of this bird, with an elegance that bespeaks an exquisite sensibility of taste; notwithstanding that his words have been cited by most other writers on natural history, yet such is the beauty, and in general the truth of his expressions, that

Were slunk; all but the wakeful nightingale. they cannot be too much studied by lo

of that time drowned in the general warble of the season. Many of the autumnal songsters seem to be the young cock-redbreasts of that year.

The bill is dusky; the forehead, chin, throat and breast are of a deep orangecolour: the head, hind part of the neck, the back and tail are of a deep ashcolour, tinged with green: the wings rather darker; the edges inclining to yellow; the legs and feet dusky.

17. The WREN

ten to

its nest of grasses and feathers; and lays only two eggs, of a white colour. It is entirely of a glossy dark sooty colour, only the chin is marked with a white spot: but by being so constantly exposed to all weathers, the gloss of the plumage is lost before it retires. I cannot trace them to their winter quarters, unless in one instance of a pair found adhering by their claws and in a torpid state in February, 1766, under the roof of Longnor chapel, Shropshire; and being brought to a fire they revived and moved about the room. The feet are of a particular structure, all the toes standing forward; the least consists of only one bone; the others of an equal number, viz. two each; in which they differ from those of all other birds.

This appears in our country about fourteen days later than the sand martin, but differs greatly in the time of its departure, retiring invariably about the tenth of August, being the first of the genus that leaves us.

The wren may be placed among the finest of our singing birds. It continues its song throughout the winter, excepting during the frosts. It makes its nest in a very curious manner; of an oval shape, very deep, with a small hole in the middle for egress and regress; the external material is moss, within it is lined with hair and feathers. It lays from eighteen eggs; and as often brings up as many young; which as Mr. Ray obThe fabulous history of the Manucoserves, may be ranked among those daily miracles that we take no notice of; that diata, or bird of Paradise, is in the hisit should feed such a number without pass-tory of this species in great measure veriing over one, and that too in utter dark- fied. It was believed to have no feet, to live upon the celestial dew, to float perpetually on the Indian air, and to perform all its functions in that element.

ness.

The head and upper part of the body of the wren are of a deep reddish brown; above each eye is a stroke of white; the back and coverts of the wings and tail, are marked with slender transverse black Lines; the quill feathers with bars of black and red. The throat is of a yellowish white. The belly and sides crossed with narrow dusky and pale reddish brown lines. The tail is crossed with dusky bars.

§ 18. The SwIFT.

This species is the largest of our swallows; but the weight is most disproportionately small to its extent of wing of any bird; the former being scarce one ounce, the latter eighteen inches: the length near eight. The feet of this bird' are so small, that the action of walking and of rising from the ground is extreme ly difficult; so that nature hath made it full amends, by furnishing it with ample means for an easy and continual flight. It is more on the wing than any other swallows; its flight is more rapid, and that attended with a shrill scream. It rests by clinging against some wall or other apt body; from whence Klein styles this species Hirundo muraria. It breeds under the eaves of houses, in steeples, and other lofty buildings; makes

The Swift actually performs what has been in these enlightened times disproved of the former except the small time it takes in sleeping, and what it devotes to incubation, every other action is done on wing.

The materials of its nest it collects either as they are carried about by the winds, or picks them up from the surface in its sweeping flight. Its food is undeniably the insects that fill the air. Its drink is taken in transient sips from the water's surface. Even its amourous rites are performed on high. Few persons who have attended to them in a fine summer's morning, but must have seen them make their aërial courses at a great height encircling a certain space with an easy steady motion. On a sudden they fall into each other's embraces, then drop precipitate with a loud shriek for numbers of yards. This is the critical conjuncture, and to be no more wondered at, than that insects (a familiar instance) should discharge the same duty in the same element.

These birds and swallows are inveterate The moment one apenemies to hawks. pears, they attack him immediately; the swifts soon desist; but the swallows pur. sue and persecute those rapacious birds,

till

till they have entirely driven them

away.

Swifts delight in sultry thundry weather, and seem thence to receive fresh spirits. They fly in those times in small parties with particular violence; and as they pass near steeples, towers, or any edifices where their mates perform the office of incubation, emit a loud scream, a sort of serenade, as Mr. White supposes, to their respective females.

To the curious monographies on the swallow tribe, of that worthy correspondent, I must acknowledge myself indebted for numbers of the remarks above mentioned.

He

§ 9. Of the Disappearance of Swallows. There are three opinions among naturalists concerning the manner the swallow tribe dispose of themselves after their disappearance from the countries in which they make their summer residence. rodotus mentions one species that reside in Egypt the whole year; Prosper Alpinus asserts the same; and Mr. Loten, late governor of Ceylon, assured us that those of Java never remove. These excepted, every other known kind observe a periodical migration, or retreat. The swallows of the cold Norway, and of North America, of the distant Kampt schatka, of the temperate parts of Europe, of Aleppo, and of the hot Jamaica, all agree in this one point.

