s^ 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
THE 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 SELBORNE, 
 
THE 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 SELBORNE, 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 Rev. GILBERT WHITE, A. M. 
 
 FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 TO WHICH ARE ADDED, 
 
 THE NATURALIST'S CALENDAR, 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS, 
 
 AND POEMS. 
 
 A NEW EDITION, WITH ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR J. AND A. ARCH; LONGMAN, HURST, REES, 
 ORME AND BROWN ; LACKINGTON AND CO. ; J. MAWMAN ; 
 BALDWIN, CRADOCK AND JOY; J. HATCHARD AND SON; 
 S. BAGSTER ; OGLE, DUNCAN AND CO.; W. MASON ; J. SHELDON; 
 R. SAUNDERS; AND HURST AND ROBINSON. 
 
 1822. 
 
Printed by T. C. Hansard Petwboro'.court, FleeUtreet, London. 
 
THE 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 S E L B O R N E. 
 
 LETTER XXX. 
 
 TO THE 
 
 HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON 
 DEAR SIR ; SELBORNE, April 3, 1776. 
 
 MONSIEUR HERISSANT, a French anato- 
 mist, seems persuaded that he has disco- 
 vered the reason why cuckoos do not hatch 
 their own eggs ; the impediment, he sup- 
 poses, 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 
 
 VOL. II. B 
 
2 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 neck, as in the galtince, columbcz, &c. but 
 immediately behind it, on and over the 
 bowels, so as to make a large protuberance 
 in the belly.* 
 
 Induced by this assertion, we procured a 
 cuckoo : and, cutting open the breast-bone, 
 and exposing the intestines to sight, found 
 the crop lying as mentioned above. This 
 stomach was large and round, and stuffed 
 hard like a pincushion with food, which, 
 upon nice examination, we found to consist 
 of various insects ; such as small scarabs, 
 spiders, and dragon-flies ; the last of which 
 we have seen cuckoos 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 appearance 
 of bones, feathers, or fur, to support the 
 idle notion of their being birds of prey. 
 
 * - Histoire de V Academic Roy.ale, 1752. 
 
OF SELBORNE. 3 
 
 The sternum in this bird seemed to us to 
 be remarkably short, between which and 
 the anus lay the crop, or craw, and imme- 
 diately behind that the bowels against the 
 back-bone. 
 
 It must be allowed, as this anatomist 
 observes, that the crop placed just upon the 
 bowels must, especially when full, be in a 
 very uneasy situation during the business of 
 incubation ; yet the test will be, to examine 
 whether birds that are actually known to 
 sit for certain are not formed in a similar 
 manner. This inquiry I proposed to my- 
 self to make with & fern-owl, or goat-sucker, 
 as soon as opportunity offered : because, if 
 their formation proves the same, the reason 
 for incapacity in the cuckoo will be allowed 
 to have been taken up somewhat hastily. 
 
 Not long after a fern-owl was procured, 
 which, from its habit and shape, we sus- 
 pected might resemble the cuckoo in its 
 internal construction. Nor were our sus- 
 picions ill-grounded ; for, upon the dissec- 
 tion, the crop, or craw, also lay behind the 
 sternum, immediately on the viscera, be- 
 B 2 
 
4 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 tween them and the skin of the belly. 
 It was bulky, and stuffed hard with large 
 phalcem?, moths of several sorts, and their 
 eggs, which no doubt had been forced out 
 of those insects by the action of swal- 
 lowing. 
 
 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 cuc- 
 koos are incapable of incubation from the 
 disposition of their intestines, seems to fall 
 to the ground : and we are still at a loss for 
 the cause of that strange and singular pe- 
 culiarity in the instance of the cuculus 
 canorus. 
 
 We found the case to be the same with 
 the ring- tail hawk, in respect to formation ; 
 and, as far as I can recollect, with the 
 swift; and probably it is so with many 
 more sorts of birds that are not grani- 
 vorous. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
OF SKLBORNE. 
 
 LETTER XXXI. 
 
 TO Til R SAME. 
 
 DEAR SIR; SELBORNE, April 29, 1776, 
 
 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 disen- 
 gaged from the belly of the dam : they 
 twisted and wriggled about, and set them- 
 selves up, and gaped very wide when 
 touched with a stick, showing manifest 
 tokens of menace and defiance, though as 
 
O NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 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 a lamb will push with 
 their heads before their horns are sprouted. 
 In the same manner did these young adders 
 attempt to bite before their fangs were in 
 being. The dam however was furnished 
 with very formidable ones, which we lifted 
 up (for they fold down when not used) 
 and cut them off with the point of our 
 scissars. 
 
 There was little room to suppose that 
 this brood had ever been in the open air 
 before ; and that they were taken in for 
 refuge, at the mouth of the dam, when she 
 perceived that danger was approaching; 
 
OF SELBORtfE. 
 
 because then probably we should have 
 found them somewhere in the neck, anr 1 
 not in the abdomen. 
 
 LETTER XXXIL 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 CASTRATION has a strange effect : it emas- 
 culates both man, beast, and bird, and 
 brings them to a near resemblance of the 
 other sex. Thus eunuchs have smooth un- 
 muscular arms, thighs, and legs ; and broad 
 hips, and beardless chins, and squeaking 
 voices. Celt-stags and bucks .have horn- 
 less heads, like hinds and does. Thus we- 
 thers 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 
 
8 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 the bead, like pullets ; they also walk with- 
 out 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 in- 
 genious Mr. Lisle, in his book on husbandry, 
 carries it much farther ; for he says that 
 the loss of those insignia alone has some- 
 times a strange effect on the ability itself: 
 he had a boar so fierce and venereous, that 
 to prevent mischief, orders were given for 
 his tusks to be broken off. No sooner had 
 the beast suffered this injury than his 
 powers forsook him, and he neglected 
 those females to whom before he was pas- 
 sionately attached, and from whom no 
 fences could restrain him. 
 
OF SELBORNE. 
 
 LETTER XXXIII. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 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 
 seventeenth year ; at which period she 
 showed some tokens of age by the decay of 
 her teeth and the decline of her fertility. 
 
 For about ten years this prolific mother 
 produced two litters in the year of about 
 'ten at a time, and once above twenty at 
 a litter ; but, as there were near double the 
 number of pigs to that of teats, many died. 
 From long experience in the world this 
 
10 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 female was grown very sagacious and art- 
 ful ; when she found occasion to converse 
 with a boar she used to open all the inter- 
 vening 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 
 moderate computation she was allowed to 
 have been the fruitful parent of three hun- 
 dred pigs : a prodigious instance of fecun- 
 dity in so large a quadruped! She was 
 killed in Spring 1775. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
OF SELBORNE. 11 
 
 LETTER XXXIV. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 DEAR SIR; SELBORNE, May 9, 1776. 
 admorunt ubera tigres." 
 
 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 fondlings, to be killed by some dog 
 or cat. However, in about a fortnight, as 
 
12 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 the master was sitting in his garden in the 
 dusk of the evening, he observed his cat, 
 with tail erect, trotting towards him, and 
 calling with little short inward notes of 
 complacency, such as they use towards their 
 kittens, and something gamboling after, 
 which proved to be the leveret that the 
 cat had supported with her milk, and con- 
 tinued to support with great affection. 
 
 Thus was a graminivorous animal nur- 
 tured by a carnivorous and predaceous 
 one ! 
 
 Why so cruel and sanguinary a beast as a 
 cat, of the ferocious genus of Feles, the 
 murium ko, as Linnaus 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 oc- 
 casioned by that desiderium, those tender 
 maternal feelings, which the loss of her 
 kittens had awakened in her breast; and 
 by the complacency and ease she derived 
 to herself from the procuring her teats to 
 be drawn, which were too much distended 
 
OF SELBORNE. 13 
 
 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 histo- 
 rians as well as the poets assert, of exposed 
 children being sometimes nurtured by fe- 
 male wild beasts that probably had lost 
 their young. For it is not one whit more 
 marvellous that Romulus and Remus, in 
 their infant state, should be nursed by a 
 she-wolf, than that a poor little sucking 
 leveret should be fostered and cherished 
 by a bloody grimalkin. 
 
 " viridi 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." 
 
 
14 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 LETTER XXXV. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 DEAR SIR ; SELBORNE, May 20, 1777- 
 
 LANDS that are subject to frequent inun- 
 dations 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 oeco- 
 nomy of Nature, than the incurious are 
 aware of j 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 despica- 
 ble 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 sup- 
 ported by them, worms seem to be great 
 
OF SELBORNE. 15 
 
 promoters of vegetation, which would pro* 
 ceed but lamely without them, by boring, 
 perforating, and loosening the soil, and ren- 
 dering 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 snnh infinite numbers of 
 lumps of earth called worm-casts, which, 
 being their excrement, is a fine manure for 
 grain and grass. Worms probably provide 
 new soil for hills and slopes where the rain 
 washes the earth away ; and they affect 
 slopes, probably to avoid being flooded. 
 Gardeners and farmers express their detes^ 
 tation of worms ; the former because they 
 render their walks unsightly, and make 
 them much work : and the latter because, 
 as they think, worms eat their green corn. 
 But these men would find that the earth 
 without worms would soon become cold, 
 hard-bound, and void of fermentation ; and 
 consequently steril : and besides, in favour 
 of worms, it should be hinted that green 
 corn, plants, and flowers, are not so much 
 injured by them as by many species of co- 
 
16 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 leoptera (scarabs), and tipula, (long-legs) 
 in their larva, or grub-state; and by unno- 
 ticed myriads of small shell-less snails, 
 called slugs, which silently and impercep- 
 ibly make amazing havock in the field and 
 garden.* 
 
 These hints we think proper to throw 
 out in order to set the inquisitive and dis- 
 cerning to work. 
 
 A good monography of worms would af- 
 ford 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 
 hermaphrodites, and much addicted to 
 venery, and consequently very prolific. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 * Farmer Young, of Norton-farm^ says that this 
 Spring (1777) about four acres of his wheat in one 
 field was entirely destroyed by slugs, which swarmed on 
 the blades of corn, and devoured it as fast as it sprang. 
 
OF SELBORNE. 17 
 
 LETTER XXXVL 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 DEAR SIR; SELBORNE, Nov. 22, 1777. 
 
 You cannot but remember that the twenty- 
 sixth and twenty-seventh of last March 
 were very hot days ; so sultry that every 
 body complained and were restless under 
 those sensations to which they had not 
 been reconciled by gradual approaches. 
 
 This sudden Summer-like heat was at- 
 tended by many Summer coincidences ; for 
 on those two days the thermometer rose to 
 sixty-six in the shade ; many species of in- 
 sects 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-swallows appeared and were very alert 
 in many places, and particularly at Cobham* 
 in Surrey. 
 
 VOL. II. C 
 
18 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 But as that short warm period was suc- 
 ceeded as well as preceded by harsh severe 
 weather, with frequent frosts and ice, and 
 cutting winds, the insects withdrew, the 
 tortoise retired again into the ground, and 
 the swallows were seen no more until the 
 tenth of April, when, the rigour of the 
 Spring abating, a softer season began to 
 prevail. 
 
 Again; it appears by my journals for 
 many years past, that house-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 consider- 
 able 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 enter- 
 prize of moment at all agitated their spirits. 
 And this was the case in the beginning of 
 this very month ; for, on the fourth of No- 
 
OF SKIBORNE. 19 
 
 vemfcr, more than twenty house-martins, 
 whichjin 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 in- 
 sects which swarmed in that sheltered dis- 
 trict. 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 58^ ; a pitch not com- 
 mon 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 Au- 
 tumnal and Winter-month. 
 
 From all these circumstances laid toge- 
 ther, it is obvious that torpid insects, rep 
 tiles, and quadrupeds, are awakened from 
 their profoundest slumbers by a little un- 
 timely warmth ; and therefore that nothing 
 so much promotes this death-like stupor as 
 a defect of heat. And farther, it is reason- 
 able to suppose that two whole species, or 
 at least many individuals of those two 
 species, of British hirundines, do never leave 
 c2 
 
20] NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 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 owe 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. I am, &c. 
 
 LETTER XXXVII. 
 
 TO THp SAME. 
 
 DEAR SIR; SELBORNE, Jan. 8, 1778. 
 
 THERE was in this village several years 
 <>go a miserable pauper, who, from his 
 birth, was afflicted with a leprosy, as far 
 as we are aware, of a singular kind, since 
 it affected only the palms of his hands and 
 the soles of his feet. This scaly eruption 
 usually broke out twice in the year, at the 
 Spring and fall; and, by peeling away, left 
 the skin so thin and tender that neither his 
 
SELBORNE. 21 
 
 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 indo- 
 lence and inactivity. His habit was lean, 
 lank, and cadaverous. In this sad plight 
 he dragged on a miserable existence, a bur- 
 den 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 vio- 
 lent 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 which were lepers ; his father in parti- 
 cular lived to be far advanced in years. 
 
 In all ages the leprosy has made dreadful 
 havock 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 
 
22 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 given them in the Levitical law.* 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 tho New Testament. 
 
 Some centuries ago this horrible distem- 
 per prevailed all Europe over ; and our 
 forefathers were by no means exempt, as 
 appears by the 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 
 an humane and thinking person, a matter 
 of equal wonder and satisfaction, when he 
 
 * See Leviticus, chap. xiii. and xiv. 
 
OJF SELBORNE. 23 
 
 contemplates how nearly this pest is eradi- 
 cated, and observes that a leper now is a 
 rare sight. He will, moreover, when en- 
 gaged in such a train of thought, naturally 
 inquire for the reason. This happy change 
 perhaps may have originated and been con- 
 tinued 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, or field-carrots, or hay, all the cat- 
 tle which 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 
 
 * Viz. Six hundred bacons, eighty carcasses of beef, 
 and six hundred muttons. 
 
24 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 the Second, even so late in the Spring as 
 the third of May. It was from magazines 
 like these that the turbulent barons sup- 
 ported in idleness their riotous swarms of 
 retainers ready for any disorder or mischief. 
 But agriculture is now arrived at such a 
 pitch of perfection, that our best and fat- 
 est meats are killed in the Winter : and no 
 man needs eat salted flesh, unless he prefers 
 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 and filthy woollen, 
 long worn next the skin, is a matter of 
 neatness comparatively modern ; but must 
 prove a great means of preventing cuta- 
 neous ails. At this very time woollen in- 
 stead of linen prevails among the poorer 
 Welch, who are subject to foul eruptions. 
 
 The plenty of good wheaten bread that 
 
OF SELBORNE. 25 
 
 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 bar- 
 ley or beans, may contribute not a little to 
 the sweetening their blood and correcting 
 their juices; for the inhabitants of moun- 
 tainous 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 con- 
 sumption of vegetables is increased. Green- 
 stalls in cities now support multitudes in a 
 comfortable state, while gardeners get for- 
 tunes. Every decent labourer also has his 
 garden, which is half his support, as well 
 as his delight; and common farmers pro- 
 vide 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 re- 
 gardless of the welfare of their dependants. 
 Potatoes have pre vailed in]t his little district, 
 
26 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 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 that had gardens and 
 fruit-trees in any perfection, within the 
 walls of their abbies* 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 
 
 * " In monasteries the lamp of knowledge continued 
 ** to burn, however dimly. In them men of business 
 were formed for the state : the art of writing was 
 " cultivated by the monks; they were the only pro- 
 "' ficients in mechanics, gardening, and architecture." 
 Sec Dalrympk's Annals of Scotland* 
 
OF SELBORNE. 2? 
 
 knowledge of gardening made such hasty 
 advances. Lord Cobham, Lord Ila, and Mr. 
 Waller of Beaconsfidd, were some of the first 
 people of rank that promoted the elegant 
 science of ornamenting without despising 
 the superintendence of the kitchen quar- 
 ters and fruit walls. 
 
 A remark made by the excellent Mr. Ray 
 in his Tour of Europe at once surprises us, 
 and 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 farther he adds " curled 
 c< 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. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
28 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 LETTER XXXVIII. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 " Forte puer, comitum seductas ab agmine fido, 
 " Dixerat, ecquis adest ? et, adest, responderat echo. 
 " Hie stupet ; utque aciem partes divisit in omnes ; 
 " Voce, veni, clamat magna. Vocal ilia vocantem.*' 
 
 DEAR SIR; SELBORNE, Feb. 12, 1778. 
 
 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 
 
OF SELBORNE. 29 
 
 much surprised, and could not be persuaded 
 but that he was mocked by some boy ; but, 
 repeating his trials in several languages, and 
 finding his respondent to be a very adroit 
 polyglot, he then discerned the deception. 
 
 This echo in an evening, before rural 
 noises cease, would repeat ten syllables 
 most articulately and distinctly, especially 
 if quick dactyls were chosen. The last 
 syllables of 
 
 " Tityre, tu 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 in- 
 convenient. 
 
 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, inibrme, ingens '* 
 
 we could perceive a return but of four or five. 
 
30 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 All echoes have some one place to which 
 they are returned stronger and more dis- 
 tinct 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 hang- 
 ing wood or vales ; because in the latter 
 the voice is as it were entangled, and em- 
 barrassed 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 Gally-Lane, which mea- 
 sures 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 Kings-field, in the path to Nore- 
 hill, on the very brink of the steep balk 
 above the hollow cart way. In this case 
 there is no choice of distance; but the 
 path, by mere contingency, happens to be 
 the lucky, the identical spot, because the 
 ground rises or falls so immediately, if the 
 speaker either retires or advances, that his 
 
OF SELBORNE. 31 
 
 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. Plofs rule for dis- 
 tinct articulation: 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 120 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 Doc- 
 tor's, as five to eight : but then it must be 
 acknowledged that this candid philosopher 
 was convinced afterwards, that some lati- 
 tude must be admitted of in the distance 
 of echoes according to time and place. 
 
 When experiments of this sort are mak- 
 ing 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 
 
32 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 a ruffling wind quite defeats the whole. Iri 
 a still, clear, dewy evening the air is most 
 elastic ; and perhaps the later the hour the 
 more so. 
 
 Echo has always been so amusing to the 
 imagination, that the poets have personified 
 her ; and in their hands she has been the 
 occasion of many a beautiful fiction. Nor 
 need the gravest man be ashamed to appear 
 taken with such a phenomenon, 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 ad- 
 vances a strange notion, that they are in- 
 jurious to bees. After enumerating some 
 probable and reasonable annoyances, 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 
 
Or SELBORNE. 33 
 
 these days ; especially 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 reper- 
 cussion of sounds, I grant it is possible they 
 may. Yet that these impressions are dis- 
 tasteful or hurtful, I deny, because bees, in 
 good Summers, thrive well in my outlet, 
 where the echoes are very strong : for this 
 village is another Anathoth, a place of re- 
 sponses 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 resentment. 
 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 
 
 VOL. II. D 
 
34 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 is planted as an 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 re- 
 moved 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 im- 
 pulse and repercussion of the voice : so that 
 till those obstructions are removed no more 
 of its garrulity can be expected. 
 
 Should any gentleman of fortune think 
 an echo in his park or outlet a pleasing in- 
 cident, 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 per- 
 haps success might be the easier ensured 
 could some canal, lake, or stream, inter- 
 vene. From a seat at the centrum phonicum 
 he and his friends might amuse themselves 
 sometimes of an evening with the prattle of 
 
OF SELBORNE. 35 
 
 this loquacious nymph ; of whose compla- 
 cency 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 resonahilis echo." 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 P. S, 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, quo pacto per loca sola 
 " Saxa pareis formas verborum ex ordine reddant, 
 " Palanteis comites quom monteis inter opaeos 
 " Quaerimus, et magna disperses voce ciemus. 
 " Sex etiam, uut 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 trepitu, ludoque jocanti 
 " Adfirmant volgo taciturna silentia rumpi, 
 " Chordarumque sonos fieri, dulceisque querelas, 
 " Tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum : 
 D 2 
 
5(> NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 " 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. I. 576. 
 
 LETTER XXXIX. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 DEAR SIR ; SELBORNE, May 13, 1778. 
 
 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 
 
OF SELBORNE. 3? 
 
 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 be- 
 comes annually of this increase ; and what 
 determines every Spring which pairs shall 
 visit us, and reoccupy their ancient haunts? 
 Ever since I have attended to the sub- 
 ject of ornithology, 1 have always sup- 
 posed that that sudden reverse of affection, 
 that strange avrta-ropyn 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 superiority, and to 
 oblige the young to seek for new abodes ; 
 and the rivalry of the males, in many kinds, 
 prevents their crowding the one on the 
 other. Whether the swallows and house- 
 
38 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 martins return in the same exact number 
 annually is not easy to say, for reasons 
 given above : but it is apparent, as I have 
 remarked before in my Monographies, that 
 the numbers returning bear no manner of 
 proportion to the numbers retiring. 
 
 LETTER XL. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 DEAR SIR ; SELBORNE, June 2, 1778. 
 
 THE standing objection to botany has 
 always been, that it is a pursuit that amuses 
 the fancy and exercises the memory, with- 
 out improving the mind or advancing any 
 real knowledge : 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 inves- 
 
OF SELBORNE. 39 
 
 tigate the laws of vegetation, should exa- 
 mine 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 a pathless wilderness : but sys- 
 tem should be subservient to, not the main 
 object of, pursuit. 
 
 Vegetation is highly worthy of our at- 
 tention ; and in itself is of the utmost con- 
 sequence to mankind, and productive of 
 many of the greatest comforts and ele- 
 gancies 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 se- 
 cures us from inclemencies of weather and 
 adorns our persons. Man, in his true state 
 of nature, seems to be subsisted by sponta- 
 neous vegetation : in middle climes, where 
 grasses prevail, he mixes some animal food 
 with the produce of the field and garden : 
 and it is towards the polar extremes only 
 
40 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 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 
 on his own species.* 
 
 The productions of vegetation have had 
 a vast influence on the commerce of na- 
 tions, and have been the great promoters 
 of navigation, as may be seen in the articles 
 of sugar, tea, tobacco, opium, ginseng, 
 betel, paper, &c. As every 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 distinc- 
 tions of every various species of each ob- 
 scure genus, the botanist should endea- 
 
 * See the late Voyages to the South-seas. 
 
OF SELBORNE. 41 
 
 vour 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 succulent and 
 nutritive from the dry and juiceless. 
 
 The study of grasses would be of great 
 consequence to a northerly 3 and grazing 
 kingdom. The botanist that could improve 
 the swerd 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 commonwealth's 
 man that could occasion the growth of 
 " two blades of grass where one alone was 
 " seen before." 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
42 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 LETTER XLI. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 DEAR SIR ; SELBORNE, July 3, 1778. 
 
 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 jilices, 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 
 have been discovered within our limits 
 would be a needless work ; but a short list 
 
OF SELBORNK. 43 
 
 of the more rare, and the spots where they 
 are to be found, may be neither unaccept- 
 able nor unentertaining : 
 
 Hdkborus fatidus, stinking hellebore, 
 bear's foot, or setterwort, all over the 
 High -wood and Coney -croft- hanger : this con- 
 tinues a great branching plant the Winter 
 through, blossoming about January, and is 
 very ornamental in shady walks and shrub- 
 beries. 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 Feb- 
 ruary, flowering almost as soon as it ap- 
 pears above ground. 
 
 Vaccmium oxycoccm, creeping bilberries, 
 or cranberries, in the bogs of Bins-pond; 
 
 Vaccmium myrtillus, whortle, or bilber- 
 
44 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 ries,- on the dry hillocks of Wolmer- 
 forest ; 
 
 Drossera rotimdifolia, round-leaved sun- 
 dew. In the bogs of Bins-pond; 
 
 Droseralongifolia, long-leaved sundew, 
 in the bogs of Bins' s-pond ; 
 
 Comarum palustre, purple co mar urn, or 
 marsh cinque foil, in the bogs of Bin's- 
 pond; 
 
 Hypericum androsaemum, Tutsan, St. 
 John's Wort, in the stony, hollow lanes ; 
 
 Vinca minor, less periwinkle, in Sel- 
 borne-hanger and Shrub-wood ; 
 
 Monotropahypopithys, yellow monotropa, 
 or bird's nest, in Sdborm-hanger under 
 the shady beeches, to whose roots it seems 
 to be parasitical at the north-west end of 
 the Hanger ; 
 
 Chlora perfoliata, Blackstonia perfoliata, 
 Hudsoni, per foliated yellow- wort, on the 
 banks in the Kings-field; 
 
 Paris quadrifolia, herb Paris, true-love, 
 or one-berry, in the Church-litten- coppice; 
 
 Chrysosplenium oppositifolium, opposite 
 
OF SELBORNE. 45 
 
 golden saxifrage, in the dark and rocky 
 hollow lanes ; 
 
 Gentiana amarella, Autumnal gentian, 
 or fell wort, on the Ziz-zag and Hanger ; 
 
 Lathrcea squammaria, tooth-wort, in 
 the Church- fatten- 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 lathyrus, in the bushes at the foot 
 of the Short Lith, near the path ; 
 
 Ophrys spiralis, ladies traces, in the 
 Long Lith, and towards the south-corner 
 of the common ; 
 
 Ophrys nidus avis, bird's nest ophrys, 
 in the Long Lith under the shady beeches 
 among the dead leaves ; in Great Dorton 
 among the bushes, and on the Hanger 
 plentifully ; 
 
 Serapias latifolia, helleborine, in the 
 High-wood under the shady beeches ; 
 
46 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 Daphne laureola, spurge laurel, in Sd- 
 borne-Hanger and the High-wood ; 
 
 Daphne mezereum, the mezereon, in 
 Selborne- Hanger among the shrubs at the 
 south-east end above the cottages ; 
 
 Lycoperdon tuber, truffles, in the Hanger 
 and High-wood; 
 
 Sambucus ebulus, dwarf elder, walwort, 
 or danewort, among the rubbish and 
 ruined foundations of the Priory. 
 
 Of all the propensities of plants none 
 seem more strange than their different 
 periods of blossoming. Some produce their 
 flowers in the Winter, or very first dawn- 
 ings of Spring ; many when the Spring is 
 established ; some at Midsummer, and 
 some not till Autumn. When we see the 
 helleborus fcetidus and helleborus niger blow- 
 ing 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 congen^ 
 
OF SELBORNE. 47 
 
 rous 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 Au- 
 tumnal 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 dis- 
 cern 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 diffi- 
 cult to be explained as the most stupendous 
 phenomenon in nature. 
 
48 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 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 quick'ning word obey ; 
 Or to each lingering bloom enjoins delay. 
 
 LETTER XLII. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 " Omnibus animalibus reliquis certus et uniusmodi, 
 " et in suo cuique genere incessus est : aves solae vario 
 " meatu feruntur, et in terra, et in acre/' 
 
 PLIN. Hist. Nat. lib. x. cap. 38. 
 
 DEAR SIR; SELBORNE, Aug. 7, 1778. 
 
 A GOOD ornithologist should be able to 
 distinguish 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" 
 
OF SELBORNE. 49 
 
 mariner peculiar to itself, yet there is some- 
 what in most genera at least, that at first 
 sight discriminates them, and enables a ju- 
 dicious observer to pronounce upon them 
 with some certainty. Put a bird in motion 
 
 Et veraincessu patuit 
 
 Thus kites and buzzards sail round in 
 circles with wings expanded and motion- 
 less; 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 wind-hover, 
 has a peculiar mode of hanging in the air 
 in one place, his wings all the while being 
 briskly agitated. Hen-harriers fly low over 
 heaths or fields of corn, and beat the 
 ground regularly like a pointer or setting- 
 dog. Owls move in a buoyant manner, as 
 if lighter than the air ; they seem to want 
 ballast. There is a peculiarity belonging 
 to ravens that must draw the attention even 
 of the most incurious they spend all their 
 leisure time in striking and cuffing each 
 other on the wing in a kind of playful 
 
 VOL. JI. E 
 
50 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 skirmish ; and, when they move from one 
 place to another, frequently turn on their 
 backs with a loud croak, and seem to be 
 falling to the ground. When this odd 
 gesture betides them, they are scratching 
 themselves with one foot, and thus lose 
 the center of gravity. Rooks sometimes 
 dive and tumble in a frolicksome manner ; 
 crows and daws swagger in their walk; 
 wood-peckers 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 
 downward, as a support while they runup 
 trees. Parrots, like all other hooked- 
 clawed birds, walk aukwardly, and make 
 use of their bill as a third foot, climbing 
 and descending with ridiculous caution. 
 All the gallince parade and walk gracefully, 
 and run nimbly ; but fly with difficulty, 
 with an impetuous whirring, and in a 
 straight line. Magpies and jays flutter with 
 powerless wings, and make no dispatch ; 
 herons seem incumbered with too much 
 sail for their light bodies ; but these vast 
 
OF SELBORNE, 51 
 
 holl6w wings are necessary in carryingbur- 
 dens, such as large fishes, and the like ; 
 pigeons, and particularly the sort called 
 smiters, have a way of clashing their wings 
 the one against the other over their backs 
 with a loud snap ; another variety called 
 tumblers turn themselves over in the air. 
 Some birds have movements peculiar to 
 the season of love : thus ring-doves, though 
 strong and rapid at other times, yet in the 
 Spring hang about on the wing in a toying 
 and playful manner; thus the cock-snipe, 
 while breeding, forgetting his former flight, 
 fans the air like the wind-hover ; and the 
 green-Jinch in particular exhibits such lan- 
 guishing and faultering gestures as to ap- 
 pear like a wounded and dying bird ; the 
 king-Jisher darts along like an arrow; fern- 
 owls, or goat-suckers, glance in the dusk 
 over the tops of trees like a meteor : star- 
 lings, 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- 
 E 2 
 
52 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 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 ad- 
 vance. Most small birds hop; butivagtails 
 and larks walk, moving their legs alter- 
 nately. Skylarks rise and fall perpendicu- 
 larly as they sing ; wood/arks hang poised 
 in the air; and titlarks rise and fall in large 
 curves, singing in their descent. The 
 white-throat uses odd jerks and gesticula- 
 tions 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 compedcs of Linnaus. 
 Geese and cranes, and most wild-fowls, move 
 in figured flights, often changing their 
 position. The secondary remiges of Trin- 
 gce, wild ducks, and some others, are very 
 long, and give their wings, when in motion, 
 an hooked appearance. Dab-chicks, moor- 
 hens, and coots, fly erect, with their legs 
 hanging down, and hardly make any dis- 
 
OF SELBORNE. 53 
 
 patch ; 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 back ward. 
 
 LETTER XLIII. 
 
 TO TH E SAME. 
 
 DEAR SIR; SELBORNE, Sept. 9, 1778. 
 
 FROM the motion of birds, the transition 
 is natural enough to their notes and lan- 
 guage, of which I shall say something. 
 Not that I would pretend to understand 
 their language like the vizier ; who, by the 
 recital of a conversation which passed be- 
 tween twoowls, reclaimed a sultan,* 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 
 
 * See Spectator, Vol. VII, No. 512. 
 
54 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 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 nidifica- 
 tion much diversified, as I have been often 
 assured by a curious observer of Nature, 
 who long resided at Gibraltar, where eagles 
 abound. The notes of our hawks much 
 resemble those of the king of birds. Owls 
 have very expressive notes ; they hoot in a 
 fine vocal sound, much resembling the vox 
 humana, and reducible by a pitch-pipe to a 
 musical key. This note seems to express 
 complacency and rivalry among the males: 
 they use also a quick call and an horrible 
 scream ; and can snore and hiss when they 
 mean to menace. Ravem, besides their 
 
OF SELBORNE. 55 
 
 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 passeres 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 hir undines, 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 per- 
 
56 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 petual clamour prevents them from dis- 
 persing and losing their companions. 
 
 In so extensive a subject, sketches and 
 outlines are as much as can be expected ; 
 for it would be endless to instance in all 
 the infinite variety of the feathered nation. 
 We shall 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 disgustful. 
 The voice of the goose is trumpet-like, and 
 clanking ; and once saved the Capitol at 
 Rome, as grave historians assert : the hiss 
 also of the gander is formidable and full of 
 menace, and " protective of his young," 
 Among ducks the sexual 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 
 
01 SELBORNE. 57 
 
 struts and gobbles to his mistress in a most 
 uncouth manner; he hath also a pert and 
 petulant note when he attacks his adver- 
 sary. When a hen turkey leads forth her 
 young brood she keeps a watchful eye: 
 and if a bird of prey appear, though ever 
 so high in the air, the careful mother 
 announces the enemy with a little inward 
 moan, and watches him with a 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 co- 
 pious 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 soft note. 
 
58 NATUItAL HISTORY 
 
 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 
 Jdnd of joy, which the cock and the rest 
 of his mistresses immediately adopt. The 
 tumult is not confined to the family con- 
 cerned, but catches from yard to yard, and 
 spreads to every homestead within hearing, 
 till at last the whole village is in an uproar. 
 As soon as a hen becomes a mother her 
 new relation demands a new language ; she 
 then runs clucking and screaming about, 
 and seems agitated as if possessed. The 
 father of the flock has also a considerable 
 vocabulary ; if he finds food, he calls a 
 favourite concubine to partake ; and if a 
 bird of prey passes over with a warning 
 voice he bids his family beware. The gal- 
 lant chanticleer has, at command, his amo- 
 rous phrases and his terms of defiance. 
 But the sound by which he is best known 
 is his crowing: by this he has been distin- 
 guished in all ages as the countryman's 
 
OT SELBORNE. 59 
 
 clock or.larum, as the watchman that pro- 
 claims 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 
 faggot 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 caitif dashed, and was entangled. Re- 
 sentment suggested the law of retaliation; 
 he therefore clipped the hawk's wings, cut 
 off his talons, and, fixing a cork on his bill, 
 threw him down among the brood-hens. 
 Imagination cannot paint the scene that 
 ensued; the expressions that fear, rage, 
 and revenge, inspired, were new, or at 
 least such as had been unnoticed before : 
 the exasperated matrons upbraided, they 
 execrated, they insulted, they triumphed. 
 
60 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 In a word, they never desisted from buf- 
 feting their adversary till they had torn 
 him in an hundred pieces. 
 
 LETTER XLIV. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 SELBORNE. 
 
 < nionstrent" 
 
 _ _ _ __ > 
 
 " 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 pleasing 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 
 
OF SELBORNE. 6l 
 
 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 contem- 
 plate, in a fine Summer's evening, the 
 utmost extent that the sun makes to the 
 northward at the season of the longest days. 
 Now nothing would be necessary but to 
 place, these two objects with so much exact- 
 ness, 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 
 
62 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 also clear the Summer 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 advancing, at its setting, to 
 the westward of the object ; and, from the 
 longest day, observe the sun retiring back- 
 wards every evening at its setting, towards 
 the object westward, till, in a few nights, it 
 would set quite behind it, and so by de- 
 grees 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 ob- 
 ject; after a time the northern limb would 
 first appear, and so every night gradually 
 more, till at length the whole diameter 
 would set northward of it for about three 
 nights ; but on the middle night of the 
 three, sensibly more remote than the former 
 or following. When beginning its recess 
 from the Summer tropic, it would continue 
 more and more to be hidden evefy night, 
 
OF SELBORNE. 63 
 
 till at length it would descend quite behind 
 the object again ; and so nightly more and 
 more to the westward. 
 
