OFNATURE. 65 



it they either difperle them at the fiime time, 

 or, if they rwallow them, they are returned 

 with intereft •, for they always come out un- 

 hurt. It is not therefore furprifmg, that if a 

 field be manured with recent mud or dung not 

 quite rotten, various other plants, injurious to 

 the farmer, fhould come up along with the 

 grain, that is fowed. Many have believed that 

 barley, or rye has been changed into oats, al- 

 tho' all fuch kinds of metamorphofes are re- 

 pugnant to the laws of generation, not confi- 

 dering that there is another caufe of this pha2- 

 nomenon, viz. that the ground perhaps has 

 been manured with horfe-dung, in which the 

 feeds of oats, coming entire from the horfe, 

 lye hid and produce that grain. The mijletoe 

 always grows upon other trees, becaufe the 

 thrufli that eats the feeds of it, cafls them 

 forth with its dung, and as bird-catchers 

 make their bird-lime of this fame plant, and 

 daub the branches of trees with it, in order 

 to catch the thrufh, the proverb hence took its 

 rife ; 



The thrufh, when he befouls the bough, 

 Sov;s for himfelf the feeds of woe. 

 It is not to be doubted, but that the greateft 

 part of the jumpers alfo, that fill our woods, 



F are 



