWALLOWS TORTOISE. wind at north-west ; but the tenor of the weather for some time before had been delicate, and the noons remarkably warm. From this incident, and from repeated accounts which I met with, 1 am more and more induced to believe that many of the swallow kind do not depart from this island, but lay themselves up in holes and caverns, and do, insect-like, and bat-like, come forth at mild times, and then retire again to their latebra. Nor make I the least doubt but that, if I lived at Newhaven, Seaford, Brighthelmstone, or any of those towns near the chalk cliffs of the Sussex coast, by proper observations, I should see swal- lows stirring at periods of the winter, when the noons were soft and inviting, and the sun warm and invigorating. And I am the more of this opinion from what I have remarked during some of our late springs, that though some swallows did make their appearance about the usual time, viz. the 13th or 14th of April, yet, meeting with a harsh reception, and blustering cold north-east winds, they immediately withdrew, absconding for several days till the weather gave them better encouragement. XIII. WHILE I was in Sussex last autumn, my residence was at the village near Lewes, from whence I had formerly the pleasure of writing to you. On the 1st of November I remarked that the old tortoise, formerly mentioned, began first to dig the ground, in order to the forming of its hybernaculum, which it had fixed on just beside a great tuft of hepaticas. It scrapes out the ground with its fore -feet, and throws it up over its back TORTOISE. 171 with its hind; but the motion of its legs is ridiculously slow, little exceeding the hour-hand of a clock, and suitable to the composure of an animal said to be a whole month in performing one feat of copulation. Nothing can be more assiduous than this creature night and day in scooping the earth, and forcing its great body into the cavity ; but, as the noons of that season proved unusually warm and sunny, it was conti- nually interrupted, and called forth, by the heat in the middle of the day ; and though I continued there till the 13th of November, yet the work remained unfinished. Harsher weather, and frosty mornings, would have quickened its operations. No part of its behaviour ever struck me more than the extreme timidity it always expresses with regard to rain ; for though it has a shell that would secure it against the wheel of a loaded cart, yet does it discover as much solicitude about rain as a lady dressed in all her best attire, shuffling away on the first sprinklings, and running its head up in a corner. If attended to, it becomes an excellent weather-glass ; for as sure as it walks elate, and as it were on tiptoe, feeding with great earnestness in a morning, so sure will it rain before night. It is totally a diurnal animal, and never pretends to stir after it becomes dark. The tortoise, like other reptiles, has an arbitrary stomach, as well as lungs ; and can refrain from eating as well a^ breathing for a great part of the year. When first awakened it eats nothing ; nor again in the autumn before it retires : through the height of the summer it feeds voraciously, devouring all the food that comes in its way. I was much taken with its sagacity in discern- ing those that do it kind offices ; for as soon as the good old lady comes in sight who has waited on it 172 TORTOISE. for more than thirty years, it hobbles towards its benefactress with awkward alacrity ; but remains inattentive to strangers. Thus not only " the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib 1," but the most abject reptile and torpid of beings distinguishes the hand that feeds it, and is touched with the feelings of gratitude. P.S. — In about three days after I left Sussex, the tortoise retired into the ground under the hepatica2. 1 Isaiah i. 3. 2 Tortoises are often kept in gardens as a curiosity, where they continue perfectly healthy, and arrive at an almost incredible age. When kept in the stove or green- house, their torpidity does not take place, although at the annual period of its occurrence they are generally noticed for a short time to be more restless and irritable. The following are some remarkable instances of longevity recorded by Mr. Murray, in his Experimental Researches : — In the Library of Lambeth palace is the shell of a land tortoise, brought there about the year 1623 ; it lived until 1730, a period of 107 years. Another was placed in the garden of the episcopal palace of Fulham, by Bishop Laud, in 1625, and died in 1753— 128 years : the age at which these were placed in the gardens was of course unknown. Another is mentioned 220 years, and one in Exeter Change 800 ; the latter, however, does not seem well authenticated, though there can be no doubt of the period of their existence being very extensive. Mr. Murray has added some very interesting information regarding the habits of a tortoise kept at Peterborough : " From a document belonging to the archives of the Cathedral, called the Bishop's Barn, it is well ascertained that the tortoise at Peterborough must have been about 220 years old. Bishop Marsh's predecessor in the see of Peterborough had remembered it above sixty years, and could recognise no visible change. He was the seventh bishop who had woin the mitre during its sojourn there. If I mistake not, its sustenance and abode were provided for in this document. Its shell was perforated, in order to at- tach it to a tree, &c.., to limit its ravages among the straw- berry borders. " The TORTOISE. 173 XIV. ' THE more I reflect on the ffrooyt) of animals, the more I am astonished at its effects. Nor is the " The animal had its antipathies and predilections. It would eat endive, green pease, and even the leek ; while it positively rejected asparagus, parsley, and spinage. In the early part of the season, its favourite pabulum was the flowers of the dandelion (leontotfon taraxacum), of which it would devour twenty at a meal ; and lettuce (lactuca sativa), of the latter a good-sized one at a time : but if placed between lettuce and the flowers of the dan* delion, it would forsake the former for the latter. It was also partial to the pulp of an orange, which it sucked greedily. " About the latter end of June, (discerning the times and the seasons,) it looked out for fruit, when its former choice was forsaken. It ate currants, raspberries, pears, apples, peaches, nectarines, &c., the riper the better, but would not taste cherries. Of fruits, however, the strawberry and goose- berry were the most esteemed : it made great havoc among the strawberry borders, and would take a pint of gooseberries at intervals. The gardener told me it knew him well, the hand that generally fed it, and would watch him attentively at the gooseberry bush, where he was sure to take its station while he plucked the fruit. " I could not get it to take the root of the dandelion, nor indeed any root I offered it, as that of the carrot, turnip, &c. All animal food was discarded, nor would it take any liquid ; at least neither milk nor water ; and when a leaf was moist, it would shake it to expel the adhering wet. " This animal moved with apparent ease, though pressed by a weight of 18 stone: itself weighed 13£ Ibs. In cloudy weather it would scoop out a cavity, generally in a southern exposure, where it reposed, torpid and inactive, until the genial influence of the sun roused it from its slumber. When in this state the eyes were closed, and the head and neck a little contracted, though not drawn within the shell. Its sense of smelling was so acute, that it was roused from its 174 AFFECTIONS OF BIRDS. violence of this affection more wonderful than the shortness of its duration. Thus every hen is in her turn the virago of the yard, in proportion to the helplessness of her brood ; and will fly in the face of a dog or a sow in defence of those chickens, which in a few weeks she will drive before her with relentless cruelty. This affection sublimes the passions, quickens the invention, and sharpens the sagacity of the brute creation. Thus a hen, just become a mother, is no longer that placid bird she used to be ; but, with feathers standing on end, wings hovering, and clucking note, she runs about like one possessed. Dames will throw themselves in the way of the greatest danger in order to avert it from their progeny. Thus a partridge will tumble along before a sportsman in order to draw away the dogs from her helpless covey. In the time of nidification, the most feeble birds will lethargy if any person approached even at a distance of twelve feet. " About the beginning of October, or latter end of Sep- tember, it began to immure itself, and had for that pur- pose for many years selected a particular angle of the garden; it entered in an inclined plane, excavating the earth in the manner of the mole ; the depth to which it penetrated varied with the character of the approaching season, being from one to two feet, according as the winter was mild or severe. It may be added, that for nearly a month prior to this entry into its dormitory, it refused all sustenance whatever. The animal emerged about the end of April, and remained for at least a fortnight before it ventured on taking any species of food. Its skin was not perceptibly cold : its respiration, entirely effected through the nostrils, was languid. I visited the animal, for the last time, on the 9th of June, 1813, during a thunder storm : it then lay under the shelter of a cauliflower, and appa- rently torpid." — MURRAY'S Experimental Researches. — W. J. AFFECTIONS OF BIRDS. 175 assault the most rapacious. All the hirundines of a village are up in arms at the sight of a hawk, whom they will persecute till he leaves that district. A very exact observer has often remarked that a pair of ravens, nesting in the rock of Gibraltar, would suffer no vulture or eagle to rest near their station, but would drive them from the hill with an amazing fury: even the blue thrush at the season of breeding, would dart out from the clefts of the rock to chase away the kestrel, or the sparrow-hawk. If you stand near the nest of a bird that has young, she will not be induced to betray them by an inadvertent fondness, but will wait about at a distance, with meat in her mouth, for an hour together. Should I farther corroborate what I have ad- vanced above, by some anecdotes which I probably may have mentioned before in conversation, yet you will, I trust, pardon the repetition for the sake of the illustration. The fly- catcher of the Zoology (the stoparola of Ray *) builds every year in the vines that grow on the walls of my house. A pair of these little birds had one year inadvertently placed their nest on a naked bough, perhaps in a shady time, not being aware of the inconvenience that followed. But a hot sunny season coming on before the brood was half fledged, the reflection of the wall became insupportable, and must inevi- tably have destroyed the tender young, had not affection suggested an expedient, and prompted the parent birds to hover over the nest all the hotter hours, while, with wings expanded, and mouths gaping for breath, they screened off the heat from their suffering offspring. 1 Muscicapa grisola. Linn.— W. J. 176 AFFECTIONS OF BIRDS. A farther instance I once saw of notable sagacity in a willow-wren, which had built in a bank in my fields. This bird, a friend and myself had observed as she sat in her nest, but were par- ticularly careful not to disturb her, though we saw she eyed us with some degree of jealousy. Some days after, as we passed that way, we were desirous of remarking how this brood went on ; but no nest could be found, till I happened to take up a large bundle of long green moss, as it were carelessly thrown over the nest, in order to dodge the eye of any impertinent intruder. A still more remarkable mixture of sagacity and instinct occurred to me one day, as my people were pulling off the lining of a hot-bed, in order to add some fresh dung. From out of the side of this bed leaped an animal, with great agility that made a most grotesque figure ; nor w^as it without great difficulty that it could be taken, when it proved to be a large white-bellied field- mouse, with three or four young clinging to her teats by their mouths and feet. It was amazing that the desultory and rapid motions of this dam should not oblige her litter to quit their hold, especially when it appeared that they were so young as to be both naked and blind l \ 1 I have seen the same thing with our common bat. I once slept, during a very stormy night, in a house of con- siderable age, and not in the best state of repair ; one of the windows in my bed-room had been built up, but so loosely, that bats and swifts had free access between the wall and a large board that was placed on the inside, to add to the warmth of the room. On the night above mentioned, this board was blown down inwards, and the room immediately filled with bats and swifts. Many of the former had one or two young adhering to their breasts while flying round the room, and even when knocked down, were not freed from their burdens. Above sixty TEALS. 177 To these instances of tender attachment, many more of which might be daily discovered by those that are studious of nature, may be opposed that rage of affection, that monstrous perversion of the oropyv, which induces some females of the brute creation to devour their young, because their owners have handled them too freely, or removed them from place to place ! Swine, anoTsometimes the more gentle race of dogs and cats, are guilty of this horrid and preposterous murder. When I hear now and then of an abandoned mother that destroys her offspring, I am not so much amazed ; since reason perverted, and the bad passions let loose, are capable of any enormity ; but why the parental feelings of brutes, that usually flow in one most uniform tenor, should sometimes be so ex- travagantly diverted, I leave to abler philosophers than mvself to determine. XV. SOME young men went down lately to a pond on the verge of Wolmer Forest to hunt flappers or young wild ducks, many of which they caught, and, among 'the rest, some very minute yet well- fledged wild fowls alive, which upon examination I found to be teals. I did not know till then that teals ever bred in the south of England, and was much pleased with the discovery : this I look upon as a great stroke in natural history. We have had, ever since I can remember, a pair of white owls that constantly breed under the eaves of this church. As I have paid good were caught in this small space, and kept until morning, and at least as many must have escaped. They appear to be on terms of perfect amity with the swifts. — W. J. N 178 WHITE OWLS. attention to the manner of life of these birds during their season of breeding, which lasts the summer through, the following remarks may not perhaps be unacceptable. About an hour before sunset, (for then the mice begin to run) they sally forth in quest of prey, and hunt all round the hedges of meadows and small enclosures, for them which seem to be their only food. In this irregular country we can stand on an eminence and see them beat the fields over like a setting- dog, and often drop down in the grass or corn. I have minuted these birds with my watch for an hour together, and have found that they return to their nest, the one or the other of them, about once in five minutes ; reflecting at the same time on the adroitness that every animal is possessed of as far as regards the well-being of itself and offspring. But a piece of address, which they show when they return loaded, should not, I think, be passed over in silence. As they take their prey with their claws, so they carry it in their claws to their nest; but, as the feet are necessary in their ascent under the tiles, they constantly perch first on the roof of the chancel, and shift the mouse from their claws to their bill, that the feet may be at liberty to take hold of the plate on the wall as they are rising under the eaves. White owls seem not (but in this I am not posi- tive) to hoot at all1; all that clamorous hooting appears to me to come from the wood kinds. The white owl does indeed snore and hiss in a tre- mendous manner ; and these menaces will answer the intention of intimidating, for I have known a * White owls do hoot ; — I have shot them in the act. They also hiss and scream ; but at night, when not alarmed, hoot- ing is the general cry. — W. J. SNOWT OWL. OWLS. 179 whole village up in arms on such an occasion, imagining the church-yard to be full of goblins and spectres. White owls also often scream hor- ribly as they fly along ; from this screaming pra- bably arose the common people's imaginary species of screech-owl, which they superstitiously think attends the windows of dying persons. The plu- mage of the remiges of the wings of every species of owl that I have yet examined is remarkably soft and pliant. Perhaps it may be necessary that the wings of these birds should not make much Resistance or rushing, that they may be enabled to steal through the air unheard upon a nimble and watchful quarry. While I am talking of owls, it may not be improper to mention what I was told by a gentle- man of the county of Wilts : As they were grubbing a vast hollow pollard ash that had been the mansion of owls for centuries, he discovered at the bottom a mass of matter that at first he could not account for. After some examination, he found that it was a congeries of the bones of mice (and perhaps of birds and bats) that had been heaping together for ages, being cast up in pellets out of the crops of many generations of inhabit- ants. For owls cast up the bones, fur, and fea- thers, of what they devour, after the manner of hawks. He believes, he told me, that there were bushels of this kind of substance. When brown owls hoot, their throats swell as big as a hen's egg. I have known an owl of this species live a full year without any water. Perhaps the case may be the same with all birds of prey1. When owls fly, they stretch out their 1 All birds of prey are capable of sustaining the want of food and water for long periods, particularly the latter, but of which they also seem remarkably fond, drinking frequently N 2 180 SWALLOWS. legs behind them as a balance to their large heavy heads ; for as most nocturnal birds have large eyes and ears, they must have large heads to contain them. Large eyes, I presume, are necessary to collect every ray of light, and large concave ears to command the smallest degree of sound or noise. in a state of nature, and during summer washing almost daily.— W. J. It will be proper to premise here, that the sixteenth, eighteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first letters have been published already in the Philosophical Transactions ; but as nicer observation has furnished several corrections and additions, it is hoped that the republication of them will not give offence ; especially as these sheets would be very imper- fect without them, and as they will be new to many readers who had no opportunity of seeing them when they made their first appearance. The hirundines are a most inoffensive, harmless, entertaining, social, and useful tribe of birds ; they touch no fruit in our gardens ; delight, all except one species, in attaching themselves to our houses ; amuse us with their migrations, songs, and marvellous agility ; and clear our outlets from the annoyances of gnats and other troublesome insects. Some districts in the South Seas, near Guiaquil *, are desolated, it seems, by the infinite swarms of venomous mosquitoes, which fill the air, and render those coasts insupportable. It would be worth inquiring, whether any species of hirundines is found in those regions. Who 1 See Ulloa's Travels. SWALLOWS INSECTS. 181 ever contemplates the myriads of insects that sport in the sunbeams of a summer evening in this country, will soon be convinced to what a degree our atmosphere would be choked with them was it not for the friendly interposition of the swallow tribe. Many species of birds have their peculiar lice : but the hirundines alone seem to be annoyed with dipterous insects, which infest every species, and are so large, in proportion to themselves, that they must be extremely irksome and injurious to them. These are the hippoboscte himndines, with narrow subulated wings, abounding in every nest ; and are hatched by the warmth of the bird's own body during incubation, and crawl about under its feathers. A species of them is familiar to horsemen in the south of England, under the name of forest-fly, and, to some, of side-fly, from its running sideways like a crab. It creeps under the tails and about the groins of horses, which, at their first coming out of the north, are rendered half frantic by the tickling sensation ; while our own breed little regards them. The curious Reaumur discovered the large eggs, or rather pupce, of these flies, as big as the flies themselves, which he hatched in his own bosom. Any person that will take the trouble to examine the old nests of either species of swallows may find in them the black shining cases or skins of the pup& of these insects ; but for other particulars, too long for this place, we refer the reader to 1'His- toire d'Insectes of that admirable entomologist. Tom.iv.pl. 11. 