 LETTER XLV. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 SELBORNE 
 
 " Mugire videbis 
 
 " Sub pedibus terram, et descendere montibus ornos." 
 
 WHEN I was a boy I used to read, with 
 astonishment and implicit assent, accounts 
 in Bakers Chronicle of walking hills and 
 travelling mountains. John Philips, in his 
 Cyder, alludes to the credit that was given 
 to such stories with a delicate but quaint 
 vein of humour peculiar to the author of 
 the Splendid Shilling. 
 
 " I nor advise, nor reprehend the choice 
 
 " Of Marclty Hill; the apple no where finds 
 
 " A kinder mould : yet 'tis unsafe to trust 
 
 " Deceitful ground : who knows but that once m,ore 
 
64 .NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 " This mount may journey, and his present site 
 st Forsaken, to thy neighbour's bounds transfer 
 " Thy goodly plants, affording matter strange 
 " For law debates !" 
 
 But, when I came to consider better, I 
 began to suspect that though our hills may 
 never have journeyed far, yet that the 
 ends of many of them have slipped and 
 fallen away at distant periods, leaving the 
 cliffs bare and abrupt. This seems to have 
 been the case with Nore and Whetham 
 Hills; and especially with the ridge between 
 Harteley Park and Ward-k-ham, where the 
 ground has slid into vast swellings and 
 furrows ; and lies still in such romantic 
 confusion as cannot be accounted for from 
 any other cause. A strange event, that 
 happened not long since, justifies our sus- 
 picions ; which, though it befell not within 
 the limits of this parish, yet as it was 
 within the hundred of Selborne, and as the 
 circumstances were singular, may fairly 
 claim a place in a work of this nature. 
 
 The months of January and February? in 
 the year 1774, were remarkable for great 
 
OF SELBORNE. 6'5 
 
 melting snows and vast gluts of rain; so 
 that by the end of the latter month the 
 land-springs, or lavants, began to prevail, 
 and to be near as high as in the memorable 
 Winter of 1764. The beginning of March 
 also went on in the same tenor ; when, in 
 the night between the 8th and 9th of that 
 month, a considerable part of the great 
 woody hanger at Hawkky was torn from 
 its place, and fell down, leaving a high 
 free-stone cliff naked and bare, and resem- 
 bling 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 up- 
 right 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 
 VOL. IT. F 
 
66 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 below, is plain also from the inclining 
 ground at the bottom of the hill, which is 
 free and unincumbered ; but would have 
 been buried in heaps of rubbish, had the 
 fragment parted and fallen forward. About 
 an hundred yards from the foot of this 
 hanging coppice stood a cottage by the side 
 of a lane ; and two hundred yards lower, 
 on the other side of the lane, was a farm- 
 house, in which lived a labourer and his 
 family; and, just by, a stout new barn. 
 The cottage was inhabited by an old 
 woman and her son, and his wife. These 
 people in the evening, which was very dark 
 and tempestuous, observed that the brick 
 floors of their kitchens began to heave and 
 part ; and that the walls seemed to open, 
 and the roofs to crack : but they all agree 
 that no tremor of the ground, indicating 
 an earthquake, was ever felt ; only that the 
 wind continued to make a most tremendous 
 roaring in the woods and hangers. The 
 miserable inhabitants, not daring to go to 
 bed, remained in the utmost solicitude and 
 confusion, expecting every moment to be 
 
OF SELBORNE. 6? 
 
 buried under the ruins of their shattered 
 edifices. When day-light 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 re- 
 moved 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 running across 
 the lane, and under the buildings, made 
 F 2 
 
68 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 such vast shelves that the road was im- 
 passable for some time ; and so over to an 
 arable field on the other side, which was 
 strangely torn and disordered. The second 
 pasture field, being more soft and springy, 
 was protruded forward without many fis- 
 sures 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 termi- 
 nated this awful commotion. 
 
 The perpendicular height of the preci- 
 pice, in general, is twenty-three yards ; the 
 length of the lapse, or slip, as seen from the 
 fields below, one hundred and eighty-one ; 
 and a partial fall, concealed in the coppice, 
 extends seventy yards more : so that the 
 total length of this fragment that fell was 
 two hundred and fifty-one yards. About 
 fifty acres of land suffered from this violent 
 convulsion ; two houses were entirely de- 
 stroyed; one end of a new barn was left in 
 ruins, the walls being cracked through the 
 
OF SELBORNE. 69 
 
 very stones that composed them ; a hang- 
 ing 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 or safe for pasturage, till consider- 
 able labour and expense had been bestowed 
 in levelling the surface and filling in the 
 gaping fissures. 
 
 LETTER XLVI. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 SELBORNE 
 resonant arbusta " 
 
 THERE is a steep abrupt pasture field in- 
 terspersed with furze close to the back of 
 this village, well known by the name of 
 the Short Lithe, consisting of a rocky dry 
 soil, and inclining to the afternoon sun. 
 This spot abounds with the gryllus campes- 
 tris> OY fold-cricket ; which, though frequent 
 
70 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 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 ceconomy 
 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, 
 eeling a person's footsteps as he 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 learned to distinguish the male from 
 the female ; the former of which is shining 
 
OF SELBORNE. 71 
 
 black, with a golden stripe across his shoul- 
 ders ; the latter is more dusky, more capa- 
 cious about the abdomen, and carries a 
 long sword-shaped weapon at her tail, 
 which probably is the instrument with 
 which she deposits her eggs in crannies 
 and safe receptacles. 
 
 Where violent methods will not avail, 
 more gentle means will often succeed ; and 
 so it proved in the present case; for, 
 though a spade be too boisterous and rough 
 an implement, a pliant stalk of grass, 
 gently insinuated into the caverns, will 
 probe their windings to the bottom, and 
 quickly bring out the inhabitant ; and thus 
 the humane inquirer may gratify his curio- 
 sity without injuring the object of it. It 
 is remarkable that, though these insects are 
 furnished with long legs behind, and 
 brawny thighs for leaping, like grasshop* 
 pers ; 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 
 
72 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 them when there seems to be the greatest 
 occasion. The males only make that shrill- 
 ing noise perhaps out of rivalry and emu- 
 lation, as is the case with many animals 
 which exert some sprightly note during 
 their breeding time : it is raised by a brisk 
 friction of one wing against the other. 
 They are solitary beings, living singly male 
 or female, each as it may happen ; but 
 there must be a time when the sexes have 
 some intercourse, and then the wings may 
 be useful perhaps during the hours of night. 
 When the males meet they will fight fierce- 
 ly, 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 ob- 
 truded upon them with a vast row of ser- 
 rated 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, 
 
or SLLBORNE. 73 
 
 like the mole-cricket. When taken in hand 
 1 could not but wonder that they never 
 offered to defend themselves, though armed 
 with such formidable weapons. Of such 
 herbs as grow before the mouths of their 
 burrows they eat indiscriminately ; and on 
 a little platform, which they make just by, 
 they drop their dung ; and, never, in the 
 day-time, seem to stir more than two or 
 three inches from home. Sitting in the 
 entrance of their caverns they chirp all 
 night as well as day from the middle of the 
 month of May to the middle of July ; and 
 in hot weather, when they are most vigo- 
 rous, they make the hills echo ; and, in the 
 stiller hours of darkness, may be heard to 
 a considerable distance. In the beginning 
 of the season their notes are more faint and 
 inward; but become louder as the Summer 
 advances, and so die away again by de- 
 grees. 
 
 Sounds do not always give us pleasure 
 according to their sweetness and melody ; 
 nor do harsh sounds always displease. 
 We are more apt to be captivated or dis- 
 
74 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 gusted with the associations which they 
 promote, than with the notes themselves. 
 Thus the shrilling bftbej&eid-cricket, though 
 sharp and stridulous, yet marvellously de- 
 lights some hearers, filling their minds with 
 a train of Summer ideas of every thing that 
 is rural, verdurous, and joyous. 
 
 About the tenth 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 
 
 * We have observed that they cast these skins in 
 April, which are then seen lying at the mouths of their 
 holes. 
 
OF SELBORNE. 75 
 
 garden, by boring deep holes in the sloping 
 turf. The new inhabitants stayed some 
 time, and fed and sung; but wandered 
 away by degrees, and were heard at a far- 
 ther distance every morning ; so that i 
 appears that on this emergency they made 
 use of their wings in attempting to return 
 to the spot from which they were taken. 
 
 One of these crickets, when confined in 
 a paper cage and set in the sun, and sup- 
 plied 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. 
 
76 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 LETTER XLVII. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 DEAR SIR; SELBORNE. 
 
 " Far from all resort of mirth 
 
 " Save the cricket on the hearth/' 
 
 MILTON'S // Penseroso. 
 
 VVHILE many other insects must be sought 
 after in fields and woods, and waters, the 
 gryllus domesticus, or house-cricket, resides 
 altogether within our dwellings, intruding 
 itself upon our notice whether we will or 
 no. This species delights in new-built 
 houses, being, like the spider, pleased with 
 the moisture of the walls ; and besides, the 
 softness of the mortar enables them to bur- 
 row and mine between the joints of the 
 bricks or stones, and to open communica- 
 tions from one room to another. They are 
 particularly fond of kitchens and bakers' 
 ovens, on account of their perpetual 
 warmth. 
 
OF SELBORNE. 77 
 
 Tender insects that live abroad either 
 enjoy only the short period of one Summer, 
 or else doze away the cold uncomfortable 
 months in profound slumbers ; but these, 
 residing as it were in a torrid zone, are 
 always alert and merry : a good 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 atmo- 
 sphere 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 prognostic some- 
 times, she thinks, of ill or good luck ; of 
 the death of a near relation, or the approach 
 
78 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 of an absent lover. By being the constant 
 companions of her solitary hours they natu- 
 rally become the objects of her superstition. 
 These crickets are not only very thirsty, but 
 very voracious ; for they will eat the scum- 
 mings of pots, and yeast, salt, and crumbs 
 of bread ; and any kitchen offal or sweep- 
 ings. In the Summer we have observed 
 them to fly, when it became dusk, out of 
 the windows., and over the neighbouring 
 roofs. This feat of activity accounts for 
 the sudden manner in which they often 
 leave their haunts, as it does for the 
 method by which they come to houses 
 where they were not known before. It is 
 remarkable, that many sorts of insects seem 
 never to use their wings but when they 
 have a mind to shift their quarters and 
 settle new colonies. When in the air they 
 move " volatu undoso" in waves or curves, 
 like wood-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 
 
OF SELBORNE. 79 
 
 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-troughs." * 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. 
 
 * Exod. viii. 3. 
 
 . 
 
80 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 LETTER XLVIII. 
 
 TO TIIR SAME. 
 
 SELBORNE. 
 
 How diversified are the modes of life not 
 only of incongruous but even of congener- 
 ous animals ; and yet their specific distinc- 
 tions are not more various than their pro- 
 pensities. Thus, while the Jield-cricket 
 delights in sunny dry banks, and the house- 
 cricket rejoices amidst the glowing heat of 
 the kitchen-hearth or oven, the gryllus 
 gryllo talpa (the mole-cricket), haunts moist 
 meadows, and frequents the sides of ponds 
 and banks of streams, performing all its 
 functions in a swampy wet soil. With a 
 pair of fore-feet, curiously adapted to the 
 purpose, it burrows and works under 
 ground like the mole, raising a ridge as 
 it proceeds, but seldom throwing up 
 hillocks. 
 
OF SELBORKE. 81 
 
 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 da- 
 mage 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 excur- 
 sions, 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 an house, where I was 
 on a visit, happening to be mowing, on the 
 
 VOL. II. G 
 
82 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 Gth 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 Jato dedit ore fenestram : 
 
 " Apparel 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 snuff-box. Within 
 this secret nursery were deposited near an 
 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 
 undoso" rising and falling in curves, like 
 the other species mentioned before. In 
 different parts of this kingdom people call 
 
OF SELBORNE. 83 
 
 them fen-crickets, churr-worms , and eve- 
 churrsj all very apposite names. 
 
 Anatomists, who have examined the 
 intestines of these insects, astonish me with 
 their accounts ; for they say that, from the 
 structure, position, and number of their 
 stomachs, or maws, there seems to be good 
 reason to suppose that this and the two 
 former species ruminate or chew the cud 
 like many quadrupeds ! 
 
 LETTER XLIX, 
 
 TO 1VHE SAME. 
 
 SELBORNE, May 7> 1779. 
 
 IT is now more than forty years that I 
 have paid some attention to the orni- 
 thology of this district, without being able 
 to exhaust the subject : new occurrences 
 still arise as long as any inquiries are kept 
 alive. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 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 
 lortpes t a.nd charadrms himantopus^ were shot 
 upon the verge of Frinsham-pond, a large 
 lake belonging to the bishop of Winchester, 
 and lying between Wolmer-forest, and the 
 town of Farnham, in the county of Surrey. 
 The pond-keeper says there were three 
 brace in the flock ; but that, after he had 
 satisfied his curiosity, he suffered the sixth 
 to remain unmolested. One of these spe- 
 cimens I procured, and found the length of 
 the legs to be so extraordinary, that, at 
 first sight, one might have supposed the 
 shanks had been fastened on to impose on 
 the credulity of the beholder: they were 
 legs in caricatura; and had we seen such 
 proportions on a Chinese or Japan screen 
 we should have made large allowances for 
 the fancy of the draughtsman. These birds 
 are of the plover family, and might with 
 propriety be called the stilt plovers. Bris- 
 son 9 under that idea, gives them the appo- 
 
CHARABRIUS HIMANTOFUS 
 
OF SELBORNE. 85 
 
 site 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 an half, and the legs four inches 
 and an 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 in- 
 stance, 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 mea- 
 sure 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 hun- 
 dred 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 experi- 
 ment in still larger birds the disparity 
 would still increase. It must be matter of 
 
86 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 great curiosity to see the stilt plover move ; 
 to observe how it can wield such a length 
 of lever with such feeble muscles as the 
 thighs seem to be furnished with. At best 
 one should expect it to be but a bad 
 walker : but what adds to the wonder is, 
 that it has no back toe. Now without that 
 steady prop to support its steps it must be 
 liable, in speculation, to perpetual vacilla- 
 tions, and seldom able to preserve the true 
 center of gravity. 
 
 The old name of himantopus is taken 
 from Pliny ; and, by an aukward metaphor, 
 implies that the legs are as slender and 
 pliant as if cut out of a thong of leather. 
 Neither Willughby nor Ray, in all their cu- 
 rious researches, either at home or abroad, 
 ever saw this bird. Mr. Pennant never met 
 with it in all Great Britain^ but observed 
 it often in the cabinets of the curious at 
 Paris. Hasselquist says that it migrates to 
 Egypt in the Autumn : and a most accurate 
 observer of Nature has assured me that he 
 has found it on the banks of the streams 
 in Andalusia. 
 
OF SELBORNE. 8? 
 
 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 impel- 
 led to make so distant and northern an ex- 
 cursion 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 un- 
 observed in this kingdom. 
 
 LETTER L. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 DEAR SIR ; SELBOHNE, April 21, 1780. 
 
 THE old Sussex tortoise, that I have men- 
 tioned to you so often, is become my pro 
 perty. I dug it out of its Winter dormi- 
 
88 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 tory 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 per- 
 fectly 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 ob- 
 servations on its mode of life, and propen- 
 sities ; and perceive, already that, towards 
 the time of coming forth, it opens a breath- 
 ing place in the ground near its head, 
 requiring, I conclude, a freer respiration 
 as it becomes more alive. This creature 
 not only goes under the earth from the 
 middle of November to the middle of April, 
 but sleeps great part of the Summer; for it 
 goes to bed in the longest days at four in 
 the afternoon, and often does not stir in 
 the morning till late. Besides, it retires 
 
OF SKLBORNE. 89 
 
 to rest for every shower; and does not 
 move at all in wet days. 
 
 When one reflects on the state of this 
 strange being, it is a matter of wonder to 
 find that Providence should bestow such a 
 profusion of days, such a seeming waste of 
 longevity, on a reptile that appears to relish 
 it so little as to squander more than two 
 thirds of its existence in a joyless stupor, 
 and be lost to all sensation for months to- 
 gether in the profoundest of slumbers. 
 
 While I was writing this letter, a moist 
 and warm afternoon, with the thermometer 
 at 50, brought forth troops of shell-snails; 
 and, at the same juncture, the tortoise 
 heaved up the mould and put out its head; 
 and the next morning came forth, as it 
 were raised from the dead ; and walked 
 about till four in the afternoon. This was 
 a curious coincidence ! a very amusing oc- 
 currence ! to see such a similarity of feel- 
 ings between the two pcfwixo* ! for so the 
 Greeks call both the shell-snail and the 
 tortoise. 
 
 Summer birds are, this cold and back- 
 
90 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 ward 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 in- 
 stinct. 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 there- 
 fore 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 heat in the Summer, so, 
 
OF SELBORNE. 91 
 
 in the decline of the year, he improves the 
 faint autumnal beams, by getting within 
 the reflection of a fruit-wall : and, though 
 he never has read that planes inclining to 
 the horizon receive a greater share of 
 warmth,* he inclines his shell, by tilting it 
 against the wall, to collect and admit every 
 feeble ray. 
 
 Pitiable seems the condition of this poor 
 embarrassed reptile : to be cased in a suit 
 of ponderous armour, which he cannot lay 
 aside ; to be imprisoned, as it were, within 
 his own shell, must preclude, we should 
 suppose, all activity and disposition foren- 
 terprize. 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, ex- 
 
 * Several years ago a book was written entitled 
 * Fruit-walls improved by inclining them to the ho- 
 " rizon :" in which the author has shown, by calcu- 
 lation, that a much greater number of the rays of the 
 sun will fall on such walls than on those which are 
 perpendicular. 
 
92 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 amines 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 un- 
 dertake these rambles seem to be of the 
 amorous kind : his fancy then becomes in- 
 tent on sexual attachments, which trans- 
 port him beyond his usual gravity, and in- 
 duce him to forget for a time his ordinary 
 solemn deportment. 
 
 LETTER LI. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 SELBORNE, Sept. 3, 1781. 
 
 I HAVE now read your miscellanies through 
 with much care and satisfaction ; and am 
 to return you my best thanks for the 
 honourable mention made in them of me as 
 a naturalist, which I wish I may deserve. 
 In some former letters I expressed my 
 
OF SELBORNE. 93 
 
 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 ap- 
 peared 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 stayed a short time, and then 
 flew over the houses ; for some days after 
 no martins were observed, not till the 16th 
 of April, and then only a pair. Martins in 
 general were remarkably late this year. 
 
94 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 LETTER LIL 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 SELBORNE, Sept. 9, 1781- 
 
 I HAVE just met with a circumstance re- 
 specting swifts, which furnishes an excep- 
 tion to the whole tenor of my observations 
 ever since I have bestowed any attention 
 on that species of hirundines. Our swifts, 
 in general, withdrew this year about the 
 first day of August, all save one pair, which 
 in two or three days was reduced to a 
 single bird. The perseverance of this indi- 
 vidual made me suspect that the strongest 
 of motives, that of an attachment to her 
 young, could alone occasion so late a stay. 
 I watched therefore till the twenty-fourth 
 of August, and then discovered that, under 
 the eaves of the church, she attended upon 
 two young, which were fledged, and now 
 put out their white chins from a crevice. 
 
OF SELBORNE. 95 
 
 These remained till the twenty-seventh, 
 looking more alert everyday, and seeming 
 to long to be on the wing. After this day 
 they were missing at once ; nor could I 
 ever observe them with their dam coursing 
 round the church in the act of learning to 
 fly, as the first broods evidently do. On 
 the thirty first I caused the eaves to be 
 searched, but we found in the nest only two 
 callow, dead, stinking swifts, on which a 
 second nest had been formed. This double 
 nest was full of the black shining cases of 
 the hippobosccE hirundinis. 
 
 The following remarks on this unusual 
 incident are obvious. The first is, that 
 though it maybe 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 remark, 
 that swifts breed regularly but once ; since, 
 was the contrary the case, the occurrence 
 above could neither be new nor rare. 
 
96 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 P. S. One swift was seen at Lyndon, in 
 the county of Rutland, in 1782, so late as 
 the third of September. 
 
 LETTER LIII. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 As I have sometimes known you make in- 
 quiries 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. I had often observed that 
 one particular part of a vine growing on 
 the walls of my house was covered in the 
 Autumn with a black dust-like appearance, 
 on which the 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 : 
 
OF SEL BORNE. 97 
 
 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 cot- 
 ton-like substance, surrounding a multi- 
 tude of eggs. This curious and uncommon 
 production put me upon recollecting what 
 I have heard and read concerning the coccus 
 vitis vinifercE of Linnceus, which, in the 
 south of Europe, infests many vines, and is 
 an horrid and loathsome pest. As soon as 
 I had turned to the accounts given of this 
 insect, I saw at once that it swarmed on 
 my vine ; and did not appear to have been 
 at all checked by the preceding Winter, 
 which had been uncommonly severe. 
 
 Not being then at all aware that it had 
 any thing to do with England, I was much 
 inclined to think that it came from Gib- 
 raltar among the many boxes and packages 
 of plants and birds which I had formerly 
 received from thence ; and especially as 
 the vine infested grew immediately under 
 my study-window, where I usually kept 
 my specimens. True it is that I had re- 
 
 VOL. ir. H 
 
98 NATURAL IK STORY 
 
 ceived nothing from thence for some years : 
 but as insects, we know, are conveyed 
 from one country to another in a very un- 
 expected manner, and have a wonderful 
 power of maintaining their existence till 
 they fall into a nidus proper for their sup- 
 port and increase, I cannot but suspect still 
 that these cocci came to me originally from 
 Andalusia. Yet, all the while, candour 
 obliges me to confess that Mr. Light/oof,, 
 has written me word that he once, and but 
 once, saw these insects on a vine at Wey- 
 mouth in Dorsetshire; which, it is here to 
 be observed, is a sea-port town to which the 
 coccus might be conveyed by shipping. 
 
 As many of my readers may possibly 
 never have heard of this strange and un- 
 usual insect, I shall here transcribe a pas- 
 sage from a natural history of Gibraltar, 
 written by the Reverend John White, late 
 vicar of Blackburn in Lancashire, but not 
 yet published : 
 
 " In the year 1770 a vine which grew 
 " on the east-side of my house, and which 
 " had produced the finest crops of grapes 
 
OF SELBORN'E. 99 
 
 *'* for years past, was suddenly overspread 
 " on all the woody branches with large 
 <f -lumps of a white fibrous substance re- 
 <e sembling spiders webs, or rather raw 
 *' cotton. It was of a very clammy quality, 
 " sticking fast to every thing that touched 
 " it, and capable of being spun into long 
 " threads. At first I suspected it to be the 
 " product of spiders, but could find none. 
 " Nothing was to be seen connected with 
 " it but many brown oval husky shells, which 
 <( by no means looked like insects, but 
 " rather resembled bits of the dry bark of 
 " the vine. The tree had a plentiful crop 
 " of grapes set, when this pest appeared 
 <c upon it; but the fruit was manifestly 
 " injured by this foul incumbrance. It 
 " remained all the Summer, still increas- 
 " ing, and loaded the woody and bearing 
 " branches to a vast degree. I often pulled 
 " off great quantities by handfuls; but it 
 " was so slimy and tenacious that it could 
 " by no means be cleared. The grapes 
 " never filled to their natural perfection, 
 *' but turned watery and vapid. Upon 
 H 2 
 
100 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 " perusing the works afterwards of M. de 
 " Reaumur, I found this matter perfectly 
 " described and accounted for. Those 
 " husky shells, which I had observed, were 
 " no other than the female coccus, from 
 " whose sides this coiton-like substance 
 " exudes, and serves as a covering and 
 *' security for their eggs." 
 
 To this account I think proper to add, 
 that, though the female cocci are stationary, 
 and seldom remove from the place to which 
 they stick, yet the male is a winged insect; 
 and that the black dust which I saw was 
 undoubtedly the excrement of the females, 
 which is eaten by ants as well as flies. 
 Though the utmost severity of our Winter 
 did not destroy these insects, yet the atten- 
 tion of the gardener in a Summer or two 
 has entirely relieved my vine from this 
 filthy annoyance. 
 
 As we have remarked above that insects 
 are often conveyed from one country to 
 another in a very unaccountable manner, I 
 shall here mention an emigration of small 
 aphides^ which was observed in the village 
 
OF SELBORNE. 101 
 
 of Selborne no longer ago than August the 
 1st, 1785. 
 
 At about three o'clock in the afternoon 
 of that day, which was very hot, the 
 people of this village were surprised by a 
 shower of aphides, or smother -flics, which 
 fell in these parts. Those that were walk- 
 ing in the street at that juncture found 
 themselves covered with these insects, 
 which settled also on the hedges and gar- 
 dens, blackening all the vegetables where 
 they alighted. My annuals were discolour- 
 ed with them, and the stalks of a bed of 
 onions were quite coated over for six days 
 after. These armies were then, no doubt, 
 in a state of emigration, and shifting their 
 quarters ; and might have come, as far as 
 we know, from the great hop-plantations 
 of Kent or Sussex, the wind being all that 
 day in the easterly quarter. They were 
 observed at the same time in great clouds 
 about Farnham, and all along the vale 
 from Farnham to Alton.* 
 
 * For various methods by which several insects shift 
 their quarters, see Derhanfs Physico-TIieolog'y. 
 
1O2 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 LETTER LIV. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 DEAR SIR; 
 
 WHEN I happen to visit a family where 
 gold and silver fishes are kept in a glass 
 bowl, I am always pleased with the occur- 
 rence, because it offers me an opportunity 
 of observing the actions and propensities 
 of those beings with whom we can be little 
 acquainted in their natural state. Not 
 long since I spent a fortnight at the house 
 of a friend where there was such a vivary, 
 to which I paid no small attention, taking 
 every occasion to remark what passed with- 
 in its narrow limits. It was here that I 
 first observed the manner in which fishes 
 die. As soon as the creature sickens, the 
 head sinks lower and lower, and it stands 
 as it were on its head ; till, getting weaker, 
 and losing all poise, the tail turns over, 
 and at last it floats on the surface of the 
 
OF SELBORNE. 103 
 
 water with its belly uppermost. The rea- 
 son why fishes, when dead, swim in that 
 manner is very obvious; because, when the 
 body is no longer balanced by the fins of 
 the belly, the broad muscular back prepon- 
 derates by its own gravity, and turns the 
 belly uppermost, as lighter from its being 
 a cavity, and because it contains the swim- 
 ming-bladders, which contribute to render 
 it buoyant. Some that delight in gold and. 
 silver Jishes have adopted a notion that they 
 need no aliment. True it is that they will 
 subsist for a long time without any appa- 
 rent food but what they can collect from 
 pure water frequently changed ; yet they 
 must draw some support from animalcula, 
 and other nourishment supplied by the 
 water; because, though they seem to eat 
 nothing, yet the consequences of eating 
 often drop from them. That they are best 
 pleased with such jejune diet may easily be 
 confuted, since if you toss them crumbs 
 they will seize them with great readiness, 
 not to say greediness : however, bread 
 should be given sparingly, lest, turning 
 
104 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 sour, it corrupt the water. They will also 
 feed on the water-plant called lemna (duck's 
 meat), and also on small fry. 
 
 When they want to move a little they 
 gently protrude themselves with their pimuz 
 pectorales ; but it is with their strong mus- 
 cular tails only that they and all fishes shoot 
 along with such inconceivable rapidity. It 
 has been said that the eyes of fishes are 
 immoveable : but these apparently turn 
 them forward or backward in their sockets 
 as their occasions require. They take little 
 notice of a lighted candle, though applied 
 close to their heads, but flounce and seem 
 much frightened by a sudden stroke of the 
 hand against the support whereon the bowl 
 is hung; especially when they have been 
 motionless, and are perhaps asleep. As 
 fishes have no eyelids, it is not easy to 
 discern when they are sleeping or not, be- 
 cause their eyes are always open. 
 
 Nothing can be more amusing than a 
 glass bowl containing such fishes: the dou- 
 ble refractions of the glass and water repre- 
 sent them, when moving, in a shifting and 
 
OF SELBORNE. 105 
 
 changeable variety of dimensions, shades, 
 and colours ; while the two mediums, 
 assisted by the concavo-convex shape of 
 the vessel, magnify and distort them vastly; 
 not to mention that the introduction of 
 another element and its inhabitants into 
 our parlours engages the fancy in a very 
 agreeable manner. 
 
 Gold and silver fishes, though originally 
 natives of China and Japan, yet are become 
 so well reconciled to our climate as to 
 thrive and multiply very fast in our ponds 
 and stews. Linnceus ranks this species of 
 fish under the genus of syprinus, or carp, 
 and calls it cyprinus auratus. 
 
 Some people exhibit this sort of fish in 
 a very fanciful way ; for they cause a glass 
 bowl to be blown with a large hollow 
 space within, that does not communicate 
 with it. In this cavity they put a bird 
 occasionally ; so that you may see a gold- 
 finch or a linnet hopping as it were in the 
 midst of the water, and the fishes swim- 
 ming in a circle round it. The simple 
 exhibition of the fishes is agreeable and 
 
106 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 pleasant ; but in so complicated a way 
 becomes whimsical and unnatural, and 
 liable to the objection due to him, 
 
 " Qui variare cupit rem prodigialiter unam." 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 LETTER LV. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 DEAR SIR ; October 10, 1781. 
 
 I THINK I have observed before that much 
 the most considerable part of the house- 
 martins withdraw from hence about the 
 first week in October; but that some, the 
 latter broods I am now convinced, linger 
 on till towards the middle of that month ; 
 and that at times, once perhaps in two or 
 three years, a flight, for one day only, has 
 shown itself in the first week in November. 
 Having taken notice, in October 1780, 
 
OF SELBORNE. 107 
 
 that the last flight was numerous, amount- 
 ing perhaps to one hundred and fifty; 
 and that the season was soft and still ; I 
 was resolved to pay uncommon attention 
 to these late birds ; to find, if possible, 
 where they roosted, and to determine the 
 precise time of their retreat. The mode 
 of life of these latter hirundines is very 
 favourable to such a design : for they spend 
 the whole day in the sheltered district, be- 
 tween me and the Hanger, sailing about in 
 a placid, easy manner, and feasting on those 
 insects which love to haunt a spot so secure 
 from ruffling winds. As my principal ob- 
 ject was to discover the place of their 
 roosting, I took care to wait on them before 
 they retired to rest, and was much pleased 
 to find that, for several evenings together, 
 just at a quarter past five in the afternoon, 
 they all scudded away in great haste to- 
 wards the south-east, and darted down 
 among the low shrubs above the cottages 
 at the end of the hill. This spot in many 
 respects seems to be well calculated for 
 their winter residence: for in many parts 
 
108 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 it is as steep as the roof of any house, 
 and therefore secure from the annoyances 
 of water; and it is moreover clothed with 
 beechen shrubs., which, being stunted and 
 bitten by sheep, make the thickest covert 
 imaginable; and are so entangled as to be 
 impervious to the smallest spaniel : besides, 
 it is the nature of underwood beech never 
 to cast its leaf all the winter; so that, 
 with the leaves on the ground and those 
 on the twigs, no shelter can be more com- 
 plete. I watched them on to the thirteenth 
 and fourteenth of October, and found their 
 evening retreat was exact and uniform; 
 but after this they made no regular appear- 
 ance. Now and then a straggler was seen ; 
 and, on the twenty-second of October, I 
 observed two in the morning over the vil- 
 lage, and with them my remarks for the 
 season ended. 
 
 From all these circumstances put toge- 
 ther, it is more than probable that this 
 lingering flight, at so late a season of the 
 year, never departed from the island. -Had 
 they indulged me that Autumn with a No- 
 
Or SELBORNE. 109 
 
 vernier visit, as I much desired, I presume 
 that, with proper assistants, I should have 
 settled the matter past all doubt; but 
 though the third of November was a sweet 
 day, and in appearance exactly suited to 
 my wishes, yet not a martin was to be seen ; 
 and so I was forced, reluctantly, to give 
 up the pursuit. 
 
 I have only to add that were the bushes, 
 which cover some acres, and are not my 
 own property, to be grubbed and carefully 
 examined, probably those late broods, and 
 perhaps the whole aggregate body of the 
 house-martins of this district, might be 
 found there, in different secret dormito- 
 ries ; and that, so far from withdrawing 
 into warmer climes, it would appear that 
 they never depart three hundred yards 
 from the village. 
 
110 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 LETTER LVI. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 THEY who write on natural history can- 
 not too frequently advert to instinct, that 
 wonderful limited faculty, which, in some 
 instances, raises the brute creation as it 
 were above reason, and in others leaves 
 them so far below it. Philosophers have 
 defined instinct to be that secret influence 
 by which every species is impelled natu- 
 rally to pursue, at all times, the same way 
 or track, without any teaching or example; 
 whereas reason, without instruction, would 
 often vary and do that by many methods 
 which instinct effects by one alone. Now 
 this maxim must be taken in a qualified 
 sense; for there are instances in which 
 instinct does vary and conform to the cir- 
 cumstances of place and convenience. 
 
 It has been remarked that every species 
 of bird has a mode of nidification peculiar 
 
OF SELBORNE. Ill 
 
 to itself; so that a school-boy would at 
 once pronounce on the sort of nest before 
 him. This is the case among fields and 
 woods, and wilds ; but, in the villages 
 round London, where mosses and gossamer, 
 and cotton from vegetables, are hardly to 
 be found, the nest of the chaffinch has not 
 that elegant finished appearance, nor is 
 it so beautifully studded with lichens, as 
 in a more rural district ; and the wren is 
 obliged to construct its house with straws 
 and dry grasses, which do not give it that 
 rotundity and compactness so remarkable 
 in the edifices of that little architect. Again, 
 the regular nest of the house-martin is he- 
 mispheric ; but where a rafter, or a joist, or 
 a cornice, may happen to stand in the way, 
 the nest is so contrived as to conform to 
 the obstruction, and becomes flat or oval, 
 or compressed. 
 
