AND KOBERT MA1JS11AM. 257 



side to the oilier side. Hunter has changed the Cage, & 

 altered the places of the perches, & taken every precaution to 

 vxeln.de every particle of Light; & being shut up in the closet 

 with the Bird, says, he hears him hop from perch to perch, & 

 so on without ever seeming to blunder or mistake. He is 

 almost certain of the fact*. I have transcribed Lord Suf- 

 field's words that he wrote. From my own knowledge i can 

 say but little, only, that on the tenth of last November, a 

 Swallow laid dead just under the window of the room i live 

 in ; so we must see it the day it fell : & as the last of my 

 Swallows appearing, was on the 30 of Sep. this Bird was most 

 likely in it's torpid state, when some accident removed it. 

 The tail was short, so i conclude it was of the latter brood. 

 But although i have had the eaves & roof of my house 

 searched, no bird can be found. Yet it seems unlikely that 

 a single Swallow should hide for the winter when they are so 

 companionable in the Summer, that you very seldom then see 

 a single bird. So i must conclude others are hid near it. 

 On the 17 th of this month i had Turnip-flowers ; which i find 

 are earlier than i had seen before. Violets have been in 

 flower weeks ago. But i have not marked them in my Indi- 

 cations of Spring. You see, Sir, that i began my work very 

 lazily with very few articles. I believe the Elm leaves that 

 you saw at Sunbury on the 20 of Feb. in 1750, were earlier 

 than any i had seen. I find in my journal in 1738. the Elms 

 had leaves on the 23 of March N.S. at Genoa; & on my 

 landing at Antibes the 3 d of April, the Rye was in ear. If it 

 had been my good fortune to know you 50 years ago, i am 

 sure i should have been a wiser, & better man : & i hope 'tis 

 not too late now. On y e 24 th i found a dark Butterfly in my 

 keeping-room, which led me to my Indications: & rind the 

 earliest (yellow) Jan. 14 last year. The Season points to me 



* [I am not aware of any record of these observations (though doubt- 

 loss made at the time, according to Hunter's practice) having been 

 published. From the expression used in the text the bird seems not to 

 have been the common species of Nightingale (Daulid* Inscinia') ; and if 

 not, it was doubtless the " Sprosser " (D. philomela) , which is common in 

 Eastern Germany. A. N.] 



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