182 HOUSE-MARTIN. XVI. IN obedience to your injunctions, I sit down to give you some account of the house-martin, or martin ; and, if my monography of this little domestic and familiar bird should happen to meet with your approbation, I may probably soon ex- tend my inquiries to the rest of the British hirun- dines — the swallow, the swift, and the bank- martin. A few house-martins begin to appear about the 1 6th of April ; usually some few days later than the swallow. For some time after they appear, the hirundines in general pay no attention to the business of nidification, but play and sport about, either to recruit from the fatigue of their journey, if they do migrate at all, or else that their blood may recover its true tone and texture, after it has been so long benumbed by the severities of winter. About the middle of May, if the weather be fine, the martin begins to think in earnest of providing a mansion for its family. The crust or shell of this nest seems to be formed of such dirt or loam as comes most readily to hand, and is tempered and wrought together with little bits of broken straws to render it tough and tenacious. As this bird often builds against a perpendicular wall without any projecting ledge under, it requires its utmost efforts to get the first foundation firmly fixed, so that it may safely carry the superstructure. On this occasion the bird not only clings with its claws, but partly supports itself by strongly inclining its tail against the wall, making that a fulcrum ; and thus steadied, it works and plasters the materials into the face of the brick or stone. But then, that this work may not, while it is soft 12 HOUSE-MARTIN. 183 and green, pull itself down by its own weight, the provident architect has prudence and forbearance enough not to advance her work too fast ; but by building only in the morning, and by dedicating the rest of the day to food and amusement, gives it sufficient time to dry and harden. About half an inch seems to be a sufficient layer for a day. Thus careful workmen when they build mud-walls (informed at first perhaps by this little bird) raise but a moderate layer at a time, and then desist ; lest the work should become top-heavy, and so be ruined by its own weight. By this method, in about ten or twelve days, is formed an hemispheric nest, with a small aperture towards the top, strong, compact, and warm; and perfectly fitted for all the purposes for which it was intended. But then nothing is more common than for the house- sparrow, as soon as the shell is finished, to seize on it as its own, to eject the owner, and to line it after its own manner. After so much labour is bestowed in erecting a mansion, as nature seldom works in vain, martins will breed on for several years together in the same nest, where it happens to be well sheltered and secure from the injuries of weather. The shell or crust of the nest is a sort of rustic-work, full of knobs and protuberances on the outside ; nor is the inside of those that I have examined smoothed with any exactness at all ; but is rendered soft and warm, and fit for incubation, by a lining of small straws, grasses, and feathers ; and sometimes by a bed of moss interwoven with wool. In this nest they tread, or engender, frequently during the time of building ; and the hen lays from three to five white eggs. At first, when the young are hatched, and are in a naked and helpless condition, the parent birds, 184 HOUSE-MARTIN. with tender assiduity, carry out what comes away from their young. Was it not for this affectionate cleanliness, the nestlings would soon be burnt up, and destroyed in so deep and hollow a nest, by their own caustic excrement. In the quadruped creation, the same neat precaution is made use of ; particularly among dogs and cats, where the dams lick away what proceeds from their young. But in birds there seems to be a particular provision, that the dung of nestlings is enveloped in a tough kind of jelly, and therefore is the easier conveyed off without soiling or daubing. Yet, as Nature is cleanly in all her ways, the young perform this office for themselves in a little time by thrusting their tails out at the aperture of their nest. As the young of small birds presently arrive at their ?/XiJctct, or full growth, they soon become impatient of confinement, and sit all day with their heads out at the orifice, where the dams, by clinging to the nest, supply them with food from morning to night. For a time the young are fed on the wing by their parents ; but the feat is done by so quick and almost imperceptible a slight, that a person must have attended very exactly to their motions, before he would be able to perceive it. As soon as the young are able to shift for themselves, the dams immediately turn their thoughts to the business of a second brood ; while the first flight, shaken off and rejected by their nurses, congregate in great flocks, and are the birds that are seen clustering and hovering, on sunny mornings and evenings, round towers and steeples, and on the roofs of churches and houses. These congregations usually begin to take place about the first week in August ; and therefore we may conclude that by that time the first flight is pretty well over. The young of this species do not quit their abodes all HOUSE-MARTIN. 185 together ; but the more forward birds get abroad some days before the rest. These, approaching the eaves of buildings, and playing about before them, make people think that several old ones attend one nest. They are often capricious in fixing on a nesting-place, beginning many edifices, and leaving them unfinished; but when once a nest is completed in a sheltered place, it serves for several seasons. Those which breed in a ready- finished house get the start, in hatching, of those that build new, by ten days or a fortnight. These industrious artificers are at their labours in the long days before four in the morning : when they fix their materials they plaster them on with their chins, moving their heads with a quick vibratory motion. They dip and wash as they fly sometimes in very hot weather, but not so frequently as swallows. It has been observed that martins usually build to a north-east or north-west aspect, that the heat of the sun may not crack and destroy their nests : but instances are also remembered where they bred for many years in vast abundance in an hot stifled inn-yard, against a wall facing to the south. Birds in general are wise in their choice of situation ; but in this neighbourhood, every summer, is seen a strong proof to the contrary at a house without eaves, in an exposed district, where some martins build year by year in the corners of the windows. But, as the corners of these windows (which face to the south-east and south-west) are too shallow, the nests are washed down every hard rain ; and yet these birds drudge on to no purpose from summer to summer, with- out changing their aspect or house. It is a piteous sight to see them labouring when half their nest is washed away, and bringing dirt " generis lapsi 1 86 HOUSE-MARTIN. sarcire ruinas." Thus is instinct a most wonder- fully unequal faculty ; in some instances so much above reason ; in other respects, so far below it ! Martins love to frequent towns, especially if there are great lakes and rivers at hand ; nay, they even affect the close air of London. And I have not only seen them nesting in the Borough, but even in the Strand and Fleet- street ; but then it was obvious, from the dinginess of their aspect, that their feathers partook of the filth of that sooty atmosphere. Martins are by far the least agile of the four species; their wings and tails are short, and therefore they are not capable of such surprising turns, and quick and glancing evolu- tions, as the swallow. Accordingly, they make use of a placid, easy motion in a middle region of the air, seldom mounting to any great height, and never sweeping along together over the surface of the ground or water. They do not wander far for food, but affect sheltered districts, over some lake, or under some hanging wood, or in some hollow vale, especially in windy weather. They breed the latest of all the swallow kind : in 1772, they had nestlings on to October the twenty- first, and are never without unfledged young as late as Michaelmas. As the summer declines, the congregating flocks increase in numbers daily by the constant succession of the second broods : till at last they swarm in myriads upon myriads round the villages on the Thames, darkening the face of the sky as they frequent the aits of that river, where they roost. They retire, the bulk of them I mean, in vast flocks together, about the beginning of October ; but have appeared, of late years, in a considerable flight in this neighbourhood, for one day or two, as late as November the third and HOUSE-MARTIN. 1ST sixth, after they were supposed to have gone for more than a fortnight. They, therefore, with- draw from us the latest of any species. Unless these birds are very short-lived, indeed, or unless they do not return to the district where they are bred, they must undergo vast devastations somehow, and somewhere ; for the birds that return yearly bear no manner of proportion to the birds that retire. House-martins are distinguished from their congeners by having their legs covered with soft downy feathers down to their toes. They are no songsters, but twitter in a pretty, inward, soft manner in their nests. During the time of breed- ing, they are often greatly molested with fleas. XVII. I RECEIVED your last favour just as I was set- ting out for this place [Ringmer, near Lewes] ; and am pleased to find that my monography met with your approbation. My remarks are the result of many years' observation ; and are, I trust, true in the whole ; though I do not pretend to say that they are perfectly void of mistake, or that a more nice observer might not make many additions, since subjects of this kind are inexhaustible. If you think my letter worthy the notice of your respectable Society, you are at liberty to lay it before them ; and they will consider it, I hope, as it was intended, as an humble attempt to promote a more minute inquiry into natural history ; into the life and conversation of animals. Perhaps, hereafter, I may be induced to take the 188 SUSSEX DOWNS. house-swallow under consideration ; and from that proceed to the rest of the British hirundines. Though I have now travelled the Sussex Downs upwards of thirty years, yet I still investigate that chain of majestic mountains with fresh admira- tion year by year ; and I think I see new heauties every time I traverse it. This range, which runs from Chichester eastward as far as East Bourn, is about sixty miles in length, and is called the South Downs, properly speaking, only round Lewes. As you pass along, you command a noble view of the wold, or weald, on one hand, and the broad downs and sea, on the other. Mr. Ray used to visit a family1 just at the foot of these hills, and was so ravished with the prospect from Plympton-plain, near Lewes, that he men- tions those capes in his " Wisdom of God in the Works of the Creation," with the utmost satisfaction, and thinks them equal to any thing he had seen in the finest parts of Europe. For my own part, I think there is somewhat peculiarly sweet and amusing in the shapely - figured aspect of chalk hills in preference to those of stone, which are rugged, broken, abrupt, and shapeless. Perhaps I may be singular in my opinion, and not so happy as to convey to you the same idea; but I never contemplate these mountains without thinking I perceive somewhat analogous to growth in their gentle swellings and smooth fungus -like protuberances, their fluted sides, and regular hollows and slopes, that carry at once the air of vegetative dilatation and expansion — Or, was there ever a time when these immense masses of calcareous matter were thrown into fermentation 1 Mr. Courthope, of Danny. SHEEP. 189 by some adventitious moisture, were raised and leavened into such shapes, by some plastic power, and so made to swell and heave their broad backs into the sky, so much above the less animated clay of the wild below ? By what I can guess from the admeasurements of the hills that have been taken round my house, I should suppose that these hills surmount the wild, on an average, at about the rate of five hun- dred feet. One thing is very remarkable as to the sheep : from the westward, till you get to the river Adur, all the flocks have horns, and smooth white faces, and white legs ; and a hornless sheep is rarely to be seen. But as soon as you pass that river east- ward, and mount Beeding-hill, all the flocks at once become hornless, or, as they call them, poll- sheep ; and have, moreover, black faces, with a white tuft of wool on their foreheads, and speckled and spotted legs ; so that you would think that the flocks of Laban were pasturing on one side of the stream, and the variegated breed of his son- in-law, Jacob, were cantoned along on the other. And this diversity holds good respectively on each side from the valley of Bramber and Beeding to the eastward, and westward all the whole length of the downs. If you talk with the shepherds on this subject, they tell you that the case has been so from time immemorial ; and smile at your sim- plicity if you ask them whether the situation of these two different breeds might not be reversed. (However, an intelligent friend of mine near Chichester is determined to try the experiment ; and has this autumn, at the hazard of being laughed at, introduced a parcel of black -faced hornless rams among his horned western ewes.) 190 BIRDS OF PASSAGE. The black-faced poll- sheep have the shortest legs and the finest wool. As I had hardly ever before travelled these downs at so late a season of the year [December 9th] , I was determined to keep as sharp a look- out as possible so near the southern coast, with respect to the summer short-winged birds of passage. We make great inquiries concerning the withdrawing of the swallow kind, without examining enough into the causes why this tribe is never to be seen in winter ; for, entre nous, the disappearing of the latter is more marvellous than that of the former, and much more unaccountable. The hirundines, if they please, are certainly capable of migration ; and yet, no doubt, are often found in a torpid state: but red-starts, nightingales, white-throats, black-caps, &c. &c. are very ill provided for long flights ; have never been once found, that I ever heard of, in a torpid state, and yet can never be supposed, in such troops, from year to year, to dodge and elude the eyes of the curious and inquisitive, which from day to day discern the other small birds that are known to abide our winters. But, notwithstand- ing all my care, I saw nothing like a summer bird of passage ; and what is more strange, not one wheatear, though they abound so in the autumn as to be a considerable perquisite to the shepherds that take them ; and though many are to be seen to my knowledge all the winter through, in many parts of the south of England. The most intelligent shepherds tell me, that some few of these birds appear on the downs in March, and then withdraw to breed, probably, in warrens and stone- quarries: now and then a nest is ploughed up in a fallow on the downs under a furrow, but it is thought a rarity. At the time of wheat- CROSSBILL. RINGOUSELS. 191 harvest they begin to be taken in great numbers ; are sent for sale in vast quantities to Brighthelm- stone and Tunbridge ; and appear at the tables of all the gentry that entertain with any degree of elegance. About Michaelmas they retire, and are seen no more till March. Though these birds are, when in season, in great plenty on the South Downs round Lewes, yet at East-Bourn, which is the eastern extremity of those downs, they abound much more. One thing is very re- markable, that though in the height of the season so many hundreds of dozens are taken, yet they never are seen to flock ; and it is a rare thing to see more than three or four at a time : so that there must be a perpetual flitting and constant progressive succession. It does not appear that any wheatears are taken to the westward of Houghton-bridge, which stands on the river Arun. I did not fail to look particularly after my new migration of ringousels ; and to take notice whether they continued on the downs to this season of the year ; as I had formerly remarked them in the month of October,, all the way from Chichester to Lewes, wherever there were any shrubs and covert : but not one bird of this sort came within my observation. I only saw a few larks and whinchats, some rooks, and several kites and buzzards. About Midsummer, a flight of crossbills comes to the pine-groves about this house, but never makes any long stay1. The old tortoise, that I have mentioned in a former letter, still continues in this garden ; it 1 A pretty large flock of crossbills visited Ambleside, in Westmoreland, in October, 1828, frequenting the plan- tations of young larches. — VV. J. 192 ROOKS. retired under ground about the 20th of November, and came out again for one day on the 30th; it lies now buried in a wet swampy border under a wall facing to the south, and is enveloped at pre- sent in mud and mire ! Here is a large rookery round this house, the inhabitants of which seem to get their livelihood very easily ; for they spend the greatest part of the day on their nest-trees when the weather is mild. These rooks retire every evening all the winter from this rookery, where they only call by the way, as they are going to roost in deep woods : at the dawn of day they always revisit their nest- trees, and are preceded a few minutes by a flight of daws, that act, as it were, as their harbingers XVIII. THE house -swallow, or chimney- swallow, is, undoubtedly, the first comer of all the British hirundines ; and appears in general on or about the 1 3th of April, as I have remarked from many years' observation. Not but that now and then a straggler is seen much earlier : and, in particular, when I was a boy I observed a swallow for a whole day together on a sunny warm Shrove Tuesday ; which day could not fall out later than the middle of March, and often happened early in February. It is worth remarking, that these birds are seen first about lakes and mill-ponds ; and it is also very particular, that if these early visitors happen to find frost and snow, as was the case of the two dreadful springs of 1770 and 1771, they imme- diately withdraw for a time ; — a circumstance this, much more in favour of hiding than migra- SWALLOWS. !93 tion; since it is much more probable that a bird should retire to its hybernaculum just at hand, than return for a week or two only to warmer latitudes. The swallow, though called the chimney- swal- low, by no means builds altogether in chimneys, but often within barns and out-houses against the rafters : and so she did in Virgil's time — Ante Garrula quam tignis nidos suspendat hirundo." In Sweden she builds in barns, and is called ladu 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 gate-ways, and galleries, and open hall?. Here and there a bird may affect some odd, peculiar place ; as we have known a swallow build down the shaft of an old well, through which chalk had been formerly drawn up for the purpose of manure ; but, in general, with us this hirundo breeds in chimneys, and loves to haunt those stacks where there is a constant fire, no doubt for the sake of warmth. Not that it can subsist in the immediate shaft where there is a fire : but prefers one adjoining to that of the kitchen, and disregards the perpetual smoke of that funnel, as I have often observed with some degree of wonder. Five or six, or more feet down the chimney, does this little bird begin to form her nest about the middle of May, which consists, like that of the house-martin, of a crust or shell composed of dirt or mud, mixed with short pieces of straw, to render it tough and permanent ; with this differ- ence, that whereas the shell of the martin is nearly o 194 SWALLOWS. hemispheric, that of the swallow is open at the top, and like half a deep dish : this nest is lined with fine grasses, and feathers, which are often collected as they float in the air. Wonderful is the address which this adroit bird shows all day long, in ascending and descending with security through so narrow a pass. When hovering over the mouth of the funnel, the vibra- tions of her wings acting on the confined air occasion a rumbling like thunder. It is not impro- bable that the dam submits to this inconvenient situation so low in the shaft, in order to secure her broods from rapacious birds, and particularly from owls, which frequently fall down chim- neys, perhaps in attempting to get at these nest- lings. The swallow lays from four to six white eggs, dotted with red specks ; and brings out her first brood about the last week in June, or the first week in July. The progressive method by which the young are introduced into life is very amu- sing : first, they emerge from the shaft with diffi- culty enough, and often fall down into the rooms below : for a day or so they are fed on the chimney top, and then are conducted to the dead leafless bough of some tree, where, sitting in a row, they are attended with great assiduity, and may then be called perchers. In a day or two more they become fliers, but are still unable to take their own food ; therefore they play about near the place where the dams are hawking for flies ; and when a mouthful is collected, at a certain signal given, the dam and the nestling advance, rising towards each other, and meeting at an angle ; the young one all the while uttering such a little quick note of gratitude and complacency, that a person must have paid very little regard to the SWALLOWS. 