170 GLEANINGS BY THK WAY. 



beasts. This straw, which was only slightly affected or injured by one night's 

 use, tlie Proprietors sold the next day to an innkeeper in the place. On the 

 straw being applied for the purpose of bedding his horses, they refused to lie 

 on it, — snorted and started as if mad or frightened, and nothing would induce 

 them to lie down. This occurred several nights, and the straw was ultimately 

 destroyed without any use having been made of it. The sense of smell in 

 the Horse must be very acute, for this happened some time after any odour 

 could be perceived by the ostler and others. 



The Horse. — I do not know whether it has been observed that the skin 

 of all "Skewball" Horses is of a white and delicate pink colour under the 

 hair^ whilst that of all others, ^'Pieballs" as well, is dark. 



Dorchester, May, 1854. 



GLEANINGS BY THE WAY. 



BY JOHN ROSE, ESQ., M. A., F. B. S., M. D. R. N, 



The Chimney Swallow, (ITinindo rustica,) I first observed on the 8th. 

 of iVpril, the same day as last year, a coincidence in itself trifling, yet worth 

 noting, and interesting to those who, like the Rev. Gilbert White, and other 

 naturalists of later date delight in contributing to the formation of a calendar 

 of nature. This register can only be made accurate by observations extending 

 over a series of years in different localities : and all, however humble their 

 sphere, may add their mite. The Rev. L. Jenyns remarks that '^a calendar 

 of periodic phenomena in Natural History may be constructed for other pur- 

 poses than those immediately connected with that particular science. Observ- 

 ations of such phenomena may be combined with others in meteorology, ana 

 tend to enlarge our knowledge of particular climates. Or, without being so 

 combined, they may serve of themselves to point out many climatological 

 considerations, of the greatest importance in certain branches of human industry, 

 dependent upon the diUerences which one climate exhibits compared with 

 another. This results from the close connection which subsists between the 

 phenomena of climate, and the phenomena of the animal and vegetable worlds. 

 It becomes therefore a most interesting study, and almost forms a science 

 in itself, to trace out this connection, and to observe the periodic time, as 

 well as the simultaniety, whenever it occurs of all the resulting phenomena 

 considered relatively with each other." 



On the 21st. of April, near Grange Farm, almost opposite Osborne House, 

 I heard the Nightingale, and listened with delight to its notes of harmony 

 mocking as they do the reach of art. 



On the 25th. of April I saw a pair of Turtle Doves near Lord Ashburton's 

 marine residence: and on the same day a fine specimen of that handsome, 

 and, in this country, rare bird, the Hoopoe, (Ujmpa epops,) was shot by 

 Mr. William Leane, of Privet Farm, near Gosport. "The most unusual 



