28 ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OP THE NIGHTINGALE. 



prophesied, by Merlin, as those among whom the kingdom was to 

 be divided. 



The battle of Shrewsbury, fought on the 21st of July, 1403, dis- 

 concerted all these plans ; and, what appears strange, we find Sir 

 Hugh Mortimer among the slain on the part of the king, and the 

 subsequent defeat of Glyndwr and death of Northumberland, who 

 was slain in battle, occasioned the termination of hostilities. 



Notwithstanding this depression of the fortunes of the Morti- 

 mers, there remained, in England, a party who still cherished hopes 

 of triumphing over the proud house of Lancaster. Acts of severity 

 towards the priesthood, and the resumption of some grants to the 

 church, powerfully increased the numbers of the disaffected ; and 

 the release of the young Earl of March and his brother became an 

 object, as it was a pretext, for their perpetual conspiracies. The 

 widow of Lord Le Despenser, who had been executed at Bristol, 

 entered into their plans, and formed a scheme to liberate the youths. 

 She procured false keys to their apartments in Windsor castle, and 

 succeeded in conveying them out of prison; but they were recap- 

 tured before they could reach Wigmore. She was arrested, and 

 declared her brother, the Duke of York, to be implicated in the 

 plot. He denied the charge, and she offered to prove it by her 

 champion in battle. The king, however, at once seized his estates 

 and cast him into prison. The unfortunate blacksmith, who made 

 no discovery, alone suffered the penalty of death. 

 [ To he concluded in our next number, 1 



On THE NATURAL HISTORY op the NIGHTINGALE, 



(Philomela luscinia, — Swainson ;) 



By Edward Blyth, Esq., Tooting, Surrey.* 



Arrival of the British summer birds of passage. — To those who 

 love to contemplate the fair face of Nature, and notice with delight 



• The foUowhig remarks (here somewhat condensed,) on the general cha- 

 racter of the song of the Nightingale, upon its habits and affinities, with 

 directions as to the mode of treating it in confinement ; together with a dis- 

 quisition upon its migration, on the nature of the migratory instinct, and va- 

 rious other particulars relative to the elucidation of the causes of its pecu- 

 liar summer distribution, were read, bj the author, before The Worces- 

 tershire Natural History Society. 