195 wonders of Nature that has not often remarked this feat. The dam betakes herself immediately to the business of a second brood, as soon as she is dis- engaged from her first ; which at once associates with the first broods of house-martins ; and with them congregates, clustering on sunny roof s,towers, and trees. This hirundo brings out her second brood towards the middle and end of August. All the summer long is the swallow a most instructive pattern of unwearied industry and af- fection ; for, from morning to night, while there is a family to be supported, she spends the whole day in skimming close to the ground, and exert- ing the most sudden turns and quick evolutions. Avenues, and long walks under hedges, and pasture-fields, and mown meadows where cattle graze, are her delight, especially if there are trees interspersed ; because in such spots insects most abound. When a fly is taken, a smart snap from her bill is heard, resembling the noise at the shut- ting of a watch-case ; but the motion of the man- dibles 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, darting down from above on his back, and rising in a perpendicular line in perfect security. This bird also will sound the alarm, and strike at cats when they climb on the roofs of houses, or otherwise approach the nests. Each species of hirundo drinks as it flies along, sipping the surface of the water ; but the swallow alone, in general, o 2 1 96 SWALLOWS. washes on the wing, by dropping into a pool for many times together : in very hot weather house- martins and bank-martins dip and wash a little. The swallow is a delicate songster, and in soft sunny weather sings both perching and flying, on trees in a kind of concert, and on chimney tops ; is also a bold flier, ranging to distant downs and commons even in windy weather, which the other species seem much to dislike ; nay, even frequenting exposed seaport towns, and making little excursions over the salt water. Horsemen on wide downs are often closely attended by a little party of swallows for miles together, which plays before and behind them, sweeping around, and collecting all the skulking insects that are roused by the trampling of the horses' feet. When the wind blows hard, without this expedient, they are often forced to settle to pick up their lurking prey. This species feeds much on little coleoptera, as well as on gnats and flies, and often settles on dug ground, or paths, for gravels to grind and digest its food. Before they depart, for some weeks, they to a bird forsake houses and chim- neys, and roost in trees, and usually withdraw about the beginning of October, though some few stragglers may appear on at times till the first week in November. Some few pairs haunt the new and open streets of London next the fields, but do not enter, like the house-martin, the close and crowded parts of the city. Both male and female are distinguished from their congeners by the length and forkedness of their tails. They are undoubtedly the most nimble of all the species ; and when the male pursues the female in amorous chase, they then SWALLOWS. 197 go beyond their usual speed, and exert a rapidity almost too quick for the eye to follow. After this circumstantial detail of the life and discerning crropyrj of the swallow, I shall add, for your farther amusement, an anecdote or two, not much in favour of her sagacity : — A certain swallow built for two years together on the handles of a pair of garden- shears, that was stuck up against the boards in an outhouse, 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 to a distin- guished naturalist as a curiosity worthy the most elegant private museum in Great Britain. The owner, struck with the oddity of the sight, fur- nished 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 fol- lowing 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, gro- tesque 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 immediately respect self-preservation, or lead at once to the propagation or support of their species. 1 Sir Ashton Lever's Museum. 198 SWALLOWS. XIX. I RECEIVED your favour of the eighth [of February], and am pleased to find that you read my little history of the swallow with your usual candour ; nor was I the less pleased to find that you made objections where you saw reason. As to the quotations, it is difficult to say precisely which species of hirundo Virgil might intend in the lines in question, since the ancients did not attend to specific differences like modern naturalists; yet somewhat may be gathered, enough to incline me to suppose that, in the two passages quoted, the poet had his eye on the swallow. In the first place, the epithet garrula suits the swallow well, who is a great songster, and not the martin, which is rather a mute bird, and when it sings is so inward as scarce to be heard. Besides, if tignum in that place signifies a rafter rather than a beam, as it seems to me to do, then I think it must be the swallow that is alluded to, and not the martin, since the former does frequently build within the roof against the rafters, while the latter always, as far as I have been able to observe, builds without the roof, against eaves and cornices. As to the simile, too much stress must not be laid on it ; yet the epithet nigra speaks plainly in favour of the swallow, whose back and wings are very black : while the rump of the martin is milk- white, its back and wings blue, and all its under part white as snow. Nor can the clumsy motions (comparatively clumsy) of the martin well repre- sent the sudden and artful evolutions and quick turns which Juturna gave to her brother's chariot, so as to elude the eager pursuit of the enraged LAND SPRINGS. 199 ./Eneas. The verb sonat also seems to imply a bird that is somewhat loquacious l. We have had a very wet autumn and winter, so as to raise the springs to a pitch beyond any thing since 1 764, which was a remarkable year for floods and high waters. The land-springs, which we call levants, break out much on the Downs of Sussex, Hampshire, and Wiltshire. The country people say, when the levants rise, corn will always be dear ; meaning, that when the earth is so glutted with water as to send forth springs on the downs and uplands, that the corn vales must be drowned ; and so it has proved for these ten or eleven years past : for land-springs have never obtained more since the memory of man than during that period, nor has there been known a greater scarcity of all sorts of grain, considering the great improvements of modern husbandry. Such a run of wet seasons a century or two ago would, I am persuaded, have occasioned a famine. Therefore pamphlets and newspaper letters that talk of combinations, tend to inflame and mislead, since we must not expect plenty till Providence sends us more favourable seasons. The wheat of last year, all round this district, and in the county of Rutland, and elsewhere, yields remarkably bad; and our wheat on the ground, by the continual late sudden vicissitudes from fierce frost to pouring rains, looks poorly, and the turnips rot very fast. i " Nigra velut magnas domini cum divitis aedes Pervolat, et pennis alta atria lustrat hirundo, Pabula parva legens, nidisque loquacibus escas : Et nunc porticibus vacuis, nunc humida circum Stagna sonat." 200 SAND-MARTINS. XX. THE sand-martin, or bank-martin, is by much the least of any of the British hirundines, and, as far as we have ever seen, the smallest known hirundo ; though Brisson asserts that there is one much smaller, and that is the hirundo esculent a. But it is much to be regretted that it is scarce possible for any observer to be so full and exact as he could wish in reciting the circumstances attending the life and conversation of this little bird, since it is fera naturd, at least in this part of the kingdom, disclaiming all domestic attach- ments, and haunting wild heaths and commons where there are large lakes; while the other species, especially the swallow and house -martin, are remarkably gentle and domesticated, and never seem to tliink themselves safe but under the protection of man. Here are in this parish, in the sand-pits and banks of the lakes of Wolmer Forest, several colo- nies of these birds ; and yet they are never seen in the village, nor do they at all frequent the cottages that are scattered about in that wild district. The only instance I ever remember where this species haunts any building, is at the town of Bishop's Waltham, in this county, where many sand-martins nestle and breed in the scaf- fold holes of the back wall of William of Wyke- ham's stables ; but then this wall stands in a very sequestered and retired enclosure, and faces upon a large and beautiful lake. And, indeed, this species seems so to delight in large waters, that no instance occurs of their abounding, but near vast pools or rivers ; and, in particular, it has been remarked that they swarm in the banks SAND-MARTINS. 201 of the Thames, in some places below London Bridge. It is curious to observe with what different degrees of architectonic skill Providence has endowed birds of the same genus, and so nearly correspondent in their general mode of life ; for while the swallow and the house-martin discover the greatest address in raising and securely fixing crusts, or shells, of loam, as cunabula for their young, the bank-martin terebrates a round and regular hole in the sand or earth, which is ser- pentine, horizontal, and about two feet deep. At the inner end of this burrow does this bird deposit, in a good degree of safety, her rude nest, consisting of fine grasses and feathers, usually goose feathers, very inartificially laid to- gether. Perseverance will accomplish any thing ; though at first one would be disinclined to believe that this weak bird, with her soft and tender bill and claws, should ever be able to bore the stubborn sand-bank, without entirely disabling herself ; yet, with these feeble instruments, have I seen a pair of them make great despatch, and could remark how much they had scooped that day, by the fresh sand which ran down the bank, and wTas of a dif- ferent colour from that which lay loose and bleached in the sun. In what space of time these little artists are able to mine and finish these cavities, I have never been able to discover, for reasons given above ; but it would be a matter worthy of observation, where it falls in the way of any naturalist to make his remarks. This I have often taken notice of, that several holes of dif- ferent depths are left unfinished at the end of summer. To imagine that these beginnings were 202 SAND-MARTINS. intentionally made, in order to be in the greater forwardness for next spring, is allowing, perhaps, too much foresight and rerum prudentia to a simple bird. May not the cause of these latebra being left unfinished arise from their meeting in those places with strata too harsh, hard, and solid for their purpose, which they relinquish, and go to a fresh spot that works more freely ? Or may they not in other places fall in with a soil as much too loose and mouldering, liable to founder, and threatening to overwhelm them and their labours ? One thing is remarkable, that, after some years, the old holes are forsaken, and new ones bored ; perhaps because the old habitations grow foul and foetid from long use, or because they may so abound with fleas as to become untenantable. This species of swallow, moreover, is strangely annoyed with fleas ; and we have seen fleas, bed-fleas (pulex irritans,) swarming at the mouths of these holes, like bees on the stools of their hives. The following circumstance should by no means be omitted : — that these birds do not make use of their caverns by way of hybernacula, as might be expected : since banks so perforated have been dug out with care in the winter, when nothing was found but empty nests. The sand-martin arrives much about the same time with the swallow, and lays, as she does, from four to six white eggs. But as this species is cryp- togame, carrying on the business of nidification, incubation, and the support of its young in the dark, it would not be so easy to ascertain the time of breeding, were it not for the coming forth of the broods, which appear much about the time, or rather somewhat earlier than those of the swallow. The nestlings are supported in common SAND-MARTINS. 203 like those of their congeners, with gnats and other small insects, and sometimes they are fed with libellulte, (dragon-flies,) almost as long as them- selves. 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 deter- mine ; nor do we know whether they pursue and attack birds of prey. When they happen to breed near hedges and enclosures, they are dispossessed of their breeding holes by the house- sparrow, which is, on the same account, a fell adversary to house-martins. These hirundines are no songsters, but rather mute, making only a little harsh noise when a person approaches their nests. They seem not to be of a sociable turn, never with us congre- gating with their congeners in the autumn. Undoubtedly they breed a second time, like the house-martin and swallow, and withdraw about Michaelmas. Though in some particular districts they may happen to abound, yet on the whole, in the south of England at least, is this much the rarest spe- cies ; for there are few towns or large villages but what abound with house-martins ; few churches, towers, or steeples, but what are haunted by some swifts ; scarce a hamlet or single cottage chimney that has not its swallow ; while the bank-martins, scattered here and there, live a sequestered life among some abrupt sand-hills, and in the banks of some few rivers. These birds have a peculiar manner of flying, flitting about with odd jerks and vacillations, not unlike the motions of a butterfly. Doubtless SWIFTS. the flight of all hirundines is influenced by, and adapted to, the peculiar sort of insects which fur- nish their food. Hence it would be worth inquiry to examine what particular genus of insects affords the principal food of each respective species of swallow. Notwithstanding what has been advanced above, some few sand-martins, I see, haunt the skirts of London, frequenting the dirty pools in St. George's Fields, and about Whitechapel. The question is, where these build, since there are no banks or bold shores in that neighbourhood ? Perhaps they nestle in the scaffold-holes of some old or new deserted building. They dip and wash as they fly sometimes, like the house-martin and swallow. Sand-martins differ from their congeners in the diminutiveness of their size, and in their colour, which is what is usually called a mouse-colour. Near Valencia, in Spain, they are taken, says Willoughby, and sold in the markets for the table, and are called by the country people, probably from their desultory, jerking manner of flight, Papillon de Montagna. (The mountain -butterfly.) * XXI. As the swift or black-martin is the largest of the British hirundines, so it is undoubtedly the latest comer. For I remember but one instance of its appearing before the last week in April ; and in some of our late frosty harsh springs, it has not been seen till the beginning of May. This species usually arrives in pairs. SWIFTS. The swift, like the sand-martin, is very defective in architecture, making no crust or shell for its nest, but forming it of dry grasses and feathers, very rudely and inartificially put together. With all my attention to these birds, I have never been able once to discover one in the act of collecting or carrying in materials : so that I have suspected (since their nests are exactly the same) that they sometimes usurp upon the house-sparrows, and expel them, as sparrows do the house and sand-martin — well remembering that I have seen them squabbling together at the entrance of their holes, and the sparrows up in arms, and much disconcerted at these intruders ; and yet I am assured by a nice observer in such matters, that they do collect feathers for their nests in Anda- lusia, and that he has shot them with such mate- rials in their mouths. Swifts, like sand-martins, carry on the business of nidification quite in the dark, in crannies of castles, and towers, and steeples, and upon the tops of the walls of churches under the roof, and therefore cannot be so narrowly watched as those species that build more openly : but, from what I could ever observe, they begin nesting about the middle of May ; and I have remarked, from eggs taken, that they have sat hard by . the 9th of June. In general they haunt tall buildings, churches, and steeples, and breed only in such ; yet, in this village, some pairs frequent the lowest and meanest cottages, and educate their young under those thatched roofs. We remember but one instance where they breed out of buildings, and that is in the sides of a deep chalk pit near the town of Odiham, in this county, where we have seen many pairs entering the 206 SWIFTS. crevices, and skimming and squeaking round the precipices. As I have regarded these amusive birds with no small attention, if I should advance something new and peculiar with respect to them, and different from all other birds, I might perhaps be credited, especially as my assertion is the result of many years' exact observation. The fact that I would advance is, that swifts tread, or copulate, on the wing ; and I would wish any nice observer, that is startled at this supposition, to use his own eyes, and I think he will soon be convinced. In another class of animals, viz. the insect, nothing is so common as to see the different sexes of many genera in conjunction as they fly. The swift is almost continually on the wing ; and, as it never settles on the ground, on trees, or roofs, would seldom find opportunity for amorous rites, were it not enabled to indulge them in the air. If any person would watch these birds of a fine morning in May, as they are sailing round at a great height from the ground, he would see every now and then, one drop on the back of another, and both of them sink down together for many fathoms with a loud piercing shriek. This I take to be the juncture when the business of genera- tion is carrying on. As the swift eats, drinks, collects materials for its nest, and, as it seems, propagates on the wing, it appears to live more in the air than any other bird, and to perform all functions there, save those of sleeping and incubation. This hirundo differs widely from its congeners in laying invariably but two eggs at a time, which are milk-white, long, and peaked at the small end; whereas the other species lay at each brood from SWIFTS. 207 four to six. It is a most alert bird, rising very early, and retiring to roost very late, and is on the wing in the height of summer at least sixteen hours. In the longest days it does not withdraw to rest till a quarter before nine in the evening, being the latest of all day birds. Just before they retire, whole groups of them assemble high in the air, and squeak and shoot about with wonderful rapidity. But this bird is never so much alive as in sultry thundery weather, when it expresses great alacrity, and calls forth all its powers. In hot mornings, several getting together into little parties, dash round the steeples and churches, squeaking as they go, in a very clamorous man- ner : these, by nice observers, are supposed to be males serenading their sitting hens : and not with- out reason, since they seldom squeak till they come close to the walls or eaves, and since those within utter at the same time a little inward note of com- placency. When the hen has sat hard all day, she rushes forth just as it is almost dark, and stretches and relieves her weary limbs, and snatches a scanty meal for a few minutes, and then returns to her duty of incubation. Swifts, when wantonly and cruelly shot while they have young, discover a little lump of insects in their mouths, which they pouch and hold under their tongue. In general they feed in a much higher district than the other species ; a proof that gnats and other insects do also abound to a considerable height in the air ; they also range to vast distances, since locomo- tion is no labour to them, who are endowed with such wonderful powers of wing. Their powers seem to be in proportion to their levers ; and their wings are longer in proportion than those of almost any other bird. When they mute, or ease 12 208 SWIFTS. themselves in flight, they raise their wings, and make them meet over their backs. At some certain times in the summer I had remarked that swifts were hawking very low for hours together over pools and streams ; and could not help inquiring into the object of their pursuit that induced them to descend so much below their usual range. After some trouble, I found that they were taking phryganea, ephemerce, libellulce, (ca- dew-flies, may-flies, and dragon-flies,) that were just emerged out of their aurelia state. I then no longer wondered that they should be so willing to stoop for a prey that afforded them such plentiful and succulent nourishment. They bring out their young about the middle or latter end of July ; but 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 notorious as in the other species. On the thirtieth of last June I untiled the eaves of a house where many pairs build, and found in each nest only two squab, naked pulli ; on the eighth of July I repeated the same inquiry, and found they had made very little progress towards a fledged state, but were still naked and helpless. From whence we may conclude, that birds whose way of life keeps them perpetually on the wing, would not be able to quit their nest till the end of the month. Swallows and martins, that have numerous families, are continually feeding them every two or three minutes ; while swifts, that have but two young to maintain, are much at their leisure, and do not attend on their nests for hours together. Sometimes they pursue and strike at hawks that come in their way, but not with that vehemence SWIFTS. 