332 



ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 



to seize on the wliite worm {ver lilanc) which, for three years before 

 metamorphosing into a cockchafer, gnaws at the roots of our grasses. 



Here we pause, not to weary our reader, and yet the list of useful 

 birds is scarcely glanced at. 



Page 228. The woodpecJxer, as an augur. — ^Are the methods 

 of observation adopted by meteorology serious and efficacious ? Some 

 men of science doubt it. It might, perhaps, be worth while examining 

 if we could not deduce any part of the meteorology of the ancients 

 from their divination by birds. The principal passages are pointed 

 out in Pauly's Encyclopaedia (Stuttgard), article Divinatio. 



"The woodpecker is a favoured bird in the steppes of Poland and 

 Russia. In these sparsely wooded plains he constantly directs his 

 course towards the trees ; by following him, you discover a hidden 

 ravine, a little later some springs, and finalfy descend towards the 

 river. Under the bird's guidance you may thus explore and recon- 

 noitre the country." (Mickiewicz, Les Slaves, vol. i., p. 200.) 



Page 235. Song. — Do not separate what God has joined together. 

 If you place a bird in a cage beside you, his song quickly fatigues 

 you with its sonorous timbre and its monotony. But in the grand 

 concert of Nature, that bird would supply his note, and complete the 

 harmony. This powerful voice would subdue itself to the modulations 

 of the air ; soft and tender it would glide, borne upon the breeze. 



