1825.] 
have just fallen upon them in a manu- 
script volume of poems, which, though 
hitherto hidden from the world, has 
many gems that might worthily adorn 
your poetical department. 
“Tsit a star fallen on the lap of earth, 
From heaven’s blue arch—or gem, instinct 
with fire, 
From crystal caye, by gnome transplanted 
here— 
That from the centre of this savage heath 
Beams forth its placid radiance? Rather say 
A living gem,—terrestrial cynosure 
To wandering love, tempting through 
night’s deep gloom 
The pathless wilds of ether. Hail to thee, 
Fair insect! proof that even here the flame 
Of omnipresent love can find a home, 
And smile upon this melancholy waste, 
That spreads its bosom to the approaching 
storm !— 
With tears I greet thee—for my busy mind 
(Fraught with similitudes of lonely woe), 
Remembers, with repentant grief and shame, 
A sweet, but mournful parallel—for such 
My Eleonora was!—a tranquil light 
Sole shining on this bleak unshelter’d world, 
To guide a reckless wanderer to a home 
Where he might rest his ruffled wings in 
peace ; 
On the soft bosom of connubial bliss 
Pillowing his cares, and soothing to repose 
Tumultuous passions and untam’d desires. 
—And I, misled by meteor-fires,. that shone 
Brighter, but only lur’d me to despair, — 
Left it to burn unnotic’d and alone, 
And perish in its joyless solitude !”” 
Purto P. C. C. 
—z——— 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
Sir: 
AM induced to call the attention of 
your readers to a subject, certainly 
hot new, yet hitherto unexplained, viz. 
the Migration of Birds. 
My curiosity was considerably excited, 
a short time since, as early as six o’clock 
in the morning, by an unusual noise on 
the top of a large house facing my resi- 
dence; and, on looking out to discover 
the cause, I found the roof was nearly 
covered with swallows and other birds, 
evidently congregating tor some particu- 
lar purpose. For two hours, fresh ar- 
rivals took place, till the roofs of the 
adjoining houses were also covered ; at 
length, after a confused sort of buzz, or 
signal, the whole flock took wing in a 
‘southerly direction, and soon disap- 
peared. 
Migration of Birds. 
397 
I should feel particularly obliged to 
any of your correspondents who could 
give me some idea of the probable des- 
tination of thisimmense body: whether 
they were taking flight to a warmer cli- 
mate, or merely to another county, to 
take shelter in unfrequented caverns, or 
inaccessible rocks 2 
Of their being found occasionally, in 
the winter, in a torpid state, there can 
be no doubt: in proof of this fact, I 
would mention the following circum- 
stance :— 
A friend of mine, a few years since, 
had half a dozen swallows, in a torpid 
state, given him by a person who found 
them in the trunk ofa hollow tree; my 
friend put them in his desk, where they 
remained, till the spring, forgotten. One 
morning, however, he heard a strange 
noise, and, on looking into the desk, 
discovered one of the birds fluttering 
about: the others also began to move, 
and, upon being placed out of doors in 
the sun, they speedily arranged their 
plumage, took wing, and disappeared. 
I am fully aware that the migration of 
birds has been treated of in Willoughby’s 
Ornithology, Walton and Cotton’s An- 
gler, in some of the early volumes of the 
Monthly Magazine, and also in a small 
octavo pamphlet of modern date, as well 
as in other works; but, from all I have 
read or heard, I have never been satis- 
fied, whether the major part leave the 
country altogether, or only seclude 
themselves in a torpescent state during 
the winter.—Your’s, &c. X,. 
Oct. 3, 1825. 
a : 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
au OER = 
N a communication, which you did 
me the honour of allowing a place 
in your columns, in August last, having 
mentioned (in p. 17 of that number) 
the astonishing, but, I believe, well-at- 
tested fact of the flight of Henry IV.’s 
falcon from Fontainebleau to Malta; 
I drew a conclusion, startling, and ap- 
parently unreasonable, that, perhaps, 
the flight of the swallow might equal 
seventy-five miles an hour !—The fol- 
lowing extract, recently quoted in a 
weekly publication, will show, how- 
ever, that my calculation was so far 
from overleaping the bounds of possibi- 
lity, or even probability, that it was 
much under that of others, who, de- 
servedly or not, assume the name and 
province of the naturalist :— 
“ Rapid Flight. — The rapidity with 
which hawks and many other birds occa- 
» sionally 