209 and fury that swallows express on the same occasion. They are out all day long on wet days, feeding about, and still disregarding rain ; from whence two things may be gathered — first, that many insects abide high in the air, even in rain, and next, that the feathers of these birds must be well preened to resist so much wet. Windy, and particularly windy weather with heavy showers, they dislike, 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 our attention. When they arrive in the spring, they are all over of a glossy dark soot colour, except their chins, which are white ; but, by being all day long in the sun and air, they become quite weather-beaten and bleached before they depart, and yet they return glossy again in the spring. Now, if they pursue the sun into lower latitudes, as some suppose, in order to enjoy a perpetual summer, why do they not return bleached ? Do they not rather, perhaps, retire to rest for a season, and at that juncture moult and change their fea- thers, 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 hirun- dines breed invariably twice. It is past all doubt that swifts can breed but once, since they with- draw in a short time after the flight 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 hirundines twice, the 210 SWIFTS. latter, who lay from four to six eggs, increase at an average five times as fast as the former. But in nothing are swifts more singular than in their early retreat. They retire, as to the main body of them, by the 10th of August, and some- times a few days sooner ; and every straggler in- variably withdraws by the 20th : while their con- geners, all of them, stay till the beginning of Oc- tober, many of them all through that month, and some occasionally to the beginning of November. This early retreat is mysterious and wonderful, since that time is often the sweetest season in the year. But, what is more extraordinary, they begin to retire still earlier in the more southerly parts of Andalusia, where they can be nowise influenced by any defect of heat, or, as one might suppose, defect of food. Are they regulated in their motions with us by a failure of food, or by a propensity to moulting, or by a disposition to rest after so rapid a life, or by what ? This is one of those incidents in natural history that not only baffles our researches, but almost eludes our guesses ! These hirundines never perch on trees or roofs, and so never congregate with their congeners. They are fearless while haunting their nesting places, and are not to be scared with a gun, and are often beaten down with poles and cudgels as they stoop to go under the eaves. Swifts are much infested with those pests to the genus, called hippoboscce hirundines, and often wriggle and scratch themselves, in their flight, to get rid of that clinging annoyance. Swifts are no songsters, and have only one harsh screaming note ; yet there are ears to which it is not displeasing, from an agreeable SWIFTS. 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 ac- 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, they can enter a very narrow crevice ; and where they cannot pass on their bellies, they will turn up edgewise. The particular formation of the foot discrimi- nates the swift from all the British hirundines, and, indeed, from all other known birds, the hirundo melba, or great white-bellied swift, of Gibraltar excepted ; for it is so disposed as to carry " omnes quatuor digit os anticos," all its four toes forward ; besides, the least toe, which should be the back toe, consists of one bone alone, and the other three only of two apiece — a construction most rare and peculiar, but nicely adapted to the purposes in which their feet are employed. This, and some peculiarities attending the nostrils and under mandible, have induced a discerning natu- ralist 1 to suppose that this species might consti- tute a genus per se 2. In London, a party of swifts frequents the Tower, playing and feeding over the river just below the Bridge ; others haunt some of the churches of the Borough next the fields, but do not venture, like the house-martin, into the close, crowded part of the town. v The Swedes have bestowed a very pertinent name on this swallow, calling it riny-swala, from 1 John Antony Scopoli, of Carniola, M. D. 2 The genus Cypselus of Illiger is now generally adopted for this group. It is also the Apus of Belon. — W. J. SWIFTS. the perpetual rings, or circles that it takes round the scene of its modification. Swifts feed on coleoptera, or small beetles with hard cases over their wings, as well as on the softer insects ; but it does not appear how they can procure gravel to grind their food, as swallows do, since they never settle on the ground. Young ones, overrun with hippoboeca, are sometimes found, under their nests, fallen to the ground, the number of vermin rendering their abode insup- portable any longer. They frequent in this vil- lage several abject cottages ; yet a succession still haunts the same unlikely roofs — a good proof this that the same birds return to the same spots. As they must stoop very low to get up under these humble eaves, cats lie in wait, and sometimes catch them on the wing. On the 5th of July, 1775, I again untiled part of a roof over the nest of a swift. The dam sat in the nest ; but so strongly was she affected by natural cropy*) 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 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 a little more than a fortnight, would be able to dash through the air almost with the inconceivable swiftness of a meteor, and, perhaps, in their emigration, must traverse vast continents and oceans as distant as the equator. So soon does Nature advance small birds to their ?/Xt/c/a, MISSEL THRUSH RETURN OF SUMMER BIRDS. or state of perfection ; while the progressive growth of men and large quadrupeds is slow and tedious ! XXII. BY means of a straight cottage chimney, I had an opportunity this summer of remarking at my leisure, how swallows ascend and descend through the shaft ; but my pleasure in contemplating the address with which this feat was performed to a considerable depth in the chimney, was somewhat interrupted by apprehensions lest my eyes might undergo the same fate with those of Tobit1. Perhaps it may be some amusement to you to hear at what times the different species of hirun- dines 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 black-martin on April the 12th; and the house -martin not till April the 30th. At South Zele, Devonshire, swallows did not arrive till April the 25th ; swifts, in plenty, on May the 1st; and house-martins not till the middle of May. At Blackburn, in Lancashire, swifts were seen April the 28th ; swallows, April the 29th ; house-martins, May the 1st. Do these different dates, in such distant districts, prove any thing 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 dang. 1 Tobit ii. 10. MISSEL-THRUSH. Linnaeus says, that hawks "paciscuntur indu- cias cum avibus, quamdiu cuculus cuculat " 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 their feathers left in lanes and under hedges. The missel-thrush is, while breeding, fierce and pugnacious, driving such birds as approach its nest, with great fury, to a distance. The Welsh call it pen y llwyn, the head, or master of the coppice. He suffers no magpie, jay, or blackbird, to enter the 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 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 reso- lutely/>ro aris et focis • but numbers at last pre- vailed, they tore the nest to pieces, and swallowed the young alive. 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 my 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 un- genial weather, the same black cold solstice, has injured the more necessary fruits of the earth, and discoloured and blighted our wheat. The crop of hops promises to be very large. Frequent returns of deafness incommode me GOSSAMER. 215 sadly, and half disqualify me for a naturalist ; for, when those fits are upon me, I lose all the pleasing notice and little intimations arising from rural sounds ; and May is to me as silent and mute with respect to the notes of birds, &c., as August. My eye- sight is, thank God, quick and good ; but with respect to the other sense, I am, at times, disabled, " And Wisdom at one entrance quite shut out." XXIII. ON September the 21st, 1741, being then on a visit, and intent on field diversions, I rose before daybreak : when I came into the enclosures, I found the stubbles and clover grounds matted all over with a thick coat of cobweb, in the meshes of which a copious and heavy dew hung so plentifully that the whole face of the country seemed, as it were, covered with two or three setting-nets drawn one over another. When the dogs attempted to hunt, their eyes were so blinded and hoodwinked that they could not proceed, but were obliged to lie down and scrape the encumbrances from their faces with their fore feet ; so that, finding my sport interrupted, I returned home, musing in my mind on the odd- ness 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 produces, — 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 cobwrebs falling from very elevated regions, and continu- 216 GOSSAMER. ing, without any interruption, till the close of the day. These webs were not single filmy threads, floating in the air in all, directions, but perfect flakes or rags ; some near an inch broad, and five or six long, which fell with a degree of velocity, that showed they were considerably heavier than the atmosphere. On every side, as the observer turned his eyes, he might behold a continual succession of fresh flakes falling into his sight, and twinkling like stars, as they turned their sides towards the sun. How far this wonderful shower extended, would be difficult to say ; but we know that it reached Bradley, Selborne, and Alresford, three places which lie in a sort of a triangle, the shortest of 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 thistle-down, 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 atten- tion of the most incurious. Neither before nor after was any such fall ob- served ; but on this day the flakes hung in trees 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 GOSSAMER. 217 and superstitious as the notions about them were formerly, 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 buoy- ant 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 material as to be con- siderably more weighty than air, and to descend with precipitation, is a matter beyond 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 de and so drawn up, spiders and all, by a brisk eva- poration, 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, [see his Letters to Mr. Ray,] then, when they were become heavier than the air, they must fall. 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 parlour ; and, running to the top of the page, and shooting out a web, took its departure from thence. But wiiat 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 without the use of wrings, and to move in the air faster than the air itself. 218 SOCIALITY OF BRUTES. XXIV. THERE is a wonderful spirit of sociality in the brute creation, independent of sexual attachment: the congregating 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 neighbour's horse will not only not stay by himself abroad, 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 out at a stable -window, through which dung was thrown, after company ; and yet in other respects is remarkably quiet. Oxen and cows will not fatten by themselves ; but will neglect the finest pasture that is not re- commended by society. It would be needless to instance 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 alive, 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 take no notice of this deer, being used to her ; but, 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 lo wings 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- SOCIALITY OF BRUTES. 219 ship. For a very intelligent and observant person has assured me, that in the former part of his life, keeping but one horse, he happened also on a time to have but one solitary hen. These two incon- gruous 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 seques- tered individuals. 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 diminutive companion. Thus, by mutual good offices, each seemed to console the vacant hours of the other : so that Milton, when he puts the following sentiment 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." XXV. WE have two gangs, or hordes of gipsies 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 parti- cular to say ; but the other is distinguished by an appellative somewhat remarkable. As far as their harsh gibberish can be understood, they seem to say thai the name of their clan is Curleople : now the termination of this word is apparently Grecian ; and as Mezeray and the gravest historians all agree that these vagrants did certainly migrate from Egypt and the East, GIPSIES. 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 intelli- gent person among them, to inquire whether, in their jargon, they still retain 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 remains of their native language might still be discovered. With regard to those peculiar people, the gip- sies, one thing is very remarkable, 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 themselves in braving the severities of winter, and in living sub dio the whole year round. Last September was as wet a month as ever was known; and yet during those deluges did a young gipsy girl lie in the midst of one of our hop-gardens, on the cold ground, with nothing over her but a piece of a blanket extended on a few hazel rods bent hoop-fashion, and stuck into the earth at each end, in circumstances too trying for a cow in the same condition : yet within this garden there was a large hop-kiln, into the cham- bers of which she 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 return from Peking, met a gang of these people on the confines of Tartary, who were endeavouring to penetrate those deserts and try their fortune in China1. 1 See BELL'S Travels in China. RUSH CANDLES. Gipsies are called in French, Bohemians, in Italian and modern Greek, Zingani. XXVI. " Hie tacdae pingues, hie plurimus ignis Semper, et assidua postes fuligine nigri." I SHALL make no apology for troubling you with the detail of a very simple piece of domestic economy, being satisfied that you think nothing 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; but as I know there are coun- tries also where it does not obtain, and as I have considered the subject with some degree of exact- ness, I shall proceed in my humble story, and leave you to judge of the expediency. The proper species of rush for this purpose seems to be the juncus conglomerates, or common soft rush, which is to be found in most moist pas- tures, 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 labourers, women, and chil- dren, make it their business to procure and pre- pare them. As soon as they are cut they must be flung into water, and kept there ; for otherwise they will dry and shrink, and the peel will not run. At first a person would 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 222 RUSH CANDLES. other feats, soon becomes familiar even to chil- dren ; and we have seen an old woman stone blind, performing this business with great dispatch, and seldom failing to strip them with the nicest regularity. When these junci are thus far pre- pared, 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 in the scalding fat, or grease ; but this knack also is to be attained by practice. The careful wife of an industrious Hampshire labourer obtains all her fat for nothing ; for she saves the scummings of her bacon-pot for this use ; and if the grease abounds with salt, she causes the salt to preci- pitate 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 procured 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, medi- cated and ready for 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 longer : mutton suet would have the same effect. A good rush, which measured in length two feet four inches and an half, being minuted, burnt only three minutes short of an hour : and a rush of still 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 RUSH CANDLES. dismal one, " darkness visible ;" but then the wicks of those have two ribs of the rind, or peel, to support the pith, while the wick of the dipped rush has but one. The two ribs are intended to impede the progress of the flame, and make the candle last. In a pound of dry rushes, avoirdupois, which I caused to be weighed and numbered, we found upwards 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. According to this account, each rush, before dipping, costs one-thirty-third of a far- thing, and one-eleventh afterwards. Thus a poor family will enjoy five and a half hours of comfort- able light for a farthing. An experienced old housekeeper assures me, that one pound and a half 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 daylight. 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 economists, and therefore must con- tinue very poor, buy an 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 we have seen nowhere else ; that is, little neat besoms which our foresters make from the stalks of the polytricum commune, 224? RUSH CANDLES. or great golden maiden-hair, which they call silk- wood, and find plenty in the bogs l. When this moss is well combed and dressed, and divested of its outer skin, it becomes 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 in use for the purpose above mentioned2. XXVII. 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 faculties on this one pursuit. In the winter he dozed away his time, within his fa- ther'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, were his prey wherever he found them : he had no appre- hensions from their stings, but would seize them nudis manibus, and at once disarm them of their 1 Very commonly used in Scotland and Ireland for the same purposes, and also for mats or rugs, which are plaited together, leaving the tops sticking out for two or three inches, and thus making both a warm and useful household appendage. — W. J. 2 A besom of this sort was to be seen in Sir Ashton Lever's museum. PROPENSITY OF AN IDIOT BOY. 225 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 confine them in bottles. He was a very merops apiaster, or bee-bird ; and very injurious to men that kept bees ; for he would slide into their bee- gardens, and, sitting down before the stools, would rap with his finger on the hives, and so take the bees as they came out. He has been known to overturn hives for the sake of honey, of which he was passionately fond. Where me- theglin 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 lean and sallow, and of a cadaverous complexion; and, except in his favourite pursuit, in which he was wonderfully adroit, discovered no manner of understanding. Had his capacity 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, " Thou, Had thy presiding star propitious shone, Shouldst Wildman be." When a tall youth, he wras removed from hence to a distant village, where he died, as I under- stand, before he arrived at manhood. 226 SUPERSTITIONS OF SELBORNE. XXVIII. IT is the hardest thing in the world to shake off superstitious prejudices : they are sucked in, as it were, with our mother's milk ; and, growing up with us at a time when they take the fastest hold, and make the most lasting impressions, become so interwoven into our very constitu- tions, that the strongest good sense is required to disengage ourselves from them. No wonder, therefore, that the lower people retain them their whole lives through, since their minds are not invigorated by a liberal education, and therefore not enabled to make any efforts adequate to the occasion. Such a preamble seems to be necessary before we enter on the superstitions of this district, lest we should be suspected of exaggeration in a recital of practices too gross for this enlightened age. But the people of Tring, in Hertfordshire, would do well to remember, that no longer ago than the year 175-1, and within twenty miles of the capital, they seized on two superannuated wretches, crazed with age, and overwhelmed with infirmities, on a suspicion of witchcraft ; and, by trying experiments, drowned them in a horse-pond. In a farm-yard, near the middle of this village, 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 by wedges, while ruptured children, stripped naked, were pushed through the apertures, under a persuasion SUPERSTITIONS OF SELBORNE. 22"f that, by such a process, the poor babes would be cured of their infirmity. As soon as the opera- tion was over, the tree in the suffering part was plastered 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 supposed, would prove ineffectual. Having occasion to enlarge my garden not long since, I 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, perhaps, from our Saxon ancestors, who practised it before their conversion to Christianity. At the south corner of the Plestor, or area, near the church, there stood, about twenty years ago, a very old, grotesque, hollow, pollard-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 l : for it is supposed that a shrew-mouse is of so 1 They were supposed, also, to be particularly injurious to horses. " When a horse in the fields happened to be suddenly seized with any thing like a numbness in his legs, he was immediately judged by the old persons to be either planet-struck or shrew-struck. The mode of cure which they prescribed, and which they considered in all cases as infallible, was to drag the animal through a piece of bramble that grew at both ends." — BINGLEY'S Memoirs of British Quadrupeds. — Cats will kill shrews, but will not eat them. — W. J. SUPERSTITIONS OF SELBORNE. 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 anguish, and threatened with the loss of the use of the limb. Against this accident, to which they were continually liable, our provident forefathers al- ways kept a shrew-ash at hand, which, when once medicated, would maintain its virtue for ever. A shrew-ash was made thus l : — Into the body of the tree a deep hole was bored with an auger, and a poor devoted 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, " The late vicar stubb'd and burnt it," when he was way- warden, regardless of the re- monstrances of the by-standers, who interceded in vain for its preservation, urging its power and efficacy, and alleging that it had been " Religione patrum multos servata per annos." XXIX, IN heavy fogs, on elevated 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 night's time, by condensing the vapour, which trickles down 1 For a similar practice, see PLOT'S Staffordshire. CONDENSATION BY TREES. 