 In the following instances instinct is per- 
 fectly uniform and consistent. There are 
 three creatures, the squirrel, Itejield-mouse, 
 and the bird called the nut-hatch (sitta 
 Europ&a), which live much on hazle-nuts ; 
 
112 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 and yet they open them each in a different 
 way. The first, after rasping off the small 
 end, splits the shell in two with his long 
 fore teeth, as a man does with his knife ; 
 the second nibbles a hole with his teeth, 
 so regular as if drilled with a wimble, and 
 yet so small that one would wonder how 
 the kernel can be extracted through it; 
 while the last picks an irregular ragged 
 hole with its bill: but as this artist has 
 no paws to hold the nut firm while he 
 pierces it, like an adroit workman, he fixes 
 it, as it were in a vice, in some cleft of a 
 tree, or in some crevice ; when, standing 
 over it, he perforates the stubborn shell. 
 We have often placed nuts in the chink 
 of a gate-post where nut-hatches have been 
 known to haunt, and have always found 
 that those birds have readily penetrated 
 them. While at work they make a rap- 
 ping noise that may be heard at a consi- 
 derable distance. 
 
 You that understand both the theory and 
 practical part of music may best inform us 
 why harmony or melody should so strangely 
 
OF SELBORNE. 113 
 
 affect some men, as it were by recollection, 
 for days after a concert is over. What I 
 mean the following passage will most 
 readily explain : 
 
 " Praehabebat porro vocibus humanis, 
 " instrumentisque harmonicis musicam il- 
 " lam avium : non quod alia quoque non 
 " delectaretur ; sed quod ex musica hu- 
 <e mana relinqueretur in animo continens 
 " qusedam, attentionemque et somnum 
 " conturbans agitatio; dum ascensus, ex- 
 " scensus, tenores, acmutationes illaesono- 
 " rum, et consonantiarum euntque, red- 
 " euntque perphantasiam: cum nihil tale 
 " relinqui possit ex modulationibus avium, 
 " quae, quod non sunt perinde a nobis 
 " imitabiles, non possunt perinde internam 
 " facultatem commovere." 
 
 Gassendus in Vita Peireskii. 
 
 This curious quotation strikes me much 
 by so well representing my own case, and 
 by describing what I have so often felt, 
 but never could so well express* When I 
 hear tine music I am haunted with passages 
 therefrom night and day ; and especially 
 
 VOL. it. i 
 
114 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 at first waking, which, by their importu- 
 nity, give me more uneasiness than plea- 
 sure : elegant, lessons still tease my ima- 
 gination, and recur irresistibly to my re- 
 collection at seasons, and even when I 
 am desirous of thinking of more serious 
 matters. I am, &c. 
 
 LETTER LVII. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 A RARE, and I think a new, little bird 
 frequents my garden, which I have great 
 reason to think is the pet tic haps: it is com- 
 mon in some parts of the kingdom ; and 
 I have received formerly several dead spe- 
 cimens from Gibraltar. This bird much 
 resembles the white-throat, but has a more 
 white or rather silvery breast and belly; is 
 restless and actrve, like the willow wrens, 
 and hops from bough to bough, examining 
 every part for food ; it also runs up the 
 
OF SELBORNE. 115 
 
 stems of the crown-imperials, and, putting 
 its head into the bells of those flowers, 
 sips the liquor which stands in ihenectarium 
 of each petal. Sometimes it feeds on the 
 ground like the hedge-sparrow, by hopping 
 about on the grass-plots and mown walks. 
 One of my neighbours, an intelligent and 
 observing man, informs me that, in the 
 beginning of May, and about ten minutes 
 before eight o'clock in the evening, he dis- 
 covered a great cluster of house-swallows, 
 thirty at least he supposes, perching on a 
 willow that hung over the verge of James 
 Knight's upper-pond. His attention was 
 first drawn by the twittering of these birds, 
 which sat motionless in a row on the 
 bough, with their heads all one way, and, 
 by their weight, pressing down the twig 
 so that it nearly touched the water. In 
 this situation he watched them till he could 
 see no longer. Repeated accounts of this 
 sort, Spring and fall, induce us greatly to 
 suspect that house-swallows have some 
 strong attachment to water, independent 
 of the matter of food ; and, though they 
 i 2 
 
116 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 may not retire into that element, yet they 
 may conceal themselves in the banks of 
 pools and rivers during the uncomfortable 
 months of Winter. 
 
 One of the keepers of Wolmer-forest sent 
 me & per eg rim-falcon, which he shot on the 
 verge of that district as it was devouring 
 a wood-pigeon. The falco peregrinus, or 
 haggard falcon, is a noble species of hawk 
 seldom seen in the southern counties. In 
 Winter 1767 one was killed in the neigh- 
 bouring parish of Faringden, and sent by 
 ine to Mr. Pennant into North Wales.* 
 Since that time I have met with none till 
 now. The specimen mentioned above was 
 in fine preservation, and not injured by 
 the shot : it measured forty-two inches 
 from wing to wing, and twenty-one from 
 beak to tail, and weighed two pounds and 
 an half standing weight. This species is 
 very robust, and wonderfully formed for 
 rapine: its breast was plump and muscular ; 
 its thighs long, thick, and brawny ; and 
 its legs remarkably short and well-set : the 
 
 * See my tenth and eleventh letter to that gentleman. 
 
OF SELBOItNE. 117 
 
 feet were armed with most formidable, 
 sharp, long talons : the eyelids and cere of 
 the bill were yellow ; but the irides of the 
 eyes dusky ; the beak was thick and hooked, 
 and of a dark colour, and had a jagged 
 process near the end of the upper mandible 
 on each side : its tail, or train, was short 
 in proportion to the bulk of its body : yet 
 the wings, when closed, did not extend to 
 the end of the train. From its large and 
 fair proportions it might be supposed to 
 have been a female ; but I was not per- 
 mitted to cut open the specimen. For 
 one of the birds of prey, which are usually 
 lean, this was in high case : in its craw 
 were many barley-corns, which probably 
 came from the crop of the wood-pigeon, 
 on which it was feeding when shot : for 
 voracious birds do not eat grain; but, when 
 devouring their quarry, with undistin- 
 guishing vehemence swallow bones and 
 feathers, and all matters, indiscriminately. 
 This falcon was probably driven from the 
 mountains of North Wales or Scotland, 
 
118 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 where they are known to breed, by rigor* 
 ous weather and deep snows that had lately 
 fallen. I am, &c. 
 
 LETTER LVIII. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 MY near neighbour, a young gentleman 
 in the service of the East-India Company, 
 has brought home a dog and a bitch of 
 the Chinese breed from Canton ; such as 
 are fattened in that country for., the pur- 
 pose of being eaten : they are about the 
 size of a moderate spaniel ; of a pale yel- 
 low colour, with coarse bristling hairs on. 
 their backs ; sharp upright ears, and peaked 
 heads, which give them a very fox-like 
 appearance. Their hind legs are unusually 
 straight, without any bend at the hock or 
 ham, to such a degree as to give them an 
 aukward gait when they trot. When they 
 
OF SELBORNE. 119 
 
 are in motion their tails are curved high 
 over their backs like those of some hounds, 
 and have a bare place each on the outside 
 from the tip midway, that does not seem 
 to be matter of accident, but somewhat sin- 
 gular. Their eyes are jet-black, small, and 
 piercing; the insides of their lips and 
 mouths of the same colour, and their 
 tongues blue. The bitch has a dew-claw 
 on each hind leg; the dog has none. When 
 taken out into a field the bitch showed 
 some disposition for hunting, and dwelt on 
 the scent of a covey of partridges till she 
 sprung them, giving her tongue all the 
 time. The dogs in South America are dumb ; 
 but these bark much in a short thick man- 
 ner, like foxes ; and have a surly, savage 
 demeanor like their ancestors, which are 
 not domesticated, but bred up in sties, 
 where they are fed for the table with rice- 
 meal and other farinaceous food. These 
 dogs, having been taken on board as soon 
 as weaned, could not learn much from their 
 dam ; yet they did not relish flesh when 
 they came to England. In the islands of 
 
120 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 the Pacific ocean the dogs are bred up on 
 vegetables, and would not eat flesh when 
 offered them by our circumnavigators. 
 
 We believe that all dogs, in a state of 
 nature, have sharp, upright fox-like ears ; 
 and that hanging ears, which are esteemed 
 so graceful, are the effect of choice breed- 
 ing and cultivation. Thus, in the Travels 
 of Ysbrandt Ides from Muscovy to China, 
 the dogs which draw the Tartars on snow- 
 sledges near the river Oby are engraved 
 with prick-ears, like those from Canton. 
 The Kamschatdaks also train the same sort 
 of sharp-eared peaked-nosed dogs to draw 
 their sledges ; as maybe seen in an elegant 
 print engraved for Captain Cook's last 
 voyage round the world. 
 
 Now we are upon the subject of dogs, 
 it may not be impertinent to add, that spa- 
 niels, as all sportsmen know, though they 
 hunt partridges and pheasants as it were 
 by instinct, and with much delight and 
 alacrity, yet will hardly touch their bones 
 when offered as food ; nor will a mongrel 
 dog of my own, though he is remarkable 
 
OF SELBORNE. 
 
 for finding that sort of game. But, when 
 we came to offer the bones of partridges 
 to the two Chinese dogs, they devoured 
 them with much greediness, and licked 
 the platter clean. 
 
 No sporting dogs will flush woodcocks 
 till inured to the scent and trained to the 
 sport, which they then pursue with vehe- 
 mence and transport ; but then they will 
 not touch their bones, but turn from them 
 with abhorrence, even when they are 
 hungry. 
 
 Now, that dogs should not be fond of the 
 bones of such birds as they are not dis- 
 posed to hunt is no wonder ; but why they 
 reject and do not care to eat their natural 
 game is not so easily accounted for, since 
 the end of hunting seems to be, that the 
 chase pursued should be eaten. Dogs again 
 will not devour the more rancid water- 
 fowls, nor indeed the bones of any wild- 
 fowls ; nor will they touch the foetid bodies 
 of birds that feed on offal and garbage : 
 and indeed there may be somewhat of pro- 
 vidential instinct in this circumstance of 
 
NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 dislike; for vultures,* and kites, and ravens, 
 and crows, &c. were intended to be mess- 
 mates with dogsf over their carrion ; and 
 seem to be appointed by Nature as fellow- 
 scavengers to remove all cadaverous nui- 
 sances from the face of the earth. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 LETTER LIX. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 THE fossil wood buried in the bogs of 
 Wolmer-forest is not yet all exhausted;. for 
 the peat-cutters now and then stumble upon 
 a log. I have just seen a piece which was 
 sent by a labourer of Oakhanger to a car- 
 
 * Hasselquist, in his Travels to the Levant, observes 
 that the dogs and vultures at Grand Cairo maintain such 
 a friendly intercourse as to bring up their young toge- 
 ther in the same place. 
 
 f The Chinese word for a dog to an European ear 
 sounds like quihloh. 
 
OF SELBORNE. 
 
 penter of this village ; this was the but- 
 end of a small oak, about five feet long, and 
 about five inches in diameter. It had ap- 
 parently been severed from the ground by 
 an axe, was very ponderous, and as black 
 as ebony. Upon asking the carpenter for 
 what purpose he had procured it, he told 
 me that it was to be sent to his brother, 
 a joiner at Farnham, who was to make use 
 of it in cabinet work, by inlaying it along 
 with whiter woods. 
 
 Those that are much abroad on evenings 
 after it is dark, in Spring and Summer, fre- 
 quently hear a nocturnal bird passing by 
 on the wing, and repeating often a short 
 quick note. This bird I have remarked 
 myself, but never could make out till 
 lately. I am assured now that it is the 
 Stone-curlew (charadrius oedicnemus ) . Some 
 of them pass over or near my house almost 
 every evening after it is dark, from the up- 
 lands of the hill and North Jield, away 
 down towards Dorton; where, among the 
 streams and meadows, they find a greater 
 plenty of food. Birds that fly by night are 
 
124 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 obliged to be noisy ; their notes often re- 
 peated become signals or watch-words to 
 keep them together, that they may not stray 
 or lose each the other in the dark. 
 
 The evening proceedings and manoeuvres 
 of the rooks are curious and amusing in 
 the Autumn. Just before dusk they return 
 in long strings from the foraging of the 
 day, and rendezvous by thousands over 
 Sdborne-down, where they wheel round in 
 the air, and sport and dive in a playful 
 manner, all the while exerting their voices, 
 and making a loud cawing, which, being 
 blended and softened by the distance that 
 we at the village are below them, becomes 
 a confused noise or chiding ; or rather a 
 pleasing murmur, very engaging to the 
 imagination, and not unlike the cry of a 
 pack of hounds in hollow, echoing woods, 
 or the rushing of the wind in tall trees, or 
 the tumbling of the tide upon a pebbly 
 shore. When this ceremony is over, with 
 the last gleam of day, they retire for the 
 night to the deep beechen woods of Tisted 
 and Ropley. We remember a little girl who, 
 
OF SELBOIINE. 125 
 
 as she was going to bed, used to remark on 
 such an occurrence, in the true spirit of 
 physico+thcology, that the rooks were saying 
 their prayers ; and yet this child was much 
 too young to be aware that the scriptures 
 have said of the Deity that " he feedeth 
 the ravens who call upon him." 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 LETTER LX. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 IN reading Dr. Huxhams Observationes de 
 Acre, Sec. written at Plymouth, I find by 
 those curious and accurate remarks, which 
 contain an account of the weather from 
 the year 1727 to the year 1748, inclusive, 
 that though there is frequent rain in that 
 district of Devonshire, yet the quantity fall- 
 ing is not great; and that some years it 
 has been very small: for in 1731 the rain 
 measured only 17 inch . 266 thou . and in 1741, 
 20354; and again in 1743 only 20 908. 
 
126 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 Places near the sea have frequent scuds, 
 that keep the atmosphere moist, yet do 
 not reach far up into the country ; making 
 thus the maritime situations appear wet, 
 when the rain is not considerable. In the 
 wettest years at Plymouth the doctor mea- 
 sured only once 36; and again once, viz. 
 1734, >37 1 14 : a quantity of rain that has 
 twice been exceeded at Selborne in the short 
 period of my observations. Dr. Huxham 
 remarks, that frequent small rains keep the 
 air moist ; while heavy ones render it more 
 dry, by beating down the vapours. He is 
 also of opinion that the dingy, smoky appear- 
 ance in the sky, in very dry seasons, arises 
 from the want of moisture sufficient to let 
 the light through, and render the atmo- 
 sphere transparent; because he had ob- 
 served several bodies more diaphanous 
 when wet than dry ; and did never recollect 
 that the air had that look in rainy seasons. 
 My friend, who lives just beyond the top 
 of the down, brought his three swivel guns 
 to try them in my outlet, with their muz- 
 zles towards the Hanger, supposing that 
 
OF SELBORNE. 
 
 the report would have had a great effect; 
 but the experiment did not answer his 
 expectation. He then removed them to 
 the Alcove on the Hanger; when the sound, 
 rushing along the Lythe and Comb-wood, 
 was very grand : but it was at the Hermit- 
 age that the echoes and repercussions de- 
 lighted the hearers; not only filling the 
 Lythe with the roar, as if all the beeches 
 were tearing up by the roots ; but, turning 
 to the left, they pervaded the vale above 
 Combwood-ponds ; and after a pause seemed 
 to take up the crash again, and to extend 
 round Harteley -hangers, and to die away 
 at last among the coppices and coverts of 
 Ward-le-ham. It has been remarked before 
 that this district is an anathoth, a place of 
 responses or echoes, and therefore proper 
 for such experiments : we may farther add 
 that the pauses in echoes, when they cease 
 and yet are taken up again, like the pauses 
 in music, surprise the hearers, and have a 
 fine effect on the imagination. 
 
 The gentleman above-mentioned has just 
 fixed a barometer in his parlour at Newton 
 
128 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 Valence. The tube was first filled here (at 
 Selborm) twice with care, when the mer- 
 cury agreed and stood exactly with my own ; 
 but, being filled again twice at Newton, the 
 mercury stood, on account of the great 
 elevation of that house, three-tenths of an 
 inch lower than the barometers at this vil- 
 lage, and so continues to do, be the weight 
 of the atmosphere what it may. The plate 
 of the barometer at Newton is figured as 
 low as 27 ; because in stormy weather the 
 mercury there will sometimes descend be- 
 low 28. We have supposed Newton-house 
 to stand two hundred feet higher than this 
 house : but if the rule holds good, which 
 says that mercury in a barometer sinks one- 
 tenth of an inch for every hundred feet 
 elevation, then the Newton barometer, by 
 standing three-tenths lower than that of 
 Selborne, proves that Newton-house must be 
 three hundred feet higher than that in 
 which I am writing, instead of two hun- 
 dred. 
 
 It may not be impertinent to add, that 
 the barometers at Selborne stand three- 
 
OF SELBORNE. 129 
 
 tenths of an inch lower than the barometers 
 at South Lambeth; whence we may con- 
 clude that the former place is about three 
 hundred feet higher than the latter ; and 
 with good reason, because the streams that 
 rise with us run into the Thames at Wey- 
 bridge, and so to London. Of course there- 
 fore there must be lower ground all the 
 way from Selborne to South Lambeth ; the 
 distance between which, all the windings 
 and indentings of the streams considered, 
 cannot be less than an hundred miles. 
 
 I am, Sec, 
 
 LETTER LXI. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 
 
 SINCE the weather of a district is un- 
 doubtedly part of its natural history, I 
 shall make no further apology for the four 
 following letters, which will contain many 
 particulars concerning some of the great 
 VOL. IT. K 
 
130 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 frosts and a few respecting some very hot 
 Summers, that have distinguished them- 
 selves from the rest during the course of 
 my observations. 
 
 As the frost in January 1768 was, for the 
 small time it lasted, the most severe that 
 we had then known for many years, and 
 was remarkably injurious to ever-greens, 
 some account of its rigour, and reason of 
 its ravages, may be useful, and not unac- 
 ceptable to persons that delight in plant- 
 ing and ornamenting; and may particu- 
 larly become a work that professes never 
 to lose sight of utility. 
 
 For the last two or three days of the 
 former year there were considerable falls of 
 snow, which lay deep and uniform on the 
 ground without any drifting, wrapping up 
 the more humble vegetation in perfect se- 
 curity. From the first day to the fifth of 
 the new year more snow succeeded ; but 
 from that day the air became entirely 
 clear; and the heat of the sun about noon 
 had a considerable influence in sheltered 
 situations. 
 
OF SKIBORNE. 131 
 
 It was in such an aspect that the snow- 
 on the author's ever-greens was melted 
 every day, and frozen intense ly every nigh t ; 
 so that the laurustines, bays, laurels, and 
 arbutuses looked, in three or four days, as 
 if they had been burnt in the fire; while 
 a neighbour's plantation of the same kind, 
 in a high cold situation, where the snow 
 was never melted at all, remained un- 
 injured. 
 
 From hence I would infer that it is the 
 repeated melting and freezing of the snow 
 that is so fatal to vegetation, rather than 
 the seventy of the cold. Therefore it 
 highly behoves every planter, who wishes 
 to escape the cruel mortification of losing 
 in a few days the labour and hopes of 
 years, to bestir himself on such emergen- 
 cies ; and, if his plantations are small, to 
 avail himself of mats, cloths, pease-haum, 
 straw, reeds, or any such covering, for a 
 short time; or, if his shrubberies are ex- 
 tensive, to see that his people go about with 
 prongs and forks, and carefully dislodge 
 the snow from the boughs : since the naked 
 
 K2 
 
132 NATURAL HISTOBY 
 
 foliage will shift much better for itseli, than 
 where the snow is partly melted and frozen? 
 again, 
 
 It may perhaps appear at first like a para- 
 dox ; but doubtless the more tender trees 
 and shrubs should never be planted in hot 
 aspects ; not only for the reason assigned 
 above,but also because,thus circumstanced, 
 they are disposed to shoot earlier in the 
 Spring, and to grow on later in the Au- 
 tumn, than they would otherwise do, and 
 so are sufferers by lagging or early frosts. 
 For this reason also plants from Siberia will 
 hardly endure our climate : because, on the 
 very first advances of Spring, they shoot 
 away, and so are cut off by the severe 
 nights of March 01 "'April. 
 
 Dr. Fothergill and others have expe^ 
 rienced the same inconvenience with re- 
 spect to the more tender shrubs from North- 
 America ; which they therefore plant under 
 north-walls. There should also perhaps be 
 a wall to the east to defend them from 
 the piercing blasts from that quarter. 
 
 This observation might without any im- 
 
OF SELBORNE. 133 
 
 propriety be carried into animal life; for 
 discerning bee-masters now find that their 
 hives should not in the Winter be exposed 
 to the hot sun, because such unseasonable 
 warmth awakens the inhabitants too early 
 from their slumbers; and, by putting their 
 juices into motion too soon, subjects them 
 afterwards to inconveniences when rigor- 
 ous weather returns. 
 
 The coincidents attending this short but 
 intense frost were, that the horses fell sick 
 with an epidemic distemper, which injured 
 the winds of many, and killed some ; that 
 colds and coughs were general among the 
 human species ; that it froze under people's 
 beds for several nights; that meat was so 
 hard frozen that it could not be spitted, and 
 could not be secured but in cellars ; that 
 several redwings and thrushes were killed 
 by th6 frost ; and that the large titmouse 
 continued to pull straws lengthwise from 
 the eaves of thatched houses and barns in 
 a most adroit manner, for a purpose that 
 has been explained already.* 
 
 * See Letter xli. to Mr. Pennant, 
 
134 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 On the 3rd si January, Benjamin Martins 
 thermometer within doors, in a close par- 
 lour where there was no fire, fell in the 
 night to 20, and on the 4th to 18, and on 
 the 7th to 17i, a degree of cold which the 
 owner never since saw in the same situa- 
 tion ; and he regrets much that he was not 
 able at that juncture t to attend his instru- 
 ment abroad. All this time the wind con- 
 tinued north and north-east ; and yet on 
 the 8th roost- cocks, which had been silent, 
 began to sound their clarions, and crows to 
 clamour, as prognostic of milder weather; 
 and, moreover, moles began to heave and 
 work, and a manifest thaw took place. 
 From the latter circumstance we may con- 
 clude that thaws often originate under 
 ground from warm vapours which arise ; 
 else how should subterraneous animals re- 
 ceive such early intimations of their ap- 
 proach. Moreover, we have often observed 
 that cold seems to descend from above ; 
 for, when a thermometer hangs abroad in 
 a frosty night, the intervention of a cloud 
 shall immediately raise the mercury ten 
 
Of SELBORNE. 135 
 
 degrees; and a clear sky shall again compel 
 it to descend to its former gage. 
 
 And here it may be proper to observe, 
 on what has been said above, that though 
 frosts advance to their utmost severity by 
 somewhat of a regular gradation, yet thaws 
 do not usually come on by as regular a de- 
 clension of cold ; but often take place im- 
 mediately from intense freezing ; as men 
 in sickness often mend at once from a pa- 
 roxysm. 
 
 To the great credit of Portugal laurels 
 and American junipers, be it remembered 
 that they remained untouched amidst the 
 general havock : hence men should learn 
 to ornament chiefly with such trees as are 
 able to withstand accidental seventies, and 
 not subject themselves to the vexation of 
 a loss which may befall them once perhaps 
 in ten years, yet may hardly be recovered 
 through the whole course of their lives. 
 
 As it appeared afterwards the ilexes 
 were much injured, the cypresses w r ere 
 half destroyed, the arbutuses lingered on, 
 but never recovered ; and the bays, lau- 
 
136 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 rustines, and laurels, were killed to the 
 ground ; and the very wild hollies, in hot 
 aspects, were so much affected that they 
 cast all their leaves. 
 
 By the 14th of January the snow was 
 entirely gone ; the turnips emerged not 
 damaged at all, save in sunny places ; the 
 wheat looked delicately, and the garden 
 plants were well preserved ; for snow is 
 the most kindly mantle that infant vege- 
 tation can be wrapped in : were it not for 
 that friendly meteor no vegetable life 
 could exist at all in northerly regions. 
 Yet in Sweden the earth in April is not 
 divested of snow for more than a fortnight 
 before the face of the country is covered 
 with flowers. 
 
OF SELBORNE. 137 
 
 LETTER LXII. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 THERE were some circumstances attend- 
 ing the remarkable frost in January 1776 
 so singular and striking, that a short detail 
 of them may not be unacceptable. 
 
 The most certain way to be exact will 
 be to copy the passages from my journal, 
 which were taken from time to time as 
 things occurred. But it may be proper 
 previously to remark, that the first week in 
 January was uncommonly wet, and drown- 
 ed with vast rains from every quarter : from 
 whence may be inferred, as there is great 
 reason to believe is the case, that intense 
 frosts seldom take place till the earth is per- 
 fectly glutted and chilled with water;* 
 
 * The Autumn preceding January 1768 was very 
 wet, and particularly the month of September, during 
 which there fell at Lyndon, in the county of Rutland, 
 six inches and an half of rain. And the terrible long 
 frost in 1739-4-0 set in after a rainy season, and when 
 ihe springs were very high. 
 
138 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 and hence dry Autumns are seldom fol- 
 lowed by rigorous Winters. 
 
 January 7 fa. Snow driving all the day, 
 which was followed by frost, sleet, and 
 some snow, till the 1 2th, when a prodigious 
 mass overwhelmed all the works of men, 
 drifting over the tops of the gates and fil- 
 ling the hollow lanes. 
 
 On the 14th the writer was obliged to 
 be much abroad; and thinks he never be- 
 fore or since has encountered such rugged 
 Siberian weather. Many of the narrow 
 roads were now filled above the tops of 
 the hedges ; through which the snow was 
 driven into most romantic and grotesque 
 shapes, so striking to the imagination as 
 not to be seen without wonder and plea- 
 sure. The poultry dared not to stir out 
 of their roosting places; for cocks and 
 hens are so dazzled and confounded by 
 the glare of snow that they would soon 
 perish without assistance. The hares also 
 lay sullenly in their seats, and would not 
 move till compelled by hunger; being con- 
 scious, poor animals, that the drifts and 
 
OF SELBORNE. 139 
 
 heaps treacherously betray their footsteps, 
 and prove fatal to numbers of them. 
 
 From the 14th the snow continued to 
 increase, and began to stop the road wag- 
 gons and coaches, which could no longer 
 keep on their regular stages ; and especially 
 on the western roads, where the fall ap- 
 pears to have been deeper than in the 
 south. The company at Bath, that wanted 
 to attend the Queens birth-day, were strange- 
 ly incommoded : many carriages of persons, 
 who got in their way to town from Bath 
 as far as Marlborough, after strange em- 
 barrassments, here met with a m plus ultra. 
 The ladies fretted, and offered large re- 
 wards to labourers if they would shovel 
 them a track to London : but the relentless 
 heaps of snow were too bulky to be re- 
 moved; and so the 18th passed over, leav- 
 ing the company in very uncomfortable cir- 
 cumstances at the Castle and other inns. 
 
 On the 20th the sun shone out for the 
 first time since the frost began ; a circum- 
 stance that has been remarked before much 
 
140 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 in favour of vegetation. All this time the 
 cold was not very intense, for the ther- 
 mometer stood at 29, 28, 25, and there- 
 about; but on the 21st it descended to 20. 
 The birds now began to be in a very pitia- 
 ble and starving condition. Tamed by the 
 season, sky-larks settled in the streets of 
 towns, because they saw the ground was 
 bare ; rooks frequented dunghills close to 
 houses; and crows watched horses as they 
 passed,and greedily devoured what dropped 
 from them ; hares now came into men's 
 gardens, and, scraping away the snow, de- 
 voured such plants as they could find. 
 
 On the 22nd the author had occasion to 
 go to London through a sort of Laplandian- 
 scene, very wild and grotesque indeed. But 
 the metropolis itself exhibited a still more 
 singular appearance than the country ; for, 
 being bedded deep in snow, the pavement 
 of the streets could not be touched by the 
 wheels or the horses' feet, so that the car- 
 riages ran about without the least noise. 
 Such an exemption from din and clatter 
 
OF SELBORNE, 141 
 
 was strange, but not pleasant ; it seemed 
 to convey an uncomfortable idea of deso- 
 lation : 
 
 ipsa silentia terrent." 
 
 On the 27th much snow fell all day, and 
 in the evening the frost became very in- 
 tense. At South Lambeth, for the four fol- 
 lowing nights, the thermometer fell to 11, 
 7, 6, 6; and at Sdborne to 7, 6, 10; and 
 on the 3 1st of January, just before sun-rise, 
 with rime on the trees and on the tube of 
 the glass, the quicksilver sunk exactly to 
 zero, being 32 degrees below the freezing 
 point : but by eleven in the morning, 
 though in the shade, it sprung up to 16| * 
 a most unusual degree of cold this for 
 the south of England! During these four 
 
 * At Selborne the cold was greater than at any other 
 place that the author could hear of with certainty : 
 though some reported at the time that at a village in 
 Kent the thermometer fell two degrees below zero, viz. 
 34< degrees below the freezing point. 
 
 The thermometer used at Selborne was graduatedby 
 Benjamin Martin, 
 
142 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 nights the cold was so penetrating that it 
 occasioned ice in warm chambers and under 
 beds ; and in the day the wind was so keen 
 that persons of robust constitutions could 
 scarcely endure to face it. The Thames 
 was at once so frozen over both above and 
 below bridge that crowds ran about on the 
 ice. The streets were now strangely in- 
 cumbered with snow, which crumbled and 
 trod dusty; and, turning grey, resembled 
 bay-salt : what had fallen on the roofs was 
 so perfectly dry, that, from first to last, it 
 lay twenty-six days on the houses in the 
 city ; a longer time than had been remem- 
 bered by the oldest housekeepers living. 
 According to all appearances we might now 
 have expected the continuance of this rigor- 
 ous weather for weeks to come, since every 
 night increased in severity ; but behold, 
 without any apparent cause, on the 1st of 
 February a thaw took place, and some rain 
 followed before night ; making good the 
 observation above, that frosts often go off 
 as it were at once, without any gradual 
 declension of cold. On the 2nd of February 
 
OF SELBORISTE. 143 
 
 the thaw persisted ; and on the 3rd swarms 
 oflittle insects were frisking and sporting 
 in a court-yard at South Lambeth, as if they 
 had felt no frost. Why the juices in the 
 small bodies and smaller limbs of such mi- 
 nute beings are not frozen is a matter of 
 curious inquiry. 
 
 Severe frosts seem to be partial, or to 
 run in currents ; for, at the same juncture, 
 as the author was informed by accurate 
 correspondents, at Lyndon in the county 
 of Rutland, the thermometer stood at 19: 
 at Blackburn, in Lancashire, at 19: and at 
 Manchester at 21, 20, and 18. Thus does 
 some unknown circumstance strangely 
 overbalance latitude, and render the cold 
 sometimes much greater in the southern 
 than the northern parts of this kingdom. 
 
 The consequences of this severity were, 
 that in Hampshire, at the melting of the 
 snow, the wheat looked well, and the tur- 
 nips came forth little injured. The laurels 
 and laurustines were somewhat damaged, 
 but only in hot aspects. No evergreens 
 were quite destroyed; and not half the 
 
144 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 damage sustained that befell in January 
 1768. Those laurels that were a little 
 scorched on the south-sides were perfectly 
 untouched on their north-sides. The care 
 taken to shake the snow day by day from 
 the branches seemed greatly to avail the 
 author's evergreens. A neighbour's laurel- 
 hedge, in a high situation, and facing to 
 the north, was perfectly green and vigor- 
 ous; and the Portugal laurels remained 
 unhurt. 
 
 As to the birds, the thrushes and black- 
 birds were mostly destroyed ; and the par- 
 tridges, by the weather and poachers, were 
 so thinned that few remained to breed the 
 following year. 
 
 LETTER LXIIT. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 As the frost in December 1784 was very 
 extraordinary, you, I trust, will not be dis- 
 pleased to hear the particulars ; and espe- 
 
OF SELBOIINE. 14,5 
 
 eially when I promise to say no more 
 about the severities of Winter after I have 
 finished this letter- 
 
 The first week in December was very wet, 
 with the barometer very low. On the 7th, 
 with the barometer at 28 five tenths, 
 came on a vast snow, which continued all 
 that day and the next, and most part of 
 the following night ; so that by the morn- 
 ing of the 9th the works of men were quite 
 overwhelmed, the lanes filled so as to be 
 impassable, and the ground covered twelve 
 or fifteen inches without any drifting. In 
 the evening of the 9th the air began to be 
 so very sharp that we thought it would be 
 curious to attend to the motions of a ther- 
 mometer ; we therefore hung out two; one 
 made by Martin and one by Dollond, which 
 soon began to show us what we were to 
 expect ; for, by ten o'clock, they fell to 21, 
 and at eleven to 4, when we went to bed. 
 On the 10th, in the morning, the quick- 
 silver of Dollond^ glass was down to half a 
 degree below zero ; and that of Martins, 
 which was absurdly graduated only to four 
 
 VOL. II. L 
 
146 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 degrees above zero, sunk quite into the brass 
 guard of the ball ; so that when the weather 
 became most interesting this was useless. 
 On the 10th, at eleven at night, though 
 the air was perfectly still, Dollond's glass 
 went down to one degree below zero! This 
 strange severity of the weather made me 
 very desirous to know what degree of cold 
 there might be in such an exalted and near 
 situation as Newton. We had, therefore, 
 on the morning of the 10th, written to 
 
 Mr. , and entreated him to hang out 
 
 his thermometer, made by Adams; and to 
 pay some attention to it morning and even- 
 ing ; expecting wonderful phenomena, in 
 so elevated a region, at two hundred feet 
 or more above my house. But, behold! on 
 the 10th, at eleven at night, it was down 
 only to 17, and the next morning at 22, 
 when mine was at ten ! We were so dis- 
 turbed at this unexpected reverse of com- 
 parative local cold, that we sent one of my 
 
 glasses up, thinking that of Mr. must, 
 
 some how, be wrongly constructed. But, 
 when the instruments came to be coi> 
 
OF SELBORNE. 147 
 
 fronted, they went exactly together : so 
 that, for one night at least, the cold at 
 Newton was 18 degrees less than at Sel- 
 borne; and, through the whole frost, 10 or 
 12 degrees ; and, indeed, when we came to 
 observe consequences, we could readily 
 credit this ; for all my laurustines, bays, 
 ilexes, arbutuses, cypresses, and even my 
 Portugal laurels* and (which occasions 
 more regret) my fine sloping laurel-hedge, 
 were scorched up ; while, at Newton, the 
 same trees have not lost a leaf ! 
 
 We had steady frost on to the 25th, 
 when the thermometer in the morning was 
 down to 1 with us, and at Newton only to 
 21. Strong frost continued till the 31st, 
 when some tendency to thaw was observed ; 
 and, by January the 3rd, 1785, the thaw 
 was confirmed, and some rain fell. 
 
