1825.] 
other parts were polished; when the 
rough ‘parts, uniformly, radiated most 
light from the surface. Several coins, 
which were almost entirely obliterated 
in the impression, on being placed upon 
the red-hot iron, were distinctly legible 
in their inscriptions, owing to the greater 
brilliancy of those parts. It is, how- 
ever, necessary that the temperature of 
the iron should be, at least, at a full 
red-heat. 
——< 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
Douzts on the WonvERFUL Instinct of 
the HEN-TURKEY. 
ies poet, Christopher Smart, whose 
poems on the divine attributes are 
eminently beautiful, and, I consider, 
more splendidly figurative and inspired 
than the kindred effusions of the pious 
Cowper or Boyce, in dilating on the 
wonderful omniscience of the Supreme 
Being, has introduced a surprising ob- 
seryance of instinct, practised by the 
hen-turkey, in warning her brood of 
the danger impending from the visits of 
hawks, and other birds of prey; and of 
the amazing governing principle of self- 
preservation which pervades; her young, 
likewise, on this occasion. The passage 
is this :-— 
“ Hark! from afar the feather’d matron 
screams, 
And all her brood alarms !—the docile crew 
Accept the signal, one and all, expert 
In: the art of nature, and unlearn’d deceit ; 
Along the sod, in counterfeited death, _ 
Mute, motionless, they lie,—full well ap- 
pried 
That the rapacious adversary’s near. 
But who inform’d her of the approaching 
er? : ‘ 
Who taught the cautious mother, that the 
hawk 
Was hatch’d her foe, and liv’d by her 
destruction ?” 
Now, although but indifferently versed 
in the domestic economy of birds, I 
have kept various broods of turkeys, 
and never experienced any illustration 
of what the poet has here so aptly and 
beautifully introduced. Insects are fa- 
mous for their cunning in counterfeiting 
death. Arrest some of the beetle spe- 
cies in their path, and they will instantly 
fold up their diminutive members, and 
ar as if dead. The insect commonly 
called the woodlouse, is as expert as 
any practised tragedian in this trick ; so 
are several kind of spiders; But, to 
revert to the bird, the subject of these 
remarks, - 
I must observe, I believe she is inva, 
riably considered as a dull, moping, in- 
Instinct of the Furkey.— The Hermit on Tythes. 
119 
attentive mother, who goes “ clucking 
heavily about,” without paying the least 
attention to her tender offspring, or their 
wants (quite the contrast to the com- 
mon hen): so much so, indeed, that it 
is common for country housewives to 
place turkey eggs under the latter, in- 
stead of the real parent, and the advan- 
tage is invariably found in the superior 
assiduity with which she rears her proxy 
broods. ‘The male turkey is likewise, 
notwithstanding all the scarlet inflam- 
ings of his countenance, and the proud 
distension of his plumes, which makes 
him the terror of straggling children, a 
most cowardly and barbarous bird. I 
have seen him, after a short contest, 
even when aided by another, discomfited 
by the single prowess of a young game 
cock; and his cruelty, in teasing, peck- 
ing, and even, sometimes, in killing, the 
hens of his own species, is well known 
to all those who are practised in rear- 
ing them. 
In the mean time, if any of your cor- 
respondents have observed that wonder- 
ful evidence of instinct in these birds, 
which I have not, but-which the poet 
has. so pleasingly described, I shall be 
glad to see the same noticed in any of 
your forthcoming numbers.— Yours, &c. 
Enort Smitu. 
Hawley Cottage, Kent. 
—=_—— 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
Sir: 
4 hee? present period is remarkable 
for the means used, through the 
medium-of the press, to convey know- 
ledge throughout Europe, and other 
parts of the globe’; and people are now 
emerging from that state of barbarism, 
the companion of superstition, in which 
their forefathers were universally sunk. 
It does not, I think, appear from history, 
that men were ever-more the subjects 
of delusion and stupidity, than when 
they ignorantly laid the foundation for 
the claims of the clergy to tithes. Had 
they foreseen the effects of their pious 
gifts, the ruinous consequences resulting 
therefrom would not have arisen to 
their present alarming height. The 
records in the Court of Exchequer are 
lamentable proofs of the evil of. tithes, 
as affecting agriculturists, and of the 
expensive litigations arising from the 
continual squabbles between the clergy 
and laity, 
By your leave, Mr. Editor, I shall, 
through your extensively-read Maga- 
zine, hereafter endeayour to give some 
information relating, to the origin, pro- 
gress 