229 the twigs and boughs, so as to make the ground below quite in a float. In Newton-lane, in Octo- ber, 1775, on a misty day, a particular oak in leaf dropped so fast that the cart-way stood in puddles, and the ruts ran 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 necessary element, water, merely by the dripping of some 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 habitable by condensation alone. Trees in leaf have such a vast proportion more of surface than those that are naked, that, in theory, their condensations should greatly exceed those that are stripped of their leaves : but, as the former imbibe also a great quantity of moisture, it is difficult to say which drip most : but this I know, that deciduous trees that are entwined with much ivy seem to distil the greatest quan- tity. 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 perennial ; and show them how advantageous some trees are in prefer- ence 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 pools and streams. That trees are great promoters of lakes and 230 PONDS ON CHALK HILLS. 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 l. Besides, most wood- lands, forests, and chases, with us abound with pools and morasses ; no doubt for the reason given above. To a thinking mind few phenomena are more strange than the state of little ponds on the summits of chalk hills, many of which are never dry in the most trying droughts of summer. On chalk hills I say, because in many rocky and gravelly soils, springs usually break out pretty high on the sides of elevated grounds and moun- tains ; but no persons acquainted with chalky dis- tricts will allow that they ever saw springs in such a soil but in valleys and bottoms, since the waters of so pervious a stratum as chalk all 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 containing perhaps not more than two or three hundred hogsheads of water, yet never is known to fail, though it affords drink for three hundred or four hundred sheep, and for at least twenty head of large cattle besides. This pond, it is true, is overhung by two moderate beeches, that, doubtless, at times, afford it much supply : but then we have others as small, that, without the 1 Vide KALM'S Travels in North America. PONDS ON CHALK HILLS. 231 aid of trees, and in spite of evaporation from sun and wind, and perpetual consumption by cattle, yet constantly maintain a moderate share of water, without overflowing in the wettest seasons, as they would do if supplied by springs. By my journal of May, 1775, it appears that " the small and even considerable ponds on the vales are now dried up, while the small ponds on the very tops of hills are but little affected." Can this differ- ence be accounted for from evaporation alone, which certainly is more prevalent in bottoms ? or rather, have not those elevated pools some unno- ticed recruits, which in the night-time counterba- lance the waste of the day ; without which the cattle alone must soon exhaust them ? And here it will be necessary to enter more minutely into the cause. Dr. Hales, in his Vegetable Statics, ad- vances, from experiment, that " the moister the earth is, the more dew falls on it in a night ; and more than a double quantity of dew falls on 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 assimilate 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-fail- ing resource. 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. THE CUCKOO. XXX. MONSIEUR HERISSANT, a French anatomist, seems persuaded that he has discovered the reason why cuckoos do not hatch their own eggs ; the impediment, he supposes, arises from the internal structure of their parts, which incapacitates them for incubation. According to this gentleman, the crop, or craw, of a cuckoo, does not lie before the sternum at the bottom of the neck, as in the gal- lina, columbce, &c. but immediately behind it, on and over the bowels, so as to make a large pro- tuberance in the belly J . Induced by this assertion, we procured a cuckoo ; and cutting open the breast-bone, and exposing the intestines to sight, found the crop lying as mentioned above. The stomach was large and round, and stuffed hard, like a pin- cushion, 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 catching on the wing as they were just emerging out of the aurelia state. Among this farrago also were to be seen maggots, and many seeds, which belonged either to gooseberries, currants, cranberries, or some such fruit ; so that these birds apparently subsist on insects and fruits ; nor was there the least ap- pearance of bones, feathers, or fur, to support the idle notion of their being birds of prey 2. 1 Histoire de 1'Academie Royale, 1752. 1 When these birds have fed much on some of the large hairy caterpillars so common on the northern muirs, the stomach becomes filled and coated with the short hairs, which may have assisted in raising the opinion that they feed on small animals. — W. J, THE CUCKOO. 233 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 bowels against the back-bone. It must be allowed, as this anatomist observes, that the crop placed just below the bowels must, especially when full, be in a very uneasy situation during the business of incubation : yet the test will be, to examine whether birds that are actually known to sit for certain are not formed in a simi- lar manner. This inquiry I proposed to myself to make with 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 wras procured, which, from its habit and shape, we suspected might resemble the cuckoo in its internal construction. Nor were our suspicions ill-grounded ; for, upon the dissection, the crop, or craw, also lay behind the sternum, immediately on the viscera, between them and the skin of the belly. It was bulky, and stuffed hard with large phal&ntf, moths of several sorts, and their eggs, which, no doubt, had been forced out of these insects by the action of swallowing. Now, as it appears that this bird, which is so well known to practise incubation, is formed in a similar manner with cuckoos, Monsieur Herissant's conjecture, that cuckoos are incapable of incuba- tion 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 pecu- liarity in the instance of the cuculus canorus. We found the case to be the same with the ring- tail hawk, in respect to formation ; and, as far as 234 THE VIPER. I can recollect, with the swift ; and probably it is so with many more sorts of birds that are not granivorous. XXXI. ON August the 4th, 1775, we surprised a large viper, which seemed very heavy and bloated, as it lay in the grass, basking in the sun. When we came to cut it up, we found that the abdomen was crowded with young, fifteen in number ; the shortest of which measured full seven inches, and were about the size of full-grown earth-worms. This little fry issued into the world with the true viper spirit about them, showing great alertness as soon as disengaged from the belly of the dam : they twisted and wriggled about, and set themselves up, and gaped very wide when touched with a stick, showing manifest tokens of menace and de- fiance, 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 animals with the notion of the situation of their natural weapons, and of using them properly in their own defence, even before those weapons subsist or are formed. Thus a young cock will spar at his adversary before his spurs are grown ; and a calf or 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. CASTRATION. 235 There was little room to suppose that this brood had ever been in the open air before ; and that they were taken in for refuge, at the mouth of the dam, when she perceived that danger was approaching ; because then probably we should have found them somewhere in the neck, and not in the abdomen. XXXII. CASTRATION has a strange effect : it emascu- lates both man, beast, and bird, and brings them to a near resemblance of the other sex. Thus eunuchs have smooth, unmuscular arms, thighs, and legs ; and broad hips, and beardless chins, and squeaking voices. Gelt- stags and bucks have hornless heads, like hinds and does. Thus wethers have small horns, like ewes; and oxen large bent horns, and hoarse voices when they low, like cows : for bulls have short straight horns ; and though they mutter and grumble in a deep tremendous tone, yet they low in a shrill high key. Capons have small combs and gills, and look pallid about the head like pullets ; they also walk without any parade, and hover chickens like hens. Barrow-hogs have also small tusks like sows. Thus far it is plain that the deprivation of masculine vigour puts a stop to the growth of those parts or appendages that are looked upon as its insignia. But the ingenious Mr. Lisle, in his book on husbandry, carries it much farther ; for he says that the loss of those insignia alone has sometimes a strange effect on the ability itself. He had a boar so fierce and venereous that, to prevent mischief, orders were given for his tusks 236 THE HOG. to be broken off. No sooner had the beast suffered this injury than his powers forsook him, and he neglected those females to whom before he was passionately attached, and from whom no fences could restrain him. XXXIII. THE natural term of an hog's life is little known, and the reason is plain — because it is neither profitable nor convenient to keep that turbulent animal to the full extent of its time ; however, my neighbour, a man of substance, who had no occasion to study every little advantage to a nicety, kept an 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 seven- teenth 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 pro- duced two litters in the year, of about ten at a time, and once above twenty at a litter ; but as there were near double the number of pigs to that of teats, many died. From long experience in the world this female was grown very sagacious and artful. When she found occasion to converse with a boar, she used to open all the intervening gates, and march, by herself, up to a distant farm where one was kept, and when her purpose was served, would return by the same means. At the age of about fifteen her litters began to be reduced to four or five ; and such a litter she exhibited when in her fatting-pen. She proved, when fat, good bacon, juicy, and tender ; the rind, or sward, was remarkably thin. At a mode- AFFECTION IN A CAT. rate computation she was allowed to have been the fruitful parent of three hundred pigs ; a pro- digious instance of fecundity in so large a qua- druped! She was killed in spring, 1775. XXXIV. " Admorunt ubera tigres." WE have remarked in a former letter how much incongruous animals, in a lonely state, may be attached to each other from a spirit of sociality ; in this it may not be amiss to recount a different motive which has been known to create as strange a fondness. My friend had a little helpless leveret brought to him, which the servants fed with milk in a spoon, and about the same time his cat kittened, and the young were dispatched and buried. The hare was soon lost, and supposed to be gone the way of most foundlings, to be killed by some dog or cat. However, in about a fortnight, as the master was sitting in his garden in the dusk of evening, he observed his cat, with tail erect, trotting towards him, and calling with little short inward notes of complacency, such as they use towards their kittens, and something gamboling after, which proved to be the leveret that the cat had supported with her milk, and continued to support with great affection.1 1 About two years since, at a cottar's house in Annan - dale, Dumfries-shire, a litter of pigs by some accident lost their mother ; at the same time, a pointer bitch happening to pup, and the puppies suffering the lot common to most such, their place was supplied by the pigs, which were well and affectionately nursed by their foster-parent. — W. J. 1829. 238 AFFECTION IN A CAT. 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 felts, the murium leo, as Linnaeus 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 feel- ings, which the loss of her kittens had awakened in her breast ; and by the complacency and ease she derived to herself from procuring her teats to be drawn, which were too much distended with milk, till, from habit, she became as much delighted with this foundling as if it had been her real offspring. This incident is no bad solution of that strange circumstance which grave historians, as well as the poets, assert, of exposed children being sometimes nurtured by female wild beasts that probably had lost their young. For it is not one whit more marvellous that Romulus and Remus, in the^r infant state, should be nursed by a she-wolf, than that a poor little sucking leveret should be fostered and cherished by a bloody grimalkin1. " Viridi fcetam Mavortis in antro Procubuisse lupam : geminos huic ubera circum Ludere pendentes pueros, et lambere matrem Impavidos : illam tereti cervice reflexam Mulcere alternos, et corpora fingere lingua." 1 We have also the following note by Mr. White in his Observations : — " A boy has taken three little young squirrels in their nest, or eyry, as it is called in those 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 12 WORMS. XXXV. LANDS that are subject to frequent inundations are always poor ; and, probably, the reason may be because the worms are drowned. The most insignificant insects and reptiles are of much more consequence, and have much more influence in the economy of Nature, than the incurious are aware of; and are mighty in their effect, from their minuteness, which renders them less an object of attention ; and from their numbers and fecundity. Earth-worms, though in appearance a small and despicable link in the chain of Nature, yet, if lost, would make a lamentable chasm. For to say nothing of half the birds, and some quadrupeds, which are almost entirely supported by them, worms seem to be great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely with- out them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and rendering it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by drawing straws and stalks of leaves and twigs into it ; and, most of all, by throwing up such infinite numbers of lumps of earth called worm-casts, which, being their affection as if they were her own offspring. This cir- cumstance corroborates my suspicion, that the mention of exposed and deserted children, being nurtured by female beasts of prey who had lost their young, may not be so improbable an incident as many have supposed ; and therefore may be a justification of those authors who have gravely mentioned what some have deemed to be a wild and improbable story. So many people went to see the little squirrels suckled by a cat, that the foster-mother became jealous of her charge, and in pain for their safety, and therefore hid them over the ceiling, where one died. This circumstance shows her affection for these foundlings, and that she supposed the squirrels to be her own young." — W. J. 240 WORMS. excrement, is a fine manure for grain and grass. Worms probably provide new soil for hills and slopes where the rain washes the earth away ; and they affect slopes, probably to avoid being flooded. Gardeners and farmers express their detestation of worms; the former because they render their walks unsightly, and make them much work; and the latter because, as they think, worms eat their green corn. But these men would find that the earth without worms would soon become cold, hard-bound, and void of fermentation ; and consequently sterile : and be- sides, 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 tipula (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 garden1. These hints we think proper to throw out, in order to set the inquisitive and discerning to work. A good monography of worms would afford much entertainment, and information at the same time, and would open a large and new field in natural history. Worms work most in the spring ; but by no means lie torpid in the dead months ; are out every mild night in the winter, as any person may be convinced that will take the pains to examine his grass-plots with a candle ; are her- maphrodites, and much addicted to venery, and consequently very prolific. 1 Farmer Young, of Norton-farm, says that this spring (1777) about four acres of his wheat in one field were entirely destroyed hy slugs, which swarmed on the blades of corn, and devoured it as fast as it sprang. TORPIDITY OF SWALLOWS. 241 XXXVI. You cannot but remember, that the twenty- sixth and twenty- seventh of last March were very hot days , so sultry, that every body complained and were restless under those sensations to which they had not been reconciled by gradual ap- proaches. This sudden summer-like heat was attended by many summer coincidences ; for on those two days the thermometer rose to sixty- six in the shade ; many species of insects revived 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 present purpose, many house-swal- lows appeared and were very alert in many places, and particularly at Cobham, in Surrey. But as that short warm period was succeeded as well as preceded by harsh, severe weather, with frequent frosts and ice, and cutting winds, the in- sects withdrew, the tortoise retired again into the ground, and the swallows were seen no more until the tenth of April, when, the rigour of the spring abating, a softer season began to prevail. Again, it appears by my journals for many years past, that house-martins retire, to a bird, about the beginning of October; so that a person not very observant of such matters would conclude that they had taken their last farewell ; but then it may be seen in my diaries, also, that considera- ble flocks have discovered themselves again in the first week of November, and often on the fourth day of that month, only for one day ; and that not as if they were in actual migration, but playing about at their leisure and feeding calmly, as if no TORPIDITY OF SWALLOWS. enterprise of moment at all agitated their spirits. And this was the case in the beginning of this very month ; for on the fourth of November more than twenty house-martins, which, in appearance, had all departed about the seventh of October, were seen again; for that one morning only, sporting between my fields and the Hanger, and feasting on insects which swarmed in that shel- tered district. The preceding day was wet and blustering, but the fourth was dark, and mild, and soft, the wind at south-west, and the thermometer at 5 85 ; a pitch not common at that season of the year. Moreover, it may not be amiss to add in this place, that whenever the thermometer is above 50, the bat comes flitting out in every autumnal and winter month. From all these circumstances laid together, it is obvious that torpid insects, reptiles, and quadru- peds, are awakened from their profoundest slum- bers by a little untimely warmth; and therefore, that nothing so much promotes this death-like stupor as a defect of heat. And farther, it is reasonable to suppose that two whole species, or at least many individuals of these two species, of British hirun- dines, do never leave this island at all, but partake of the same benumbed state ; for we cannot suppose that, after a month's absence, house-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 summer of a couple of days. XXXVII. THERE was in this village, several years ago, a miserable pauper, who, from his birth, was afflicted LEPROSY. with a leprosy, as far as we are aware, of a singular kind, since it affected only the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet. This scaly eruption usually broke out twice in the year, at the spring and fall ; and by peeling away, left the skin so thin and tender, that neither his hands nor feet were able to perform their functions ; so that the poor object was half his time on crutches, incapable of employ, and languishing in a tiresome state of indolence and inactivity. His habit was lean, lank, and cadaverous. In this sad plight he dragged on a miserable existence, a burden to himself and his parish, which was obliged to support him, till he was relieved by death at more than thirty years of age. The good women, who love to account for every defect in children by the doctrine of longing, said that his mother felt a violent propensity for oysters, which she was unable to gratify, and that the black, rough scurf on his hands and feet were the shells of that fish. We knew his parents, neither of whom were lepers ; his father, in particular, lived to be far advanced in years. In all ages the leprosy has made dreadful havoc among mankind. The Israelites seem to have been greatly afflicted with it from the most remote times, as appears from the peculiar and repeated injunctions given them in the Levitical law l. Nor was the rancour of this foul disorder much abated in the last period of their common- wealth, as may be seen in many passages of the New Testament. Some centuries ago, this horrible distemper prevailed all over Europe ; and our forefathers were by no means exempt, as appears by the 1 See Leviticus, chap. xiii. and xiv. R2 244 LEPROSY. large provision made for objects labouring under this calamity. There was an hospital for female lepers in the diocese of Lincoln, a noble one near Durham, three in London and Southwark, and perhaps many more in or near our great towns and cities. Moreover, some crowned heads, 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 is now 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 originated 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 in every family. Three or four centuries ago, before there were any enclosures, sown-grasses, field-turnips, field-carrots, or hay, all the cattle that had grown fat in summer, and were not killed for winter use, were turned out soon after Michaelmas to shift as they could through the dead months ; so that no fresh meat could be had in winter or spring. Hence the marvellous account of the vast stores of salted flesh found in the larder of the eldest Spencer *, in the days of Edward the Second, even so late in the spring as the 3d of May. It was from 1 Viz. six hundred bacons, eighty carcasses of beef, and six hundred muttons. LEPROSY. 