THE STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 23 



was therefore welcomed as a great acquisition, and took high place in the favour 

 of all, particularly with ray friend, who was vastly delighted at the idea 

 of having so able an assistant towards exterminating one of his greatest 

 annoyances. But alas! these happy feelings were doomed to be of short 

 duration. The next morning, upon going into the garden, poor Mag was 

 discovered quite dead, by the side of a small tub of water which was 

 sunk to a level with the ground, for the use of the Gull. 



It appears that whilst the Magpie was at the Isle of Wight, he was 

 accommodated with a shallow pan of water, in which he could stand and 

 wash, flap his wings, dipping and raising himself up by his legs. It is 

 surmised that, mistaking this tub for a vessel of similar depth, upon hopping 

 into it his legs descended, and finding no resting-place, he had not the 

 power of raising himself up; his wings must have been immersed, and in 

 consequence, his feathers becoming heavy with water, the poor fellow sunk 

 and was drowned. How he got out of the tub appeared at first mysterious, 

 but it was soon accounted for, as when first seen the Gull was observed to 

 be plucking and tugging at him violently, so that no doubt remained of 

 his having been pulled out by the Gull. 



But to return to our walk, which we continued under some hanging 

 woods, into which a Blackbird every now and then sought shelter, as disturbed 

 by our advance. We came back home by the side of the Avon, saw several 

 Kingfishers, and were much interested in observing the rapid flight and 

 quick evolutions of numberless Swallows. 



Yesterday the same friend accompanied me in an excursion eastward. 

 We ascended one of the hills on the south side of the city, and by crossing 

 the elevated land called Hampton and Claverton Downs, we cut off a very 

 considerable circuit in the valley, into which we descended again higher 

 up the river, near the romantic villages of Monckton Coombe, and Limpley 

 Stoke. The views in this neighbourhood are of surpassing beauty at all 

 seasons of the year, and particularly so in the spring and summer, when 

 the, extensive woods are in verdure, and full of the songs of all kinds of 

 birds, and here the Nightingale is still to be heard. 



At this season of the year nearly all our songsters are silent, and we 

 saw but few birds moving; my companion accounted for this, by saying 

 that nearly all would be found in the stubble fields, where they congregate 

 in great numbers. The note of the Kobin was the only one heard; this 

 general fiivourite will continue to sing through the winter; they were now 

 answering each other from every side. Making our way to the banks of 

 the river, which is here lined with trees, principally the alder and willow, 

 we observed numerous gaudy butterflies, and the Kingfisher frequently 

 glanced by displaying his brilliant colours. I was highly gratified at the 

 sight of so many of these beautiful birds, both in this and our former 



