222 NATURAL HISTORY 
hear at wnat times the different species of hzrun- 
dines arrived this spring in three very distant coun- 
ties of this kingdom. With us the swallow was 
seen first on April the 4th; the swift on April the 
24th; the black martin on April the 12th; and 
the house-martin not till April the 30th. At 
South Zele. Devonshire, swallows did not arrive 
till April the 25th; swifts, in plenty, on May the 
1st ; and house-martins not till the middle of May. 
At Blackburn, in Lancashire, swifts were seen 
April the 28th; swallows, April the 29th; house- 
martins, May the Ist. Do these different dates, in 
such distant districts, prove anything for or against 
migration ? 
A farmer near Weyhill fallows his land with 
two teams of asses, one of which works till noon, 
and the other in the afternoon. When these ani- 
mals have done their work, they are penned all 
night, like sheep, on the fallow. In the winter 
they are confined and foddered in a yard, and make 
plenty of dung. 
Linneus says that hawks “ paczscuntur inducias 
cum avibus, quamdiu cuculus cuculat ;” but it ap- 
pears to me that during that period many little 
birds are taken and destroyed by birds of prey, as 
may be seen by their feathers left in lanes and 
under hedges. 
The MisseL-Turusu is, while sitting, fierce and 
pugnacious, driving such birds as approach its nest, 
with great fury, toa distance. The Welsh call it 
pen y liwyn, the head or master of the coppice. 
He suffers no magpie, jay, or blackbird to enter the 
garden where he haunts, and is, for the time, a 
good guard to the new-sown legumens. In general 