245 magazines like these that the turbulent barons supported in idleness their riotous swarms of retainers ready for any disorder or mischief. But agriculture has now arrived at such a pitch of perfection, that our best and fattest meats are killed in the winter ; and no man needs eat salted flesh, unless he prefer it, that has money to buy fresh. One cause of this distemper might be, no doubt, the quantity of wretched fresh and salt fish consumed by the commonalty at all seasons, as well as in Lent, which our poor now would hardly be persuaded to touch. The use of linen changes, shirts or shifts, in the room of sordid or filthy woollen, long worn next the skin, is a matter of neatness comparatively modern, but must prove a great means of pre- venting cutaneous ails. At this very time, woollen instead of linen prevails among the poorer Welsh, who are subject to foul eruptions. The plenty of good wheaten bread that now is found among all ranks of people in the south, instead of that miserable sort which used in old days to be made of barley or beans, may contri- bute 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 cutaneous disorders, from a wretchedness and poverty of diet. As to the produce of a garden, every middle- aged person of observation may perceive, within his own memory, both in town and country, how vastly the consumption of vegetables is increased. Green- stalls in cities now support multitudes in a comfortable state, while gardeners get fortunes. Every decent labourer, also, has his garden, which is half his support, as well as his delight; 246 GARDENS. 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 dependents. Potatoes have prevailed in this little district, by means of premiums, within these twenty years only, and are much esteemed here now by the poor, who would scarce have ventured to taste them in the last reign. Our Saxon ancestors certainly had some sort of cabbage, because they call the month of February sprout-cale ; but long after their days, the cultivation of gardens was little attended to. The religious, being men of leisure, and keeping up a constant correspondence with Italy, were the first people among us who had gardens and fruit-trees in any perfection, within the walls of their abbeys 1 and priories. The barons neglected every pursuit that did not lead to war, or tend to the pleasure of the chase. It was not till gentlemen took up the study of horticulture themselves that the knowledge of gardening made such hasty advances. Lord Cobham, Lord Ila, and Mr. Waller of Beacons- field, were some of the first people of rank that promoted the elegant science of ornamenting, with- out despising the superintendence 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 1 " In monasteries the lamp of knowledge continued to burn, however dimly. In them the men of business were formed for the state. The art of writing was cultivated by the monks ; they were the only proficients in mechanics, gardening, and architecture." — See DALRYMPLE'S Annals of Scotland. SALADS. 247 corroborates 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. selleri (celery), which is nothing else but the sweet smallage, the young shoots whereof, with a little of the head of the root cut off, they eat raw with oil and pepper." And further 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. XXXVIII. Forte puer, comitum seductus ab agmine fido, Dixerat, ecquis adest ? et, adest, responderat echo. Hie stupet ; utque aciem partes divisit in omnes ; Voce, veni, claraat magna. Vocat ilia vocantem." IN a district so diversified as this, so full of hollow vales and hanging woods, it is no wonder that echoes should abound. Many we have discovered that return the cry of a pack of dogs, the notes of a hunting-horn, a tunable ring of bells, or the melody of birds, very agreeably; but we were still at a loss for a polysyllabical articulate echo, till a young gentleman, who had parted from his company in a summer evening walk, and was calling after them, stumbled upon a very curious one in a spot where it might least be expected. At first he was much surprised, and could not be persuaded but that he was mocked by some boy; but, repeating his trials in several languages, and finding his respondent 248 ECHOES. to be a very adroit polyglot, he then discerned the deception. This echo, in an evening before rural noises cease, would repeat ten syllables most articulately and distinctly, especially if quick dactyls were chosen. The last syllables of " Tityre, tu patulae recubans " were as audibly and intelligibly returned as the first ; and there is no doubt, could trial have been made, but that at midnight, when the air is very elastic, and a dead stillness prevails, one or two syllables more might have been obtained ; but the distance rendered so late an experiment very inconvenient. Quick dactyls, we observed, succeeded best : for when we came to try its powers in slow, heavy, embarrassed spondees of the same number of syllables, " Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens — we could perceive a return but of four or five. All echoes have some one place to which they are returned stronger and more distinct than to any other ; and that is always the place that lies at right angles with the object of repercussion, and is not too near, nor too far off. Buildings, or naked rocks, re-echo much more articulately than hanging woods or vales ; because in the latter the voice is as it were entangled, and embarrassed in the covert, and weakened in the rebound. The true object of this echo, as we found by various experiments, is the stone-built, tiled hop-kiln in Gaily Lane, which measures in front 40 feet, and from the ground to the eaves 12 feet. The true centrum phonicum, or just distance, is one particular spot in the King's Field, in the ECHOES. 249 path to Norehill, on the very brink of the steep balk above the hollow cart-way. In this case there is no choice of distance ; but the path, by mere contingency, happens to be the lucky, the identical spot, because the ground rises or falls so immediately, if the speaker either retires or advances, that his mouth would at once be above or below the object. We measured this polysyllabical echo with great exactness, and found the distance to fall very short of Dr. Plot's rule for distinct articula- tion ; for the Doctor, in his History of Oxfordshire, allows 120 feet for the return of each syllable distinctly; hence this echo, which gives ten distinct syllables, ought to measure 400 yards, or 1 20 feet to each syllable ; whereas our distance is only 258 yards, or near 75 feet to each syllable. Thus our measure falls short of the Doctor's as five to eight ; but then it must be acknowledged that this candid philosopher was convinced after- wards, that some latitude must be admitted of in the distance of echoes according to time and place. When experiments of this sort are making, it should always be remembered, that weather and the time of day have a vast influence on an echo ; for a dull, heavy, moist air deadens and clogs the sound ; and hot sunshine renders the air thin and weak, and deprives it of all its springiness ; and a ruffling wind quite defeats the whole. In a still, clear, dewy evening, the air is most elastic ; and perhaps the later the hour the more so. Echo has always been so amusing to the imagi- nation, that the poets have personified her ; and in their hands she has been the occasion of many a beautiful fiction. Nor need the gravest man be ashamed to appear taken with such a phenomenon, 250 ECHOES. since it may become the subject of philosophical or mathematical inquiries. One should have imagined that echoes, if not entertaining, must at least have been harmless and inoffensive; yet Virgil advances a strange notion, that they are injurious to bees. After enumerating some probable and reasonable an- noyances, such as prudent owners would wish far removed from their bee-gardens, he adds, Aut ubi concava pulsu Saxa sonant, vocisque offensa resultat imago." This wild and fanciful assertion will hardly be admitted by the philosophers of these days, espe- cially as they all now 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 impressions are distasteful or hurtful t deny, because bees, in good summers, thrive well in my outlet, where the echoes are very strong ; for this village is another Anathoth, a place of responses, or echoes. Besides, it does not appear from experiment that bees are in any way capable of being affected by sounds : for I have often tried my own with a large speaking- trumpet held close to their hives, and with such an exertion of voice as would have hailed a ship at the distance of a mile, and still these insects pursued their various employments undisturbed, and without showing the least sensibility or re- sentment. Some time since its discovery this echo is become totally silent, though the object or hop- kiln remains : nor is there any mystery in this defect, for the field between is planted as an ECHOES. 25 hop-garden, and the voice of the speaker is totally absorbed and lost among the poles and entangled foliage of the hops. And when the poles are removed in autumn the disappointment is the same ; because a tall quick- set hedge, nurtured up for the purpose of shelter to the hop-ground, entirely interrupts the impulse and repercussion of the voice: so that till those obstructions are re- moved 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 occasion for a new barn, stable, dog-kennel, or the like structure, it would be only needful to erect this building on the gentle declivity of an hill, with a like rising opposite to it, at a few hundred yards' distance; and perhaps success might be the easier ensured could some canal, lake, or stream, intervene. From a seat at the centrum phonicum he and his friends might amuse themselves sometimes of an evening with the prattle of this loquacious nymph ; of whose com- placency and decent reserve more may be said than can with truth of every individual of her sex ; since she is " Quae nee reticere loquenti, Nee prior ipsa loqui, didicit resonabilis echo." The classic reader will, I trust, pardon the following lovely quotation, so finely describing echoes, and so poetically accounting for their causes from popular superstition : — " Quae bene quom videas, rationem reddere possis Tute tibi atque aliis, quopacto per loca sola Saxa pareis formas verborum ex ordine reddant, Palanteis comites quom monteis inter opacos Quaerimus, et magna disperses voce ciemus. 252 SWIFTS. Sex etiam, aut septem loca vidi reddere voces Unam quom jaceres : ita colles collibus ipsis Verba repulsantes iterabant dicta referre. Haec loca capripedes Satyros, Nymphasque tenere Finitimi fingunt, et Faunos esse loquuntur ; Quorum noctivago strepitu, ludoque jocanti Adfirmant volgo taciturna silentia rumpi, Chordarumque sonos fieri, dulceisque querelas, Tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum ; Et genus agricolum late sentiscere, quom Pan Pinea semiferi capitis velamina quassans, Unco saepe labro calamos percurrit hianteis, Fistula silvestrem ne cesset fundere musam." LUCRETIUS, lib. iv. 1. 576. XXXIX. AMONG the many singularities attending those amusing birds, the swifts, I am now confirmed in the opinion that we have every year the same number of pairs invariably ; at least the result of my inquiry has been exactly the same for a long time past. The swallows and martins are so numerous, and so widely distributed over the village, that it is hardly possible to recount them; while the swifts, though they do not all build in the church, yet so frequently haunt it, and play and rendezvous round it, that they are easily enumerated. The number that I constantly find are eight pairs, about half of which reside in the church, and the rest build in some of the lowest and meanest thatched cottages. Now, as these eight pairs — allowance being made for accidents —breed yearly eight pairs more, what becomes annually of this increase ? and what determines, every spring, which pairs shall visit us, and re- occupy their ancient haunts ? Ever since I have attended to the subject of ornithology, I have always supposed that the BOTANY. sudden reverse of affection, that strange ajrtoropy/), which immediately succeeds in the feathered kind to the most passionate fondness, is the occasion of an equal dispersion of birds over the face of the earth. Without this provision, one favourite district would be crowded with 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-martin 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 Mono- graphics, that the numbers returning bear no manner of proportion to the numbers retiring. XL. 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 any real knowiedge ; and, where the science is carried no farther than a mere systematic classification, the charge is but too true. But the botanist that is desirous of wiping off this aspersion 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 gardener, the planter, and the husbandman on the phytologist. Not that system is by any means to be thrown aside — without system the field of Nature would be BOTANY. a pathless wilderness — 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 mankind, and productive of many of the greatest comforts and elegancies of life. To plants we owe timber, bread, beer, honey, wine, oil, linen, cotton, &c. — what not only strengthens our hearts, and exhilarates our spirits, but what secures us from inclemencies of weather and adorns our persons. Man, in his true state of nature, seems to be subsisted by spontaneous vegetation ; in middle climes, where grasses pre- vail, 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 flesh alone, and is driven to what hunger has never been known to compel the very beasts — to prey upon his own species 1. 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, pepper, &c. As every climate has its peculiar produce, our natural wants bring on a mutual intercourse ; so that by means of trade, each distant part is supplied with the growth of every latitude. But, without the 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, 1 See the late voyages to the South Seas. BOTANY OF SELBORNE. 255 the botanist should endeavour to make himself acquainted with those that are useful. You shall see a man readily ascertain every herb of the field, yet hardly know wheat from barley, or at least one sort of wheat or barley from another. But of all sorts of vegetation the grasses seem to be most neglected ; neither the farmer nor the grazier seem to distinguish the annual from the perennial, the hardy from the tender, nor the suc- 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 an 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 common- wealth's man that could occasion the growth of " two blades of grass where one alone was seen before." XLI. 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 fillces, and the pastures and moist woods with fungi. If in any branch of botany we may seem to be wanting, it must be in the large aquatic plants, which are not to be expected on a spot far removed from rivers, and lying up amidst the hill country at the spring- heads. To enumerate all the plants that 256 BOTANY OF SELBORNE. have been discovered within our limits would be a needless work; but a short list of the more rare, and the spots where they are to be found, may neither be unacceptable nor unentertaining. Helleborus fcetidus, stinking- hellebore, bear's- foot or setterwort — all over the Highwood and Coney-croft-hanger; this continues a great branch- ing 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 administered with caution. Helleborus viridis, green hellebore — in the deep stony lane on the left hand just before the turning to Norton farm, and at the top of Middle Dorton under the hedge ; this plant dies down to the ground early in autumn, and springs again about February, flowering almost as soon as it appears above ground. Vaccinium oxy coccus, creeping bilberries, or cran- berries— in the bogs of Bin's-pond ; Vaccinium Myrtillus, whortle, or bilberries— on the dry hillocks of Wolmer Forest ; Drosera rotundifolia, round-leaved sundew — in the bogs of Bin's pond ; Drosera longifolia \ long-leaved sundew — in the bogs of Bin's-pond ; Comarum palustre, purple comarum, or marsh cinque-foil — in the bogs of Bin's-Pond ; Hypericum andros&mum, Tutsan, St. John's wort — in the stony, hollow lanes ; Vinca minor, less periwinkle — in Selborne- hanger and Shrub-wood ; 1 Should this not have been drosera Anglica ? — \V. J. BOTANY OF SELBORNE. 257 Monatropa hypopithys, yellow monotropa, or bird's-nest — in Selborne-hanger under the shady beeches, to whose roots it seems to be parasitical at the north-west end of the Hanger ; Chloraperfoliata, Blackstoniaperfoliata, Hudsoni, perforated yellow-wort — on the banks in the King's -field ; Paris quadrifolia, herb Paris, true-love, or one- berry — in the Church-litten-coppice ; Chrysosplenium oppositifolium, opposite -leaved golden saxifrage — in the dark and rocky hollow lanes ; Gentiana amarella, autumnal gentian, or fell- wort — on the Zig-zag and Hanger ; Lathr&a squammaria, 'tooth-wort — in the Church- litten-coppice under some hazels near the foot- bridge, in Trimming's garden hedge, and on the dry wall opposite Grange-yard ; Dipsacus pilosus, small teasel — in the Short and Long Lith ; Lathyrus sylvestris, narrow-leaved, or wild la- thyrus — in the bushes at the foot of the Short Lith, near the path ; Ophrys spiralis, ladies' traces — in the Long Lith, and towards the south corner of the com- mon ; Ophrys nidus avis, bird's-nest ophrys — in the Long Lith under the shady beeches among the dead leaves, in Great Dorton among the bushes, and on the Hanger plentifully ; Serapias latifolia, helleborine — in the High- wood under the shady beeches. Daphne laureola, spurge laurel — in Selborne- hanger and the High-wood ; Daphne mezereum, the mezereon — in Selborne- hanger, among the shrubs at the south-east end above the cottages ; 258 VERNAL AND AUTUMNAL CROCUS. Lycoperdon tuber, truffles — in the Hanger and High-wood ; Sambucus ebulus, dwarf elder, walwort, or dane- wort — 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 fostidus and helleborus niger blowing at Christmas, the helleborus hyemalis in January, and the helleborus viridis as soon as ever it emerges out of the ground, we do not wonder, because they are kindred plants that we expect should keep pace the one with the other ; but other congenerous vegetables differ so widely in their time of flowering, that we cannot but admire. I shall only instance at present in the crocus sativus, the vernal and the autumnal crocus, which have such an affinity, that the best botanists only make them varieties of the same genus, of which there is only one species, not being able to discern any difference in the corolla, or in the internal structure. Yet the vernal crocus expands its flowers by the beginning of March at farthest, and often in very rigorous weather ; and cannot be retarded but by some violence offered; while the autumnal (the saffron) defies the influence of the spring and summer, and will not blow till most plants begin to fade and run to seed. This circumstance is one of the wonders of the creation, little noticed because a common occurrence ; yet ought not to be overlooked on account of its being familiar, since it would be as difficult to be explained as the most stupendous phenomenon in nature. FLIGHT OF BIRDS. 259 " Say, what impels, amidst surrounding snow Congeal'd, the crocus' flamy bud to glow ? Say, what retards, amidst the summer's blaze, Th' autumnal bulb, till pale, declining days ? The GOD OF SEASONS ; whose pervading power Controls the sun, or sheds the fleecy shower : He bids each flower his quickening word obey, Or to each lingering bloom enjoins delay." XLII. " Omnibus animalibus reliquis certus et uniusmodi, et in suo cuique genere incessus est ; aves solae vario meatu ferun- tur, et in terra, et in acre." PLIN. Hist. Nat. lib. x. cap. 38. A GOOD ornithologist should be able to distin- guish birds by their air, as well as by their colours and shape, on the ground as well as on the wing, and in the bush as well as in the hand. For, though it must not be said that every species of birds has a manner peculiar to itself, yet there is somewhat in most genera at least, that at first sight discriminates them, and enables a judicious ob- server to pronounce upon them with some cer- tainty. Put a bird in motion, " Et vera incessu patuit." Thus kites and buzzards sail round in circles with wings expanded and motionless ; and it is from their gliding manner that the former are still called in the north of England gleads, from the Saxon verb glidan, to glide. The kestrel or windhover, has a peculiar mode of hanging in the air in one place, his wings all the while being briskly agitated. Hen-harriers fly low over heaths or fields of corn, and beat the ground regularly like a pointer or setting- dog. Owls move in a buoyant manner, as if lighter than the air ; they s 2 260 FLIGHT OF BIRDS. seem to want ballast. There is a peculiarity belonging to ravens that must draw the attention even of the most incurious — they spend all their leisure time in striking and cuffing each other on the wing in a kind of playful skirmish ; and when they move from one place to another, frequently turn on their backs with a loud croak, and seem to be falling to the ground. When this odd gesture betides them, they are scratching them- selves with one foot, and thus lose the centre of gravity. Rooks sometimes dive and tumble in a frolicsome manner 1 ; crows and daws swagger in their walk ; woodpeckers fly volatu undoso, opening and closing their wings at every stroke, and so are always rising or falling in curves. All of this genus use their tails, which incline down- ward, as a support while they run up trees. Parrots, like all ether hooked- clawed birds, walk awkwardly, and make use of their bill as a third foot, climbing and descending with ridiculous caution. All the gallince parade and walk grace- fully, and run nimbly ; but fly with difficulty, with an impetuous whirring, and in a straight line. Magpies and jays flutter with powerless wings, and make no despatch ; herons seem encumbered with too much sail for their light bodies ; but these vast hollow wings are necessary in carrying burdens, such as large fishes, and the like ; pigeons, arid particularly the sort called smiters, have a way of clashing their wings the one against the other over their backs with a loud snap ; another variety, called tumblers, turn themselves over in the air. Some birds have movements peculiar to the season of love ; thus ring-doves, though 1 In some parts of Scotland, this is said and believed to be the forerunner of stormy weather. — W. J. FLIGHT OF BIRDS. 