 * Mr. Miller, in his Gardener's Dictionary, says 
 positively that the Portugal laurels remained untouched 
 in the remarkable frost of 1739-4-0. So that either that 
 accurate observer was much mistaken, or else the 
 frost of December 1784? was much more severe and 
 destructive than that in the year above-mentioned, 
 L 2 
 
148 NATURL HISTORY 
 
 A circumstance that I must not omit, 
 because it was new to us, is, that on Friday, 
 December the 10th, being bright sun-shine, 
 the air was full of icy spicula, floating in 
 all directions, like atoms in a sun-beam let 
 into a dark room. We thought them at 
 first particles of the rime falling from my 
 tall hedges ; but were soon convinced to 
 the contrary, by making our observations 
 in open places where no rime could reach 
 us. Were they watery particles of the air 
 frozen as they floated ; or were they eva- 
 porations from the snow frozen as they 
 mounted ? 
 
 We were much obliged to the thermo- 
 meters for the early information they gave 
 us ; and hurried our apples, pears, onions,, 
 potatoes, &c. into the cellar, and warm 
 closets ; while those who had not, or neg- 
 lected such warnings, lost all their stores 
 of roots and fruits, and had their very 
 bread and cheese frozen. 
 
 I must not omit to tell you that, during 
 those two Siberian days, my parlour-cat 
 was so electric, that had a person stroked 
 
OF SELBORNE. 149 
 
 her, and been properly insulated, the shock 
 might have been given to a whole circle of 
 people. 
 
 I forgot to mention before, that, during 
 the two severe days, two men, who were 
 tracing hares in the snow, had their feet 
 frozen; and two men, who were much 
 better employed, had their fingers so 
 affected by the frost, while they were 
 thrashing in a barn, that a mortification 
 followed, from which they did not recover 
 for many weeks. 
 
 This frost killed all the furze and most 
 of the ivy, and in many places stripped the 
 hollies of all their leaves. It came at a 
 very early time of the year, before old 
 November ended ; and yet may be allowed 
 from its effects to have exceeded any 
 since 173940. 
 
150 NATURAL HISTORY" 
 
 LETTER LXIV. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 As the effects of heat are seldom very 
 remarkable in the northerly climate of 
 England, where the Summers are often so 
 defective in warmth and sun-shine as not 
 to ripen the fruits of the earth so well as 
 might be wished, I shall be more concise 
 in my account of the severity of a Summer 
 season, and so make a little amends for 
 the prolix account of the degrees of cold, 
 and the inconveniences that we suffered 
 from some late rigorous Winters. 
 
 The Summers of 1781 and 1783 were 
 unusually hot and dry ; to them therefore 
 I shall turn back in my journals, without 
 recurring to any more distant period. In 
 the former of these years my peach and 
 nectarine-trees suffered so much from the 
 heat that the rind on the bodies was scalded 
 and came off; since which the trees have 
 
OF SELB011NE. 151 
 
 in a decaying state. This may prove 
 a hint to assiduous gardeners to fence and 
 shelter their wall-trees with mats or boards, 
 as they may easily do, because such annoy- 
 ance is seldom of long continuance. Dur- 
 ing that Summer also, I observed that my 
 apples were coddled, as it were, on the 
 trees ; so that they had no quickness of 
 flavour, and would not keep in the Winter. 
 This circumstance put me in mind of what 
 I have heard travellers assert, that they 
 never ate a good apple or apricot in the 
 south of Europe, where the heats were so 
 great as_to render the juices vapid and in- 
 sipid. 
 
 The great pests of a garden are wasps, 
 which destroy all the finer fruits just as 
 they are coming into perfection. In 178J 
 we had none ; in 1783 there were myriads ; 
 which would have devoured all the pro- 
 duce of my garden, had not we set the boys 
 to take the nests, and caught thousands 
 with hazel twigs tipped with -bird-lime : 
 we have since employed the boys to take 
 <and destroy the large breeding wasps in the 
 
152 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 Spring. Such expedients have a great effect 
 on these marauders, and will keep them 
 under. Though wasps do not abound but 
 in hot Summers, yet they do not prevail 
 in every hot Summer, as I have instanced 
 in the two years above-mentioned. 
 
 In the sultry season of 1783 honey-dews 
 were so frequent as to deface and destroy 
 the beauties of my garden. My honey- 
 suckles, which were one week the most 
 sweet and lovely objects that the eye could 
 behold, became the next the most loath- 
 some ; being enveloped in a viscous sub- 
 stance* and loaded with black aphides, or 
 smother-flies. The occasion of this clammy 
 appearance seems to be this, that in hot 
 weather the effluvia of flowers in fields and 
 meadows and gardens are drawn up in the 
 day by a brisk evaporation, and then in 
 the night fall down again with the dews, 
 in which they are entangled ; that the air 
 is strongly scented, and therefore impreg- 
 nated with the particles of flowers in Sum- 
 mer weather, our senses will inform us ; 
 and that this clammy sweet substance is 
 
OF SELBOHNE. 153 
 
 of the vegetable kind we may learn from 
 bees, to whom it is very grateful : and we 
 may be assured that it falls in the night, 
 because it is always first seen in warm still 
 mornings. 
 
 On chalky and sandy soils, and in the 
 hot villages about London, the thermometer 
 has been often observed to mount as high 
 as 83 or 84 ; but with us, in this hilly and 
 woody district, I have hardly ever seen it 
 exceed 80 ; nor does it often arrive at that 
 pitch. The reason, I conclude, is, that our 
 dense clayey soil, so much shaded by trees, 
 is not so easily heated through as those 
 above-mentioned: and, besides, our moun- 
 tains cause currents of air and breezes; 
 and the vast effluvia from our woodlands 
 temper and moderate our heats. 
 
154 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 LETTER LXV. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 THE Summer of the year 1783 was an 
 amazing and portentous one, and full of 
 horrible phenomena ; for, besides the 
 alarming meteors and tremendous thunder- 
 storms that affrighted and distressed the 
 different counties of this kingdom, the 
 peculiar haze, or smokey fog, that prevailed 
 for many weeks in this island, and in every 
 part of Europe, and even beyond its limits, 
 was a most extraordinary appearance, un- 
 like any thing known within the memory 
 of man. By my journal I find that I had 
 noticed this strange occurrence from June 
 23 to July 20 inclusive, during which pe- 
 riod the wind varied to every quarter with- 
 out making any alteration in the air. The 
 sun, at noon, looked as blank as a clouded 
 moon, and shed a rust-coloured ferruginous 
 light on the ground, and floors of rooms ; 
 
OF SELBOIINE. 155 
 
 but was particularly lurid and blood- 
 coloured at rising and setting. All the time 
 the heat was so intense that butchers' meat 
 could hardly be eaten on the day after it 
 was killed ; and the flies swarmed so in the 
 lanes and hedges that they rendered the 
 horses half frantic, and riding irksome. 
 The country people began to look with a 
 superstitious awe, at the red, louring aspect 
 of the sun ; and indeed there was reason 
 for the most enlightened person to be ap- 
 prehensive ; for, all the while, Calabria and 
 part of the isle of Sicily, were torn and con- 
 vulsed with earthquakes ; and about that 
 juncture a volcano sprung out of the sea on 
 the coast of Norway. On this occasion 
 Milton $ noble simile of the sun, in his first 
 book of Paradise Lost, frequently occurred 
 to my mind ; and it is indeed particularly 
 applicable, because, towards the end, it 
 alludes to a superstitious kind of dread, 
 with which the minds of men are always 
 impressed by such strange and unusual 
 phenomena. 
 
156 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 As when the sun t new risen, 
 
 < Looks through the horizontal misty air, 
 
 " Shorn of his beams; or from behind the moon, 
 
 " In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds 
 
 11 On half the nations, and with fear of change 
 
 n Perplexes monarchs. " 
 
 LETTER LXVI. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 WE are very seldom annoyed with thun- 
 der-storms ; and it is no less remarkable 
 than true, that those which arise in the 
 south have hardly been known to reach 
 this village ; for before they get over us, 
 they take a direction to the east or to the 
 west, or sometimes divide into two, and 
 go in part to one of those quarters, and in 
 part to the other ; as was truly the case in 
 Summer 1783, when though the country 
 round was continually harassed with tem- 
 pests, and often from the south, yet we 
 escaped them all ; as appears by my journal 
 
OF SELBORNE. 15? 
 
 of that Summer. The only way that I can 
 at all account for this fact for such it is 
 is, that on that quarter, between us and 
 the sea, there are continual mountains, 
 hill behind hill, such as Nore-hill, the Bar- 
 net, Butser-hill, and Ports-down, which some 
 how divert the storms, and give them a 
 different direction. High promontories, 
 and elevated grounds, have always been 
 observed to attract clouds and disarm them 
 of their mischievous contents, which are 
 discharged into the trees and summits as 
 soon as they come in contact with those 
 turbulent meteors ; while the humble vales 
 escape, because they are so far beneath 
 them. 
 
 But, when I say I do not remember a 
 thunder-storm from the south, I do not 
 mean that we never have suffered from 
 thunder-storms at all ; for on June 5th, 
 1784, the thermometer in the morning 
 being at 64, and at noon at 70, the baro- 
 meter at 29 six tenths one-half, and the 
 wind north, I observed a blue mist, smell- 
 ing strongly of sulphur, hanging along our 
 
158 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 sloping woods, and seeming to indicate 
 that thunder was at hand. I was called in 
 about two in the afternoon, and so missed 
 seeing the gathering of the clouds in the 
 north, which they who were abroad as- 
 sured me had something uncommon in its 
 appearance. At about a quarter after two 
 the storm began in the parish of Hartley, 
 moving slowly from north to south ; and 
 from thence it came over Norton-farm, and 
 so to Grange-farm, both in this parish. It 
 began with vast drops of rain, which were 
 soon succeeded by round hail, and then by 
 convex pieces of ice, which measured three 
 inches in girth. Had it been as extensive 
 as it was violent, and of any continuance 
 (for it was very short), it must have ravaged 
 all the neighbourhood. In the parish of 
 Hartley it did some damage to one farm ; 
 but Norton, which lay in the centre of the 
 storm, was greatly injured ; as was Grange, 
 which lay next to it. It did but just reach 
 to the middle of the village, where the hail 
 broke my north windows, and all my gar- 
 den-lights and hand-glasses, and many of 
 
OF SELBORNE. 159 
 
 my neighbours' windows. The extent of 
 the storm was about two miles in length 
 and one in breadth. We were just sitting 
 down to dinner ; but were soon diverted 
 from our repast by the clattering of tiles 
 and the jingling of glass. There fell at the 
 same time prodigious torrents of rain on 
 the farms above-mentioned, which occa- 
 sioned a flood as violent as it was sudden ; 
 doing great damage to the meadows and 
 fallows, by deluging the one and washing 
 away the soil of the other. The hollow lane 
 towards Alton was so torn and disordered 
 as not to be passable till mended, rocks 
 being removed that weighed 200 weight. 
 Those that saw the effect which the great 
 hail had on ponds and pools say that the 
 dashing of the water made an extraordi- 
 nary appearance, the froth and spray stand- 
 ing up in the air three feet above the sur- 
 face. The rushing and roaring of the hail, 
 as it approached, was truly tremendous. 
 
 Though the clouds at South Lambeth, 
 near London, were at that juncture thin 
 and light, and no storm was in sight, nor 
 
160 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 within hearing, yet the air was strongly 
 electric ; for the bells of an electric machine 
 at that place rang repeatedly, and fierce 
 sparks were discharged. 
 
 When I first took the present work in 
 hand I proposed to have added an Annns 
 Hist or ico-natur alls, or the natural History 
 of the Twelve Months of the Year ; which 
 would have comprised many incidents and 
 occurrences that have not fallen in my 
 way to be mentioned in my series of let- 
 ters; but, as Mr.Aikinof W&rnng(cnb^ 
 lately published somewhat of this sort, and 
 as the length of my correspondence has 
 sufficiently put your patience to the test, 
 I shall here take a respectful leave of you 
 and natural history together; and am, 
 
 With all due deference and regard, 
 Your most obliged, 
 
 And most humble servant, 
 
 GIL. WHITE, 
 
A 
 
 COMPARATIVE VIEW 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NATURALIST'S CALENDAR, 
 
 AS KEPT AT 
 
 SELBORNE, IN HAMPSHIRE, 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 REV. GILBERT WHITE, M,A. 
 
 AND 
 
 AT CATSFIELD, NEAR BATTLE, 
 IN SUSSEX, 
 
 By WILLIAM MARK WICK, ESQ. F.L.S. 
 
 FROM THE YEAR 1768 TO THE YEAR 1793. 
 
 . 
 
 VOL. II. M 
 
N. B. The dates in the following calendars, when 
 more than one, express the earliest and the latest times 
 in which the circumstance noted was observed. 
 
NATURALIST'S CALENDAR. 163 
 
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NATURALISTS CALENDAR 
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NATURALIST'S CALENDAR. 165 
 
 
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168 NATURALIST'S CALENDAR. 
 
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OBSERVATIONS 
 
 ON 
 
 VARIOUS PARTS OF NATURE. 
 
 FROM MR. WHITE'S MSS. 
 WITH REMARKS BY MR. MARKWICK, 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 
 
 BIRDS IN GENERAL. 
 
 IN severe weather, fieldfares, red-wings, 
 sky-larks, and tit-larks, resort to watered 
 meadows for food ; the latter wades up to 
 its belly in pursuit of the pupae of insects, 
 and runs along upon the floating grass and 
 weeds. Many gnats are on the snow near 
 the water, these support the birds in part. 
 
 Birds are much influenced in their choice 
 of food by colour, for though white cur- 
 rants are a much sweeter fruit than red, 
 yet they seldom touch the former till they 
 have devoured every bunch of the latter. 
 
 Red-starts, fly-catchers, and black-caps, 
 arrive early in April. If these little deli- 
 cate beings are birds of passage (as we have 
 
 r Kt? 
 
 
 
200 ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 reason to suppose they are, because they 
 are never seen in Winter) how could they, 
 feeble as they seem, bear up against such 
 storms of snow and rain, and make their 
 way through such meteorous turbulences, 
 as one should suppose would embarrass and 
 retard the most hardy and resolute of the 
 winged nation ? Yet they keep their ap- 
 pointed times and seasons ; and in spite of 
 frosts and winds return to their stations 
 periodically, as if they had met with no- 
 thing to obstruct them. The withdrawing 
 and appearance of the short-winged Sum- 
 mer birds is a very puzzling circumstance 
 in natural history ! 
 
 When the boys bring me wasps' nests, 
 my bantom fowls fare deliciously, and 
 when the combs are pulled to pieces, de- 
 vour the young wasps in their maggot state 
 with the highest glee and delight. Any 
 insect-eating bird would do the same ; and 
 therefore I have often wondered that the 
 accurate Mr. Ray should call one species of 
 buzzard buteo apivorus sive vespivorus, or 
 the honey buzzard, because some combs of 
 
or NATURE. 201 
 
 wasps happened to be found in one of 
 their nests. The combs were conveyed 
 thither doubtless for the sake of the mag- 
 gots or nymphs, and not for their honey : 
 since none is to be found in the combs of 
 wasps. Birds of prey occasionally feed on 
 insects ; thus have I seen a tame kite pick- 
 ing up the female ants full of eggs with 
 much satisfaction. WHITE. 
 
 That red-starts, fly-catchers, black-caps, 
 and other slender-billed insectivorous small 
 birds, particularly the swallow tribe, make 
 their first appearance very early in the 
 Spring, is a well known fact ; though the 
 fly-catcher is the latest of them all in its 
 visit (as this accurate naturalist observes in 
 another place), for it is never seen before 
 the month of May. If these delicate crea- 
 tures come to us from a distant country, 
 they will probably be exposed in their pas- 
 sage, as Mr. White justly remarks, to much 
 greater difficulties from storms and tem- 
 pests than their feeble powers appear to be 
 able to surmount : on the other hand, if we 
 
202 ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 suppose them to pass the Winter in a dor- 
 mant state in this country concealed in 
 caverns or other hiding places sufficiently 
 guarded from the extreme cold of our Win- 
 ter to preserve their life, and that at the 
 approach of Spring they revive from their 
 torpid state and reassume their usual powers 
 of action, it will entirely remove the first 
 difficulty, arising from the storms and tem- 
 pests they are liable to meet with in their 
 passage; but how are we to get oyer the 
 still greater difficulty of their revivification 
 from their torpid state ? What degree of 
 warmth in the temperature of the air is 
 necessary to produce that effect, and how 
 it operates on the functions of animal life, 
 are questions not easily answered. 
 
 How could Mr. White suppose that Ray 
 named this species the honey buzzard be- 
 cause it fed on honey, when he not only 
 named it in Latin buteo apivorus et vespi- 
 vorus, but expressly says that " it feeds on 
 insects, and brings up its young with the 
 maggots or nymphs of wasps ?" 
 
 That birds of prey, when in want of their 
 
OF NATURE. 203 
 
 proper food, flesh, sometimes feed on in- 
 sects I have little doubt, and think I have 
 observed the common buzzard, falco buteo, 
 to settle on the ground and pick up in- 
 sects of some kind or other. MARKWICK. 
 
 ROOKS. 
 
 Rooks are continually fighting and pull- 
 ing each other's nests to pieces : these pro- 
 ceedings are inconsistent with living in 
 such close community. And yet if a pair 
 offer to build on a single tree, the nest is 
 plundered and demolished at once. Some 
 rooks roost on their nest trees. The twigs 
 which the rooks drop in building supply 
 the poor with brushwood to light their 
 fires. Some unhappy pairs are not per- 
 mitted to finish any nest till the rest have 
 completed their building. As soon as they 
 get a few sticks together, a party comes 
 and demolishes the whole. As soon as 
 rooks have finished their nests, and before 
 
204 ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 they lay, the cocks begin to feed the hens, 
 who receive their bounty with a fondling 
 tremulous voice and fluttering wings, and 
 all the little blandishments that are ex- 
 pressed by the young, while in a helpless 
 state. This gallant deportment of the 
 males is continued through the whole sea- 
 son of incubation. These birds do not 
 copulate on trees, nor in their nests, but 
 on the ground in the open fields. WHITE. 
 
 After the first brood of rooks are suffi- 
 ciently fledged, they all leave their nest- 
 trees in the day-time, and resort to some 
 distant place in search of food, but return 
 regularly every evening, in vast flights, to 
 their nest-trees, where, after flying round 
 several times with much noise and clamour, 
 till they are all assembled together, they 
 take up their abode for the night. 
 
 MARKWICK. 
 
OI< NATURE. 205 
 
 THRUSHES. 
 
 Thrushes during long droughts are of 
 great service in hunting out shell snails, 
 which they pull in pieces for their young, 
 and are thereby very serviceable in gar- 
 dens. Missel thrushes do not destroy the 
 fruit in gardens like the other species of 
 turdi, but feed on the berries, of misseltoe, 
 and in the Spring on ivy berries, which 
 then begin to ripen. In the Summer, when 
 their young become fledged, they leave 
 neighbourhoods, and retire to sheep-walks 
 and wild commons. 
 
 The magpies, when they have young, 
 destroy the broods of missel thrushes, 
 though the dams are fierce birds, and fight 
 boldly in defence of their nests. It is pro- 
 bably to avoid such insults, that this species 
 of thrush, though wild at other times, de- 
 lights to build near houses, and in fre- 
 quented walks and gardens. WHITE. 
 
206 ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 Of the truth of this I have been an eye- 
 witness, having seen the common thrush 
 feeding on the shell snail. 
 
 In the very early part of this Spring 
 (1797) a bird of this species used to sit 
 every morning on the top of some high 
 elms close by my windows, and delight me 
 with its charming song, attracted thither, 
 probably, by some ripe ivy berries that 
 grew near the place. 
 
 I have remarked something like the lat- 
 ter fact, for I remember, many years ago, 
 seeing a pair of these birds fly up re- 
 peatedly and attack some larger bird, 
 which I suppose disturbed their nest in 
 my orchard, uttering at the same time 
 violent shrieks. Since writing the above, 
 I have seen more than once a pair of these 
 birds attack some magpies that had dis- 
 turbed their nest, with great violence and 
 loud shrieks. MARKWICK. 
 
OF NATURE. 207 
 
 POULTRY. 
 
 Many creatures are endowed with a 
 ready discernment to see what will turn to 
 their own advantage and emolument ; and 
 often discover more sagacity than could be 
 expected. Thus my neighbour's poultry 
 watch for waggons loaded with wheat, and 
 running after them pick up a number of 
 grains which are shaken from the sheaves 
 by the agitation of the carriages. Thus, 
 when my brother used to take down his 
 gun to shoot sparrows, his cats would run 
 out before him, to be ready to catch up the 
 birds as they fell. 
 
 The earnest and early propensity of the 
 gallinae to roost on high is very observable; 
 and discovers a strong dread impressed on 
 their spirits respecting vermin that may 
 annoy them on the ground during the 
 hours of darkness. Hence poultry, if left 
 to themselves and not housed, will perch 
 the Winter through on yew-trees and fir- 
 trees; and turkies and guinea fowls, heavy 
 
208 ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 as they are, get up into apple trees : phea- 
 sants also in woods sleep on trees to avoid 
 foxes ; while pea-fowls climb to the tops 
 of the highest trees round their owner's 
 house for security, let the weather be ever 
 so cold or blowing. Partridges, it is true, 
 roost on the ground, not having the faculty 
 of perching ; but then the same fear pre- 
 vails in their minds ; for through appre- 
 hensions from pole-cats and stoats, they 
 never trust themselves to coverts, but nestle 
 together in the midst of large fields, far 
 removed from hedges and coppices, which 
 they love to haunt in the day, and where 
 at that season they can sculk more secure 
 from the ravages of rapacious birds. 
 
 As "to ducks and geese, their awkward 
 splay web-feet forbid them to settle on 
 trees ; they therefore, in the hours of dark- 
 ness and danger, betake themselves to their 
 own element the water, where, amidst 
 large lakes and pools, like ships riding at 
 anchor, they float the whole night long in 
 peace and security. 
 
 WHITE. 
 
OF NATURE. 209 
 
 Guinea fowls not only roost on high, but 
 in hard weather resort, even in the day- 
 time, to the very tops of the highest trees. 
 
 Last Winter, when the ground was co- 
 vered with snow, I discovered all my 
 guinea fowls, in the middle of the day, 
 sitting on the highest boughs of some very 
 tall elms, chattering and making a great 
 clamour: T ordered them to be driven down, 
 lest they should be frozen to death in so 
 elevated a situation, but this was not 
 effected without much difficulty, they being 
 very unwilling to "quit their lofty abode, 
 notwithstanding one of them had its feet 
 so much frozen that we were obliged to 
 kill it. I know not how to account for this, 
 unless it was occasioned by their aversion 
 to the snow on the ground, they being 
 birds that come originally from a hot 
 climate. 
 
 Notwithstanding the awkward splay 
 web-feet (as Mr. White calls them) of the 
 duck genus, some of the foreign species 
 have the power of settling on the boughs 
 of trees apparently with great ease ; an in- 
 
 VOL. II. P 
 
210 ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 stance of which I have seen in the earl of 
 Ashburnham's menagerie, where the sum- 
 mer duck, anas sponsa, flew up and settled 
 on the branch of an oak-tree in my pre- 
 sence ; bat whether any of them roost on 
 trees in the night, we are not informed by 
 any author that I am acquainted with. I 
 suppose not, but that, like the rest of the 
 genus, they sleep on the water, where the 
 birds of this genus are not always perfectly 
 secure, as will appear from the following- 
 circumstance which happened in this 
 neighbourhood a few years since, as I was 
 credibly informed. A female fox was 
 found in the morning drowned in the same 
 pond in which were several geese, and it 
 was supposed that in the night the fox 
 swam into the pond to devour the geese, 
 but was attacked by the gander, which 
 being most powerful in its own element, 
 buffeted the fox with its wings about the 
 head till it was drowned. MARKWICK, 
 
OF NATURE. 211 
 
 HEN PARTRIDGE. 
 
 A hen partridge came out of a ditch, and 
 ran along shivering with her wings, and 
 crying out as if wounded and unable to get 
 from us. While the dam acted this dis- 
 tress, the boy who attended me saw her 
 brood, that was small and unable to fly, 
 run for shelter into an old fox-earth under 
 the bank. So wonderful a power is in- 
 stinct. WHITE. 
 
 It is not uncommon to see an old par- 
 tridge feign itself wounded and run along 
 on the ground fluttering and crying before 
 either dog or man, to draw them away 
 from its helpless unfledged young ones. I 
 have seen it often, and once in particular I 
 saw a remarkable instance of the old bird's 
 solicitude to save its brood. As I was hunt- 
 ing with a young pointer, the dog ran on a 
 brood of very small partridges ; the old bird 
 cried, fluttered, and ran tumbling along 
 p2 
 
212 ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 just before the dog's nose till she had 
 drawn him to a considerable distance, when 
 she took wing and flew still farther off, but 
 not out of the field : on this the dog re- 
 turned to me, near which place the young 
 ones lay concealed in the grass, which the 
 old bird no sooner perceived than she flew 
 back again to us, settled just before the 
 dog's nose again, and by rolling and tumb- 
 ling about drew off his attention from her 
 young, and thus preserved her brood a 
 second time. I have also seen, when a kite 
 has been hovering over a covey of young 
 partridges, the old birds fly up at the bird 
 of prey, screaming and fighting with all 
 their might to preserve their brood. 
 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 A HYBRID PHEASANT. 
 
 Lord Stawell sent me from the great 
 lodge in the Holt a curious bird for my 
 inspection. It was found by the spaniels 
 of one of his keepers in a coppice, and 
 
OF NATURE. 213 
 
 shot on the wing. The shape, air, and 
 habit of the bird, and the scarlet ring 
 round the eyes, agreed well with the ap- 
 pearance of a cock pheasant : but then the 
 head and neck, and breast and belly were 
 of a glossy black : and though it weighed 
 three pounds three ounces and a half,* the 
 weight of a large full-grown cock pheasant, 
 yet there were no signs of any spurs on the 
 legs, as is usual with all grown cock phea- 
 sants, who have long ones. The legs and 
 feet were naked of feathers, and therefore 
 it could be nothing of the grous kind. In 
 the tail were no long bending feathers, 
 such as cock pheasants usually have, and 
 are characteristic of the sex. The tail was 
 much shorter than the tail of a hen phea- 
 sant, and blunt and square at the end. The 
 back, wing feathers, and tail, were all of a 
 pale russet curiously streaked, somewhat 
 like the upper parts of a hen partridge. I 
 returned it with my verdict, that it was 
 probably a spurious or hybrid hen bird, 
 
 * Hen pheasants usually weigh only two pounds ten 
 Bounces. 
 
214 ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 bred between a cock pheasant and some 
 domestic fowl. When I came to talk with 
 the keeper who brought it, he told me 
 that some pea-hens had been known last 
 Summer to haunt the coppices and coverts 
 where this mule was found. 
 
 Mr. Elmer, of Farnham, the famous 
 game painter, was employed to take an 
 exact copy of this curious bird. 
 
 N. B. It ought to be mentioned, that 
 some good judges have imagined this bird 
 to have been a stray grous or black cock ; 
 it is, however, to be observed, that Mr. W. 
 remarks, that its legs and feet were naked, 
 whereas those of the grous are feathered 
 to the toes. WHITE. 
 
 Mr. Latham observes, that " pea-hens, 
 after they have done laying, sometimes' 
 assume the plumage of the male bird," and 
 has given a figure of the male-feathered 
 pea-hen now to be seen in the Leverian 
 Museum; and M. Salerne remarks, that 
 " the hen pheasant, when she has done 
 
OF NATURE, 215 
 
 laying and sitting, will get the plumage 
 of the male." May not this hybrid phea- 
 sant (as Mr. White calls it) be a bird of 
 this kind ? that is, an old hen pheasant 
 which had just begun to assume the 
 plumage of the cock. MARK WICK. 
 
 LAND-RAIL. 
 
 A man brought me a land-rail or daker- 
 hen, a bird so rare in this district that we 
 seldom see more than one or two in a 
 season, and those only in Autumn. This is 
 deemed a bird of passage by all the writers : 
 yet from its formation seems to be poorly 
 qualified for migration ; for its wings are 
 short, and placed so forward, and out of 
 the centre of gravity, that it flies in a very- 
 heavy and embarrassed manner, with its 
 legs hanging down; and can hardly be 
 sprung a second time, as it runs very fast, 
 and seems to depend more on the swiftness 
 of its feet than on its flying. 
 
216 ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 When we came to draw it, we found the 
 entrails so soft and tender, that in appear- 
 ance they might have been dressed like 
 the ropes of a woodcock. The craw or crop 
 was small and lank, containing a mucus ; 
 the gizzard thick and strong, and filled 
 with small shell snails, some whole, and 
 many ground to pieces through the attri- 
 tion which is occasioned by the muscular 
 force and motion of that intestine. We 
 saw no gravels among the food : perhaps 
 the shell snails might perform the func- 
 tions of gravels or pebbles, and might grind 
 one another. Land-rails used to abound 
 formerly, I remember, in the low wet bean 
 fields of Christian Malford in North Wilts, 
 and in the meadows near Paradise Gardens 
 at Oxford, where I have often heard 
 them cry crex, crex. The bird men- 
 tioned above weighed 7oz. was fat and 
 tender, and in flavour like the flesh of a 
 woodcock. The liver was very large and 
 delicate. WHITE. 
 
OF NATURE. 217 
 
 Land-rails are more plentiful with us 
 than in the neighbourhood of Selborne. I 
 have found four brace in an afternoon, 
 and a friend of mine lately shot nine in 
 two adjoining fields ; but I never saw them 
 in any other season than the Autumn. 
 
 That it is a bird of passage there can be 
 little doubt, though Mr. White thinks it 
 poorly qualified for migration, on account 
 of the wings being short and not placed 
 in the exact centre of gravity: how that 
 may be I cannot say, but I know that its 
 heavy sluggish flight is not owing to its 
 inability of flying faster, for I have seen it 
 fly very swiftly, although in general its 
 actions are sluggish. Its unwillingness to 
 rise proceeds, I imagine, from its sluggish 
 disposition, and its great timidity, for it 
 will sometimes squat so close to the ground 
 as to suffer itself to be taken up by the 
 hand, rather than rise ; and yet it will at 
 times run very fast. 
 
 What Mr. White remarks respecting 
 the small shell snails found in its gizzard, 
 
ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 confirms my opinion, that it frequents 
 corn-fields, seed clover, and brakes or fern, 
 more for the sake of snails, slugs, and 
 other insects which abound in such places, 
 than for the grain or seeds ; and that it 
 is entirely an insectivorous bird. 
 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 FOOD OF THE RING-DOVE. 
 
 One of my neighbours shot a ring-dove 
 on an evening as it was returning from 
 feed and going to roost. When his wife 
 had picked and drawn it, she found its 
 craw stuffed with the most nice and tender 
 tops of turnips. These she washed and 
 boiled, and so sat down to a choice and 
 delicate plate of greens, culled and pro- 
 vided in this extraordinary manner. 
 
 Hence we may see that graminivorous 
 birds, when grain fails, can subsist on the 
 leaves of vegetables. There is reason to 
 suppose that they would not long be 
 
Of NATURE. 219 
 
 healthy without; for turkies, though corn- 
 fed, delight in a variety of plants, such as 
 cabbage, lettuce, endive, &c. and poul- 
 try pick much grass ; while geese live for 
 months together on commons by grazing 
 alone. 
 
 " Nought is useless made ; 
 
 On the barren heath 
 
 " The shepherd tends his flock that daily crop 
 " Their verdant dinner from the mossy turf 
 " Sufficient : after them the cackling goose, 
 " Close-grazer, finds wherewith to ease her want." 
 
 PHILIPS'S CYDER. 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 That many graminivorous birds feed also 
 on the herbage or leaves of plants, there 
 can be no doubt : partridges and larks fre- 
 quently feed on the green leaves of turnips, 
 which gives a peculiar flavour to their flesh, 
 that is, to me, very .palatable : the flavour 
 also of wild ducks and geese greatly de- 
 pends on the nature of their food; and 
 their flesh frequently contracts a rank un- 
 pleasant taste, from their having lately fed 
 
220 ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 on strong marshy aquatic plants, as 1 
 suppose. 
 
 That the leaves of vegetables are whole- 
 some and conducive to the health of birds, 
 seems probable, for many people fat their 
 ducks and turkies with the leaves of let- 
 tuce chopped small. MARKWICK. 
 
 HEN HARRIER. 
 
 A neighbouring gentleman sprung a 
 pheasant in a wheat stubble, and shot at 
 it; when, notwithstanding the report of 
 the gun, it was immediately pursued by 
 the blue hawk, known by the name of the 
 hen-harrier, but escaped into some covert. 
 He then sprung a second, and a third, in 
 the same field, that got away in the same 
 manner; the hawk hovering round him 
 all the while that he was beating the field, 
 conscious no doubt of the game that lurked 
 in the stubble. Hence we may conclude 
 that this bird of prey was rendered very 
 daring and bold by hunger, and that 
 
OF NATURE. 
 
 hawks cannot always seize their game 
 when they please. We may farther ob- 
 serve, that they cannot pounce their quarcy 
 on the ground, where it might be able to 
 make a stout resistance, since so large a 
 fowl as a pheasant could not but be visible 
 to the piercing eye of a hawk, when hover- 
 ing over the field. Hence that propensity 
 of cowring and squatting till they are 
 almost trod on, which no doubt was in- 
 tended as a mode of security : though long 
 rendered destructive to the whole race of 
 gallinse by the invention of nets and guns. 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 Of the great boldness and rapacity of 
 birds of prey, when urged on by hunger, I 
 have seen several instances; particularly, 
 when shooting in the Winter in company 
 with two friends, a woodcock flew across 
 us closely pursued by a small hawk ; we 
 all three fired at the woodcock instead of 
 the hawk, which, notwithstanding the 
 report of three guns close by it, continued 
 its pursuit of the woodcock, struck it down, 
 
ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 and carried it off, as we afterwards disco- 
 vered. 
 
 At another time, when partridge-shoot- 
 ing with a friend, we saw a ring- tail hawk 
 rise out of a pit with some large bird in its 
 claws ; though at a great distance, we both 
 fired and obliged it to drop its prey, which 
 proved to be one of the partridges which 
 we were in pursuit of; and lastly, in an 
 evening, I shot at and plainly saw that I 
 had wounded a partridge, but it being late 
 was obliged to go home without rinding 
 it again. The next morning I walked round 
 my land without any gun, but a favourite 
 old spaniel followed my heels. When I 
 came near the field where I wounded the 
 bird tiie evening before, I heard the par- 
 tridges call, and seemed to be much dis- 
 turbed. On my approaching the bar-way 
 they all rose, some on my right and some 
 on my left hand; and just before and over 
 my head, I perceived (though indistinctly, 
 from the extreme velocity of their motion) 
 two birds fly directly against each other, 
 when instantly, to my great astonishment, 
 
OF NATURE. 223 
 
 down dropped a partridge at my feet : the 
 dog immediately seized it, and on exa- 
 mination I found the blood flow very fast 
 from a fresh wound in the head, but there 
 was some dry clotted blood on its wings 
 and side ; whence I concluded that a hawk 
 had singled out my wounded bird as the 
 object of his prey, and had struck it down 
 the instant that my approach had obliged 
 the birds to rise on the wing; but the 
 space between the hedges was so small, 
 and the motion of the birds so instanta- 
 neous and quick, that I could not distinctly 
 observe the operation. MARKWICK. 
 
