OBSERVATIONS. 483 



And alluding to this custom, Avienus, (who may be considered only 

 as a very bad translator of an excellent poem, the Periegesis of 

 Dionysius,) thus says, v. 705, 



" Xam cum vere novo, tellus se dura relaxat, 

 Culminibusq. cavis blandum strepit ales hirundo, 

 Gens devota choros agitat ! " 



From a passage in the 'birds' of Aristophanes, wo learn, that 

 among the Greeks, the crane pointed out the time of sowing ; the 

 arrival of the kite, the time of sheep-shearing ; and the swallow, the 

 time to put on summer-clothes. According to the Greek Calendar of 

 Flora, kept by Theophrastus at Athens, the Ornithian winds blow, 

 and the swallow comes between the 28th of February, and the 12th 

 of .March; the kite and nightingale appear between the llth and 

 20th of March ; the cuckoo appears at the same time the young figs 

 come out, thence his name. See Stillingfleet's Tracts on Natural 

 History, p. 324. 



P. 122. Since this letter of Mr. White's much has been added to 

 our knowledge of the cuckoo, by the patient attention of Dr. Jenner. 

 Concerning the singing of the cuckoo, mentioned by Mr. White at 

 p. 139, I will add the following curious memoranda from the 7th 

 Volume of the Transactions of the Linnsean Society. " The cuckoo 

 begins early in the season with the interval of a minor third ; the 

 bird then proceeds to a major third, next to a, fourth, then & fifth, 

 after which his voice breaks without attaining a minor sirth" This 

 curious circumstance was however observed very long ago ; and it 

 forms the subject of an Epigram in that scarce black-letter volume, 

 the 4 Epigrams of John Hey wood, 1587.' 



OF USE. 95. 



" Use makcth maistry, this hath been said alway, 



" But all is not alway, as all men do say, 



" In Aprill. the koocoo can sing her song by rote, 



" In June, of tune, she cannot sing a note : 



" At first, koo coo, koo coo sing still can she do, 



" At last kooke, kooke, kooke ; six kookes, to one koo ! " 



P. 141. Mr. White says, it is strange that rooks and starlings 

 accompany each other ; but this is the case with other birds ; the 

 short-cared owl often accompanies flights of woodcocks to this country. 



