SUMMER EVENING WALK. 91 



America from the western coast of Africa, and the 

 south of Europe ; and then break down the isthmus 

 that bridged over the Atlantic. But this is making 

 use of a violent piece of machinery : it is a difficulty 

 worthy of the interposition of a god ! " Incredulus 

 odi," " Disbelieving I detest." 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 



THE NATURALIST'S SUMMER EVENING 

 WALK. 



equidem credo, quia sit divinitus illis 



Ingenium. VIRG. Georg. 



" The instructive arts that in their labours shine, 

 I deem inspir'd by energy divine." 



WHEN day, declining, sheds a milder gleam, 



What time the May-fly* haunts the pool or stream ; 



When the still owl skims round the grassy mead 



What time the timorous hare limps forth to feed ; 



Then be the time to steal adown the vale, 



And listen to the vagrant cuckoo' sf tale ; 



To hear the clamorous curlew I call his mate, 



Or the soft quail his tender pain relate ; 



To see the swallow sweep the dark'ning plain, 



Belated, to support her infant train ; 



* The angler's May-fly, the ephemera vulgata, Linn, comes 

 forth from its aurelia state, and emerges out of the water about 

 six in the evening, and dies about eleven at night, determining 

 the date of its fly state in about five or six hours. They usually 

 begin to appear about the 4th of June, and continue in succes- 

 sion for near a fortnight. See SWAMMERDAM, DERHAM, Sco- 

 POLI, &c. 



f Vagrant cuckoo ; so called, because, being tied down by 

 no incubation or attendance about the nutrition of its young, it 

 wanders without controul. 



1 Charadrius cedicnemus. 