 GREAT SPECKLED DIVER, OR LOON. 
 
 As one of my neighbours was traversing 
 Wolmer forest from Bramshot across the 
 moors, he found a large uncommon bird 
 fluttering in the heath, but not wounded, 
 which he brought home alive. On exa- 
 mination it proved to be colymbm glacialis 
 : Lirm. the great speckled diver or loon, 
 
224 ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 which is most excellently described hi 
 Willughby's Ornithology. 
 
 Every part and proportion of this bird 
 is so incomparably adapted to its mode of 
 life, that in no instance do we see the wis- 
 dom of God in the creation to more ad van- 
 tage. The head is sharp and smaller than 
 the part of the neck adjoining, in order 
 that it may pierce the water ; the wings are 
 placed forward and out of the centre of 
 gravity^ for a purpose which shall be noticed 
 hereafter; the thighs quite atthepodex, in 
 order to facilitate diving; and the legs are 
 flat, and as sharp backwards almost as the 
 edge of a knife, that in striking they may 
 easily cut the water: while the feet are 
 palmated, and broad for swimming, yet so 
 folded up when advanced forward to take 
 a fresh stroke, as to be full as narrow as the 
 shank. The two exterior toes of the feet' 
 are longest; the nails flat and broad, resem- 
 bling the human, which give strength and 
 increase the power of swimming. The 
 foot, when expanded, is not at right angles 
 to the leg or body of the bird : but the 
 
or NATURE. 225 
 
 .exterior part inclining towards the head 
 forms an acute angle with the body ; the 
 intention being, not to give motion in the 
 line of the legs themselves, but by the 
 combined impulse of both in an interme- 
 diate line, the line of the body. 
 
 Most people know, that have observed at 
 all, that the swimming of birds is nothing 
 more than a walking in the water, where 
 one foot succeeds the other as on the land ; 
 yet no one, as far as I am aware, has re- 
 marked that diving fowls, while under wa- 
 ter, impel and row themselves forward by 
 a motion of their wings, ^as well as by the 
 impulse of their feet : but such is really the 
 case, as any person may easily be convinced, 
 who will observe ducks when hunted by 
 dogs in a clear pond. Nor do I know that 
 any one has given a reason why the wings 
 of diving fowls are placed so forward : 
 doubtless, not for the purpose of promot- 
 ing their speed in flying, since that position 
 certainly impedes it; but probably for the 
 increase of their motion under water, by 
 the use of four oars instead of two; yet 
 
 VOL. 11. Q 
 
226 ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 were the wings and feet nearer together, 
 as in land-birds, they would, when in 
 action, rather hinder than assist one ano- 
 ther. 
 
 This colymbus was of considerable bulk, 
 weighing only three drachms short of three 
 pounds avoirdupois. It measured in length 
 from the bill to the tail (which was very 
 short) two feet, and to the extremities of 
 the toes four inches more ; and the breadth 
 of the wings expanded was 42 inches. A 
 person attempted to eat the body, but found 
 it very strong and rancid, as is the flesh of 
 all birds living on fish. Divers or loons, 
 though bred in the most northerly parts of 
 Europe, yet are seen with us in very severe 
 Winters; and on the Thames are called 
 sprat loons, because they prey much on 
 that sort of fish. 
 
 The legs of the colymbi and mergi are 
 placed so very backward, and so out of all 
 centre of gravity, that these birds cannot 
 walk at all. They are called by Linnaeus 
 compecks, because they move on the ground 
 as if shackled or fettered. WHITE. 
 
OF NATURE. 227 
 
 These accurate and ingenious observa- 
 tions, tending to set forth in a proper light 
 the wonderful works of God in the crea- 
 tion, and to point out his wisdom in 
 adapting the singular form and position of 
 the limbs of this bird to the particular 
 mode in which it is destined to pass the 
 greatest part of its life in an element much 
 denser than the air, do Mr. White credit, 
 not only as a naturalist, but as a man and 
 as a philosopher, in the truest sense of the 
 word, in my opinion ; for were we enabled 
 to trace the works of nature minutely and 
 accurately, we should find, not only that 
 every bird, but every creature, was equally 
 well adapted to the purpose for which it 
 was intended ; though this fitness and pro- 
 priety of form is more striking in such 
 animals as are destined to any uncommon 
 mode of life. 
 
 I have had in my possession two birds, 
 
 which, though of a different genus, bear a 
 
 great resemblance to Mr. White's Colym- 
 
 bus, in their manner of life, which is spent 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 O^ VAfclOUS PARTS 
 
 chiefly in the water, where they swim and 
 dive with astonishing rapidity, for which 
 purpose their fin-toed feet, placed far be- 
 hind, and very short wings, are particularly 
 well adapted, and show the wisdom of God 
 in the creation as conspicuously as the bird 
 before-mentioned. These birds were the 
 greater and lesser crested grebe, podiceps 
 cristatus et auritus. What surprised me 
 most was, that the first of these birds was 
 found alive on dry ground, about seven 
 miles from the sea, to which place there 
 was no communication by water. How 
 did it get so far from the sea? its wings 
 and legs being so ill adapted either to 
 flying or walking. The lesser crested grebe 
 was also found in a fresh-water pond 
 which had no communication with other 
 water, at some miles distance from the 
 sea. MARKAVICK. 
 
OF NATURE. 
 
 STONE CURLEW. 
 
 On the 27th of February 1788, Stone 
 Curlews were heard to pipe; and on 
 March 1st, after it was dark, some were 
 passing over the village, as might be per- 
 ceived by their quick short note, which 
 they use in their nocturnal excursions by 
 way of watch-word, that they may not 
 stray and lose their companions. 
 
 Thus, we see, that retire whithersoever 
 they may in the Winter, they return again 
 early in the Spring, and are, as it now 
 appears, the first Summer birds that come 
 back. Perhaps the mildness of the season 
 may have quickened the emigration of the 
 curlews this yaar. 
 
 They spend the day in high elevated 
 fields and sheep-walks ; but seem to de- 
 scend in the night to streams and mea- 
 dows, perhaps for water, which their up- 
 land haunts do not afford them. WHITE. 
 
 On the 31st of January 1702 I received 
 a bird of this species which had been re- 
 
230 ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 cently killed by a neighbouring farmer, 
 who said that he had frequently seen it in 
 his fields during the former part of the 
 Winter ; this perhaps was an occasional 
 straggler, which, by some accident, was 
 prevented from accompanying its com- 
 panions in their migration. MARKWICK. 
 
 THE SMALLEST UNCRESTED 
 WILLOW WREN. 
 
 The smallest uncrested willow wren, or 
 chiff chaf, is the next early Summer bird 
 which we' have remarked; it utters two 
 sharp piercing notes, so loud in hollow 
 woods, as to occasion an echo, and is 
 usually first heard about the 20th of 
 March. WHITE. 
 
 This bird, which Mr. White calls the 
 smallest willow wren or chiff chaf, makes 
 its appearance very early in the Spring, and 
 is very common with us ; but I cannot 
 
OF NATURE. 231 
 
 ?make out the three different species of 
 willow wrens which he assures us he has 
 discovered. Ever since the publication of 
 his History of Selborne I have used my 
 utmost endeavours to discover his three 
 birds, but hitherto without success. I have 
 frequently shot the bird which " haunts 
 only the tops of trees and makes a sibilous 
 noise," even in the very act of uttering 
 that sibilous note, but it always proved to 
 be the common willow wren or his chiff 
 chaf. In short, I never could discover 
 more than one species, unless my greater 
 pettychaps, sylvia hortensis of Latham, is 
 his greatest willow wren. MARKWICK. 
 
 FERN OWL, OR GOAT SUCKER. 
 
 The country people have a notion that 
 the fern-owl, or churn-owl, or eve-jarr, 
 which they also call a puckeridge, is very 
 injurious to weanling calves, by inflicting, 
 as it strikes at them, the fatal distemper 
 known to cow-leeches by the name of 
 
232 ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 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 com- 
 municating a deadly disorder to cattle. 
 But the truth of the matter is, the malady 
 above-mentioned is occasioned by the 
 cestrus bovis, a dipterous insect, which lays 
 its eggs along the chines of kine, where 
 the maggots, when hatched, eat their way 
 through the hide of the beast into the 
 flesh, and grow to a very large size. I 
 have just talked with a man, who says, he 
 has more than once stripped calves who 
 have died of the puckeridge ; that the ail 
 or complaint lay along the chine, where 
 the flesh was much swelled, and filled with 
 purulent matter. Once I myself saw a 
 large rough maggot of this sort squeezed 
 out of the back of a cow. 
 
 These maggots in Essex are called 
 wornils. 
 
 The least observation and attention 
 would convince men, that these birds nei- 
 
OF XATUR.E, 233 
 
 Iher injure the goatherd nor the grazier, 
 but are perfectly harmless, and subsist 
 alone, being night birds, on night insects, 
 such as scarabai, andphalcentf; and through 
 the month of July mostly on the scarabaus 
 solstitialis, which in many districts abounds 
 at that season. Those that we have opened, 
 have always had their craws stuffed with 
 large night moths and their eggs, and 
 pieces of chaffers : nor does it any-wise 
 appear how they can, weak and unarmed 
 as they seem, inflict any harm upon kine, 
 unless they possess the powers of animal 
 magnetism, and can affect them by flutter- 
 ing over them. 
 
 A fern-owl, this evening (August 27) 
 showed off in a very unusual and enter- 
 taining manner, by hawking [round and 
 round the circumference of my great 
 spreading oak for twenty times following, 
 keeping mostly close to the grass, but oc- 
 casionally glancing up amidst the boughs 
 of the tree. This amusing bird was then 
 in pursuit of a brood of some particular 
 phalsena belonging to the oak, of which 
 
234 ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 there are several sorts ; and exhibited on 
 the occasion a command of wing superior, 
 I think, to that of the swallow itself. 
 
 When a person approaches the haunt of 
 fern-owls in an evening, they continue 
 flying round the head of the obtruder ; and 
 by striking their wings together above their 
 backs, in the manner that the pigeons 
 called smiters are known to do, make a 
 smart snap ; perhaps at that time they 
 are jealous for their young; and their 
 noise and gesture are intended by way of 
 menace. 
 
 Fern-owls have attachment to oaks, no 
 doubt on account of food; for the next 
 evening we saw one again several times 
 among the boughs of the same tree; but it 
 did not skim round its stem over the grass, 
 as on the evening before. In May these 
 birds find the scarabceus melolontha on the 
 oak; and the scarabceus solstitialis at mid- 
 summer. These peculiar birds can only be 
 watched and observed for two hours in the 
 twenty-four : and then in a dubious twi- 
 
OF NATURE. 235 
 
 light an hour after sun-set and an hour 
 before sun-rise. 
 
 On this day (July 14, 1789) a woman 
 brought me two eggs of a fern-owl, or eve- 
 jarr, which she found on the verge of the 
 Hanger, to the left of the hermitage under 
 a beechen shrub. This person, who lives 
 just at the foot of the Hanger, seems well 
 acquainted with these nocturnal swallows, 
 and says she has often found their eggs near 
 that place, and that they lay only two at 
 a time on the bare ground. The eggs were 
 oblong, dusky, and streaked somewhat in 
 the manner of the plumage of the parent 
 bird, and were equal in size at each end. 
 The dam was sitting on the eggs when 
 found, which contained the rudiments of 
 young, and would have been hatched per- 
 haps in a week. From hence we may see 
 the time of their breeding, which cor- 
 responds pretty well with that of the swift, 
 as does also the period of their arrival. 
 Each species is usually seen about the be- 
 ginning of May. Each breeds but once 
 in a Summer ; each lays only two eggs. 
 
236 ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 July 4, 1 790. The woman who brought 
 me two fern-owls' eggs last year on July 
 14, on this day produced me two more, 
 one of which had been laid this morning, 
 as appears plainly, because there was only 
 one in the nest the evening before. They 
 were found, as last July, on the verge of 
 the down above the hermitage under a 
 beechen shrub, on the naked ground. 
 Last year those eggs were full of young, 
 and just ready to be hatched. 
 
 These circumstances point out the exact 
 time when these curious nocturnal migra- 
 tory birds lay their eggs and hatch their 
 young. Fern-owls, like snipes, stone cur- 
 lews, and some other birds, make no nest. 
 Birds that build on the ground do not 
 make much of nests. WHITE. 
 
 No author that I am acquainted with 
 has given so accurate and pleasing an ac- 
 count of the manners and habits of the 
 goat- sucker as Mr. White, taken entirely 
 from his own observations. Its being a 
 nocturnal bird, has prevented my having 
 
OF NATURE. 237 
 
 many opportunities of observing it. I 
 suspect that it passes the day in conceal- 
 ment amidst the dark and shady gloom of 
 deep-wooded dells, or as they are called 
 here gills ; having more than once seen it 
 roused from such solitary places by my 
 dogs, when shooting in the day-time. I 
 have also sometimes seen it in an evening, 
 but not long enough to take notice of its 
 habits and manners. I have never seen 
 it but in the Summer, between the months 
 of May and September. MARKWICK. 
 
 SAND MARTINS. 
 
 March 23, 1788. A gentleman, who 
 was this week on a visit at Waverley, took 
 the opportunity of examining some of the 
 holes in the sand banks with which that 
 district abounds. As these are undoubtedly 
 bored by bank martins, and are the places 
 where they avowedly breed, he was in 
 hopes they might have slept there also, 
 
238 ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 and that he might have surprised them 
 just as they were awaking from their Win- 
 ter slumbers. When he had dug for some 
 time, he found the holes were horizontal 
 and serpentine, as I had observed before ; 
 and that the nests were deposited at the 
 inner end, and had been occupied by broods 
 in former Summers, but no torpid birds 
 were to be found. He opened and exa- 
 mined about a dozen holes. Another gen- 
 tleman made the same search many years 
 ago, with as little success. 
 
 These holes were in depth about two 
 feet. 
 
 March 21, 1790. A single bank or sand 
 martin was seen hovering and playing 
 round the sand pit at Short Heath, where 
 in the Summer they abound. 
 
 April 9, 1793. A sober hind assures us, 
 that this day, on Wish-hanger common, 
 between Hedleigh and Frinsham, he saw 
 several bank-martins playing in and out, 
 and hanging before some nest holes in a 
 sand-hill, where these birds usually nestle. 
 
 This incident confirms my suspicions 
 
OF NATURE. 239 
 
 that this species of hirundo Is to be seen 
 first of any ; and gives great reason to sup 
 pose that they do not leave their wild 
 haunts at all, but are secreted amidst the 
 clefts and caverns of those abrupt cliffs 
 where they usually spend their Summers. 
 
 The late severe weather considered, it 
 is not very probable that these birds should 
 have migrated so early from a tropical 
 region, through all these cutting winds 
 and pinching frosts : but it is easy to sup- 
 pose that they may, like bats and flies, 
 have been awakened by the influence of 
 the sun, amidst their secret latebra?, where 
 they have spent the uncomfortable foodless 
 months in a torpid state, and the pro- 
 foundest of slumbers. 
 
 There is a large pond at Wish-hanger, 
 which induces these sand-martins to fre- 
 quent that district. For I have ever re- 
 marked that they haunt near great waters, 
 either rivers or lakes. WHITE. 
 
 Here, and in many other passages of his 
 writings, this very ingenious Naturalist fa- 
 
240 ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 vours the opinion that part at least of 
 the swallow tribe pass their Winter in a 
 torpid state in the same manner as bats 
 and flies, and revive again on the approach 
 of Spring. 
 
 I have frequently taken notice of all 
 these circumstances, which induced Mr. 
 White to suppose that some of the hirun- 
 dines lie torpid during Winter. I have 
 seen, so late as November, on a finer day 
 than usual at that season of the year, two 
 or three swallows flying backwards and 
 forwards under a warm hedge, or on the 
 sunny side of some old building ; nay I 
 once saw on the 8th of December two 
 martins flying about very briskly, the 
 weather being mild. I had not seen any 
 considerable number either of swallows or 
 martins for a considerable time before ; 
 from whence then could these few birds 
 come, if not from some hole or cavern 
 where they had laid themselves up for the 
 Winter ? Surely it will not be asserted that 
 these birds migrate back again from some 
 distant tropical region, merely on the ap- 
 
OF NATURE. 241 
 
 pearance of a fine day or two at this late 
 season of the year. Again, very early in the 
 Spring, and sometimes immediately after 
 very cold severe weather, on its growing a 
 little warmer, a few of these birds sud- 
 denly make their appearance, long before 
 the generality of them are seen. These 
 appearances certainly favour the opinion of 
 their passing the Winter in a torpid state, 
 but do not absolutely prove the fact ; for 
 who ever saw them reviving of their own 
 accord from their torpid state, without 
 being first brought to the fire, and as it 
 were, forced into life again; soon after 
 which revivification they constantly die. 
 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 SWALLOWS, CONGREGATING, AND 
 DISAPPEARANCE OF. 
 
 During the severe winds that often pre- 
 vail late in the Spring, it is not easy to say 
 how the hirundines subsist : for they with- 
 draw themselves, and are hardly ever seen, 
 
 VOL. IT. 3, 
 
ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 nor do any insects appear for their support. 
 That they can retire to rest and sleep away 
 these uncomfortable periods as bats do, is a 
 matter rather to be suspected than proved : 
 or do they not rather spend their time in 
 deep and sheltered vales near waters, where 
 insects are more likely to be found ? Cer- 
 tain it is, that hardly any individuals of 
 this genus have at such times been seen 
 for several days together. 
 
 September 13, 1791. The congregating 
 flocks of hirundines on the church and 
 tower are very beautiful and amusing! 
 When they fly off together from the roof, 
 on any alarm, they quite swarm in the air. 
 But they soon settle in heaps, and preening 
 their feathers, and lifting up their wings to 
 admit the sun^ seem highly to enjoy the 
 warm situation. Thus they spend the heat 
 of the day, preparing for their emigration, 
 and, as it were, consulting when and where 
 they are to go. The flight about the 
 church seems to consist chiefly of house 
 martins, about 400 in number : but there 
 
OF NATURE. 245 
 
 are other places of rendezvous about the 
 village frequented at the same time. 
 
 It is remarkable, that though most of 
 them sit on the battlements and roof, yet 
 many hang or cling for some time by their 
 claws against the surface of the walls, in a 
 manner not practised by them at any other 
 time of their remaining with us. 
 
 The swallows seem to delight more in 
 holding their assemblies on trees. 
 
 Novembers, 1789. Two swallows were 
 seen this morning at Newton vicarage- 
 house, hovering and settling on the roofs 
 and out-buildings. None have been ob- 
 served at Selborne since October 11. It is 
 very remarkable, that after the hirundines 
 have disappeared for some weeks, a few 
 are occasionally seen again; sometimes, in 
 the first week in November, and that only 
 for one day. Do they not withdraw and 
 slumber in some hiding place during the 
 interval? for we cannot suppose they had 
 migrated to warmer climes and so returned 
 again for one day. Is it not more probable 
 that they are awakened from sleep, and 
 R 2 
 
244 ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 like the bats are come forth to collect a 
 little food ? Bats appear at all seasons- 
 through the Autumn and Spring months, 
 when the thermometer is at 50, because 
 then phalsenee and moths are stirring. 
 These swallows looked like young ones. 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 Of their migration the proofs are such as 
 will scarcely admit of a doubt. Sir Charles 
 Wager and Captain Wright saw vast 
 flocks of them at sea, when on their pas- 
 sage from one country to another, Our 
 author, .Mr. White, saw what he deemed 
 the actual migration of these birds, and 
 which he has described at p. 1 1 1 of his His- 
 tory of Selborne ; and of their congregat- 
 ing together on the roofs of churches and 
 other buildings, and on trees, previous to 
 theirdeparture, many instances occur; par- 
 ticularly I once observed a large flock of 
 house-martins on the roof of the church 
 here at Catsfield, which acted exactly in 
 the manner here described by Mr. White, 
 sometimes preening their feathers and 
 
OF NATURE. 245 
 
 spreading their wings to the sun, and then 
 flying off all together, but soon returning 
 to their former situation. The greatest 
 part of these birds seemed to be young 
 ones. MARKWICK. 
 
 WAGTAILS. 
 
 While the cows are feeding in- the moist 
 low pastures, broods of wagtails, white and 
 grey, run round them close up to their 
 noses, and under their very bellies, avail- 
 ing themselves of the flies that settle on 
 their legs, and probably finding worms 
 and larva that are roused by the trampling 
 of their feet. Nature is such an cecono- 
 mist, that the most incongruous animals 
 can avail themselves of each other ! 
 
 Interest makes strange friendships. 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 Birds continually avail themselves of 
 particular and unusual circumstances to 
 
246' ON VARIOUS PARTS 
 
 procure their food ; thus wagtails keep 
 playing about the noses and legs of cattle 
 as they feed, in quest of flies and other 
 insects which abound near those animals ; 
 and great numbers of them will follow close 
 to the plough to devour the worms, &c. 
 that are turned up by that instrument. The 
 redbreast attends the gardener when dig- 
 ging his borders; and will, with great 
 familiarity and tameness, pick out the 
 worms almost close to his spade, as I have 
 frequently seen. Starlings and magpies, 
 very often sit on the backs of sheep and 
 deer to pick out their ticks. MARKWICK. 
 
 WRYNECK. 
 
 These birds appear on the grass-plots 
 and walks ; they walk a little as well as 
 hop, and thrust their bills into the turf, 
 in quest, I conclude, of ants, which are 
 their food. While they hold their bills in 
 the grass, they draw out their prey with 
 
OP NATURE. 247 
 
 their tongues, which are so long as to be 
 coiled round their heads. WHITE. 
 
 GROSBEAK. 
 
 Mr. B. shot a cock grosbeak, which he 
 had observed to haunt his garden for more 
 than a fortnight. I began to accuse this 
 bird of making sad havock among the buds 
 of the cherries, gooseberries, and wall-fruit 
 of all the neighbouring orchards. Upon 
 opening its crop or craw, no buds were to 
 be seen ; but a mass of kernels of the stones 
 of fruits. Mr. B. observed that this bird 
 frequented the spot where plum-trees 
 grow ; and that he had seen it with some- 
 what hard in its mouth, which it broke 
 with difficulty ; these were the stones of 
 damsons. The Latin ornithologists call this 
 bird coccothraustes, i. e. berry-breaker, be- 
 cause with its large horny beak it cracks 
 and breaks the shells of stone fruits for the 
 sake of the seed or kernel. Birds of this 
 
248 ON VARIOUS PARTS, &C. 
 
 sort are rarely seen in England, and only 
 in Winter. WHITE. 
 
 I have never seen this rare bird but 
 during the severest cold of the hardest 
 Winters : at which season of the year I 
 have had in my possession two or three 
 that were killed in this neighbourhood in 
 different years. MARKWICK. 
 
249 
 
 OBSERVATIONS 
 
 ON 
 
 QUADRUPEDS 
 
 SHEEP. 
 
 THE sheep on the downs this Winter 
 (1769) are very ragged, and their coats 
 much torn ; the shepherds say, they tear 
 their fleeces with their own mouths and 
 horns, and they are always in that way in 
 mild wet Winters, being teased and tickled 
 with a kind of lice. 
 
 After ewes and lambs are shorn, there is 
 great confusion and bleating, neither the 
 dams nor the young being able to distin- 
 guish one another as before. This embar- 
 rassment seems not so much to arise from 
 
250 OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 the loss of the fleece, which may occasion 
 an alteration in their appearance, as from 
 the defect of that notus odor, discriminating 
 each individual personally ; which also is 
 confounded by the strong scent of the 
 pitch and tar wherewith they are newly 
 marked ; for the brute creation recognize 
 each other more from the smell than the 
 sight; and in matters of identity and di- 
 versity appeal much more to their noses 
 than their eyes. After sheep have been 
 washed there is the same confusion, from 
 the reason given above. WHITE. 
 
 RABBITS. 
 
 Rabbits make incomparably the finest 
 turf, for they not only bite closer than 
 larger quadrupeds, but they allow no bents 
 to rise ; hence warrens produce much the 
 most delicate turf for gardens. Sheep 
 never touch the stalks of grasses. WHITE. 
 
QUADRUPEDS. 251 
 
 CAT AND SQUIRRELS. 
 
 A boy has taken three little young squir- 
 rels in their nest, or drey as it is called in 
 these parts. These small creatures he put 
 under the care of a cat who had lately lost 
 her kittens, and finds that she nurses and 
 suckles them with the same assiduity and 
 affection, as if they were her own offspring. 
 This circumstance corroborates my suspi- 
 cion, that the mention of exposed and de- 
 serted 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. 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 This circumstance shows her affection for 
 these fondlings, and that she supposes the 
 squirrels to be her own young. Thus hens, 
 when they have hatched ducklings, are 
 equally attached to them as if they were 
 her own chickens. WHITE. 
 
 HORSE. 
 
 An old hunting mare, which ran on the 
 common, being taken very ill, ran down 
 into the village, as it were, to implore the 
 help of men, and died the night following 
 in the street. WHITE. 
 
 HOUNDS. 
 
 The king's stag-hounds came down to 
 Alton, attended by a huntsman and six 
 yeomen prickers, with horns, to try for 
 the stag that has haunted Hartley Wood 
 for so long a time. Many hundreds of 
 people, horse and foot, attended the dogs 
 to see the deer unharboured ; but though 
 
QUADRUPEDS. 53 
 
 the huntsman drew Hartley Wood, and 
 Long Coppice, and Shrubwood, and Temple 
 Hangers, and in their way back Hartley 
 and Ward-le-ham Hangers, yet no stag 
 could be found. 
 
 The royal pack, accustomed to have the 
 deer turned out before them, never drew 
 the coverts with any address and spirit, as 
 many people that were present observed ; 
 and this remark the event has proved to be 
 a true one. For as a person was lately 
 pursuing a pheasant that was wing-broken 
 in Hartley Wood, he stumbled upon the 
 stag by accident, and ran in upon him as 
 he lay concealed amidst a thick brake of 
 brambles and bushes. WHITE. 
 
254 
 
 OBSERVATIONS 
 
 INSECTS AND VERMES. 
 
 INSECTS IN GENERAL. 
 
 1 HE day and night insects occupy the 
 annuals alternately : the papilios, muscae 
 and apes, are succeeded at the close of day 
 by phalsenee, earwigs, woodlice, &c. In 
 the dusk of the evening, when beetles 
 begin to buz, partridges begin to call ; these 
 two circumstances are exactly coincident. 
 Ivy is the last flower that supports the 
 hymenopterous and dipterous insects. On 
 sunny days quite on to November they 
 swarm on trees covered with this plant ; 
 and when they disappear, probably retire 
 
OBSERVATIONS, &C. 255 
 
 under the shelter of its leaves, concealing 
 themselves between its fibres and the trees 
 which it entwines. WHITE. 
 
 This I have often observed, having seen 
 bees and other winged insects swarming 
 about the flowers of the ivy, very late in 
 the Autumn. MARKWICK. 
 
 Spiders, woodlice, lepismae in cupboards 
 and among sugar, some empedes, gnats, 
 flies of several species, some phalsense in 
 hedges, earth-worms, &c. are stirring at 
 all times, when Winters are mild ; and are of 
 great service to those soft-billed birds that 
 never leave us. 
 
 On every sunny day the Winter through, 
 clouds of insects usually called gnats (I 
 suppose tipulse and empedes) appearsport- 
 ing and dancing over the tops of the ever- 
 green trees in the shrubbery, and frisking 
 about as if the business of generation was 
 still going on. Hence it appears that these 
 diptera (which by their sizes appear to be 
 
256 OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 of different species) are not subject to a 
 torpid state in the Winter, as most winged 
 insects are. At night, and in frosty wea- 
 ther, and when it rains and blows, they 
 seem to retire into those trees. They often 
 are out in a fog. WHITE. 
 
 This I have also seen, and have fre- 
 quently observed swarms of little winged 
 insects playing up and down in the air 
 in the middle of the Winter, even when the 
 ground has been covered with snow. 
 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 HUMMING IN THE AIR. 
 
 There is a natural occurrence to be met 
 with upon the highest part of our down in 
 hot Summer days, which always amuses me 
 much, without giving me any satisfaction 
 with respect to the cause of it ; and that is 
 a loud audible humming of bees in the air, 
 though not one insect is to be seen. This 
 sound is to be heard distinctly the whole 
 
INSECTS AND VERMES. 257 
 
 common through, from the Money -dells, 
 to Mr. White's avenue gate. Any person 
 would suppose that a large swarm of bees 
 was in motion, and playing about over his 
 head. This noise was heard last week, on 
 June 28th. 
 
 " Resounds the living surface of the ground, 
 
 " Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum 
 
 " To him who muses at noon.'* 
 
 " Thick in yon stream of light a thousand ways, 
 
 (< Upward and downward, thwarting and convolved, 
 
 " The quivering nations sport." 
 
 THOMSON'S SEASONS, 
 WHITE. 
 
 CHAFFERS. 
 
 Cockchaffers seldom abound oftener than 
 once in three or four years ; when they 
 swarm, they deface the trees and hedges. 
 Whole woods of oaks are stripped bare by 
 them. 
 
 Chaffers are eaten by the turkey, the 
 rook, and the house- sparrow. 
 
 The scarabcEus solstitialis first appears 
 about June 26 : they are very punctual in 
 their coming out every year. They are a 
 
 VOL. ir. s 
 
258 OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 small species, about half the size of the 
 May-chaffer, and are known in some parts 
 by the name of the fern-chaffer. WHITE. 
 
 A singular circumstance relative to the 
 cockchaffer, or as it is called here the 
 May-bug, scarab&us melolontha, happened 
 this year (1800): My gardener in digging 
 some ground found about six inches under 
 the surface, two of these insects alive and 
 perfectly formed so early as the 24th of 
 March. When he brought them to me, 
 they appeared to be as perfect and as much 
 alive as in the midst of Summer, crawling 
 about as briskly as ever : yet I saw no more 
 of this insect till the 22nd of May, when it 
 began to make its appearance. How comes 
 it, that though it was perfectly formed so 
 early as the 24th of March, it did not show 
 itself above ground till nearly two months 
 afterwards? MARKWICK. 
 
 
INSECTS AND VERMES. 259 
 
 PTINUS PECTINICORN1S. 
 
 Those maggots that make worm-holes 
 in tables, chairs, bed-posts, &c. and destroy 
 wooden furniture, especially where there 
 is any sap, are the larvae of the ptinus pecti- 
 mcornis. This insect, it is probable, depo- 
 sits its eggs on the surface, and the worms 
 eat their way in. 
 
 In their holes they turn into their pupae 
 state, and so come forth winged in July : 
 eating their way through the valances or 
 curtains of a bed, or any other furniture 
 that happens to obstruct their passage. 
 
 They seem to be most inclined to breed 
 in beech ; hence beech will not make last- 
 ing utensils, or furniture. If their eggs are 
 deposited on the surface, frequent rubbing 
 will preserve wooden furniture. WHITE. 
 
 BLATTA ORIENTALIS. COCKROACH, 
 
 A neighbour complained to me that her 
 house was over-run with a kind of black 
 beetle, or as she expressed herself, with a 
 s 2 
 
260 OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 kind of black-bob, which swarmed in her 
 kitchen when they got up in a morning 
 before day-break. 
 
 Soon after this account, I observed an 
 unusual insect in one of my dark chimney 
 closets, and lind since, that in the night 
 they swarm also in my kitchen. On exa- 
 mination, I soon ascertained the species to 
 be the blatta orientalis of Linnaeus, and the 
 blatta molendinaria of Mouffet. The male 
 is winged ; the female is not, but shows 
 somewhat like the rudiments of wings, as 
 if in the pupa state. 
 
 These insects belonged originally to the 
 warmer parts of America, and were con- 
 veyed from thence by shipping to the East 
 Indies ; and by means of commerce begin 
 to prevail in the more northern parts of 
 Europe, as Russia, Sweden, &c. How long 
 they have abounded in England I cannot 
 say; but have never observed them in my 
 house till lately. 
 
 They love warmth, and haunt chimney- 
 closets, and the backs of ovens, Pod a says 
 that these and house-crickets will not asso- 
 
INSECTS AND VERMES. 26l 
 
 ciate together ; but he is mistaken in that 
 assertion, as Linnaeus suspected he was. 
 They are altogether night insects, lucifugce, 
 never coming forth till the rooms are dark 
 and still, and escaping away nimbly at the 
 approach of a candle. Their antennse are 
 remarkably long, slender, and flexile. 
 
 October 1790. After the servants are 
 gone to bed, the kitchen hearth swarms 
 with young crickets, and young blattce mo- 
 lendinarioe of all sizes, from the most minute 
 growth to their full proportions. They 
 seem to live in a friendly manner together, 
 and not to prey the one on the other. 
 
 August 1792. After the destruction of 
 many thousands of blattce mokndinarice, we 
 find that at intervals a fresh detachment of 
 old ones arrives, and particularly during 
 this hot season : for the windows being left 
 open in the evenings, the males come 
 flying in at the casements from the neigh- 
 bouring houses, which swarm with them. 
 How the females, that seem to have no 
 perfect wings that they can use, can con- 
 trive to get from house to house', does not 
 
262 OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 so readily appear. These, like many in- 
 sects, when they find their present abodes 
 over-stocked, have powers of migrating to 
 fresh quarters. Since the blattce have been 
 so much kept under, the crickets have 
 greatly increased in number. WHITE. 
 
 GRYLLUS DOMESTICUS HOUSE 
 CRICKET. 
 
 November. After the servants are gone 
 to bed, the kitchen hearth swarms with 
 minute crickets not so large as fleas, which 
 must have been lately hatched. So that 
 these domestic insects, cherished by the 
 influence of a constant large fire, regard 
 not the season of the year, but produce 
 their young at a time when their congeners 
 are either dead, or laid up for the Winter, to 
 pass away the uncomfortable months in 
 the profoundest slumbers, and a state of 
 torpidity. 
 
 When house-crickets are out, and run- 
 ning about in a room in the night, if sur- 
 prised by a candle, they give two or three 
 
INSECTS AND VEilMES. 263 
 
 shrill notes, as it were for a signal to 
 their fellows, that they may escape to 
 their crannies and lurking holes, to avoid 
 danger. WHITE. 
 