261 strong and rapid at other times, yet in the spring hang about on the wing in a toying and playful manner ; thus the cocksnipe, while breeding, for- getting his former flight, fans the air like the wind-hover ; and the greenfinch, in particular, exhibits such languishing and faltering gestures as to appear like a wounded and dying bird ; the king-fisher darts along like an arrow ; fern-owls, or goat- suckers, glance in the dusk over the tops of trees like a meteor; starlings, as it were, swim along, while missel-thrushes use a wild and desultory flight ; swallows sweep over the surface of the ground and water, and distinguish them- selves by rapid turns and quick evolutions ; swifts dash round in circles ; and the bank-martin moves with frequent vacillations like a butterfly. Most of the small birds fly by jerks, rising and falling as they advance. Most small birds hop ; but wagtails and larks walk, moving their legs alter- nately. Skylarks rise and fall perpendicularly as they sing : woodlarks hang poised in the air ; and titlarks rise and fall in large curves, singing in their descent. The white-throat uses odd jerks and gesticulations over the tops of hedges and bushes. All the duck kind waddle ; divers and auks walk as if fettered, and stand erect on their tails, ; these are the compedes of Linnaeus. Geese and cranes, and most wild fowls, move in figured flights, often changing their position. The secondary remiges of Tringse, wild ducks, and some others, are very long, and give their wings, when in motion, a hooked appearance. Dab- chicks, moor-hens, and coots l, fly erect, with 1 Coots have a very powerful flight when once on the wing, and fly with their legs stretched out behind, acting the part of a tail, in the manner of the heron. In Scotland and the 262 LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. their legs hanging down, and hardly make any despatch ; the reason is plain, their wings are placed too forward out of the true centre of gravity ; as the legs of auks and divers are situated too backward. XLIII. FROM the motion of hirds, the transition is natural enough to their notes and language, of which I shall say something. Not that I would pretend to understand their language like the vizier, who, hy the recital of a conversation which passed between two owls, reclaimed a sultan1, before delighting in conquest and devastation : but I would be thought only to mean that many of the winged tribes have various sounds and voices adapted to express their various passions, wants, and feelings, such as anger, fear, love, hatred, hunger, and the like. All species are not equally eloquent ; some are copious and fluent, as it were, in their utterance, while others are confined to a few important sounds ; no bird, like the fish kind, is quite mute, though some are rather silent. The language of birds is very ancient, and like other ancient modes of speech, very elliptical ; little is said, but much is meant and understood. The notes of the eagle kind are shrill and piercing ; and about the season of nidification much diversified, as I have been often assured by a curious observer of Nature, who long resided north of England, they arrive in the marshes and lakes to breed, and retire again at the commencement of winter to the more southern coasts. — W. J. 1 See Spectator, vol. vii. No. 512. LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 263 at Gibraltar, where eagles abound. The notes of our hawks much resemble those of the king of birds. Owls have very expressive notes ; they hoot in a fine vocal sound, much resembling the vox humana, and reducible by a pitch-pipe to a musical key. This note seems to express com- placency and rivalry among the males : they use also a quick call and a horrible scream ; and can snore and hiss when they mean to menace. Ravens, besides their loud croak, can exert a deep and solemn note that makes the woods to echo; the amorous sound of a crow is strange and ridiculous; rooks, in the breeding season, attempt sometimes, in the gaiety of their hearts, to sing, but with no great success ; the parrot- kind have many modulations of voice, as appears by their aptitude to learn human sounds ; doves coo in an amorous and mournful manner, and are emblems of despairing lovers ; the woodpecker sets up a sort of loud and hearty laugh ; the fern-owl, or goat-sucker, from the dusk till day- break, serenades his mate with the clattering of castanets. All the tuneful passer es express their complacency by sweet modulations, and a variety of melody. The swallow, as has been observed in a former letter, by a shrill alarm, bespeaks the attention of the other hirundines, and bids them be aware that the hawk is at hand. Aquatic and gregarious birds, especially the nocturnal, that shift their quarters in the dark, are very noisy and loquacious ; as cranes, wild-geese, wild- ducks, and the like ; their perpetual clamour pre- vents them from dispersing and losing their com- panions. In so extensive a subject, sketches and outlines are as much as can be expected : for it would be endless to instance in all the infinite variety of 264t LANGUAGE OF FOWLS. the feathered nation. We shall therefore confine the remainder of this letter to the few domestic fowls of our yards, which are most known, and therefore best understood. And first, the peacock, with his gorgeous train, demands our attention ; but, like most of the gaudy birds, his notes are grating and shocking to the ear : the yelling of cats, and the braying of an ass, are not more dis- gustful. The voice of the goose is trumpet-like, and clanking ; and once saved the Capitol at Rome, as grave historians assert : the hiss also of the gander is formidable and full of menace, and " protective of his young." Among ducks the sexual distinction of voice is remarkable ; for, while the quack of the female is loud and sonorous, the voice of the drake is inward, and harsh, and feeble, and scarce discernible. The cock turkey struts and gobbles to his mistress in a most uncouth manner ; he hath also a pert and petulant note when he attacks his adversary. When a hen turkey leads forth her young brood, she keeps a watchful eye : and if a bird of prey appear, though ever so high in the air, the careful mother an- nounces the enemy with a little inward moan, and watches him with a steady and attentive look ; but, if he approach, her note becomes earnest and alarming, and her outcries are redoubled. No inhabitants of a yard seem possessed of such a variety of expression, and so copious a language, as common poultry. Take a chicken of four or five days old, and hold it up to a window where there are flies, and it will immediately seize its prey with little twitterings of complacency ; but if you tender it a wasp or a bee, at once its note becomes ' harsh and expressive of disapprobation and a sense of danger. When a pullet is ready to lay, she intimates the event by a joyous and easy HAWK AND HENS. 265 soft note. Of all the occurrences of their life, that of laying seems to be the most important ; for no sooner has a hen disburdened herself, than she rushes forth with a clamorous kind of joy, which the cock and the rest of his mistresses immediately adopt. The tumult is not confined to the family concerned, but catches from yard to yard, and spreads to every homestead within hearing, till at last the whole village is in an uproar. As soon as a hen becomes a mother, her new relation demands a new language : she then runs clucking and screaming about, and seems agitated as if pos- sessed. The father of the flock has also a consi- derable vocabulary ; if he finds food, he calls a favourite concubine to partake ; and if a bird of prey passes over, with a warning voice, he bids his family beware. The gallant chanticleer has, at com- mand, his amorous phrases and his terms of defi- ance. But the sound by which he is best known is his crowing : by this he has been distinguished in all ages as the countryman's clock or larum, as the watchman that proclaims the divisions of the night. Thus the poet elegantly styles him " The crested cock, whose clarion sounds The silent hours." A neighbouring gentleman one summer had lost most of his chickens by a sparrow-hawk, that came gliding down between a fagot pile and the end of his house to the place where the coops stood. The owner, inwardly vexed to see his flock thus diminishing, hung a setting net adroitly between the pile and the house, into which the caitiff dashed and was entangled. Resentment suggested the law of retaliation ; he therefore clipped the hawk's wings, cut off his talons, and fixing a cork on his bill, threw him down among the brood-hens. 266 HELIOTROPES. Imagination cannot paint the scene that ensued ; the expressions that fear, rage, and revenge inspired, were new, or at least such as had been unnoticed before. The exasperated matrons up- braided, they execrated, they insulted, they tri- umphed. In a word, they never desisted from buffeting their adversary till they had torn him in a hundred pieces. XLIV. " — — Monstrent Quid tantum Oceano properent se tingere soles Hyberni ; vel quae tardis mora noctibus obstet." GENTLEMEN who have outlets might contrive to make ornament subservient to utility ; a pleas- ing eye -trap might also contribute to promote science ; an obelisk in a garden or park might be both an embellishment and an heliotrope. Any person that is curious, and enjoys the advantage of a good horizon, might, with little trouble, make two heliotropes, the one for the winter, the other for the summer solstice ; and these two erections might be constructed with very little expense, for two pieces of timber frame- work, about ten or twelve feet high, and four feet broad at the base, and close lined with plank, would answer the purpose. The erection for the former should, if possible, be placed within sight of some window in the common sitting parlour; because men, at that dead season of the year, are usually within doors at the close of the day ; while that for the latter might be fixed for any given spot in the garden or outlet, whence the owner might contemplate, in a fine summer's evening, the utmost extent that the sun makes to the northward at the HILLS. 267 season of the longest days. Now nothing would be necessary but to place these two objects with so much exactness, that the westerly limb of the sun, at setting, might but just clear the winter heliotrope to the west of it on the shortest day, and that the whole disc of the sun, at the longest day, might exactly, at setting, also clear the sum- mer heliotrope to the north of it. By this simple expedient, it would soon appear that there is no such thing, strictly speaking, as a solstice ; for, from the shortest day, the owner would, every clear evening, see the disc advan- cing, at its setting, to the westward of the object ; and, from the longest day, observe the sun re- tiring backwards every evening, at its setting, towards the object westward, till, in a few nights, it would set quite behind it, and so by degrees to the west of it ; for when the sun comes near the summer solstice, the whole disc of it would at first set behind the object ; after a time the northern limb would first appear, and so every night gradually more, till at length the whole diameter would set northward of it for about three nights— but on the middle night of the three, sensibly more remote than the former or follow- ing. When beginning its recess from the summer tropic, it would continue more and more to be hidden every night, till at length it would descend quite behind the object again ; and so nightly more and more to the westward. XLV. " — — — Mugire videbis Sub pedibus terrain, et descendere montibus ornos." WHEN I was a boy I used to read, with asto- nishment and implicit assent, accounts in Baker's £68 FALL OF A CLIFF. Chronicle of walking hills and travelling moun- tains. John Philips, in his Cyder, alludes to the credit that was given to such stories with a deli- cate but quaint vein of humour peculiar to the author of the Splendid Shilling. " I nor advise, nor reprehend, the choice Of Marclay Hill ; the apple no where finds A kinder mould : yet 'tis unsafe to trust Deceitful ground : who knows but that, once more, This mount may journey, and, his present site Forsaking, to thy neighbour's bounds transfer Thy goodly plants, affording matter strange For law debates !" But, when I came to consider hetter, I began to suspect that though our hills may never have journeyed far, yet that the ends of many of them have slipped and fallen away at distant periods, leaving the cliffs bare and abrupt. This seems to have been the case with Nore and Whetham Hills, and especially with the ridge between Harteley Park and Ward-le-ham, where the ground has slid into vast swellings and furrows, and lies still in such romantic confusion as cannot be ac- counted for from any other cause. A strange event, that happened not long since, justifies our suspicions ; which, though it befell not within the limits of this parish, yet as it was within the hun- dred of Selborne, and as the circumstances were singular, may fairly claim a place in a work of this nature. The months of January and February, in the year 1774, were remarkable for great melting snows and vast gluts of rain, so that by the end of the latter month the land- springs, or levants, began to prevail, and to be near as high as in the memorable winter of 1764. The beginning of March also went on in the same tenor, when, in FALL OF A CLIFF. 269 the night between the 8th and 9th of that month, a considerable part of the great woody hanger at Hawkley was torn from its place, and fell down, leaving a high freestone cliff naked and bare, and resembling the steep side of a chalk pit. It appears that this huge fragment, being perhaps sapped and undermined by waters, foundered, and was ingulfed, going down in a perpendicular direction ; for a gate, which stood in the field on the top of the hill, after sinking with its posts for thirty or forty feet, remained in so true and upright a position as to open and shut with great exactness, just as in its first situation. Several oaks also are still standing, and in a state of vegetation, after taking the same desperate leap. That great part of this prodigious mass was absorbed in some gulf below is plain also from the inclining ground at the bottom of the hill, which is free and unencumbered, but would have been buried in heaps of rubbish had the fragment parted and fallen forward. About an hundred yards from the foot of this hanging coppice stood a cottage by the side of a lane ; and two hundred yards lower, on the other side of the lane, was a farm-house, in which lived a labourer and his family ; and just by, a stout new barn. The cottage was inhabited by an old woman, her son, and his wife. These people, in the evening, which was very dark and tempestuous, observed that the brick floors of their kitchen began to heave and part, and that the walls seemed to open, and the roofs to crack ; but they all agree that no tremor of the ground, indicating an earth- quake, was ever felt, only that the wind continued to make a most tremendous roaring in the woods and hangers. The miserable inhabitants, not daring to go to bed, remained in the utmost soli- 270 FALL OF A CLIFF. citude and confusion, expecting every moment to be buried under the ruins of their shattered edifices. When daylight came, they were at leisure to contemplate the devastations of the night. They then found that a deep rift, or chasm, had opened under their houses, and torn them, as it were, in two, and that one end of the barn had suffered in a similar manner ; that a pond near the cottage had undergone a strange reverse, becoming deep at the shallow end, and so vice versa ; that many large oaks were removed out of their perpendicular, some thrown down, and some fallen into the heads of neighbouring trees ; and that a gate was thrust forward, with its hedge, full six feet, so as to require a new track to be made to it. From the foot of the cliff the general course of the ground, which is pasture, inclines in a moderate descent for half a mile, and is interspersed with some hillocks, which were rifted, in every direction, as well towards the great woody hanger as from it. In the first pasture the deep clefts began, and, run- ning across the lane and under the buildings, made such vast shelves that the road was impassable for some time ; and so over to an arable field on the other side, which was strangely torn and dis- ordered. The second pasture field, being more soft and springy, was protruded forward without many fissures in the turf, which was raised in long ridges resembling graves, lying at right angles to the motion. At the bottom of this enclosure, the soil and turf rose many feet against the bodies of some oaks, that obstructed their farther course and terminated this awful commotion. The perpendicular height of the precipice, in general, is twenty-three yards ; the length of the lapse, or slip, as seen from the fields below, one FIELD CRICKETS. 271 hundred and eighty-one : and a partial fall, con- cealed in the coppice, extends seventy yards more ; so that the total length of this fragment that fell was two hundred and fifty- one yards. About fifty acres of land suffered from this violent convulsion ; two houses were entirely destroyed ; one end of a new barn was left in ruins, the walls being cracked through the very stones that com- posed them ; a hanging coppice was changed to a naked rock : and some grass grounds and an arable field so broken and rifted by the chasms as to be rendered, for a time, neither fit for the plough nor safe for pasturage, till considerable labour and expense had been bestowed in levelling the surface and filling in the gaping fissures. XLVI. " Resonant arbusta." THERE is a steep abrupt pasture field inter- spersed with furze, close to the back of this vil- lage, well known by the name of the Short Lithe, consisting of a rocky dry soil, and inclining to the afternoon sun. This spot abounds with the gryllus campestris, or field cricket1; which, though fre- quent in these parts, is by no means a common insect in many other counties. As their cheerful summer cry cannot but draw the attention of a naturalist, I have often gone down to examine the economy of these grylli, and study their mode of life ; but they are so shy and cautious that it is no easy matter to get a sight of them ; for, feeling a person's footsteps as he 1 Acheta campestris. Fabricius. FIELD CRICKETS. advances, they stop short in the midst of their song, and retire backward nimbly into their bur- rows, where they lurk till all suspicion of danger is over. At first we attempted to dig them out with a spade, but without any great success ; for either we could not get to the bottom of the hole, which often terminated under a great stone ; or else in breaking up the ground, we inadvertently squeezed the poor insect to death. Out of one so bruised we took a multitude of eggs, which were long and narrow, of a yellow colour, and covered with a very tough skin. By this accident we learnt to distinguish the male from the female : the former of which is shining black, with a golden stripe across his shoulders; the latter is more dusky, more capacious about the abdomen, and carries a long sword- shaped weapon at her tail, which pro- bably is the instrument with which she deposits her eggs in crannies and safe receptacles. Where violent methods will not avail, more gentle means will often succeed ; and so it proved in the present case ; for though a spade be too boisterous and rough an implement, a pliant stalk of grass, gently insinuated into the caverns, will probe their windings to the bottom, and quickly bring out the inhabitant; and thus the humane inquirer may gratify his curiosity with- out injuring the object of it. It is remarkable that though these insects are furnished with long legs behind, and brawny thighs for leaping, like grasshoppers ; yet when driven from their holes they show no activity, but crawl along in a shiftless manner, so as easily to be taken : and again, though provided with a curious apparatus of wings, yet they never exert them when there seems to be the greatest occasion. The males FIELD CRICKETS. 