In cold countries, a defect of insect food on the approach of winter, is a sufficient reason for these birds to quit them; but since the same cause probably does not subsist in the warm climates, recourse should be had to some other reason for their vanishing.

Of the three opinions, the first has the utmost appearance of probability; which is that they remove nearer the sun, where they can find a continuance of their natural diet, and a temperature of air suiting their constitutions. That this is the case with some species of European swallows, has been proved beyond contradiction (as above cited) by M. Adan

son.

We often observe them collected in flocks innumerable on churches, on rocks and on trees, previous to their departure hence; and Mr. Collinson proves their return here in perhaps equal numbers, by two curious relations of undoubted credit; the one communicated to him by Mr. Wright, master of a ship; the other by the late Sir Charles Wager; (who both described to the same purpose) what happened to each in their

"Returning home (says Sir Charles) in the spring of the year, as I came into sounding in our channel, a great flock of swallows came and "settled on all my rigging, every rope

66

was covered; they hung on one another
"like a swarm of becs; the decks and
carving were filled with them. They
"seemed almost famished and spent, and
were only feathers and bones, but being
"recruited with a night's rest, took their
This vast
"flight in the morning."
fatigue, proves that their journey must
have been very great, considering the
amazing swiftness of these birds; in all
probability they had crossed the Atlan
tic Ocean, and were returning from the
shores of Senegal, or other parts of Afri-
ca; so that his account from that most
able and honest seaman, confirms the
later information of M. Adanson.

Mr. White, on Michaelmas-day, 1768,
had the good fortune to have ocular proof
of what may reasonably be supposed an
actual migration of swallows. Travelling
that morning very early between his house
and the coast, at the beginning of his jour
ney he was environed with a thick fog,
but on a large wild heath the mist began
to break, and discovered to him number-
less swallows, clustered on the standing
bushes as if they had roosted there; as soon
as the sun burst out they were instant-
ly on wing and with an easy and pla-
cid flight proceeded towards the sea.
After this he saw no more flocks, only
now and them a stragglert.

This rendezvous of swallows about the same time of year is very common on the willows, in the little isles in the Thames. They seem to assemble for the same purpose as those in Hampshire, notwithstanding no one yet has been eye-witness of their departure. On the 26th of September last, two gentlemen who happened to lie at Maidenhead bridge, furnished at least a proof of the multitudes there as sembled: they went by torch-light to an adjacent isle, and in less than half an hour brought ashore fifty dozen; for they had nothing more to do than to draw the wil low twigs through their hands, the birds never stirring they were taken.

+ In Kalm's voyage to America is a remarkable instance of the distant flight of swallows: for one lighted on the ship he was in, September 24 when he had passed only over two-thirds of the Atlantic ocean. His passage was uncomu only quick, being performed from Deal to Philadel phia in less than six weeks; and when this accident happened, he was fourteen days sail from Cape Hinlopen.

The

The northern naturalists will perhaps say, that this assembly met for the purpose of plunging into their subaqueous winter quarters; but was that the case, they would never escape discovery in a river perpetually fished as the Thames, some of them must inevitably be brought up in the nets that harass that water. The second notion has great antiquity on its side. Aristotle and Pliny give, as their belief, that swallows do not remove very far from their summer habitation, but winter in the hollows of rocks, and during that time lose their feathers. The former part of their opinion has been adopted by several ingenious men; and of late, several proofs have been brought of some species, at least, having been discovered in a torpid state. Mr. Collinson favoured us with the evidence of three gentlemen, eye-witnesses to numbers of sand martins being drawn out of a cliff on the Rhine, in the month of March, 1762. And the hon. Daines Barrington communicated to us the following fact, on the authority of the late Lord Belhaven, that numbers of swallows have been found in old dry walls and in sand hills near his lordship's seat in East Lothian; not once only but from year to year; and that when exposed to the warmth of a fire, they revived. We have also heard of the same annual discoveries near Morpeth in Northumberland, but cannot speak of them with the same assurance as the two former; neither in the two last instances are we certain of the particular species.

Other witnesses crowd on us, to prove the residence of those birds in a torpid state during the severe season.

First in the chalky cliffs of Sussex; as was seen on the fall of a great fragment some years ago.

Secondly in a decayed hollow tree that was cut down near Dolgelli, in Merionethshire.

Thirdly, in a cliff near Whitby, Yorkshire; where, on digging out a fox, whole bushels of swallows were found in a torpid condition. And,

Lastly, the Reverend Mr. Conway of Sychton, Flintshire, was so obliging as to communicate the following fact: a few years ago on looking down an old leadmine in that county, he observed numbers of swallows clinging to the timbers of the shaft, seemingly asleep; and on flinging some gravel on them, they just moved but never attempted to fly or

change their place; this was between All Saints and Christmas.

These are doubtless the lurking places of the latter hatches, or of those young birds, who are incapable of distant migra There they continue insensible tions. and rigid; but like flies may sometimes be re-animated by an unseasonable hot day in the midst of winter: for very near Christmas a few appeared on the moulding of a window of Merton College, Oxford, in a remarkably warm nook, which prematurely set their blood in motion, having the same effect as laying them before a fire at the same time of year.