 CIMEX LINEARIS. 
 
 V 
 
 August 12, ]775. Cimices linear cs are 
 now in high copulation on ponds and 
 pools. The females, who vastly exceed the 
 males in bulk, dart and shoot along on the 
 surface of the water with the males on their 
 backs. When a female chooses to be dis- 
 engaged, she rears, and jumps, and plunges, 
 like an unruly colt; the lover thus dis- 
 mounted, soon finds a new mate. The 
 females, as fast as their curiosities are 
 satisfied, retire to another part of the 
 lake, perhaps to deposit their foetus in 
 quiet ; hence the sexes are found separate, 
 except where generation is going on. From 
 the multitude of minute young of all gra- 
 dations of sizes, these insects seem without 
 doubt to be viviparous. WHITE. 
 
264 OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 PHAL^ENA QUERCUS. 
 
 Most of our oaks are naked of leaves, 
 and even the Holt in general, having been 
 ravaged by the caterpillars of a small pha- 
 Icena which is of a pale yellow colour. 
 These insects, though a feeble race, yet, 
 from their infinite numbers, are of won- 
 derful effect, being able to destroy the 
 foliage of whole forests and districts. At 
 this season they leave their aurclia, and 
 issue forth in their fly-state, swarming and 
 covering the trees and hedges. 
 
 In a field at Greatham, I saw a flight 
 of swifts busied in catching their prey near 
 the ground ; and found they were hawking 
 after these pkaltente. The aurelia of this 
 moth is shining 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. WHITE. 
 
 I suspect that the insect here meant 
 is not the phalcena quercus, but the phal<zna 
 
INSECTS AND VEllMES 265 
 
 viridata, concerning which, I find the fol- 
 lowing note in my Naturalist's Calendar 
 for the year 1785: 
 
 About this time, and for a few days last 
 past, I observed the leaves of almost all the 
 oak-trees in Denn copse to be eaten and 
 destroyed, and, on examining more nar- 
 rowly, saw an infinite number of small 
 beautiful pale green moths flying about 
 the trees ; the leaves of which that were 
 not quite destroyed were curled up, and 
 withinside were the exuvia or remains of 
 the chrysalis, from whence I suppose the 
 moths had issued, and whose caterpillar 
 had eaten the leaves. MARKWICK. 
 
 EPHEMERA CAUDA BISETA. 
 MAY FLY. 
 
 June 10, 1771. Myriads of May flies 
 appear for the first time on the Alresford 
 stream. The air was crowded with them, 
 and the surface of the water covered. Large 
 trouts sucked them in as they lay strug- 
 
266 OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 gling on the surface of the stream, unable 
 to rise till their wings were dried. 
 
 This appearance reconciled me in some 
 measure to the wonderful account that 
 Scopoli gives of the quantities emerging 
 from the rivers of Carniola. Their motions 
 are very peculiar, up and down for many 
 yards almost in a perpendicular line, 
 
 WHITE, 
 
 I once saw a swarm of these insects play- 
 ing up and down over the surface of a 
 pond in Denn park, exactly in the manner 
 described by this accurate naturalist. It 
 was late in the evening of a warm Sum- 
 mer's day when I observed them. 
 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 SPHYNX OCELLATA. 
 
 A vast insect appears after it is dusk, 
 flying with a humming noise, and inserting 
 its tongue into the bloom of the honey- 
 
INSECTS AND VERMES. 267 
 
 suckle ; it scarcely settles upon the plants, 
 but feeds on the wing in the manner of 
 humming birds. WHITE. 
 
 I have frequently seen the large bee 
 moth, sphinx stellatarum, inserting its long- 
 tongue or proboscis into the centre of 
 flowers, and feeding on their nectar, with- 
 out settling on them, but keeping con- 
 stantly on the wing. MARKWICK. 
 
 WILD BEE. 
 
 There is a sort of wild bee frequenting 
 the garden-campion for the sake of its to- 
 mentum, which probably it turns to some 
 purpose in the business of nidification. It 
 is very pleasant to see with what address it 
 strips off the pubes, running from the top 
 to the bottom of a branch, and shaving it 
 bare with all the dexterity of a hoop-shaver. 
 When it has got a vast bundle, almost as 
 large as itself, it flies away, holding it 
 secure between its chin and its fore legs. 
 
268 OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 There is a remarkable hill on the downs 
 near Lewes in Sussex, known by the name 
 of Mount Carburn, which overlooks that 
 town, and affords a most engaging prospect 
 of all the country round, besides several 
 views of the sea. On the very summit of 
 this exalted promontory, and amidst the 
 trenches of its Danish camp, there haunts 
 a species of wild bee, making its nest in the 
 chalky soil. When people approach the 
 place, these insects begin to be alarmed, 
 and, with a sharp and hostile sound, dash 
 and strike round the heads and faces of 
 intruders. I have often been interrupted 
 myself while contemplating the grandeur 
 of the scenery around me, and have 
 thought myself in danger of being stung. 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 WASPS. 
 
 Wasps abound in woody wild districts 
 far from neighbourhoods ; they feed on 
 flowers, and catch flies and caterpillars to 
 carry to their young. Wasps make their 
 
INSECTS AND VERMES. 269 
 
 nests with the raspings of sound timber ; 
 hornets, with what they gnaw from de- 
 cayed : these particles of wood are kneaded 
 up with a mixture of saliva from their 
 bodies, and moulded into combs. 
 
 When there is no fruit in the gardens, 
 wasps eat flies, and suck the honey from 
 flowers, from ivy blossoms, and umbellated 
 plants : they carry off also flesh from butch- 
 ers shambles. WHITE. 
 
 In the year 1775 wasps abounded so 
 prodigiously in this neighbourhood, that, 
 in the month of August, no less than seven 
 or eight of their nests were ploughed up 
 in one field ; of which there were several 
 instances, as I was informed. 
 
 In the Spring, about the beginning of 
 April, a single wasp is sometimes seen, 
 which is of a larger size than usual; this 
 I imagine is the queen or female wasp, the 
 mother of the future swarm. 
 
 MAKKWICK. 
 
270 OBSERVATIONS OK 
 
 OESTRUS CURVICAUDA. 
 
 This insect lays its nits or eggs on 
 horses' legs, flanks, &c. each on a single 
 hair. The maggots when hatched do not 
 enter the horses' skins, but fall to the 
 ground. It seems to abound most in 
 moist, moorish places, though sometimes 
 seen in the uplands. WHITE. 
 
 
 NOSE FLY 
 
 About the beginning of July, a species of 
 fly (musca) obtains, which proves very tor- 
 menting to horses, trying still to enter their 
 nostrils and ears, and actually laying their 
 eggs, in the latter of those organs, or per- 
 haps in both. When these abound, horses 
 in woodland districts become very impa- 
 tient at their work, continually tossing their 
 heads, and rubbing their noses on each 
 other, regardless of the driver, so that ac- 
 cidents often ensue. In the heat of the 
 day, men are often obliged to desist from 
 ploughing. Saddle-horses are also very 
 
INSECTS AND VERMES. 5271 
 
 troublesome at such seasons. Country peo- 
 ple call this insect the nose fly. WHITE, 
 
 Is not this insect the oestrus nasalis of 
 Linnaeus, so well described by Mr. Clark 
 in the third volume of the Linnsean Trans- 
 actions, under the name of oestrus veteri- 
 nus? MARKWICK. 
 
 ICHNEUMON FLY. 
 
 I saw lately a small ichneumon fly at- 
 tack a spider much larger than itself on 
 a grass walk. When the spider made any 
 resistance, the ichneumon applied her tail 
 to him, and stung him with great vehe- 
 mence, so that he soon became dead and 
 motionless. The ichneumon then running 
 backward drew her prey very nimbly over 
 the walk into the standing grass. This 
 spider would be deposited in some hole 
 where the ichneumon would lay some eggs ; 
 and as soon as the eggs were hatched, the 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 carcase would afford ready food for the 
 maggots. 
 
 Perhaps some eggs might be injected 
 into the body of the spider, in the act of 
 stinging. Some ichneumons deposit their 
 eggs in the aurelia of moths and butter- 
 flies. WHITE. 
 
 In my Naturalist's Calendar for 1795, 
 July 21st, I find the following note : 
 
 It is not uncommon for some of the 
 species of ichneumon flies to deposit their 
 eggs in the chrysalis of a butterfly : some 
 time ago I put two of the chrysalis of a 
 butterfly into a box and covered it with 
 gauze, to discover what species of butterfly 
 they would produce ; but instead of a but- 
 terfly, one of them produced a number of 
 small ichneumon flies. 
 
 There are many instances of the great 
 service these little insects are to mankind 
 in reducing the number of noxious insects, 
 by depositing their eggs in the soft bodies 
 of their larva ; but none more remarkable 
 than that of the ichneumon tipula, which 
 
INSECTS AND VERMES. 275 
 
 pierces the tender body and deposits its 
 eggs in the larva of the tipula tritici, an in- 
 sect which, when it abounds greatly, is 
 very prejudicial to the grains of wheat. 
 This operation I have frequently seen it 
 perform with wonder and delight. 
 
 MA UK WICK. 
 
 BOMBYLIUS MEDIUS. 
 
 The bombylius medlus is much about in 
 March and the beginning of April, and 
 soon seems to retire. It is an hairy insect, 
 like an humble-bee, but with only two 
 wings, and a long straight beak, with 
 which it sucks the early flowers. The fe- 
 male seems to lay its eggs as it poises on 
 its wings, by striking its tail on the ground, 
 and against the grass that stands in its way, 
 in a quick manner, for several times 
 together. WHITE. 
 
 , I have often seen this insect fly with 
 great velocity, stop on a sudden, hang in 
 
 VOL. II. T 
 
2?4 OBSERVATIONS OK 
 
 the air in a stationary position for some 
 time, and then fly off again ; but do not 
 recollect having ever seen it strike its tail 
 against the ground, or any other substance. 
 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 MUSCLE. FLIES. 
 
 In the decline of the year, when the 
 mornings and evenings become chilly, 
 many species of flies (muscce) retire into 
 houses, and swarm in the windows. 
 
 At first they are very brisk and alert ; but 
 as they grow more torpid, one cannot help 
 observing that they move with difficulty, 
 and are scarce able to lift their legs, which 
 seem as if glued to the glass ; and by de- 
 grees many do actually stick on till they 
 die in the place. 
 
 It has been observed that divers flies, 
 besides their sharp hooked nails, have also 
 skinny palms, or flaps to their feet, whereby 
 they are enabled to stick on glass and other 
 smooth bodies, and to walk on ceilings with 
 
INSECTS AND VERMES. 275 
 
 their backs downward, by means of the 
 pressure of the atmosphere on those flaps; 
 the weight of which they easily overcome 
 in warm weather when they are brisk and 
 alert. But in the decline of the year, this 
 resistance becomes too mighty for their 
 diminished strength ; and we see flies la- 
 bouring along, and lugging their feet in 
 windows as if they stuck fast to the glass, 
 and it is with the utmost difficulty they 
 can draw one foot after another, and dis- 
 engage their hollow caps from the slippery 
 surface. 
 
 Upon the same principle that flies stick 
 and support themselves, do boys, by way 
 of play, carry heavy weights by only a 
 piece of wet leather at the end of a string 
 clapped close on the surface of a stone. 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 TIPUL^E, OR EMPEDES. 
 
 May. Millions of empedes, or fipula, 
 come forth at the close of day, and swarm 
 to such a degree as to fill the air. At this 
 juncture they sport and copulate ; as it 
 
 T2 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 grows more dark they retire. All day they 
 hide in the hedges. As they rise in a 
 cloud they appear like smoke. 
 
 I do not ever remember to have seen 
 such swarms, except in the fens of the 
 Isle of Ely. They appear most over grass 
 grounds. WHITE. 
 
 APHIDES. 
 
 On the 1st of August, about half an 
 hour after three in the afternoon, the people 
 of Selborne were surprised by a shower of 
 Aphides which fell in these parts. They 
 who were walking the streets at that time 
 found themselves covered with these in- 
 sects, which settled also on the trees and 
 gardens, and blackened all the vegetables 
 where they alighted. These armies, no 
 doubt, were then in a state of emigration, 
 and shifting their quarters ; and might per- 
 haps come from the great hop-plantations 
 of Kent or Sussex, the wind- being that 
 day at North. They were observed at the 
 same time at Farnham, and all along the 
 vale at Alton. WHITE. 
 
INSECTS AXD VERMES. 
 
 ANTS. 
 
 August 23. Every ant-hill about' this 
 time is in a strange hurry and confusion ; 
 and all the winged ants, agitated by some 
 violent impulse, are leaving their homes, 
 and, bent on emigration, swarm by myriads 
 in the air, to the great emolument of the 
 hirundines, which fare luxuriously. Those 
 that escape the swallows return no more 
 to their nests, but looking out for fresh 
 settlements, lay a foundation for future 
 colonies. All the females at this time are 
 pregnant: the males that escape being 
 eaten, wander away and die. 
 
 October 2. Flying-aunts, male and fe- 
 male, usually swarm and migrate on hot 
 sunny days in August and September; but 
 this day a vast emigration took place in my 
 garden, and myriads came forth, in appear- 
 ance from the drain which goes under the 
 fruit wall ; filling the air and the adjoining 
 trees and shrubs with their numbers. The 
 females were full of eggs. This late 
 swarming is probably owing to the back- 
 
278 OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 ward, wet season. The day following, not 
 one flying ant was to be seen. 
 
 Horse-ants travel home to their nests 
 laden with flies, which they have caught, 
 and the aurelise of smaller ants, which they 
 seize by violence. WHITE. 
 
 In my Naturalist's Calendar for the year 
 1777, on September 6th, I find the fol- 
 lowing note to the article Flying Ants : 
 
 I saw a prodigious swarm of these ants 
 flying about the top of some tall elm-trees 
 (close by my house); some were conti- 
 nually dropping to the ground as if from 
 the trees, and others rising up from the 
 ground : many of them were joined toge- 
 ther in copulation; and I imagine their 
 life is but short, for as soon as produced 
 from the egg by the heat of the sun, they 
 propagate their species, and soon after pe- 
 rish. They were black, somewhat like the 
 small black ant, and had four wings. I 
 saw also, at another place, a large sort 
 which were yellowish. On the 8th of Sep- 
 tember, 1785, I again observed the same 
 
INSECTS AND VERMES. 
 
 circumstance of a vast number of these 
 insects flying near the tops of the elms and 
 dropping to the ground. 
 
 On the 2nd of March, 1777, I saw great 
 numbers of ants come out of the ground. 
 
 MARKWICK. 
 
 GLOW-WORMS. 
 
 By observing two glow-worms which 
 were brought from the field to the bank 
 in the garden, it appeared to us, that these 
 little creatures put out their lamps between 
 eleven and twelve, and shine no more for 
 the rest of the night. 
 
 Male glow-worms, attracted by the light 
 of the candles, come into the parlour. 
 
 WHITE, 
 
 EARTH-WORMS. 
 
 Earth-worms make their casts most in 
 mild weather about March and April ; they 
 do not lie torpid in Winter, but come forth 
 
280 OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 when there is no frost ; they travel about 
 in rainy nights, as appears from their sinu- 
 ous tracks on the soft muddy soil, perhaps 
 in search of food. 
 
 When earth-worms lie out a-nights on 
 the turf, though they extend their bodies a 
 great way, they do not quite leave their 
 holes, but keep the ends of their tails fixed 
 therein, so that on the least alarm they can 
 retire with precipitation under the earth. 
 Whatever food falls within their reach 
 when thus extended, they seem to be con- 
 tent with, such as blades of grass, straws, 
 fallen leaves, the ends of which they often 
 draw into their holes; even in copulation 
 their hinder parts never quit their holes ; 
 so that no two, except they lie within 
 reach of each other's bodies, can have any 
 commerce of that kind; but as every indi- 
 vidual is an hermaphrodite, there is no dif- 
 ficulty in meeting with a mate, as would 
 be the case were they of different sexes. 
 
 WHITE. 
 
INSECTS AND VERMHS. 
 
 SNAILS AND SLUGS. 
 
 The shell-less snails called slugs are in 
 motion all the Winter in mild weather; 
 and commit great depredations on garden 
 plants, and much injure the green wheat, 
 the loss of which is imputed to earth- 
 worms ; while the shelled snail, the pspfoixo?, 
 does not come forth at all till about April 
 10th, and not only lays itself up pretty 
 early in Autumn, in places secure from frost, 
 but also throws out round the mouth of its 
 shell a thick operculum formed from its 
 own saliva; so that it is perfectly secured, 
 and corked up as it were, from all incle- 
 mencies. The cause why the slugs are 
 able to endure the cold so much better 
 than shell-snails is, that their bodies are 
 covered with slime as whales are, with 
 blubber. 
 
 Snails copulate about Midsummer; and 
 soon after deposit their eggs in the mould 
 by running their heads and bodies under 
 ground. Hence the way to be rid of them 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 is, to kill as many as possible before they 
 begin to breed. 
 
 Large, grey, shell-less, cellar snails lay 
 themselves up about the same time with 
 those that live abroad ; hence it is plain 
 that a defect of warmth is not the only 
 cause that influences their retreat. 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 SNAKES SLOUGH. 
 
 There the snake throws her enamell'd skin. 
 
 Shakespeare, Mids. Night's Dream. 
 
 About the middle of this month (Sep- 
 tember) we found in a field near a hedge 
 the slough of a large snake, which seemed 
 to have been newly cast. From circum- 
 stances it appeared as if turned wrong side 
 outward, and as drawn off backward, like 
 a stocking or woman's glove. Not only the 
 whole skin, but scales from the very eyes, 
 are peeled off, and appear in the head of 
 the slough like a pair of spectacles. The 
 reptile, at the time of changing his coat, 
 
INSECTS AND VERMES. 283 
 
 had entangled himself intricately in the 
 grass and weeds, so that the friction of 
 the stalks and blades might promote this 
 curious shifting of his exuviaB. 
 
 " Lubrica serpens 
 
 " Exuit in spinis vestem." Lucret. 
 
 It would be a most entertaining sight 
 could a person be an eye-witness to such 
 a feat, and see the snake in the act of 
 changing his garment. As the convexity 
 of the scales of the eyes in the slough is 
 now inward, that circumstance alone is a 
 proof that the skin has been turned : not 
 to mention that now the present inside is 
 much darker than the outer. If you look 
 through the scales of the snake's eyes from 
 the concave side, viz. as the reptile used 
 them, they lessen objects much. Thus it 
 appears from what has been said, that snakes 
 crawl out of the mouth of their own 
 sloughs, and quit the tail part last, just as 
 eels are skinned by a cook maid. While the 
 scales of the eyes are growing loose, and 
 a new skin is forming, the creature, in ap- 
 
284 OBSERVATIONS, &C. 
 
 pearance, must be blind, and feel itself in 
 an awkward uneasy situation. WHITE. 
 
 I have seen many sloughs or skins of 
 snakes entire, after they have cast them 
 off; and once in particular I remember to 
 have found one of these sloughs so intri- 
 cately interwoven amongst some brakes 
 that it was with difficulty removed with- 
 out being broken : this undoubtedly was 
 done by the creature to assist in getting 
 rid of its incumbrance. 
 
 I have great reason to supgose that 
 the eft or common lizard also casts its skin 
 or slough, but not entire like the snake ; 
 for on the 30th of March, 1777, I saw 
 one with something ragged hanging to it, 
 which appeared to be part of its old skin. 
 
 MARKWICK. 
 
285 
 
 OBSERVATIONS 
 
 VEGETABLES. 
 
 TREES, ORDER OF LOSING THEIR 
 LEAVES. 
 
 ONE of the first trees that become naked 
 is the walnut; the mulberry, the ash, espe- 
 cially if it bears many keys, and the horse- 
 chesnut come next. All lopped trees, 
 while their heads are young, carry their 
 leaves a long while. Apple trees and 
 peaches remain green very late, often till 
 the end of November : young beeches 
 never cast their leaves till Spring, till the 
 new leaves sprout and push them off: in 
 the Autumn the beechen-leaves turn of a 
 
286 OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 deep chesnut colour. Tall beeches cast 
 their leaves about the end of October. 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 SIZE AND GROWTH. 
 
 Mr. Marsham of Stratton, near Norwich, 
 informs me by letter thus : " I became a 
 planter early; so that an oak which I 
 planted in 1720 is become now, at 1 foot 
 from the earth, 12 feet 6 inches in circum- 
 ference, and at 14 feet (the half of the tim- 
 ber length) is 8 feet 2 inches. So if the 
 bark was to be measured as timber, the 
 tree gives 116| feet, buyer's measure. 
 Perhaps you never heard of a larger oak 
 while the planter was living. I flatter 
 myself that I increased the growth by 
 washing the stem, and digging a circle 
 as far as I supposed the roots to extend, 
 and by spreading sawdust, &c. as related 
 in the Phil. Trans. I wish I had begun 
 with beeches (my favourite trees as well as 
 yours), L might then have seen very large 
 trees of my own raising. But I did not 
 
VEGETABLES. 
 
 begin with beech till 1741, and then by 
 seed; so that my largest is now at five 
 feet from the ground, 6 feet 3 inches in 
 girth, and with its head spreads a circle 
 of 20 yards diameter. This tree was also 
 dug round, washed, &c." Stratton, 24 July, 
 1790. 
 
 The circumference of trees planted by 
 myself at 1 foot from the ground (1790.) 
 
 feet, inches. 
 
 Oak in 1730 - - 4 5 
 
 Ash 1730 - 4 6| 
 
 Great fir 1751 -.50 
 
 Greatest beech 1751 - - 4 
 
 Elm 1750 - - 5 3 
 
 Lime 1756 - - 5 5 
 
 The great oak in the Holt, which is 
 deemed by Mr. Marsham to be the biggest 
 in this island, at 7 feet from the ground, 
 measures in circumference 34 feet. It has 
 in old times lost several of its boughs, and 
 is tending to decay. Mr. Marsham com- 
 putes, that at 14 feet length this oak con- 
 tains 1,000 feet of timber. 
 
288 OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 It has been the received opinion that 
 trees grow in height only by their annual 
 upper shoot. But my neighbour over the 
 way, whose occupation confines him to one 
 spot, assures me that trees are expanded 
 and raised in the lower parts also. The 
 reason that he gives is this : the point of 
 one of my firs began for the first time to 
 peer over an opposite roof at the begin- 
 ning of Summer; but before the growing 
 season was over, the whole shoot of the 
 year, and three or four joints of the body 
 beside, became visible to him as he sits on 
 his form in his shop. According to this 
 supposition, a tree may advance in height 
 considerably, though the Summer shoot 
 should be destroyed every year. WHITE. 
 
 FLOWING OF SAP. 
 
 If the bough of a vine is cut late in the 
 Spring, just before the shoots push out, it 
 will bleed considerably ; but after the leaf 
 is out, any part may be taken off without 
 
VEGETABLES. 289 
 
 the least inconvenience. So oaks may be 
 barked while the leaf is budding ; but as 
 soon as they are expanded, the bark will 
 no longer part from the wood, because the 
 sap that lubricates the bark and makes it 
 part, is evaporated off through the leaves. 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 RENOVATION OF LEAVES. 
 
 When oaks are quite stripped of their 
 leaves by chaffers, they are clothed again 
 soon after Midsummer with a beautiful 
 foliage : but beeches, horse-chestnuts and 
 maples, once defaced by those insects, 
 never recover their beauty again for the 
 whole season. WHITE. 
 
 ASH TREES. 
 
 Many ash trees bear loads of keys every 
 year, others never seem to bear any at all. 
 The prolific ones are naked of leaves and 
 unsightly ; those that are steril abound in 
 foliage, and carry their verdure a long 
 while, and are pleasing objects. WHITE. 
 
 VOL. IT. U 
 
290 OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 BEECH. 
 
 Beeches love to grow in crowded situa- 
 tions, and will insinuate themselves through 
 the thickest covert, so as to surmount it 
 all : are therefore proper to mend thin 
 places in tall hedges. WHITE. 
 
 SYCAMORE.. 
 
 May 12. The sycamore or great maple 
 is in bloom, and at this season makes a 
 beautiful appearance, and affords much 
 pabulum for bees, smelling strongly like 
 honey. The foliage of this tree is very 
 fine, and very ornamental to outlets. All 
 the maples have saccharine juices. 
 
 WHITE. 
 
 GALLS OF LOMBARDY POPLAR. 
 
 The stalks and ribs of the leaves of the 
 Lombardy poplar are embossed with large 
 tumours of an oblong shape, which by in- 
 curious observers have been taken for the 
 
VEGETABLES. 
 
 fruit of the tree. These galls are full of 
 small insects, some of which are winged, 
 and some not. The parent insect is of the 
 genus of cymps. Some poplars in the gar- 
 den are quite loaded with these excres- 
 cences. WHITE. . - 
 
 CHESTNUT TIMBER. 
 
 John Carpenter brings home some old 
 chestnut-trees which are very long ; in se- 
 veral places the wood-peckers had begun 
 to bore them. The timber and bark of 
 these trees are so very like oak, as might 
 easily deceive an indifferent observer, but 
 the wood is very shakey, and towards the 
 heart cup-shakey (that is to say, apt to se- 
 parate in round pieces like cups), so that 
 the inward parts are of no use. They are 
 bought for the purpose of cooperage, but 
 must make but ordinary barrels, buckets, 
 &c. Chestnut sells for half the price of oak ; 
 but has sometimes been sent into the king's 
 dock, and passed off instead of oak. 
 
 WHITE. 
 u2 
 
292 OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 LIME BLOSSOMS. 
 
 Dr. Chandler tells, that in the south of 
 France, an infusion of the blossoms of the 
 lime tree, tilia, is in much esteem as a 
 remedy for coughs, hoarsenesses, fevers, 
 &c. and that at Nismes, he saw an avenue 
 of limes that was quite ravaged and torn 
 in pieces by people greedily gathering the 
 bloom, which they dried and kept for these 
 purposes. 
 
 Upon the strength of this information 
 we made some tea of lime blossoms, and 
 found it a very soft, well-flavoured, plea- 
 sant, saccharine julep, in taste much re- 
 sembling the juice of liquorice. WHITE. 
 
 BLACKTHORN. 
 
 This tree usually blossoms while cold 
 N. E. winds blow; so that the harsh rug- 
 ged weather obtaining at this season, is 
 called by the country-people, blackthorn 
 winter. WHITE. 
 
VEGETABLES. 
 
 IVY BERRIES. 
 
 Ivy berries afford a noble and providen- 
 tial supply for birds in Winter and Spring ; 
 for the first severe frost freezes and spoils 
 all the haws, sometimes by the middle of 
 November; ivy berries do not seem to 
 freeze. WHITE. 
 
 HOPS. 
 
 The culture of Virgil's vines corre- 
 sponded very exactly with the modern 
 management of hops. I might instance in 
 the perpetual diggings and hoeings, in the 
 tying to the stakes and poles, in pruning 
 the superfluous shoots, &c. but lately I 
 have observed a new circumstance, which 
 was, a neighbouring farmer's harrowing 
 between the rows of hops with a small 
 triangular harrow, drawn by one horse, 
 and guided by two handles. This occur- 
 rence brought to my mind the following 
 passage : 
 
 " ipsa 
 
 " Flectere luctantes inter vineta juvencos." 
 
 Georgia IL 
 
294- OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 Hops are di6cious plants : hence perhaps 
 it might be proper, though not practised, 
 to leave purposely some male plants in 
 every garden, that their farina might im- 
 pregnate the blossoms. The female plants 
 without their male attendants are not in 
 their natural state : hence we may suppose 
 the frequent failure of crop so incident to 
 hop-grounds; no other growth, cultivated 
 by man, has such frequent and general 
 failures as hops. 
 
 Two hop-gardens much injured by a 
 hail-storm, June 5, show now (September 2) 
 a prodigious crop, and larger and fairer 
 hops than any in the parish. The owners 
 seem now to be convinced that the hail, 
 by beating off the tops of the binds, has 
 increased the side-shoots, and improved 
 the crop. Query. Therefore should not 
 the tops of hops be pinched off when 
 the binds are very gross, and strong ? 
 
 WHITE. 
 
VEGETABLES. 295 
 
 SEED LYING DORMANT. 
 
 The naked part of the Hanger is now 
 covered with thistles of various kinds. 
 The seeds of these thistles may have lain 
 probably under the thick shade of the 
 beeches for many years, but could not ve- 
 getate till the sun and air were admitted. 
 When old beech trees are cleared away, 
 the naked ground in a year or two becomes 
 covered with strawberry plants, the seeds 
 of which must have lain in the ground for 
 an age at least. One of the didders or 
 trenches down the middle of the Hanger, 
 close covered over with lofty beeches near 
 a century old, is still called strawberry- 
 slidder, though no strawberries have grown 
 there in the memory of man/ That sort 
 of fruit did once, no doubt, abound there, 
 and will again when the obstruction is 
 removed. WHITE. 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 BEANS SOWN BY BIRDS 
 
 Many horse-beans sprang up in my field- 
 walks in the Autumn, and are now grown 
 to a considerable height. As the Ewel 
 was in beans last Summer, it is most likely 
 that these seeds came from thence ; but 
 then the distance is too considerable for 
 them to have been conveyed by mice. It 
 is most probable therefore that they were 
 brought by birds, and in particular by jays 
 and pies, who seem to have hid them 
 among the grass and moss, and then to 
 have forgotten where they had stowed 
 them. Some peas are growing also in the 
 same situation, and probably under the 
 same circumstances. WHITE. 
 
 CUCUMBERS SET BY BEES. 
 
 If bees, who are much the best setters of 
 cucumbers, do not happen to take kindly 
 to the frames, the best way is to tempt 
 them by a little honey put on the male and 
 
VEGETABLES. 297 
 
 female bloom. When they are once in- 
 duced to haunt the frames, they set all the 
 fruit, and will hover with impatience round 
 the lights in a morning, till the glasses are 
 opened. Probatum cst. WHITE. 
 
 WHEAT. 
 
 A notion has always obtained, that in 
 England hot Summers are productive of 
 fine crops of wheat; yet in the years 1780 
 and 1781, though the heat was intense, the 
 wheat was much mildewed, and the crop 
 light. Does not severe heat, while the 
 straw is milky, occasion its juices to ex- 
 ude, which being extravasated, occasion 
 spots, discolour the stems and blades, and 
 injure the health of the plants ? WHITE. 
 
 TRUFFLES. 
 
 August. A truffle-hunter called on us, 
 having in his pocket several large truffles 
 found in this neighbourhood. He says 
 these roots are not to be found in deep 
 
298 OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 woods, but iii narrow-hedge rows and the 
 skirts of coppices. Some truffles, he in- 
 formed us, lie two feet within the earth, 
 and some quite on the surface ; the latter, 
 he added, have little or no smell, and are 
 not so easily discovered by the dogs as 
 those that lie deeper. Half-a-crown a 
 pound was the price which he asked for 
 this commodity. 
 
 Truffles never abound in wet Winters 
 and Springs. They are in season in dif- 
 ferent situations, at least nine months in 
 the year. WHITE. 
 
 TREMELLA NOSTOC. 
 
 Though the weather may have been 
 ever so dry and burning, yet after two or 
 three wet days, this jelly-like substance 
 abounds on the walks. WHITE. 
 
 FAIRY RINGS. 
 
 The cause, occasion, call it what you 
 will, of fairy-rings , subsists in the turf, 
 
VEGETABLES. 299 
 
 and is conveyable with it : for the turf of 
 my garden-walks, brought from the down 
 above, abounds with those appearances, 
 which vary their shape, and shift situation 
 continually, discovering themselves now 
 in circles, now in segments, and sometimes 
 in irregular patches and spots. Wherever 
 they obtain, puff-balls abound; the seeds 
 of which were doubtless brought in the 
 turf. WHITE. 
 
 
300 
 
 METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS, 
 
 BAROMETER. 
 
 NOVEMBER 22, 1768. A remarkable 
 fall of the barometer all over the kingdom. 
 At Selborne we had no wind, and not 
 much rain ; only vast, swagging, rock-like 
 clouds, appeared at a distance. WHITE. 
 
 PARTIAL FROST. 
 
 The country people, who are abroad in 
 Winter mornings long before sun-rise, talk 
 much of hard frost in some spots, and none 
 in others. The reason of these partial frosts 
 is obvious, for there are at such times par- 
 tial fogs about; where the fog obtains, 
 little or no frost appears : but where the 
 
METEOROLOGICAL, &C. 301 
 
 air is clear, there it freezes hard. So the 
 frost takes place either on hill or in dale, 
 wherever the air happens to be clearest 
 and freest from vapour. WHITE. 
 
 THAW. 
 
 Thaws are sometimes surprisingly quick, 
 considering the small quantity of rain. 
 Does not the warmth at such times come 
 from below ? The cold in still, severe sea- 
 sons seems to come down from above : for 
 the coming over of a cloud in severe nights 
 raises the thermometer abroad at once full 
 ten degrees. The first notices of thaws 
 often seem to appear in vaults, cellars, &c. 
 
 If a frost happens, even when the ground 
 is considerably dry, as soon as a thaw takes 
 place, the paths and fields are all in a bat- 
 ter. Country people say that the frost 
 draws moisture. But the true philosophy 
 is, that the steam and vapours continually 
 ascending from the earth, are bound in by 
 the frost, and not suffered to escape till 
 released by the thaw. No wonder then 
 
302 METEOROLOGICAL 
 
 that the surface is all in a float ; since the 
 quantity of moisture by evaporation that 
 arises daily from every acre of ground is 
 astonishing. WHITE. 
 
 FROZEN SLEET. 
 
 January 20. Mr. H.'s man says that he 
 caught this day, in a lane near Hackwood 
 park, many rooks, which, attempting to 
 fly,, fell from the trees with their wings 
 frozen together by the sleet, that froze as 
 it fell. There were, he affirms, many dozen 
 so disabled. WHITE. 
 
 MIST, CALLED LONDON SMOKE. 
 
 This is a blue mist which has somewhat 
 the smell of coal smoke, and as it always 
 comes to us with a N. E. wind, is sup- 
 posed to come from London. It has a 
 strong smell, and is supposed to occasion 
 blights. When such mists appear they are 
 usually followed by dry weather. 
 
 WHITE, 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 303 
 
 REFLECTION ON FOG. 
 
 When people walk in a deep white fog 
 by night with a lanthorn, if they will turn 
 their backs to the light, they will see their 
 shades impressed on the fog in rude gigan- 
 tic proportions. This phenomenon seems 
 not to have been attended to, but implies 
 the great density of the meteor at that 
 juncture. WHITE. 
 
 HONEY DEW. 
 
 June 4, 1783. Vast honey dews this 
 week. The reason of these seems to be, 
 that in hot days the effluvia of flowers are 
 drawn up by a brisk evaporation, and then 
 in the night fall down with the dews with 
 which they are entangled. 
 
