OBSERVATIONS. 481 



in a trap baited with a woodcock. Another was killed in January 

 1812 (this present month) in Sussex, while fighting with a raven. 

 This falcon breeds on Glenraore, and other rocks in the Highlands. 

 See Pennant's Scotland, v. i. p. 277. 



P. 39. There certainly does exist a difficulty in conceiving how 

 some of the Birds of Passage, such feeble and bad fliers, should be 

 able to migrate to such a vast distance ; but some of our wonder 

 will perhaps diminish when we read the account of the manner in 

 which the Quail crosses the Mediterranean, for the coast of Africa. 

 " Towards the end of September, the Quails avail themselves of a 

 northerly wind to take their departure from Europe, and flapping 

 one wing, while they present the other to the gale, half sail, half 

 oar, they graze the billows of the Mediterranean with their fattened 

 rumps, and bury themselves in the sands of Africa, that they may 

 serve as food to the famished inhabitants of Zara." St. Pierre's 

 Studies of Nature, v. 1. p. 91. 



P. 44. Mr. White mentions a notion among the country people 

 in Hampshire, that there exists a species of the ' Genus Mustelinum/ 

 reddish, not much bigger than a field-mouse, called a ' Cane,' and 

 distinct from the weasel, stoat, &c.* This I believe to be a pretty 

 general error among the country people also in other counties. This 

 imaginary animal in Suffolk is called the ' Mouse-hunt,' from its 

 being supposed to live on mice. To discover the truth of this report, 

 I managed to have several of these animals brought to me ; all of 

 which I found to be the common weasel. The error I conceive 

 partly to have arisen from this animal, like most others, appearing 

 less than its real size, when running and attempting to escape, a 

 circumstance well known to the hunters in India, with respect to 

 larger animals, as the tiger, &c. 



P. 45. Mr. White has justly remarked, ' that food has great 

 influence on the colour of animals.' The dark colour in wild birds 

 is a great safeguard to them against their enemies ; and this is tho 

 reason, that among birds of bright plumage, the young do not assume 

 their gay colours till the second or third year, as the cygnet, the gold 

 and silver pheasants, &c. The remarkable change of plumage among 

 the gull tribe, is a curious and intricate subject. Is the circumstance 

 mentioned by Mr. Pegge true, * that butterflies partake the colour of 

 the flowers they feed on'? I think not. See Anonymiana, p. 469. 



P. 52. Concerning the reason of frogs coming out in rainy 

 weather, the reader will be amply gratified, by referring to the 

 * See note, p. 44-5. 



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