ther says, that the hare at Hudson's Bay, and in Canada, (the hare of which I speak,) perfectly corresponds with the Swedish hare, being in summer of a brownish gray colour, and in winter of a snowy white. Mr. Pennant says, that the varying hare weighs only six pounds and a half, the common hare upwards of eight pounds, and the American hare, or our wild rabbit, from three pounds eight ounces to four pounds and a half; and he says that the first is met with in Canada and Newfoundland, after which the species ceases to the southward, or at least he has no authority for its being continued; the hare of New England seeming, by Josselyn's account, to be the American hare or wild rabbit, that it inhabits Greenland, and is found about the rocks at Churchill, and the straits of Hudson's Bay, but that it is not common. We must, therefore, succumb to these great authorities, and acknowledge that our hare is, at least, a variety of the lepus variabilis of Europe. So far, however, from being confined to Canada, as is represented, it is in great numbers about Albany, and has been seen near forty miles to the south of that place, on the east side of the Hudson. Its food is said to be grass, white moss, and the bark of the birch-tree, of which it is very fond; it does not burrow in the ground, but harbours in hollow trees. Dr. Williams, in his History of Vermont, says, that a large hare weighs eight pounds, and the largest rabbit seven pounds. Hearne saw the varying hare as far north as latitude seventy-two, and says it sometimes weighs fourteen or fifteen pounds.

As connected with this subject it may not be amiss to observe, that it is not probable that either our hare or rabbit can be domesticated. The common rabbit of Europe, however, would flourish here, and its skin alone would render it an object to have warrens made for its habitation. Its amazing fecundity is well known. It lives to the age of eight or nine years, and is capable of procreating at five or six months. The female is gravid thirty or thirty-one days, and she will bear seven times annually, and produce five young at each time. Supposing this to happen during the space of four years, and that three of the young at each producing are females, the increase will be 478,062. This exceeds the fecundity of the pigeon, which, according to Pliny, may produce, from one pair, 14,760 in four years. Until of late years the gray rabbit was the only species in the English warrens; at present the silver-haired rabbit is sought after, and has, within the few last years, supplanted the other, because the skin is dressed as a fur, and sells for (Daniel's Rural Sports, vol. 1.) It is believed that the tame rabbit which has been brought into this country in a domestic state, is not the proper rabbit for stocking warrens. It is not a little surprising that this easy source of profit has been entirely overlooked with us.

more.

NOTE V.

Homer, who has been closely imitated by all the celebrated epic poets, has thus described the migration of cranes:

On comparing these descriptions, of the four greatest epic poets who have adorned the world, can there be any hesitation in awarding the palm of superiority to Milton?

The anus canadensis, or wild goose, when formed into a phalanx for migration, appears in the shape of a wedge.

Although the ancients were so much puzzled about the migration of birds, that they supposed it extended to the moon, yet it is now no longer a mystery. The departure of the swallow has been a subject of more speculation and fable than that of any other bird. The estimable Bartram told Dr. Barton, that he has seen, in the autumn, large flocks of all our four species of swallows, on their return southward from Pennsylvania, through Carolina, Florida, &c. and in the spring on their return to the northward again. Fragments of the Natural History, &c.

Catesby supposes, that birds of passage, particularly swallows, pass to the same latitude in the southern hemisphere, as the northern latitude from whence they came; that they retire, for instance, from Carolina to Brazil, and particularly, that our chimney swallow

corresponds with the description of Margravius' andorinha, which he considers a full confirmation of his hypothesis. The European swallows probably retire to Africa. Adanson, when within fifty leagues of Senegal, caught, from the shrouds of the vessel, four European swallows. This was on the 2d of October, 1749, and they were then retiring from the approach of winter to Senegal, in the torrid zone, where they are never seen but at this season of the year, along with wagtails, kites, quails, and other birds of passage, and they only spend the winter, without building nests, or producing young. Our chimney swallow is not known in Europe. And our hirundo rustica is not precisely like that of Europe; it disagrees particularly in the colour of the breast, which, in the latter, is white, like that of our bank swallow, whereas ours is ferruginous. Kalm says, that they nearly correspond in colour, but that there appears a small difference in the note; they are, probably, varieties of the same species. Dr. Barton thinks that our bank martin, or land swallow, is not the hirundo riparia of Linnæus. Kalm, in his voyage to this country, saw, on the first of September, about one thousand miles from our coast, some land birds flying about the ship, which he took for sand martins, (hirundo riparia ;) sometimes they settled on the ship, or on the sails; they were of a grayish brown colour on their back, their breast white, and the tail somewhat furcated. They were driven away by a heavy shower of rain. On the next day a swallow fluttered about the ship, and sometimes settled on the mast, and several times it approached the cabin windows, as if willing to take shelter there. Eight days afterward, within the American Gulf, an owl and a little bird settled on the sails. On the 12th of September, a woodpecker of a speckled gray colour on the back, extremely fatigued, and another land bird, of the passerine class, endeavoured to rest on the ship. Kalm's destination was Philadelphia, (where he arrived on the 26th of September,) and from the 25th of August, to the beginning of September, the swallows retire from that part of the country. If those seen by Kalm were not driven by storms from their course, they evidently intended to take up their winter residence beyond sea. Catesby says, that on his voyage from En gland to Carolina, (where he arrived on the 23d of May, 1722,) in the latitude of twentysix degrees north, about midway between the two continents of Africa and America, which he says cannot be less than six hundred leagues, an owl appeared hovering over the ship, and after some attempts to rest flew off; this was on the 22d of March: on that day a hawk with a white head, breast, and belly, appeared in like manner, and the day after some swallows, but none ventured to alight on any part of the ship. This was about the time of year when swallows return from their winter migrations, and those were, probably, returning to Carolina. Kalm met them going to Africa in the fall, when they leave us, and Catesby met them returning in the spring, when they join us.