 This clammy substance is very grateful 
 to bees, who gather it with great assiduity, 
 but it is injurious to the trees on which it 
 happens to fall, by stopping the pores of 
 the leaves. The greatest quantity falls in 
 
304 METEOROLOGICAL 
 
 still close weather ; because winds disperse 
 it, and copious dews dilute it, and prevent 
 its ill effects. It falls mostly in hazy warm 
 weather. WHITE. 
 
 MORNING CLOUDS. 
 
 After a bright night and vast dew, the 
 sky usually becomes cloudy by eleven or 
 twelve o'clock in the forenoon, and clear 
 again towards the decline of the day. The 
 reason seems to be, that the dew, drawn 
 up by evaporation, occasions the clouds ; 
 which, towards evening, being no longer 
 rendered buoyant by the warmth of the 
 sun, melt away, and fall down again in 
 dews. If clouds are watched in a still 
 warm evening, they will be seen to melt 
 away, and disappear. WHITE. 
 
 DRIPPING WEATHER AFTER 
 DROUGHT. 
 
 No one that has not attended to such 
 matters, and taken down remarks, can be 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 30JI 
 
 aware how much ten days dripping wea- 
 ther will influence the growth of grass or 
 corn after a severe dry season. This pre- 
 sent summer, 1776, yielded a remarkable 
 instance; for till the 30th of May the 
 fields were burnt up and naked, and the 
 barley not half out of the ground ; but 
 now, June 10, there is an agreeable pro- 
 spect of plenty. WHITE. 
 
 AURORA BOREALIS 
 
 November 1, 1787. The N. aurora 
 made a particular appearance, forming it- 
 self into a broad, red, fiery belt, which 
 extended from E. to W. across the welkin : 
 but the moon rising at about ten o'clock, 
 in unclouded majesty, in the E. put an 
 end to this grand, but awful meteorous 
 phenomenon. WHITE. 
 
 BLACK SPRING, 1771. 
 Dr. Johnson says, that " in 1771 the 
 season was so severe in the island of Sky, 
 
 VOL. II. X 
 
'306 METEOROLOGICAL, &C. 
 
 that it is remembered by the name of the 
 black spring. The snow, which seldom lies 
 at all, covered the ground for eight weeks r 
 many cattle died, and those that survived 
 were so emaciated that they did not require 
 the male at the usual season.*' The case 
 was just the same with us here in the south ; 
 never were so many barren cows known 
 as in the spring following that dreadful 
 period. Whole dairies missed being in 
 calf together. 
 
 At the end of March the face of the 
 earth was naked to a surprising degree, 
 Wheat hardly to be seen, and no signs of 
 any grass ; turnips all gone, and sheep in 
 a starving way. All provisions rising in 
 price. Farmers cannot sow for want of 
 rain. WHITE. 
 
307 
 
 OBSE RVATIONS 
 
 ON SOME PASSAGES IX 
 
 MR. WHITE'S NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 S EL BORNE. 
 
 VOL. 1. 
 
 Page 14. THERE is a village in the west of England 
 remarkable for the quantity it possesses of the " Cornu 
 Ammonis." The name of it is Keynsham, between 
 Bath and Bristol. * This has given rise to a fabulous 
 legend, which says that St. Keyna, from whom the 
 place takes its name, resided here in a solitary wood 
 full of venomous serpents, and her prayers converted 
 them into stones, which still retain their shape.' See 
 Espriella's Letters from England, v. 3. p. 362. 
 
 P. 35. The description of the conflagration arising 
 
 from the heath-fires here mentioned, reminds the scholar 
 
 of the ' stubble-burning' 1 described in Virgil's Georgics, 
 
 i. 84, and the commentary on the passage, by the ele- 
 
 x 2 
 
308 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 gant and learned Mr. Holdsworth, p. 52. Compare 
 Virgilii ^En.2.304. Ovid. Epist. xv.9. Sil. Ital. vii.365. 
 
 P. 46. German Boars and Sows were also turned 
 out by Charles the First in the New Forest, which bred 
 and increased. Their stock is supposed to exist now, 
 remarkable for the smallness of their hind quarters. See 
 an engraving of one in Gilpin's Forest Scenery, ii. 118. 
 
 P. 50. The Black-cap," which Mr. White calls 
 a delicate songster, is classed very highly by Mr. D. 
 Barrington, in his scale of singing birds. See also 
 Pennant's Brit. Zoology, v. i. p. 374. 
 
 P. 54. The most curious account of the * Cross" 
 billy " (Loxia Curvirostra) was published by Dr. Town- 
 json, who kept them tame. See his Tracts on Natural 
 History, p. 116. 
 
 P. 58. The Falco Peregrinus,' tent by Mr. White 
 to Mr. Pennant, is a rare bird. One of them was caught 
 some years ago in Norfolk, in a trap baited with a wood- 
 cock. Another was killed in January 1812 (this present 
 month) in Sussex, while fighting with a raven. This 
 falcon breeds on Glenmore, and other rocks in the 
 Highlands. See Pennant's Scotland, v. i. p. 277. 
 
 P. 63. There certainly does exist a difficulty in con- 
 ceiving how some of the Birds of Passage, such feeble 
 and bad fliers, should be able to migrate to such a vast 
 distance; but some of our wonder will perhaps diminish 
 when we read the account of the manner in which the 
 Quail crosses the Mediterranean, for the coast of Africa. 
 * Towards the end of September, the Quails avail them- 
 selves of a northerly wind to take their departure from 
 
 tfc 
 
 V -TM^ 
 
 l 
 
 f\ r 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 309 
 
 Europe, and flapping one wing, while they present the 
 other to the gale, half sail, half oar, they graze the 
 billows of the Mediterranean with their fattened rumps, 
 and bury themselves in the sands of Africa, that they 
 may serve as food to the famished inhabitants of Zara.' 
 St. Pierre's Studies of Nature, v. 1. p. 91. 
 
 P. 73. Mr. White mentions a notion among th 
 country people in Hampshire, that there exists a species 
 of the Genus Mustelinum,' reddish, not much bigger 
 than a field-mouse, called a ' Cane, 1 and distinct from 
 the weasel, stoat, &c. This I believe to be a pretty 
 general error among Ihe country people also in other 
 counties. This imaginary animal in Suffolk is called the 
 ' Mouse-hunt,' from its being supposed to live on mice. 
 To discover the truth of this report, I managed to have 
 several of these animals brought to me ; all of which I 
 found to be the common weazel. The error I conceive 
 partly to have arisen from this animal, like most others, 
 appearing less than its real size, when running and at- 
 tempting to escape, a circumstance well known to the 
 hunters in India, with respect to larger animals, as the 
 tiger, &c* 
 
 P. 74. Mr. White has justly remarked, ' that food 
 has great influence on the colour of animals.' The dark 
 colour in wild birds is a great safeguard to them against 
 their enemies ; and this is the reason, that among birds 
 of bright plumage, the young do not assume their gay 
 colours till the second or third year, as the cygnet, the 
 gold and silver pheasants, &c. The remarkable change of 
 plumage among the gull tribe, is a curious and intricate 
 
310 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 subject. Is the circumstance mentioned by Mr. Pegge 
 true, '. that butterflies partake the colour of the flowers 
 they feed on ?' I think not. See Anonymiana, p. 469. 
 
 P. 84. Concerning the reason of frogs coming out 
 in rainy weather, the reader will be amply gratified, by 
 referring to the experiments made by Dr. Townson on 
 his two frogs, Damon and Musidora. See his Tracts, 
 p. 50. The general result of which has proved the fol- 
 lowing curious fact : * that frogs take in their supply 
 of liquid through the skin alone, all the aqueous fluid 
 which they take in being absorbed by the skin, and all 
 they reject being transpired through it." One frog in 
 anhourand half absorbed nearly its own weight of water. 
 
 P. 139. The very beautiful, one may almost say 
 poetical way, in which the male bird procures a mate by 
 the power of his song, may be seen in the preface to 
 Mr. Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary, p. xxx ; from 
 which this corollary may be inferred, that if a confined 
 bird had learned the song of another, without retaining 
 any part of its natural note*, and was set at liberty, it is 
 probable, it would never find a mate of its own. 
 
 P. 152. The e bustard,' is extinct in Scotland : and 
 as it is now so scarce in England, owing to population 
 and enclosures, it becomes interesting to remark, that 
 two birds of this kind, (male and female) have been 
 kept in the garden ground belonging to Norwich Infir- 
 mary, and have but lately been sold by the owner of 
 them. The male bird was very beautiful and courageous, 
 apparently afraid of nothing, seizing any one that came 
 near him by the coat; yet on the appearance of any small 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 311 
 
 hawk high in the air, he would squat close to the 
 ground, expressing strong marks of fear. The female 
 was very shy. A tolerably good resemblance of the 
 male is in Pennant's British Zoology, v. 1. p. 284. 
 . P. 167. Concerning swallows, the reader will see, 
 that Mr. White appears to incline more and more in 
 favour of their torpidity, and against their migration. 
 Mr. D. Barrington is still more positive on the same 
 side of the question. See his Miscellanies, p. 225. The 
 ancients generally mention this bird, as wintering in 
 Africa. See Anacreon, Ay. ed. Brunk. p. 38. The 
 Rhodians had a festival called xf\t$mt* 9 when the 
 boys brought about young swallows ; the song which 
 they sang, may be seen in the works of Meursius. v. 3. 
 p. 974. fol. 
 
 ciyovtroi) noil KO,\OVS ' 
 
 '* He comes ! He comes ! who loves to bear 
 " Soft sunny hours, and seasons fair ; 
 The swallow hither comes to rest 
 " His sable wing, and snowy breast.'* 
 
 And alluding to this custom, Avienus, (who may be 
 considered only as a very bad translator of an excellent 
 poem, the Periegesis of Dionysius), thus says, v. 705, 
 
 " Nam cum vere novo, tellus se dura relaxat, 
 Culminibusq. cavis, blandum strepit ales hirundo 
 Gens devota chores agitat !" 
 
312 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 From a passage in the ' Birds' of Aristophanes, we 
 learn that among the Greeks, tiie crane pointed out the 
 time of sowing ; the arrival of the kite, the time 
 of sheep-shearing ; and the swallow, the time to put 
 on summer-clothes. According to the Greek Calendar 
 of Flora, kept by Theophrastus at Athens, the Orni- 
 thian winds blow, and the swallow comes between the 
 28th of February, and the 12th of March ; the kite 
 and nightingale appear between the llth and 26th of 
 March ; the cuckoo appears at the same time the 
 young figs come out, thence his name. See Stilling- 
 fleet's Tracts on Natural History, p. 324. 
 
 P. 210. Since this letter of Mr. White's, much has 
 been added to our knowledge of the cuckoo, by 
 the patient attention of Dr. Jeuner. Concerning the 
 singing of the cuckoo, mentioned by Mr. White at 
 p. 242, I will add the following curious memoranda 
 from the 7th Volume of the Transactions of the Lin- 
 nsean Society. " The cuckoo begins early in the 
 season with the interval of a minor third, the bird then 
 proceeds to a major third, next to a fourth, then &ffth, 
 after which his voice breaks without attaining a minor 
 sixth." This curious circumstance was however ob- 
 served very long ago ; and it forms the subject of 
 an Epigram in that scarce black-letter volume, the 
 6 Epigrams of John Hey wood, 1587.' 
 
 OF USE. 95. 
 
 " Use maketh maistry, this hath been said alway, 
 " But all is not alway, as all men do eay, 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 313 
 
 In April], the koocoo can sing her song by rote, 
 
 " In June, of tune, she cannot sing a note : 
 
 " At first, koo coo, koo coo sing still can she do, 
 
 " At last kooke, kooke, kooke; six kookes to one koo!" 
 
 P. 247, Mr. White says, it is strange that rooks and 
 starlings accompany each other : but this is the case 
 with other birds ; the short-eared owl often accom- 
 panies flights of woodcocks in this country. See Pen- 
 nant's Scotland, i. p. 11. In Greece, the cuckoo migrates 
 with the fwr/fe-flocks, thence they call him trigono- 
 kracti, or turtle-leader. 
 
 P. 251. The motion of the tortoise's legs being, as 
 Mr. White remarks, ridiculously slorv, is taken notice 
 of in Homer's hymn to Hermes, v. 28, 
 
 " Feeding far off from man, the flowery herb, 
 Slow-moving with his feet." 
 
 P. 269. Mr. White has observed, that the owl re- 
 turns to its young with food once 'mfive minutes. Mr. 
 Montagu has observed, that the wren returns once in 
 two minutes, or upon an average thirty-six times in an 
 hour; and this continued full sixteen hours in a day, 
 which if equally divided between eight young ones, 
 each would receive seventy-two feeds in the day, the 
 whole amounting to five hundred and seventy-six. 
 See Ornitholog. Diet. p. 35. To this, I will add, that 
 the swallow never fails to return to its nest at the expi- 
 ration of every second or third minute. 
 
314 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 P. 281 . Mr. White says, that no wheat ear save taken 
 to thetces/M?ardof Houghton-bridge,on the river A run ; 
 it appears, however, that is not the case. See the note 
 to Mrs. Charlotte Smith's Poems, 1807, p. 168. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 P. 20. As our Saxon ancestors called the month of 
 February ' Sprout-Gale,' so the names of many other 
 months were equally significant; viz. March, Stormy 
 month; May, Trimilki, the cows then being milked 
 three times a day ; June, dig and weed month ; Sep- 
 tember, barley month, &c. - 
 
 P. 105. What Mr. White has remarked of the 
 Jishes of Japan thriving in our climate, is true also of 
 the plants; the trees and shrubs brought from the Japo- 
 nese islands bearing our winters, and growing freely : as 
 for instance, that beautiful tree, the * Gingko,' now 
 called by Dr. Smith, the Salisburia; and the no less 
 beautiful and scarce ' Sophora Japonica,' the finest spe- 
 cimens of which trees now in England, are probably in 
 the curious garden of John Orde, Esq. at Fulham. As 
 I am on this subject, I will mention that the garden 
 belonging to the palace of the Bishop of London at 
 Fulham , the earliest receptacle of scarce and foreign trees 
 in this country, is now almost worn out. Not above 
 
OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 twelve of the original trees could be found in the survey 
 made in 1793. I remarked in 1811, that some of these 
 were gone, but the pinaster and the ilex remain. 
 
 P. 154. To this most awful summer of 1783, Cowper 
 also alludes, in his Task, Boot ii. p. 41. 
 
 . . .......... " A world that seems 
 
 To toll the death-bell of its own decease ; 
 And by the voice of all the elements 
 To preach the general doom." 
 
 P. 202. Mr. White observes, that birds of prey, as 
 hawks, feed on insects. There is reason to believe, 
 that insects form also part of the food even of the larger 
 beasts of prey. " Beetles, flies, worms, form part of 
 the lion and tiger** food, as they do that of the fox." 
 See Jarrold's Dissert, on Man. 
 
 P. 212. Concerning the " hybrid pheasant," see the 
 account by John Hunter, in the Philosophical Transact. 
 Art. xxx. 1760. " The subject of the account is a 
 hen pheasant with the feathers of the cock. The author 
 concludes, that it is most probable that all those hen 
 pheasants which are found wild, and have the feathers 
 of the cock, were formerly perfect hens, but that now 
 they are changed with age, and perhaps by certain 
 constitutional circumstances." It appears also, that 
 the hen taking the plumage of the cock, is not confined 
 to the pheasant alone, it takes place also with the pea- 
 hen, as may be seen in the specimen belonging to Lady 
 Tynte, which was in the Leverian Museum. After many 
 broods, this hen took much of the plumage of the cock, 
 
J316 OBSERVATIONS* 
 
 and also the fine train belonging to that bird. See 
 also Montagu's Ornitholog. Diet. Art. Pheasant. 
 
 P. 251. The squirrel's nest is not only called a drey 
 in Hampshire, but also in other counties ; in Suffolk it 
 is called a lay. The word ' drey,' though now pro- 
 vincial, I have met with in some of our old writers. 
 
 P. 303. It will hardly be deemed a discredit to an 
 observer so patient, so accurate, and so faithful, as Mr. 
 White, to mention, that his conjecture concerning the 
 origin of honey-dew is erroneous; the subject has been 
 elucidated by the observations of Mr. William Curtis, 
 who has discovered it to be the " excrement of the 
 aphides" See Transact, of the Linnsean Society, 
 vol. vi. No. 4. 
 
 J. M. 
 
 Benhall, Suffolk, 
 20M January, 1812. 
 
SUMMARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 WEATHER. 
 
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 CO^r-^OC^C^OTf^FHCO'i-^ 
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 ^fdcodi-^dc*f-*co*i-*^tco 
 
 Ci v.O r>j 00 Tf <& CO -^ ; ^ O O CO 
 
 i-* vC O* <-* i^ CO* CO Tj* O* ^t i- d* 
 
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 (M* co" rf tf5 co r>" oo" c^d i-J d co 
 
 OOCOGCCOCOOOOOCCO5O5OSO5 
 
319 
 
 SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 
 
 1768. Begins with a fortnight's frost and 
 snow ; rainy during February. Cold and 
 wet spring ; wet season from the begin- 
 ning of June to the end of harvest. Lat- 
 ter end of September foggy, without rain. 
 All October and the first part of Novem- 
 ber rainy ; arid thence to the end of the 
 year alternate rains and frosts. 
 
 1769. January and February, frosty and 
 rainy, with gleams of fine weather in the 
 intervals. To the middle of March, wind 
 and rain. To the end of March dry, and 
 windy. To the middle of April, stormy, 
 with rain. To the 'end of June, fine wea- 
 ther, with rain. To the beginning of 
 August, warm, dry weather. To the end 
 of September, rainy, with short interval 
 of fine weather. To the latter end of Oc- 
 tober, frosty mornings, with fine days. 
 
SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 
 
 The next fortnight rainy : thence to the 
 end of November dry and frosty. De- 
 cember, windy, with rain and intervals of 
 frost, and the first fortnight very foggy. 
 
 1770. Frost for the first fortnight : 
 during the 14th and 15th all the snow 
 melted. To the end of February, mild, 
 hazy weather. The whole of March frosty, 
 with bright weather. April cloudy, with 
 rain and snow. May began with summer 
 showers, and ended with dark, cold rains. 
 June, rainy, checquered with gleams of 
 sunshine. The first fortnight in July, dark 
 and sultry ; the latter part of the month, 
 heavy rain. August, September, and the 
 first fortnight in October, in general fine 
 weather, though with frequent interrup- 
 tions of rain : from the middle of October 
 to the end of the year almost incessant 
 rains. 
 
 1771. Severe frosts till the last week 
 in January. To the first week in February, 
 rain and snow: to the end of February, 
 spring weather. To the end of the third 
 week in April, frosty weather. To the 
 
SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 321 
 
 end of the first fortnight in May, spring 
 weather, with copious showers. To the end 
 of June, dry, warm weather. The first fort- 
 night in s July, warm, rainy weather. To 
 the end of September, warm weather, but in 
 general cloudy, with showers. " October, 
 rainy. November, frost, with intervals of 
 fog and rain. December, in general bright, 
 mild weather, with hoar frosts. 
 
 1772. To the end of the first week in 
 February, frost and snow. To the end of 
 the first fortnight in March, frost, sleet, rain 
 and snow. To the middle of April, cold 
 rains. To the middle of May, dry weather, 
 with cold piercing winds. To the end of 
 the first week in June, cool showers. To 
 the middle of August, hot, dry summer wea- 
 ther. To the end of September, rain with 
 storms and thunder. To December 22, 
 rain with mild weather. December 23, the 
 first ice. To the end of the month, cold, 
 foggy weather. 
 
 1773. The first week in January, frost ; 
 thence to the end of the month, dark rainy 
 weather. The first fortnight in February, 
 
 VOL. II. Y 
 
SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 
 
 hard frost. To the end of the first Aveek in 
 March, misty, showery weather. Bright 
 spring days to the close of the month. Fre- 
 quent showers to the latter end of April. 
 To the end of June, warm showers, with 
 intervals of sunshine. To the end of Au- 
 gust, dry weather, with a few days of rain. 
 To the end of the first fortnight in Novem- 
 ber, rainy. The next four weeks, frost ; 
 and thence to the end of the year, rainy. 
 
 1774. Frost and rain to the end of the 
 first fortnight in March : thence to the end 
 of the month, dry weather. To the 1,5th 
 of April, showers ; thence to the end of 
 April, fine spring days. During May, 
 showers and sunshine in about an equal 
 proportion. Dark, rainy weather to the 
 end of the 3rd week in July : thence to the 
 94th of August, sultry, with thunder and 
 occasional showers. To the end of the 3rd 
 week in November, rain, with frequent in- 
 tervals of sunny weather. To the end of 
 December, dark, dripping fogs. 
 
 1775. To the end of the first fortnight 
 in March, rain almost every day. To the 
 
SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 323 
 
 first week in April, cold winds, with 
 showers of rain and snow. To the end of 
 June, warm, bright weather, with frequent 
 showers. The first fortnight in July, almost 
 incessant rains. To the 26th August, sul- 
 try weather with frequent showers. To the 
 end of the 3rd week in September, rain, 
 with a few intervals of fine weather. To 
 the end of the year, rain, with intervals of 
 hoar-frost and sunshine. 
 
 1776. To January 24, dark, frosty wea- 
 ther, with much snow. March 24, to the 
 end of the month, foggy, with hoar-frost. 
 To the 30th of May, dark, dry, harsh wea- 
 ther, with cold winds. To the end of the 
 first fortnight in July, warm, with much 
 rain. To the end of the first week in Au- 
 gust, hot and dry, with intervals of thunder 
 showers. To the end of October, in gene- 
 ral fine seasonable weather, with a consi- 
 derable proportion of rain. To the end of 
 the year, dry, frosty weather, with some 
 days of hard rain. 
 
 1777. To the 10th of January, hard 
 frost. To the 20th of January, foggy, 
 
 Y 2 
 
SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 
 
 with frequent showers. To the 18th of 
 February, hard, dry frost with snow. To the 
 end of May, heavy showers, with intervals 
 of warm, dry spring days. To the 8th July, 
 dark, with heavy rain. To the 18th July, 
 dry, warm weather. To the end of July, 
 very heavy rains. To the 12th October, 
 remarkably fine warm weather. To the end 
 of the year, grey mild weather, with but little 
 rain, and still less frost. 
 
 1778. To the 13th of January, frost, 
 with a little snow : to the 24th January, 
 rain : to the 30th, hard frost. To the 23rd 
 February, dark, harsh, foggy weather, with 
 rain. To the end of the month, hard frost 
 with snow. To the end of the first fort- 
 night in March, dark, harsh weather. 
 From the first, to the end of the first fort- 
 night in April, spring weather. To the 
 end of the month, snow and ice. To the 
 llth of June, cool, with heavy showers. 
 To the 19th July, hot, sultry, parching 
 weather. To the end of the month, heavy 
 showers. To the end of September, dry 
 warm weather. To the end of the year, 
 
SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 325 
 
 wet, with considerable intervals of sun- 
 shine. 
 
 1779. Frost and showers to the end of 
 January. To 21st April, warm dry wea- 
 ther. To 8th May, rainy. To the 7th 
 June, dry and warm. To the 6th July, 
 hot weather, with frequent rain. To the 
 18th July, dry, hot weather. To August 8, 
 hot weather, with frequent rains. To the 
 end of August, fine dry harvest weather. 
 To the end of November, fine autumnal 
 weather, with intervals of rain. To the end 
 of the year, rain with frost and snow. 
 
 1780. To the end of January, frost. 
 To the end of February, dark, harsh wea- 
 ther, with frequent intervals of frost. To 
 the end of March, warm, showery spring 
 weather. To the end of April, dark, harsh 
 weather, with rain and frost. To the end 
 of the first fortnight in May, mild, with 
 rain. To. the end of August, rain and fair 
 weather in pretty equal proportions. To 
 the end of October, fine autumnal weather, 
 with intervals of rain. To the 24th No- 
 
326 SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 
 
 vember, frost. To December 16, mild, dry, 
 foggy weather. To the end of the year 
 frost and snow. 
 
 1781. To January 25, frost and snow. 
 To the end of February, harsh and windy, 
 with rain and snow. To April 5, cold, 
 drying winds. To the end of May, mild 
 spring weather, with a few light showers. 
 June began with heavy rain, but thence 
 to the end of October, dry weather, with a 
 few flying showers. To the end of the year, 
 open weather with frequent rains. 
 
 1782. To February 4, open, mild wea- 
 ther. To February 22, hard frost. To the 
 end of March, cold blowing weather, with 
 frost and snow and rain. To May 7 5 cold, 
 dark rains. To the end of May, mild, with 
 incessant rains. To the end of June, warm 
 and dry. To the end of August, warm, 
 with almost perpetual rains. The first 
 fortnight in September, mild and dry ; 
 thence to the end of the month, rain. To 
 the end of October, mild, with frequent 
 showers. November began with hard frost, 
 
SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 32? 
 
 and continued throughout with alternate 
 frost and thaw. The first part of Decem- 
 ber frosty ; the latter part mild. 
 
 1783. To January 1 6, rainy, with heavy 
 winds. To the 24th, hard frost. To the 
 end of the first fortnight in February, 
 blowing, with much rain. To the end of 
 February, stormy, dripping weather. To 
 the 9th of May, cold, harsh winds (thick ice 
 on 5th of May). To the end of August, 
 hot weather, with frequent showers. To 
 the 23rd September, mild, with heavy driv- 
 ing rains. To November 12, dry, mild 
 weather. To the 18th December, grey, 
 soft weather, with a few showers. To the 
 end of the year, hard frost. 
 
 1784. To February 19, hard frost, with 
 two thaws ; one the 14th January, the other 
 5th February. To February 28, mild wet, 
 fogs. To the 3rd March, frost, with ice. 
 To March 10, sleet and snow. To April 2, 
 snow and hard frost. To April 27, mild 
 weather, with much rain. To May 12, 
 cold, drying winds. To May 20, hot, cloud- 
 
328 SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 
 
 less weather. To June 27 5 warm, with 
 frequent showers. To July 18, hot and 
 dry. To the end of August, warm, with 
 heavy rains. To November 6, clear, mild 
 autumnal weather, except a few days of 
 rain at the latter end of September. To 
 the end of the year, fog, rain, and . hard 
 frost (on December 10, the therm. 1 deg. 
 below 0.) 
 
 178,5. A thaw began on the 2nd January, 
 and rainy weather with wind continued to 
 January 28. To 15th March, very hard 
 frost. To 2.1st March, mild, with sprinkling 
 showers. To April 7, hard frost. To May 
 17, mild, windy weather, without a drop of 
 rain. To the end of May, cold, with a 
 few showers. To June 9, mild weather, 
 with frequent soft showers. To July 13, 
 hot, dry weather, with a few showery in- 
 tervals. To July 22, heavy rain. To the 
 end of September, warm, with frequent 
 showers. To the end of October, frequent 
 rain. To ,18th of November, dry, mild 
 weather. (Hay-maki.ng finished No vem- 
 
SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 329 
 
 her 9, and the wheat harvest November 
 14.) To December 23, rain. To the end 
 of the year, hard frost. 
 
 1786. To the 7th January, frost and 
 snow. To January 13, mild, with much 
 rain. To 21st January, deep snow. To 
 February 11, mild, with frequent rains. 
 21st February, dry, with high winds. To 
 10th March, hard frost. To 13th April, 
 wet, with intervals of frost. To the end 
 of April, dry, mild weather. On the 1st 
 and 2nd May, thick ice. To 10th May, 
 heavy rain. To June 14, fine, warm, dry 
 weather. From the 8th to the llth July 
 heavy showers. To October 13, warm, 
 with frequent showers. To October 19, 
 ice. To October 24, mild, pleasant weather. 
 To November 3, frost. To December 16, 
 rain, with a few detached days of frost. 
 To the end of the year, frost and snow. 
 
 1787. To January 24, dark, moist, mild 
 weather. To January 28, frost and snow. 
 To February 16, mild, showery weather. 
 To February 28, dry, cool weather. To 
 March 10, stormy, with driving rain, To 
 
330 SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 
 
 March 24, bright, frosty weather. To the 
 end of April, mild, with frequent rain. 
 To May 22, fine bright weather. To the 
 end of June, mostly warm, with frequent 
 showers (on June 7 ? ice as thick as a crown 
 piece.) To the end of July, hot and sultry, 
 with copious rain. To the end of Septem- 
 ber, hot, dry weather, with occasional 
 showers. To November 23, mild, with 
 light frosts and rain. To the end of No- 
 vember, hard frost. To December 2 1 , still 
 and mild, with rain. To the end of the 
 year, frost. 
 
 1788. To January 13, mild and wet. 
 To January 18, frost. To the end of the 
 month, dry, windy weather. To the end 
 of February, frosty, with frequent showers. 
 To March 14, hard frost. To the end of 
 March, dark, harsh weather, with frequent 
 showers. To April 4, windy, with showers. 
 To the end of May, bright, dry, warm 
 weather, with a few occasional showers. 
 From June 28 to July 17, heavy rains. To 
 August 1 2, hot, dry weather. To the end 
 of September, alternate showers and sun- 
 
SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 331 
 
 shine. To November 22, dry, cool wea- 
 ther. To the end of the year, hard frost. 
 
 1789. To January 13, hard frost. To 
 the end of the month, mild, with showers. 
 To the end of February, frequent rain, with 
 snow- showers and heavy gales of wind. 
 To 13th March, hard frost, with snow. 
 To April 18, heavy rain, with frost and 
 snow and sleet. To the end of April, dark, 
 cold weather, with frequent rains. To 
 June 9, warm spring weather, with brisk 
 winds and frequent showers. From June 
 4 to the end of July, warm, with much 
 rain. To August 29 3 hot, dry, sultry wea- 
 ther. To September 11, mild, with fre- 
 quent showers. To the end of September, 
 fine autumnal weather, with occasional 
 showers. To November 17, heavy rain, 
 with violent gales of wind. To December 
 18, mild, dry weather, with a few showers. 
 To the end of the year, rain and wind. 
 
 1790. To January 16, mild, foggy wea- 
 ther, with occasional rains. To January 21, 
 frost. To January 28, dark, with driving 
 
332 SUMMARY OF THE "WEATHER. 
 
 rains. To February 14, mild, dry weather. 
 To February 22, hard frost. To April 5, 
 bright, cold weather, with a few showers. 
 To April 15, dark and harsh, with a deep 
 snow. To April 21, cold, cloudy weather, 
 with ice. To June 6, mild spring weather, 
 with much rain. From July 3 to July 14, 
 cool, with heavy rain. To the end of July, 
 warm, dry weather. To August 6, cold, 
 with wind and rain. To August 24, fine 
 harvest weather. To September 5, strong 
 gales, with driving showers. To Novem- 
 ber 26, mild autumnal weather, with fre- 
 quent showers. To December 1, hard frost 
 and snow. To the end of the year, rain 
 and snow, and a few days of frost. 
 
 1791. To the end of January, mild, 
 with heavy rains. To the end of February, 
 windy, with much rain and snow. From 
 March to the end of June, mostly dry, 
 especially June. March and April, rather 
 cold and frosty. May and June, hot. July, 
 rainy. Fine harvest weather, and pretty 
 dry, to the end of September. Wet Octo- 
 
SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER. 3X3 
 
 her, and cold towards the end. Very wet 
 and stormy in November. Much frost in 
 December. 
 
 1792. Some hard frost in January, but 
 mostly wet and mild. February, some 
 hard frost and a little snow. March, wet 
 and cold. April, great storms on the 13th, 
 then some very warm weather. May and 
 June, cold and dry. July, wet and cool ; 
 indifferent harvest, rather late and wet. 
 September, windy and wet. October, 
 showery and mild. November, dry and 
 fine. December, mild. 
 
POEMS. 
 

INVITATION TO SELBORNE. 
 
 SEE Selborne spreads her boldest beauties round 
 The varied valley, and the mountain ground, 
 Wildly majestic ! what is all the pride 
 Of flats, with loads of ornament supply'd ? 
 Unpleasing, tasteless, impotent expense, 
 Compared with Nature's rude magnificence. 
 
 Arise, my stranger, to these wild scenes haste ; 
 The unfinish'd farm awaits your forming taste : 
 Plan the pavilion, airy, light and true ; 
 Thro' the high arch call in the length'ning view ; 
 Expand the forest sloping up the hill ; 
 Swell to a lake the scant, penurious rill ; 
 Extend the vista, raise the castle mound 
 In antique taste with turrets ivy-crown'd ; 
 O'er the gay lawn the flow'ry shrub dispread, 
 Or with the blending garden mix the mead ; 
 Bid China's pale, fantastic fence, delight ; 
 Or with the mimic statue trap the sight. 
 
 Oft on some evening, sunny, soft and still, 
 The Muse shall lead thee to the beech-grown hill, 
 
 YOL. II. Z 
 
338 POEMS. 
 
 To spend in tea the cool, refreshing hour, 
 Where nods in air the pensile, nest-like bower ; a 
 Or where the Hermit hangs the straw-clad cell, b 
 Emerging gently from the leafy dell ; 
 By Fancy plann'd ; as once th' inventive maid 
 Met the hoar sage amid the secret shade ; 
 Romantic spot ! from whence in prospect lies 
 Whatever of landscape charms our feasting eyes ; 
 The pointed spire, the hall, the pasture-plain, 
 The russet fallow, or the golden grain, 
 The breezy lake that sheds a gleaming light, 
 'Till all the fading picture fail the sight. 
 
 Each to his task ; all different ways retire, 
 Cull the dry stick ; call forth the seeds of fire ; 
 Deep fix the kettle's props, a forky row, 
 Or give with fanning hat the breeze to blow. 
 
 Whence is this taste, the furnish' d hall forgot, 
 To feast in gardens, or th' unhandy grot ? 
 Or novelty with some new charms surprises, 
 Or from our very shifts some joy arises. 
 Hark, while below the village-bells ring round. 
 Echo, sweet nymph, returns the soften'd sound ; 
 But if gusts rise, the rushing forests roar, 
 Like the tide tumbling on the pebbly shore. . 
 
 Adown the vale, in lone, sequester' d nook, 
 Where skirting woods imbrownthe dimpling brook, 
 
 a A kind of an arbour on the side of a hill. 
 b A grotesque building, contrived by a young gentleman, who 
 ueed on occasion to appear in the character of an hermit. 
 
POEMS, 339 
 
 The ruin'd Convent lies ; here wont to dwell 
 The lazy, canon midst his cloister' d cell ; c 
 While papal darkness brooded o'er the land, 
 Ere Reformation made her glorious stand : 
 Still oft at eve belated shepherd-swains 
 See the cowl'd spectre skim the folded plains. 
 