Others have been known to make this premature appearance; but as soon as the cold natural to the season returns, they withdraw again to their for

mer retreats.

I shall conclude with one argument drawn from the very late hatches of two species.

On the 23d of October, 1767, a martin was seen in Southwark, flying in and out of its nest; and on the 29th of the same month, four or five swallows were ob hovering round and settling on served the county hospital at Oxford. As these birds must have been of a late hatch, it is highly improbable that at so late a season of the year they would attempt, from one of our midland counties, a voyage almost as far as the equator to Senegal or Goree; we are therefore confirmed in our notion, that there is only a partial migration of these birds; and that the feeble late hatches conceal themselves in this country.

The above are circumstances we cannot but assent to, though seemingly contradictory to the common course of nature in regard to other birds. We must, therefore, divide our belief relating to these two so different opinions, and conclude that one part of the swallow tribe migrate, and that others have their winter quarters near home. If it should be demanded, why swallows alone are found in a torpid state, and not the other many species of soft billed birds, which likewise disappear about the same time? the following reason may be assigned:

No birds are so much on the wing as swallows, none fly with such swiftness and rapidity, none are obliged to such sudden and various evolutions in their flight, none are at such pains to take their prey, and we may add, none exert their voice more in35

cessantly;

cessantly; all these occasion a vast expence of strength, and of spirits, and may give such a texture to the blood, that other animals cannot experience; and so dispose, or we may say, necessitate this tribe of birds, or part of them, at least, to a repose more lasting than that of any others.

The third notion is, even at first sight too amazing and unnatural to merit men- tion, if it was not that some of the learned have been credulous enough to deliver, for fact, what has the strongest appearance of impossibility; we mean the relation of swallows passing the winter immersed under ice, at the bottom of lakes, or lodged beneath the water of the sea at the foot of rocks. The first who broached this opinion, was Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Upsal, who very gravely informs us, that these birds are often found in clustered masses, at the bottom of the northern lakes, mouth to mouth; wing to wing, foot to foot; and that they creep down the reeds in autumn to their subaqueous retreats. That when old fishermen discover such a mass, they throw it into the water again, but when young inexperienced ones take it, they will, by thawing the birds at a fire, bring them indeed to the use of their wings, which will continne for a very short time, being owing to a premature and forced revival. That the good Archbishop did not want credulity in other instances, appears from this, that after having stocked the bottoms of the lakes with birds, he stores the clouds with mice, which sometimes fall in plentiful showers on Norway and the neighbouring countries.

Some of our own countrymen have given credit to the submersion of swallows; and Klein patronizes the doctrine strongly, giving the following history of their manner of retiring, which he received from some countrymen and others. They asserted that sometimes the swallows assembled in numbers on a reed, till it broke and sunk with them to the bottom; and their immersion was preluded by a dirge of a quarter of an hour's length. That others would unite in laying hold of a straw with their bills, and so plunge down in society. Others again would form a large mass, by clinging together with their feet, and so commit themselves to the deep.

Such are the relations given by those that are fond of this opinion, and though

delivered without exaggeration must pro voke a smile. They assign not the smallest reason to account for these birds being able to endure so long a submersion without being suffocated, or without decaying in an element so unnatural to so delicate a bird; when we know that the otter*, the corvorant, and the grebes, soon perish, if caught under ice, or entangled in nets; and it is well known that those animals will continue much longer under water than any other, to whom nature hath denied that particular structure of heart, necessary for a long residence beneath that element.

$ 20. Of the SMALL BIRDS of FLIGHT.

In the suburbs of London (and particularly about Shoreditch) are several weavers and other tradesmen, who during the months of October and March, get their livelihood by an ingenious, and we may say, a scientific method of bird-catching, which is totally unknown in other parts of Great Britain.

The reason of this trade being confined to so small a compass, arises from there being no considerable sale for singing. birds except in the metropolis: as the ap paratus for this purpose is also heavy, and at the same time must be carried on a man's back, it prevents the bird-catchers going to above three or four miles dis tance. This method of bird-catching must have been long practised, as it is brought to a most systematical perfection, and is attended with a very considerable expence.

The nets are a most ingenious piece of mechanism, are generally twelve yards and a half long and two yards and a half wide; and no one on bare inspection would ima gine that a bird (who is so very quick all its motions) could be catched by the nets flapping over each other, till he be

*Though entirely satisfied in our mind of the impossibility of these relations, yet, desirous of strengthening our opinion with some bet ter authority, we applied to that able anatomist Mr. John Hunter, who was so obliging to inform us, that he had dissected many swallows, bet found nothing in them different from other birds as to the organs of respiration. That all those animals which he had dissected of the class that

sleep during winter, such as lizards, frogs, &c. had a very different conformation as to those organs

That all these animals, he believes, da breathe in their torpid state, and as far as his experience reaches, he knows they do, and that therefore he esteems it a very wild opinion that terrestrial animals can remain any long time a der water without drowning.