Our spring and summer birds of passage continue with us about six months, and are absent about that time. They avail themselves of high and favourable winds, to depart and return. A strong south or southwest wind, about the beginning of April, says Bartram, never fails of bringing millions of small birds of passage, who appear very suddenly in spring; and when the pewit or phebe, (muscicapa fusca,) the first bird of passage which appears in Philadelphia, in the spring, which is generally about the first or middle of March, arrives, then pease, beans, and almost every kind of esculent garden seeds may be planted without danger of frost.

Bartram distinguishes birds as follows:

1. Those that arrive in Pennsylvania in the spring, from the south, and return in autumn, after building nests and rearing young.

2. Those that arrive there from the north, in autumn, where they continue during the winter, and return again in spring, and these birds continue their journey as far south as Florida.

3. Those that arrive in Carolina and Florida, in the spring, from the south, and breed, and return in autumn without going further north.

4. Natives of Carolina and Florida, where they breed and continue all the year. 5. The same of Pennsylvania.

A

NOTE W.

THE REV. Dr. Miller, in his excellent work, entitled A Retrospect of the Eighteenth Century, states, that there are two thousand five hundred and thirty-six species of birds. Latham, in the first six volumes of his Synopsis of Birds, has described ninety-six genera, and two thousand and forty-six species. The additions made in his subsequent volumes have increased the number of species to three thousand.

The number of birds treated by Linnæus did not greatly exceed nine hundred. There are in Great Britain three hundred and seven species of birds, comprehending all such as either visit that island at uncertain seasons, or are usually domesticated, as well as those which are known to be constant inhabitants, of which one hundred and fiftyfour are land birds, and one hundred and fifty-three water birds.

I think it is not unreasonable to suppose that there are, in the United States and its territories, one thousand species of birds.

NOTE X.

I BELIEVE it may be laid down as a general rule that all birds of the anas genus may be domesticated. That beautiful bird, the summer or wood duck, (anas sponsa,) and the black duck, (anas obscura, or nigra,) I have seen in a state of domestication. Mr. Cornelius Bergen, of King's county, about the latter end of April, put fifteen eggs of the black duck, on which the old one was sitting, under a dunghill hen; the next day twelve young were hatched, of which he raised eleven; one of them flew away in August, and returned in November, with a strange male, which was taken and tamed. It mixes readily with the common duck, and their offspring are productive. It lays a great many eggs, and has two broods in a year. Latham says, that the American wigeon, (anas Americana,) or pheasant duck, as it is called at New-York, has been domesticated; its flesh is most excellent.

Lewis and Clarke saw, on the Missouri, a small species of goose differing considerably from the Canadian goose, and beautiful white brants, which, no doubt, might be domesticated.

Scudder has, in his museum, two specimens of non-descript geese, shot on Long Island, and never seen before. One he calls the brant goose, and supposes it to be a hybrid, produced by the Canada goose and the brant; the other is of a dark cinerous colour, and is rather smaller than the wild goose.

The anas cygnoides orientalis, or Muscovy gander, breeds with the common goose; and the anas Ægyptiaca, about the size of the common goose, is a beautiful bird; they are common in gentlemen's ponds in England, and might be introduced into this country. A variety of the anas boschas, or common duck, with a hooked bill, is kept in Germany, almost to the exclusion of the common sort. The French, or gray duck, is much larger than the common.

Neither this bird

The swan is domesticated in Europe, and has been brought here. nor the wild goose will breed, unless measures are taken to accommodate them with appropriate places for that purpose. Islets ought to be made in their ponds, surrounded with high grass, in order that they may be allured to make their nests, and where they may sit without disturbance.

Dr. Barton says, that the Indians of Carolina had domesticated a large bird of the family of the grallæ, or waders, and no doubt several birds of this genus might be reclaimed from their wild state, and rendered useful.