273 only make that shrilling noise, perhaps out of rivalry and emulation, as is the case with many animals which exert some sprightly note during their breeding time ; it is raised by a brisk friction of one wing against the other. They are solitary beings, Irving singly male or female, each as it may happen ; but there must be a time when the sexes have some intercourse, and then the wings may be useful perhaps during the hours of night. When the males meet, they will fight fiercely, as I found by some which I put into the crevices of a dry stone wall, where I should have been glad to have made them settle. For though they seemed distressed by being taken out of their knowledge, yet the first that got possession of the chinks would seize on any that were obtruded upon them, with a vast row of serrated fangs. With their strong jaws, toothed like the shears of a lobster's claws, they perforate and round their curious regular cells, having no fore-claws to dig, like the mole cricket. When taken in hand I could not but wonder that they never offered to defend thenjselves, though armed with such for- midable weapons. Of such herbs as grow before the mouths of their burrows, they eat indiscrimi- nately ; and on a little platform, which they make just by, they drop their dung ; and never in the day-time seem to stir more than two or three inches from home. Sitting in the entrance of their caverns they chirp all night as well as day, from the middle of the month of May to the middle of July; and in hot weather, when they are most vigorous, they make the hills echo; and, in the still hours of darkness, may be heard to a considerable distance. In the beginning of the season, their notes are more faint and inward ; but 274' FIELD CRICKETS. become louder as the summer advances, and so die away again by degrees. Sounds do not always give us pleasure accord- ing to their sweetness and melody ; nor do harsh sounds always displease. We are more apt to be captivated or disgusted with the associations which they promote, than with the notes them- selves. Thus the shrilling of the field-cricket, though sharp and stridulous, yet marvellously delights some hearers, filling their minds with a train of summer ideas of every thing that is rural, verdurous, and joyous. About the 10th of March, the crickets appear at the mouths of their cells, which they then open and bore, and shape very elegantly. All that ever I have seen at that season were in their pupa state, and had only the rudiments of wings lying under a skin, or coat, which must be cast before the insect can arrive at its perfect state * ; from whence I should suppose that the old ones of last year do not always survive the winter. In August, their holes begin to be obliterated, and the insects are seen no more till spring. Not many summers ago, I endeavoured to transplant a colony to the terrace in my garden, by boring deep holes in the sloping turf. The new inhabitants staid some time, and fed and sung; but wandered away by degrees, and were heard at a farther distance every morning; so that it appears that on this emergency they made use of their wings in attempting to return to the spot from which they were taken. One of these crickets, when confined in a 1 We have observed that they cast these skins in April, which are then seen lying at the mouths of their holes. 12 HOUSE CRICKETS. 275 paper cage, and set in the sun, and supplied with plants moistened with water, will feed and thrive, and become so merry and loud as to be irksome in the same room where a person is sitting : if the plants are not wetted, it will die. XL VII. " Far from all resort of mirth, Save the cricket on the hearth." MILTON'S // Penseroso. WHILE many other insects must be sought after in fields, and wood, and waters, the gryllus domesticus, or house cricket, resides altogether within our dwellings, intruding itself upon our notice whether we will or no. This species de- lights in new-built houses, being, like the spider, pleased with the moisture of the walls ; and besides, the softness of the mortar enables them to burrow and mine between the joints of the bricks or stones, and to open communications from one room to another. They are particularly fond of kitchens and bakers' ovens, on account of their perpetual warmth1. Tender insects that live abroad either enjoy only the short period of one summer, or else doze away the cold, uncomfortable months in 1 It is a common superstition in Dumfries -shire, that if the crickets forsake a house which they have long inhabited, some evil will befal the family — generally the death of some mem- ber is portended. In like manner, the presence or return of this cheerful little insect is lucky, and portends some good to the family.— W. J. The same superstition prevails in the south and west of Ireland.— T. x2 276 HOUSE CRICKETS. profound slumbers; but these, residing as it were in a torrid zone, are always alert and merry ; a good Christmas fire is to them like the heats of the dog-days. Though they are frequently heard by day, yet is their natural time of motion only in the night. As soon as it grows dusk, the chirping increases, and they come running forth, and are from the size of a flea to that of their full stature. As one should suppose, from the burning atmosphere which they inhabit, they are a thirsty race, and show a great propensity for liquids, being found frequently drowned in pans of water, milk, broth, or the like. Whatever is moist they affect ; and, therefore, often gnaw holes in wet woollen stockings and aprons that are hung to the fire; they are the housewife's barometer, foretelling her when it will rain; and are prognostics sometimes, she thinks, of ill or good luck ; of the death of a near relation, or the approach of an absent lover. By being the con- stant companions of her solitary hours they naturally become the objects of her superstition. These crickets are not only very thirsty, but very voracious ; for they will eat the scummings of pots, and yeast, salt, and crumbs of bread ; and any kitchen offal or sweepings. In the summer we have observed them to fly, when it became dusk, out of the windows, and over the neigh- bouring roofs. This feat of activity accounts for the sudden manner in which they often leave their haunts, as it does for the method by which they come to houses where they were not known before. It is remarkable, that many sorts of insects seem never to use their wings but when they have a mind to -shift their quarters and settle new colonies. When in the air, they move volatu undoso, in waves, or curves, like wood- MOLE CRICKETS. 217 peckers, opening and shutting their wings at every stroke, and so are always rising or sinking. When they increase to a great degree, as they did once in the house where I am now writing, they become noisome pests, flying into the candles, and dashing into people's faces ; but may be blasted and destroyed by gunpowder discharged into their crevices and crannies. In families, at such times, they are, like Pharaoh's plague of frogs — "in their bedchambers and upon their beds, and in their ovens, and in their kneading troughs1." Their shrilling noise is occasioned by a brisk attrition of their wings. Cats catch hearth- crickets, and, playing with them as they do with mice, devour them. Crickets may be destroyed, like wasps, by phials half filled with beer, or any liquid, and set in their haunts ; for, being always eager to drink, they will crowd in till the bottles are full. XLVIII. How diversified are the modes of life not only of incongruous, but even of congenerous animals ; and yet their specific distinctions are not more various than their propensities. Thus, while the field cricket delights in sunny, dry banks, and the house cricket rejoices amidst the glowing heat of the kitchen hearth or oven, the gryllus gryllotalpa (the mole cricket2,) haunts moist meadows, and frequents the sides of ponds, and banks of streams, performing all its functions in 1 Exod. viii. 3. 2 Gryllotalpa vulgaris, in some places, where abundant, does great damage to newly-sown seeds, particularly pease, beans, £c. — W. J. 218 MOLE CRICKETS. a swampy, wet soil. With a pair of fore-feet, curiously adapted to the purpose, it burrows and works under ground like the mole, raising a ridge as it proceeds, hut seldom throwing up hillocks. As mole crickets often infest gardens by the sides of canals, they are unwelcome guests to the gardener, raising up ridges in their subterraneous progress, and rendering the walks unsightly. If they take to the kitchen quarters, they occasion great damage among the plants and roots, by destroying whole beds of cabbages, young legumes, and flowers. When dug out, they seem very slow and helpless, and make no use of their wings by day; but at night they come abroad, and make long excursions : as I have been convinced by finding stragglers, in a morning, in improbable places. In fine weather, about the middle of April, and just at the close of day, they begin to solace themselves with a low, dull, jarring note, continued for a long time without interruption, and not unlike the chattering of the fern-owl, or goat- sucker, but more inward. About the beginning of May they lay their eggs, as I was once an eye-witness; for a gardener, at a house where I was on a visit, happening to be mowing, on the 6th of that month, by the side of a canal, his scythe struck too deep, pared off a large piece of turf, and laid open to view a curious scene of domestic economy : — " Ingentem lato dedit ore fenestram : Apparet domus intus, et atria longa patescunt : Apparent penetralia." There were many caverns and winding passages leading to a kind of chamber, neatly smoothed and rounded, and about the size of a moderate MOLE CRICKETS. 279 snuff-box. Within the .secret nursery were deposited near a hundred eggs of a dirty yellow colour, and enveloped in a tough skin, but too lately excluded to contain any rudiments of young, being full of a viscous substance. The eggs lay but shallow, and within the influence of the sun, just under a little heap of fresh moved mould, like that which is raised by ants. When mole crickets fly, they move cursu un- dosOy rising and falling in curves, like the other species mentioned before. In different parts of this kingdom, people call them fern-crickets, churr-worms, and eve-churrs, all very apposite names. Anatomists, who have examined the intestines of these insects, astonish me with their accounts ; for they say, that from the structure, position, and number of their stomachs, or maws, there seems to be good reason to suppose that this and the two former species ruminate, or chew the cud like many quadrupeds ! XLIX. IT is now more than forty years that I have paid some attention to the ornithology of this district, without being able to exhaust the subject : new occurrences still arise as long as any inquiries are kept alive. In the last week of last month, five of those most rare birds, too uncommon to have obtained an English name, but known to naturalists by the terms of himantopus, or loripes, and charadrius himantopus, were shot upon the verge of Frin- sham-pond, a large lake belonging to the Bishop of Winchester, and lying between Wolmer Forest 280 HIMANTOPUS. and the town of Farnham, in the county of Surrey- The pond-keeper says there were three brace in the flock ; hut that, after he had satisfied his curio- sity, he suffered the sixth to remain unmolested. One of these specimens I procured, and found the length of the legs to he so extraordinary, that, at first sight, one might have supposed the shanks had been fastened on to impose on the credulity of the beholder : they were legs in caricatura; and had we seen such proportions on a Chinese or a Japan screen, we should have made large allowances for the fancy of the draughtsman. These birds are of the plover family, and might, with propriety, be called the stilt-plovers. Brisson, under that idea, gives them the apposite name of Vechasse. My specimen, when drawn, and stuffed with pepper, weighed only four ounces and a quarter, though the naked part of the thigh measured three inches and a half, and the legs four inches and a half. Hence we may safely assert that these birds exhibit, weight for inches, incomparably the greatest length of legs of any known bird. The flamingo, for instance, is one of the most long-legged birds, and yet it bears no manner of proportion to the himantopus ; for a cock flamingo weighs, at an average, about four pounds avoirdupois ; and his legs and thighs measure usually about twenty inches. But four pounds are fifteen times and a fraction more than four ounces and one quarter ; and if four ounces and a quarter have eight inches of legs, four pounds must have one hundred and twenty inches and a fraction of legs, viz. somewhat more than ten feet ; such a monstrous proportion as the world never saw! If you should try the expe- riment in still larger birds, the disparity would still increase. It must be matter of great curio- HIMANTOPUS. 281 sity to see the stilt-plover move ; to observe how it can wield such a length of lever with such feeble muscles as the thighs seem to be furnished with. At best one should expect it to be but a bad walker : but what adds to the wonder is, that it has no back toe. Now, without that steady prop to support its steps, it must be liable, in speculation, to perpetual vacillations, and seldom able to preserve the true centre of gravity. The old name of himantopus is taken from Pliny ; and, by an awkward metaphor, implies that the legs are as slender and pliant as if cut out of a thong of leather. Neither Willoughby nor Ray, in all their curious researches, either at home or abroad, ever saw this bird. Mr. Pennant never met with it in all Great Britain, but ob- served it often in the cabinets of the curious at Paris. Hasselquist says, that it migrates to Egypt in the autumn; and a most accurate ob- server of nature has assured me, that he has found it on the banks of the streams in Andalusia. Our writers record it to have been found only twice in Great Britain. From all these relations it plainly appears, that these long-legged plovers are birds of South Europe, and rarely visit our island ; and when they do, are wanderers and stragglers, and impelled to make so distant and northern an excursion, from motives or accidents, for which we are not able to account. One thing may fairly be deduced, that these birds come over to us from the Continent, since nobody can suppose that a species not noticed once in an age, and of such a remarkable make, can constantly breed unobserved in this kingdom. 282 TORTOISE. L. THE old Sussex tortoise, that I have mentioned to you so often, is become my property. I dug it out of its winter dormitory in March last, when it was enough awakened to express its resentments by hissing ; and, packing it in a box with earth, carried it eighty miles in post-chaises. The rattle and hurry of the journey so perfectly roused it, that when I turned it out on a border, it walked twice down to the bottom of my garden ; however, in the evening, the weather being cold, it buried itself in the loose mould, and continues still concealed. As it will be under my eye, I shall now have an opportunity of enlarging my observations on its mode of life, and propensities; and perceive already, that, towards the time of coming forth, it opens a breathing-place in the ground near its head, requiring, I conclude, a freer respiration as it becomes more alive. This creature not only goes under the earth from the middle of Novem- ber to the middle of April, but sleeps great part of the summer ; for it goes to bed, in the longest days, at four in the afternoon, and often does not stir in the morning till late. Besides, it retires to rest at every shower, and does not move at all in wet days. When one reflects on the state of this strange being, it is a matter of wonder to find that Provi- dence should bestow such a profusion of days, such a seeming waste of longevity, on a reptile that appears to relish it so little as to squander more than two-thirds of its existence in a joyless stupor, and be lost to all sensation for months together in the profoundest of slumbers. TORTOISE. 283 While I was writing this letter, a moist and warm afternoon, with the thermometer at 50, brought forth troops of shell- snails ; and, at the same juncture, the tortoise heaved up the mould and put out its head; and the next morning came forth, as it were raised from the dead, and walked about till four in the afternoon. This was a curious coincidence ! a very amusing occurrence ! to see such a similarity of feeling between two ep£oiKOL ! for so the Greeks call both the shell- snail and the tortoise. 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. MORE PARTICULARS RESPECTING THE OLD FAMILY TORTOISE. BECAUSE we call this creature an abject reptile, we are too apt to undervalue his abilities, and depreciate his powers of instinct. Yet he is, as Mr. Pope says of his lord, " Much too wise to walk into a well ;" and has so much discernment as not to fall down an haha: but to stop and withdraw from the brink with the readiest precaution. Though he loves warm weather, he avoids the hot sun ; because his thick shell, when once heated, would, as the poet says of solid armour, " scald with safety." He therefore spends the more sultry hours under the umbrella of a large cabbage leaf, or amidst the waving forests of an asparagus bed. But as he avoids the heat in summer, so, in #84' TORTOISE. the decline of the year, he improves the faint autumnal beams, hy getting within the reflection of a fruit wall ; and, though he never has read that planes inclining to the horizon receive a greater share of warmth l he inclines his shell, by tilting it against the wall, to collect and admit every feeble ray. Pitiable seems the condition of this poor em- barrassed reptile : to be cased in a suit of pon- derous armour, which he cannot lay aside; to be imprisoned, as it were, within his own shell, must preclude, we should suppose, all activity and disposition for enterprise. Yet there is a season of the year (usually the beginning of June) when his exertions are remarkable. 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 to undertake these rambles seem to be of the amorous kind : his fancy then becomes intent on sexual attachments, which transport him beyond his usual gravity, and induce him to forget for a time his ordinary solemn deportment. f Several years ago a book was written entitled, " Fruit walls improved by inclining them to the horizon;" in which the author has shown, by calculation, that a much greater number of the rays of the sun will fall on such walls than on those which are perpendicular. HOUSE-MARTINS. — SWIFTS. 285 LI. I HAVE now read your Miscellanies through with much care and satisfaction ; and am to return you my best thanks for the honourable mention made in them of me as a naturalist, which I wish I may deserve. In some former letters I expressed my suspicions that many of the house-martins do not depart in the winter far from this village. I therefore determined to make some search about the south- east end of the hill, where I imagined they might slumber out the uncomfortable months of winter. But supposing that the examination would be made to the best advantage in the spring, and observing that no martins had appeared by the llth of April last, on that day I employed some men to explore the shrubs and cavities of the suspected spot. The persons took pains, but without any success ; however, a remarkable incident occurred in the midst of our pursuit — while the labourers were at work, a house-martin, the first that had been seen this year, came down the village in the sight of several people, and went at once into a nest, where it staid a short time, and then flew over the houses ; for some days after, no martins were observed, nor till the 1 6th of April, and then only a pair. Martins in general were remarkably late this year. LIT. I HAVE just met with a circumstance respect- ing swifts, which furnishes an exception to the whole tenor of my observations ever since I have 286 SWIFTS. bestowed any attention on that species of hirun- dines. Our swifts, in general, withdrew this year about the first day of August, all save one pair, which in two or three days was reduced to a single bird. The perseverance of this individual made me suspect that the strongest of motives, that of an attachment to her young, could alone occa- sion so late a stay. I watched therefore till the 24th of August, and then discovered that, under the eaves of the church, she attended upon two young, which were fledged, and now put out their white chins from a crevice. These remained till the 27th, looking more alert every day, and seeming to long to be on the wing. After this day they were missing at once ; nor could I ever observe them with their dam coursing round the church in the act of learning to fly, as the first broods evidently do. On the 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 hippo - bosca hirundinis. The following remarks on this unusual incident are obvious. The first is, that though it may be disagreeable to swifts to remain beyond the beginning of August, yet that they can subsist longer is undeniable. The second is, that this uncommon event, as it was owing to the loss of the first brood, so it corroborates my former re- mark, that swifts breed regularly but once ; since, was the contrary the case, the occurrence above could neither be new nor rare. One swift was seen at Lyndon, in the county of Rutland, in 1782, so late as the 3d of September. coccus. 287 LIII. As I have sometimes known you make inquiries about several kinds of insects, I shall here send you an account of one sort which I little expected to have found in this kingdom. .1 had often observed that one particular part of a vine, grow- ing on the walls of my house, was covered in the autumn with a black, dust-like appearance, on which the flies fed eagerly ; and that the shoots and leaves thus affected did not thrive, nor did the fruit ripen. To this substance I applied my glasses; but could not discover that it had any thing to do with animal life, as I at first expected : but, upon a closer examination behind the larger boughs, we were surprised to find that they were coated over with husky shells, from whose sides proceeded a cotton-like substance, surrounding a multitude of eggs. This curious and uncommon production put me upon recollecting what I have heard and read concerning the coccus vitis vinifer