150 REMARKS ON TUICHIOSOMA LUCOIIUM. 



'Tis thine, as tliroiigh the coppice i-ude, 

 Some pensive wanderer sighs along, 

 To sooth him with a (.■hoorful song, 



And tell of hope and fortitude." 



Charminder^ Dorset^ April 2dth , 1851. 



THE HOUSE-SPARROW A FIRST-RATE MUSICIAN. 



BY W. KIDD, l.SQ. 



It has been said, and proved to be a truth, that ''^use is second nature:" 

 in proof of this let me propound an astounding theory, which it is in the 

 power of any, or all, of your readers, to reduce to immediate practice; indeed 

 the experiment is an interesting one, and paves the way for still more wonderful 

 domestic discoveries. Let a nest of young House- Sparrows be procured, when 

 about four days old; being the hardiest of our hardy birds, there will be no diffi- 

 culty in rearing them. They should be fed in the usual way, with the end of a 

 short, pointed stick, and when able to feed themselves, they should be separately 

 caged oflf. The object of taking them at so early a period, is to prevent the 

 possibility of their hearing and imitating the voice of their parents. I assume, 

 of course, that they are, like all other birds, open to the very earliest impressions, 

 and these, as we all know, become indelibly fixed. The next step is to 

 provide a first-rate Canary in full song, and to keep him, and him only, in 

 the room with the Sparrows, not permitting the voice of any other bird to be 

 heard in the house. Now watch the result: in less than three weeks the 

 cocks will commence '^recording," and you will find every note they utter, 

 peculiar to the Canary only. If carefully tended, and this experiment be 

 fairly tried, it will be difficult, in a short time, to distinguish the voice of 

 the pupil from that of his master. A little reasoning — and no person will 

 ever read ^'The Naturalist" who is not fond of reasoning — will shew the 

 ^'why and because" of this result. I shall be glad to see many instances of 

 ^'success" with this experiment recorded in your interesting pages. 



Hainmerstnitli, June Qth., 1851. 



REMARKS ON TRICHIOSOMA LUCORUM. 



BY RICHARD MAYSMOR, ESQ. 



Probably all the readers of ''The Naturalist" may not have okserved the 

 cocoons of one of our largest Saw-flies, (Trichiosoma lucorum,) glued to twigs 

 upon the hedges; braving the storms of winter, and the heat of summer; if 

 not, it is because they have never carefully looked for them during the winter 

 months, when the hedges are stripped of their leaves. Although they are 

 common here, I never noticed them till the middle of March, in the present 



