CHAP. CIII. SALICA‘CER. PO’ PULUS. 1667 
= ee ~_ ss SScs = 
consist of a clear mellow whistle, repeated at short intervals as he gleams 
among the branches. There is in it a certain wild plaintiveness and naiveté 
extremely interesting. Since the streets of some of the American towns have 
been planted with Lombardy poplars, the orioles are constant visitors, 
chanting their native ‘ woodnotes wild,’ amid the din of coaches, wheelbarrows, 
and sometimes within a few yards of a bawling oysterwoman.” 
A curious phenomenon is represented by Mr. Murray as taking place with 
this poplar. Speaking of the raining tree in the Island of Hierro, which sup- 
plies the inhabitants as well as inferior animals with water, he accounts for 
this effect, by stating that a cloud of vapour from the sea is impelled towards 
the tree; and, being condensed by its foliage, the rain falls into a large tank, 
from which it is measured out by individuals set apart for that purpose by the 
authorities of the island. The same effect, Mr. Murray alleges, takes place 
roe 
« «, 
Na Se 
with very tall trees of this species surrounded by fog in this country. “In 
confirmation of a circumstance primd facie so incredible,” he says, “ I have 
here to record a phenomenon, witnessed by myself, equally extraordinary. I 
had frequently observed, in avenues of trees, that the entire ground engrossed 
by their shady foliage was completely saturated with moisture; and that during 
the prevalence of a fog, when the ground beneath their pale was completely 
parched, the wet which fell from their branches more resembled a gentle 
shower than any thing else ; and in investigating the phenomenon, which I am 
disposed to consider entirely electrical, I think the elm exhibits this feature 
more remarkably than any other tree of the forest. I never, however, was 
more astonished than I was in the month of September, 1828, on witnessing 
a very striking example of this description, I had taken an early walk on the 
road leading from Stafford to Lichfield ; a dense fog prevailed, but the road 
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