SPUING BIRDS. 147 



seem to answer this question in the affirmative. He says, the vessel had 

 for a long time been infested with Rats; but on the night before they left 

 Hartlepool on their fatal voyage, the whole vermin disappeared, not a single 

 Rat being seen, when the day before, they might be seen in dozens. 



Lampyris noctiluca, (Glow-worm.) — Entomologists in general have stated 

 that this insect affects damp woods and hedge-rows in preference to dry 

 places. This may be true, but not so with our observations; we have never 

 met with them but on dry banks and hedge-rows, and on heaths. They are 

 particularly abundant in some parts of Dorsetshire, on dry chalky banks and 

 hedge-rows; in Surrey on heaths, and in Somersetshire, as far as our obser- 

 vation goes, on dry hedge-rows. 



The Sparrow in Asia. — As we advanced, we put to flight flocks of Sparrows, 

 which had been tempted to take up their abode in these grottoes by the 

 grains of millet scattered all about in profusion. The Sparrow is a cosmo- 

 politan bird; he is found wherever man is found, and his character is every- 

 where the same; but in Tartary, Thibet, and China, he is perhaps more 

 impudent than in Europe, for his ncvSt and his brood are always religiously 

 respected, and he enters every house quite at his ease, and picks up whatever 

 he can, from the food of the family. We hope this example will be followed 

 by his enemies in this country. — "Hue's Travels in Tartary, etc." 



Happiness of Animals. — It is impossible to view the cheerfulness and 

 happiness of animals and birds without pleasure; and it is astonishing how 

 much man might do to lessen the misery of those creatures which are given 

 to him for either food, use, or pleasure, if he were so inclined; instead of 

 which, he oftener exercises a degree of wanton tyranny and cruelty over them 

 which cannot be too much deprecated, and for which, no doubt, he will be 

 one day held accountable. 



5, Middle Street, Taunton. 



SPRING BIRDS. 



BY 0. S. ROUND, ESQ. 



This spring I have made the same observation that I think is made by 

 Gilbert White somewhere in his charming letters, that the cold weather 

 which generally nips our hopes of warm weather almost in the bud, affects 

 our newly-arrived birds of passage in a strange manner, and they literally 

 disappear after we have seen them basking in the sunshine of a line young 

 April day, and listened to their novel notes, strangers to our ears for perhaps 

 seven months past, for there is little music from them after August. 



Now, of course we cannot suppose that they take a flight across the 

 Spanish territory, and so find their way to Africa again, or whatever warmer 

 region they may retire to, when our frosts fairly scare them from our shores: 

 but certainly they do vanish in a most unaccountable manner. This year 