 To the high temple would my stranger go, d 
 The mountain-brow commands the woods below ; 
 In Jewry first this order found a name, 
 When madding Croisades set the world in flame ; 
 When western climes, urg'd on by Pope and priest, 
 Pour'd forth their millions o'er the delug'd east ; 
 Luxurious knights, ill-suited to defy 
 To mortal fight Turcestan chivalry. 
 
 Nor be the Parsonage by the muse forgot ; 
 The partial bard admires his native spot ; 
 Smit with its beauties, loved, as yet a child, 
 (Unconscious why) its scapes grotesque, and wild. 
 High on a mound th' exalted gardens stand, 
 Beneath, deep valleys scoop'd by Nature's hand. 
 A Cobharn here, exulting in his art, 
 Might blend the General's with the Gardener's part ; 
 Might fortify with all the martial trade 
 Of rampart, bastion, fosse, and palisade ; 
 
 c The ruins of a priory, founded by Peter de Rupibus, 
 Bishop of Winchester. 
 
 d The remains of a preceptory of the Knights Templars ; 
 at least it was a farm dependant upon some preceptory of 
 that order. I find it was a preceptory, called the preceptory 
 of Sudington ; now called Southington. 
 z 2 
 
340 POEMS. 
 
 Might plant the mortar with wide threat'ning bore, 
 Or bid the mimic cannon seem to roar* 
 
 Now climb the steep, drop now your eye below, 
 Where round the blooming village orchards grow ; 
 There, like a picture, lies my lowly seat, 
 A rural, sheltered, unobserv'd retreat. 
 
 Me far above the rest Selbornian scenes, 
 The pendent forests, and the mountain-greens 
 Strike with delight ; there spreads the distant view, 
 That gradual fades till sunk in misty blue : 
 Here Nature hangs her slopy woods to sight, 
 Rills purl between and dart a quivering light. 
 
 SELBORNE HANGER 
 
 A WINTER PIECE. 
 
 TO THE MISS B*****S. 
 
 1 HE Bard, who sang so late in blithest strain 
 Selbornian prospects, and the rural reign, 
 Now suits his plaintive pipe to sadden'd tone, 
 While the blank swains the changeful year bemoan, 
 
POEMS. 341 
 
 How fall'n the glories of these fading scenes ! 
 The dusky beech resigns his vernal greens ; 
 The yellow maple mourns in sickly hue, 
 And russet woodlands croud the darkening view. 
 
 Dim, clust'ring fogs involve the country round, 
 The valley, and the blended mountain-ground 
 Sink in confusion ; but with tempest-wing 
 Should Boreas from his northern barrier spring, 
 The rushing woods with deaf'ning clamour roar, 
 Like the sea tumbling on the pebbly shore. 
 When spouting rains descend in torrent tides, 
 See the torn zigzag weep its channel* d sides : 
 Winter exerts its rage ; heavy, and slow, 
 From the keen east rolls on the treasur'd snow ; 
 Sunk with its weight the bending boughs are seen, 
 And one bright deluge whelms the works of men. 
 Amidst this savage landscape, bleak and bare, 
 Hangs the chill hermitage in middle air ; 
 Its haunts forsaken, and its feasts forgot, 
 A leaf-strown, lonely, desolated cot ! 
 
 Is this the scene that late with rapture rang, 
 Where Delpby danc'd, and gentle Anna sang; 
 With fairy-step where Harriet tripp ? d so late, 
 And on her stump reclined the musing Kitty sate ? 
 
 Return, dear nymphs ; prevent the purple spring, 
 Ere the soft nightingale essays to sing ; 
 Ere the first swallow sweeps the fresh'ning plain, 
 Ere love-sick turtles breathe their amorous pain ; 
 Let festive glee th' enliven'd village raise, 
 Pan's blameless reign, and patriarchal days"; 
 
342 POEMS. 
 
 With pastoral dance the smitten swain surprise, 
 And bring all Arcady before our eyes. 
 
 Return, blithe maidens ; with you bring along 
 Free, native humour, all the charms of song ; 
 The feeling heart, and unaffected ease, 
 Each nameless grace, and ev'ry power to please. 
 
 Nov. 1, 1763. 
 
 ON THE RAINBOW. 
 
 " Look upon the_Rainbovv, and praise him that made it : 
 very beautiful is it in the brightness thereof." Eccles. 
 xliii. 11.1 
 
 ON morning or on evening cloud impress'd, 
 Bent in vast curve, the wat'ry meteor shines 
 Delightfully, to th' levell'd sun opposed : 
 Lovely refraction ! while the vivid brede 
 In listed colours glows, th' unconscious swain 
 With vacant eye gates on the divine 
 Phenomenon, gleaming o'er th' illumin'd fields, 
 Or runs to catch the treasure which it sheds. 
 
 Not so the sage, inspired with pious awe ; 
 He hails the federal arch ; and looking up 
 Adotes that God, whose fingers form'd this bow 
 Magnificent, compassing heav'n about 
 " Gen. ix. 1217. 
 
POEMS. :343 
 
 With a resplendent verge. *' Thou mad'st the cloud, 
 
 " Maker omnipotent, and thou the bow ; 
 
 " And by that covenant graciously hast sworn 
 
 " Never to drown the world again : b henceforth, 
 
 " Till time shall be no more, in ceaseless round, 
 
 " Season shall follow season ; day to night. 
 
 ' Summer to winter, harvest to seed time, 
 
 " Heat shall to cold in regular array 
 
 " Succeed." Heav'n taught, so sang the Hebrew 
 
 A HARVEST SCENE. 
 
 WAK'D by the gentle gleamings of the morn, 
 Soon clad, the reaper, provident of want, 
 Hies cheerful-hearted to the ripen* d field; 
 Nor hastes alone ; attendant by his side 
 His faithful wife, sole partner of his cares, 
 Bears on her breast the sleeping babe ; behind 
 Witb steps unequal trips her infant train : 
 Thrice happy pair, in love and labour join'd ! 
 
 All day they ply their task ; with mutua 
 Beguiling each the sultry, tedious hours. 
 Around them falls in rows the sever'd corn, 
 Or the shocks rise in regular array. 
 [ But when high noon invites to short repast, 
 
 b Gen. viii. 22, c Moses, 
 
344 POEMS. 
 
 Beneath the shade of shelt'ring thorn they sit, 
 Divide the simple meal, and drain the cask : 
 The swinging cradle lulls the whimpering babe 
 Meantime; while growling round, if at the tread 
 Of hasty passenger alarm'd, as of their store 
 Protective, stalks the cur with bristling back, 
 To guard the scanty scrip and russet frock. 
 
 ON THE EARLY AND LATE BLOWING OF 
 
 THE VERNAL AND AUTUMNAL 
 
 CROCUS. 
 
 ^AY, what impels, amidst surrounding snow 
 Congeal'd, the Crocus* flamy bud to grow ; 
 Say, what retards amidst the summer's blaze 
 The autumnal bulb, till pale declining days ? 
 The God of Seasons ! whose pervading power 
 Controls the sun, or sheds the fleecy shower ; 
 fie bids each flower his quickening word obey, 
 Or to each lingering bloom enjoins delay. 
 
POEMS. 345 
 
 ON THE DARK, STILL, DRY, WARM 
 WEATHER, 
 
 OCCASIONALLY HAPPENING IN THE WINTER MONTHS. 
 
 1 H' imprisoned winds slumber within their caves 
 Fast bound : the fickle vane, emblem of change, 
 Wavers no more, long-settling to a point. 
 
 All Nature nodding seems composed : thick steams 
 From land, from flood up-drawn, dimming the day,- 
 " Like a dark ceiling stand :" slow thro' the air 
 Gossamer floats, or stretch' d from blade to blade 
 The wavy net-work whitens all the field. 
 
 Push'd by the weightier atmosphere, up springs 
 The ponderous Mercury, from scale to scale 
 Mounting, amidst the Torricellian tube. d 
 
 While high in air, and pois'd upon his wings, 
 Unseen, the soft, enamour' d wood-lark runs 
 Thro' all his maze of melody ; the brake 
 Loud with the blackbird's bolder note resounds. 
 
 Sooth'd by the genial warmth, the cawing rook 
 Anticipates the spring, selects her mate, 
 Haunts her tall nest-trees, and with sedulous care 
 Repairs her wicker eyrie, tempest torn. 
 
 The ploughman inly smiles to see upturn 
 His mellow glebe, best pledge of future crop. 
 
 * The Barometer, 
 
346 POEMS. 
 
 With glee the gardener eyes his smoking beds : 
 E'en pining sickness feels a short relief. 
 
 The happy school-boy brings transported forth 
 His long-forgotten scourge, and giddy gig : 
 O'er the white paths he whirls the rolling hoop, 
 Or triumphs in the dusty fields of taw. 
 
 Not so the museful sage : abroad he walks 
 Contemplative, if haply he may find 
 What cause controuls the tempest's rage, or whence 
 Amidst the savage season winter smiles. 
 
 For days, for weeks, prevails the placid calm. 
 At length some drops prelude a change : the sun 
 With ray refracted bursts the parting gloom ; 
 When all the chequer'd sky is one bright glare. 
 
 Mutters the wind at eve : th* horizon round 
 With angry aspect scowls : down rush the showers, 
 And float the delug'd paths, and miry fields. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A. Page 
 
 A NNE, queen, came to Wolmer-forest to see 
 
 the red deer j, 30 
 
 Ants, particulars respecting ii. 277 
 
 Aphides, great shower of, in August ii. 276 
 
 April, 1770, the remarkable inclemency of its 
 
 weather. i. 219 
 
 Arum, the cuckoo-pint, eaten in hard weather, 
 
 by the thrush i. 74 
 
 Ash-tree, a rupture one, what .i. 343 
 
 ........ a shrew one, what i. 344 
 
 particulars of. , .ii. 289 
 
 August, the most mute month respecting the 
 
 singing of birds i. 173 
 
 Aurora Borealis, singular appearance of, No- 
 vember 1, 1787 ii. 305 
 
 Ayles Holt, alias Alice Holt, the forest of. . . .i. 43 
 its grantees . . . . i. 45 
 
 B. 
 
 Barometer, remarkable fall of, November 22, 
 
 1768 .ii. 300 
 
 Barometers, Selborne and Newton compared, .ii. 127 
 South Lambeth.. ..ii. 129 
 
348 INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Barragon, a genteel corded stuff, where manu- 
 factured i. 24 
 
 Bat, a tame one, some particulars about i. 56 
 
 .... drink on the wing like swallows i. 57 
 
 .... the large sort, some particulars about . . . . i. 130 
 ... nondescript in 1769, i. 130. Farther ac- 
 count of. , . . , i. 158 
 
 Beans, sown by birds ii. 296 
 
 Bee, wild, account of. ii. 267 
 
 Beech-trees, love to grow in crowded situa- 
 tions ii. 290 
 
 Beech, loveliest of forest trees . . . . , i. 2 
 
 Beetles buz, at the time that partridges call. .ii. 214 
 
 Bin's, or Bean's pond, for what remarkable.. i. 38 
 Birds, common in England, that have no 
 
 j English name ,i. 50 
 
 .... influenced in food by colour i. 159 
 
 .... that fly by night, obliged to be noisy. . . .ii. 82 
 
 .... summer, of passage, a list of i. 80. 97 
 
 .... living ones shown here, when from dis- 
 tant regions, why usually of the thick-billed 
 
 gemera i. 143 
 
 .... of summer passage seen spring and au- 
 tumn at .Gibraltar. i. 149 
 
 .... soft-billed, that winter with us, how sup- 
 ported i. 179 
 
 .... of winter passage, a list of i. 199 
 
 .... that continue in full song till after Mid- 
 summer. i. 202 
 
 .... why fatten iti moderate frosts. i. 214 
 
 .... what sorts are pulvcratrices i. 224 
 
INDEX. 349 
 
 Page 
 Birds, what occasions their congregating. . i. 240, 247 
 
 .... in the season of nidi fi cation, tame i. 321 
 
 .... various manner of motion of ii. 49 
 
 .... notes and language of . ii. 53 
 
 .... in general, observations on. ii. 209 
 
 .... of prey, boldness and rapacity of when 
 
 urged by hunger ii. 221 
 
 Black-cap, an elegant songster i. 177 
 
 Black game seen at Selborne i. 28 
 
 Black-thorn, usually blossoms while cold winds 
 
 blow ,... ii. 292 
 
 Black spring, 1771, account of the remarkable 
 
 severity of ii. 305 
 
 Bohemian chatterer i. GO 
 
 Bombylius medius, description of ,ii. 273 
 
 Boy, an idiot, his strange propensity i. 340 
 
 .... eats bees, &c i. 340 
 
 Brimstone-lodge, some account of i. 37 
 
 Brooks at Selborne, what fishes they pro- 
 duce i. 54 
 
 Bug, harvest, some account of i. 153 
 
 Bullfinch, turns black i. 74 
 
 Bunting, a very rare bird at Selborne i. 66 
 
 Butcher-bird, red-backed i. 96 
 
 Buzzards, honey, some account of i. 186 
 
 cX 
 
 Cane, a species of weasel i. 73 
 
 Caprimulgus, or fern-owl, some new observa- 
 tions about ...... i. 107. 160 
 
 Castration, its strange effects ii. 7 
 
350 INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 Cats, house, strange that they should be so fond 
 
 of fish i. 140 
 
 Chaffinches, vast flocks of hens.... .i. 64 
 
 hens, more account of i. 221 
 
 Chalk-hills, why peculiarly beautiful ,i. 277 
 
 Charadrius himantopus, described.. ii. 43 
 
 Chestnut timber, very like oak ii. 291 
 
 Chiff-chaff, or willow wren ii. 190 
 
 Chinese dog and bitch . .ii. 77 
 
 Cimex Linearis account of ii. 263 
 
 Clouds, morning, occasion of , . ii. 304 
 
 Cobwebs, shower of i. 324 
 
 Coccus vitis mnifercet strange and rare insect in 
 
 England ii. 96. 99 
 
 Cock-chaffers, particulars relative to. .ii. 257 
 
 Cock -roach, monography of ii. 259 
 
 Cornua Ammonis, where found i. 14 
 
 Cold descends ii. 93 
 
 Colymbus Glacialis, description of ii. 223 
 
 Cricket, tield, a monography of ii. 75 
 
 ...... hearth, a monography of ii. 77 
 
 more particulars respecting ii. 262 
 
 mole, a monography of ii. 80 
 
 Crista Galli, a fossil shell .i. 13 
 
 Crocus, the spring, and saffron, their different 
 
 seasons of blossoming wonderful, why ii. 46 
 
 Cuckoo, particulars about .i. 210. 215 
 
 i ..... sing in different keys. i. 241 
 
 a young one in the nest of a titlark . . . .i. 224 
 
 several skimming over a pond, why. .i. 225 
 
 Cucumbers set bv bees. , ii. 29G 
 
INDEX. 351 
 
 Page 
 Cumberland, William, Duke of, takes away the 
 
 red deer from Wolmcr-furcst i. 30 
 
 Curlew, stone, some account of i. 75, 7(> 
 
 more particulars of i. 100. 151 
 
 farther remarks on ii. 209 
 
 D. 
 
 Daws breed in unlikely places, i. 101. reason 
 
 of their doing so i. 104 
 
 Deer, red, in Wolmer-forest, some account 
 
 of..... i. 29, 30 
 
 .... fallow, in Holt-forest i. 45 
 
 i their spiracula, or breathing 
 
 places >.i. 70 
 
 Derham, Mr. mistaken i. 155 
 
 Dew, honey, remarks on ii. 303 
 
 Dispersion of birds, pretty equal, why * ..ii. 37 
 
 Diving birds, how their feet and wings placed . .ii. 184 
 
 Dogs, Chinese, from Canton . ii. 77 
 
 Dove, stock, or wild winter-pigeon .i. 166 
 
 .... stock, many particulars of. .i. from 188 to 195 
 
 .... ring, food of the. ii. 218 
 
 Downs, Sussex, a lovely range i. 276 
 
 Ducks, foreign, roost on trees ii. 17fr 
 
 betake themselves to the water in the 
 
 night time* and why ii. 208 
 
 E. 
 
 Echo, a poly syllabi cal one ii. 28 
 
 .... why since mute ...ii. 34 
 
 . . . * several remarks on echoes .i. 28, 34 
 
352 INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 Echoes. A charming description of echoes from 
 
 Lucretius i j. 35 
 
 ...... occasioned by the discharge of swivel 
 
 gs i|. 127 
 
 Elm, Wych, size of a transplanted one i. 8 
 
 Empedes, or Tipulce, vast swarms of in May . .ii. 275 
 
 F. 
 
 Fairy rings, occasion of .ii 208 
 
 Falcon, peregrine, particulars about ii. 116 
 
 Fieldfares, strange that they do not breed in 
 
 England, nor in Scotland i, 126 
 
 roost on the ground i. 133 
 
 Fishes, gold and silver, why very amusing in a 
 
 glass bowl ii. 102 
 
 Flies, many species of, retire into houses in the 
 
 decline of the year. ii. 274 
 
 Fly, bacon, injurious to the housewife i. 154 
 
 .... Whame, or burrel, oestrus curvi- 
 
 cauda i. 155. ii. 270 
 
 .... May, great swarms of, June 1771 ii. 265 
 
 .... Nose, very tormenting to horses ii. 270 
 
 .... Ichneumon, destroys spiders. ii. 271 
 
 Fly-catcher, some particulars of i. 177 
 
 Fogs, reflection of, a singular phenomenon* . . .ii. 303 
 
 Freestone, analogous to chalk i. 3 
 
 makes the wood of trees growing on 
 
 it shakcy i. 7 
 
 Frogs, particulars relating to i. 83, 84 
 
 Frost, that in January 1768, described . . . .ii. 130. 133 
 .... that in January 1776 ii. 137. 144 
 
INDEX. 353 
 
 Page 
 
 Frost, that in December, 1784 ii. 144. 149 
 
 partial, reason of ii. 300 
 
 gentle, fattens animals, &c i. 214 
 
 dependent on wet t . . . . t ii. 96 
 
 G. 
 
 Galls of Lombardy poplar ii. 290 
 
 Gassendus, curious quotation from . . . .ii. 113 
 
 German silk-tail, garrulus bohemicus, shot. . . .i. 60 
 
 Boar, turned out in Wolmer i. 46 
 
 Gossamer, a wonderful shower of i. 323. 326 
 
 Greatham, the manor farm of, its privilege in 
 
 Wolmer-forest -. i. 34 
 
 Grosbeak, ace u n t of . . . . ii. 247 
 
 Glow-worm, when it ceases to shine .ii. 279 
 
 Gypsies, some particulars about i. 331 
 
 H. 
 
 Hail-storm at Selborne in summer 1784. .ii. 156, 157 
 
 Hanger, the i. 2 
 
 Basel Wych i. 8 
 
 Hawkley-hanger, the amazing fall thereof. . . .ii. 65 
 
 Hawk, sparrow, the dread of housewives i. 187 
 
 blue, or henharrier, boldness of when 
 
 urged by hunger . .ii. 220 
 
 Haze, or smoky fog, the peculiar one which 
 
 prevailed in summer 1783 '. ii. 154, 155 
 
 Heath-fires, why lighted up i. 3& 
 
 Hedgehog, some account of ..,,.. , . . . .i. 131 
 
 VOL. II. 2 A 
 
364 INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Hedgehog cannot contract when young i. 132 
 
 Heliotropes, summer and winter, how to make 
 
 them ii. 60 
 
 Hellebores, order of blowing.,. ii. 43 
 
 Herissant, Monsieur, mistaken in his reason 
 
 why cuckoos do not use incubation ii. 1.4 
 
 Hirundines, British, when they arrived in three 
 
 very distant counties i. 320 
 
 Hogs, would live, if suffered, to a considerable 
 
 age i. 359 
 
 Holt Ayles, a royal forest; some account of. . . .i. 43 
 
 Hoopoes, seen at Selborne i. 54 
 
 Hops, observations on . , ii. 293 
 
 soil suited to , i. 6 
 
 Hounds, the royal, do not draw the coverts with 
 
 address, and why ii. 252 
 
 Howe, General, turns out wild boars in Hb/f- 
 
 forest i. 46 
 
 Horns, room containing many, at Lord Pem- 
 broke's i. 143 
 
 Hornets' nestsrfrow madTr ~^ ii. 269 
 
 Horse and hen, curious instance of affection 
 
 between i. 330 
 
 Humming in the air ii. 256 
 
 Hujcham, Dr. his account of rain at Plymouth ii. 125 
 
 I. 
 
 Jar-bird, what ^ jgj 
 
 Insects in general, observatipns on ii. 254 
 
INDEX. 355 
 
 Page 
 
 Insects have no organs of hearing .i. 383 
 
 Instinct, sometimes varies and conforms to cir- 
 cumstances ii. 110 
 
 . often perfectly uniform ii. Ill 
 
 Ireland) why worthy the attention of a naturalist i. 183 
 Ivy-berries do not seem to freeze ii. 293 
 
 L. 
 
 Lanes, hollow, rocky, their peculiarities i. 20 
 
 abound with silices i. 21 
 
 Land-rail, an insectivorous bird i. 178 
 
 generally deemed birds of passage, 
 
 but appear to be ill qualified for migration ii. 215 
 
 Larks, white, probably snow-flakes i. 74 
 
 grass-hopper, some curious circum- 
 stances about ,1. 78 
 
 Leper, a miserable one in this village i. 20 
 
 Leprosy, why probably les& common than of 
 
 old ii. 23.25 
 
 Leveret, suckled by a cat .ii. 11 
 
 Lime blossoms, infusion of, a remedy for 
 
 coughs, &c ii. 292 
 
 Linnets, congregate and chirp i. 65 
 
 Loaches from Ambre&bury .i. 90 
 
 Loon, or diver, described ii. 223 
 
 M. 
 
 Malm, black, what sort of soil i. 4 
 
 Ditto, white i. 6 
 
 March, the month of, two wonderfully hotdays 
 
 in March 1777 ; the effects of that heat. . . . ii. 17 
 
356 INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Mare, singular incident relating to an old hunt- 
 ing one ii. 252 
 
 Martin, house, seen very late i. 102 
 
 house, a raonography of i. 265. 274 
 
 sand, or bank, a monography of. .i. 296. 304 
 
 house, builds her nest only in the 
 
 morning , i. 267 
 
 house, further circumstances about.. ii. 92 
 
 house more particulars concerning. .. .ii. 106 
 
 additional remarks on ii. 237 
 
 and fieldfares, seen together. i. 79 
 
 Mice, small red, nondescript i . . . . ,i. 58 
 
 one of their nests described. ., i. 59,60 
 
 some farther account of .i. 68 
 
 Migration, actual, somewhat like it i. Ill 
 
 ....... k . at Gibraltar, ocular demonstration of i. 234 
 
 Missel-bird, the largest singing bird. . .i. 203 
 
 pugnaceous i. 321 
 
 Mist, called London smoke, usually followed, 
 
 by dry weather ii. 302 
 
 Moose^deeT,"a^Temrrte7~5mnc account of i. 134 
 
 . . .'. ...... a male, where killed i. 142 
 
 Motion of birds V\. 48 
 
 Museum, countryman's, where. i. 53 
 
 Music, its powerful effect on some men's minds ii. 112 
 
 ...... of birds, depends on incubation i. 207 
 
 Mytilus crista galli, a curious fossil-shell. .. .i. 13 
 
 N. 
 NATURALIST'S CALENDAR- ii. from 161 to 195 
 
INDEX. 357 
 
 Page 
 
 Newt, or eft, water, some account of i. 85. 93 
 
 Norehill i. 5 
 
 Northern birds seen in the south i. 96 
 
 O. 
 
 Oak, a vast one planted on the Plcstor i. 9 
 
 Oestrus Curvicatida, account of i. 155. ii. 270 
 
 Osprey, or sea-eagle, where shot , i. 165 
 
 Otter, one, where killed , i. 141 
 
 Owl, brown, a tame one i. 55 
 
 .... white, or barn-owl, the young not easily 
 
 bred up i. 55 
 
 Owls, white, do not hoot i. 260 
 
 . , . . brown, live without water * . i. 262 
 
 .... hoot in different keys i. 241 
 
 .... white, several particulars of i, 259 
 
 .... fern, superstitious notions of the country 
 
 people respecting ii. 231 
 
 some account of ii. 233.236 
 
 . 
 
 Partridges, hen, instances of their remarkable 
 
 solicitude to save their brood. .ii. 211 
 
 Passeres, order of, contains all the singing birds i. 204 
 
 Peacocks, their train not a tail. 4 i. 156 
 
 Pettichaps, a very rare bird at Selborne ii. 114 
 
 Phalcena Quercus, devour the leavesof oak trees ii. 264 
 
 Pheasant, Hybrid, description of ii. 212 
 
 Pheasants, reason of their cowring and squatting ii. 221 
 Pigeons, drink like quadrupeds i. 175 
 
368 INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Plants, the more rare, in Selborne , . .ii. 42.47 
 
 Plestor, the, in the midst of the village, what. .i. 9 
 
 Plover, the stilt, a rare and curious bird ii. 84 
 
 POEMS ii. 335 
 
 Pond, Wolmer, its measurement, fowls, &c. . . .i. 41 
 
 Ponds on elevations, why seldom dry .i. 349 
 
 Poultry, endowed with great discernment to see 
 
 what will turn to their own advantage ii. 207 
 
 ....... reason of their propensity to roosting 
 
 on high ii. 207 
 
 Ptinus Pectinicornis, account of ii- 259 
 
 Puffins, breed in holes on the flat ground .i. 101 
 
 Q. 
 
 Queen's bank, why so called ........... i. 30 
 
 R. 
 
 Rabbits make the finest turf, and why .ii. 250 
 
 Rain, the mean of, not to be ascertained at any 
 
 place till after many years i. 22 
 
 .... what has FaTTerT at iSfeHrorne of late years, .i. 22 
 . . . that of Selborne compared with that of 
 
 Plymouth ii. 125 
 
 .... measure of, in inches and hundreds, 
 
 from 1782 to 1793 ii. 317 
 
 Rat, whether two kinds of i. 51 
 
 .... water, a curious anecdote concerning one . i. 129 
 
 Raven, nest of, account of, i. 11 
 
 Ray, Mr. why a superior writer i. 244 
 
 Red-breasts, why supposed to sing in autumn 
 
 only i. 1 74 
 
INDEX, 359 
 
 Page 
 
 Red-start, moves its tail horizontally i. 172 
 
 its singularities . . . . , i. 177 
 
 Red-wings, the first birds that suffer by frost, .i. 243 
 
 Ring-ousel, where found i. 61 
 
 more particulars of. i. 97 
 
 . . . . t farther account of i. 114 
 
 more of ditto i. 121 
 
 breed in Dartmore and the Peak of 
 
 Derby i. 145 
 
 farther remarks concerning i, 163 
 
 Rooks, perfectly white i. 73 
 
 ...... an amusing anecdote about ii. 124 
 
 are continually fighting ii. 203 
 
 have their wings frozen by the sleet, .ii. 302 
 
 Ruperta, whose daughter and wife i. 43 
 
 Rupert Prince, a great mechanic ...... .i. 44 
 
 Rushes instead of candles, matter of much 
 
 utility in humble life i. 334 
 
 Rutland, county of, what rain fell there i. 233 
 
 s. 
 
 Sand martin, seen before any of its congeners, .ii. 239 
 
 Scallops, or pectines, where found .....i. 15 
 
 Scopoli, account of his works i. 222 
 
 Scotland, in what its maps are defective i. 184 
 
 Sedge-bird, some particulars about , i. 123 
 
 , . more account of ,i. 170 
 
 .......... a delicate polyglot i. 208 
 
 Seed lying dormant ii. 295 
 
 Selbome parish, its situation and abuttals. .. ,i. 1 
 
360 INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Selborne, village, how circumstanced .i. 3 
 
 the manor of, abounds with game. .i. 21 
 
 parish of, of vast extent, why i. 21 
 
 population of. .i . 23 
 
 rain, quantity of, considerable, why . , i. 22 
 
 , produces near half the birds of Great 
 
 Britain i. 178 
 
 Serpent kind, eat but once a year ,i. 88 
 
 Sexes, of birds and beasts, when they se- 
 parate i. 229 
 
 Sheep, Sussex, horned nnd hornless........!. 278 
 
 observations on ii. 249 
 
 Slugs,* very injurious to wheat just come 
 out of the ground, by eating off the blade ; 
 and by their infinite numbers occasioning 
 
 incredible havock ii. 16. 281 
 
 Snails, remarks on * . . . . ii. 281 
 
 water, vulgar error i. 88 
 
 Snake, stinks se defendendo i. 124 
 
 , . . . 's slough, curious particulars concerning, .ii. 282 
 
 Snipes, their pipTnglfna rnmmring* r . _ , .i. 81 
 
 Snow-fleck, sometimes seen at Selborne i. ]27 
 
 Sociality in the brute creation, instances of. .i. 328. 330 
 Softbilled birds, how many stay the winter. . . .i. 19Qt 
 Sow, prodigious fecundity of one . . . . .ii. 9 
 
 * For the amazing ravages committed on turnips, wheat, 
 clover, field-cabbage seeds, &c. by slugs, and a rational and 
 easy method of destroying them, see a sensible letter by Mr. 
 Henry Vagg y of Chilcompton, in the county of Somerset, lately 
 made public at the request of the gentlemen of that neigh- 
 bourhood. 
 
INDEX. 3C1 
 
 Page 
 
 Sphynx Ocellata, account of ii. 266 
 
 Squirrels, three young ones suckled by a cat. .ii. 251 
 
 Stock dove, bird of passage i. 166 
 
 often confounded with the ring 
 
 dove i. 190 
 
 Stone, free, its uses and advantages. . , i. 15 
 
 rag, its qualities and uses i. 17 
 
 ...... sand or forest .1. 18 
 
 yellow or rust colour,.. i. 18 
 
 Stone curlew, some account of i. 75 
 
 , . . . . farther account of i. 76. 151 
 
 additional particulars concern- 
 ing ii. 229 
 
 Xropyn of animals, several instances of i. 25$ 
 
 Summer birds of passage, list of i. 80. 197 
 
 Summers, 1781 and 1783, unusually sultry, .ii. 150 
 Swallow, the house or chimney, a monography 
 
 of i. 283. 292 
 
 more particulars about ii. 115 
 
 . congregating and disappearance 
 
 of. ii. 241 
 
 Sweden produces two hundred and twenty-one 
 
 birds i. 178 
 
 Swift, or black martin, a monography of. .i, 305. 318 
 .... the same number usually seems to return 
 
 to the same place. ii. 36 
 
 .... more circumstances about ii. 94 
 
 Swift, and large bat, feed in the same high 
 
 region of air i. 130 
 
 Sycamore tree, forms a beautiful appearance 
 
 in May. ,,,,,,,,..,....,, f .,,,,. ,,ii, 290 
 
 VOL. II. 2 B 
 
362 INDEX. 
 
 T. 
 
 Page 
 
 Teak, where bred i. 258 
 
 Tender plants, in what aspect to be placed.. ii. 132 
 Thaws, why sometimes surprisingly quick . . . .ii. 301 
 Thrush, missel, very fierce and pugnacious . . . . i . "321 
 Thrushes are very serviceable in gardens. . ..ii. 205 
 
 reason of their building near houses. . . .ii. 205 
 
 Timber, a large fall of, in the Holt-forest. . . .i. 46 
 Tit-mice, their mode of life and support....!. 181 
 
 Tortoise, a family one , i. 227 
 
 more particulars of i. 250 
 
 farther circumstances about ii. 87 
 
 more remarks respecting ii. 90 
 
 Trees, subterraneous, how discovered i. 26 
 
 * ... why perfect alembics, how . .i. 346 
 
 .... ord-er of losing their leaves ii. 285 
 
 .... size and growth of ii. 286 
 
 .... flowing of sap from ii. 288 
 
 .... renovation of leaves of..... ii. 289 
 
 Tremellet tutete*, remark concerning. ii. 298 
 
 Truffles, observations on . . .ii. 298 
 
 V. 
 
 Vine, disease of ii. 96 
 
 Viper, blind-worm, and snake, some account 
 
 of i. 87 
 
 pregnant one, some circumstances 
 
 about ii. 5 
 
 W. 
 Wagtails, run round the cows when feeding in 
 
 moist pastures, and why. ii. 245 
 
INDEX. 363 
 
 Page 
 
 Wagtails, steers, larks, walk i. 199 
 
 Waldon-lodge, what, and by whom kept up. .i. 37 
 
 Waltham blacks much infested Wolmer-forest. .i. 32 
 
 by their enormities occasioned the 
 
 black act i 32 
 
 Wasps, observations on . . . ii. 268 
 
 Water-eft, has no gills * .i. 93 
 
 Weather, dripping after drought, influence of. .ii. 304 
 
 summary of, from 1768 to 1792. , . .ii. 319 
 
 Well-head, a fine perennial spring... i. 
 
 Wells, their usual depth in Selborne village..]. 6 
 
 Wheat, mistaken notion concerning .ii. 297 
 
 Wheatear, the bird so called, some account of. .i. 66 
 Sussex bird, so called, more par- 
 ticulars of i. 280 
 
 White-throat, some particulars about i. 176 
 
 Winchester, Hoadly, bishop of^ his humane 
 objection to restocking Waltham chace with 
 
 deer i. 33 
 
 Wolmer, forest of, some account of i. 25. 43 
 
 ...how abutted upon i. 25 
 
 has abounded with fossil trees. i. 27 
 
 haunted by many sorts of wild fowl. .i. 28 
 
 once abounded with heath cocks, or 
 
 black game ....i. 28 
 
 with red deer i. 29 
 
 WoodcocksjSometimessluggishand^leepy. .i. 238. 245 
 
 Scopoli's assertion about i. 146 
 
 .....' hen, with egg, before she leaves 
 
 England i, 230 
 
 Wood-fossil, where found ii. 122 
 
304 INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Wood-Zo^/^, its taper oaks , . . i. 10 
 
 its raven tree i. 11 
 
 Worms, earth, no inconsiderable link in the 
 
 chain of nature, some account of ii. 14 
 
 farther particulars of ii. 279 
 
 glow, put out their lamps between 
 
 eleven and twelve. ii. 279 
 
 Wrens, willow, three species i. 94 
 
 Wren, smallest uncrested willow, the second 
 
 early summer bird ii. 230 
 
 Wryneck, walks a little ii. 246 
 
 account of ii. 246 
 
 Y. 
 
 Yellow-hammer, sings later in the year than 
 
 any other bird .i. 213 
 
 Yeoman-prickers, their agility as horsemen , . . ,i. 31 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed by T. C. Hansard, Peterborough-court, Fleet-street, LondoH. 
 

 
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