OBSERVATIONS. 313 



In April], 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. 247, Mr. White says, it is strange that rooks and 

 starlings accompany each other : but this is the case 

 with other birds ; the short-eared owl often accom- 

 panies flights of woodcocks in this country. See Pen- 

 nant's Scotland, i. p. 11. In Greece, the cuckoo migrates 

 with the fwr/fe-flocks, thence they call him trigono- 

 kracti, or turtle-leader. 



P. 251. The motion of the tortoise's legs being, as 

 Mr. White remarks, ridiculously slorv, is taken notice 

 of in Homer's hymn to Hermes, v. 28, 



" Feeding far off from man, the flowery herb, 

 Slow-moving with his feet." 



P. 269. Mr. White has observed, that the owl re- 

 turns to its young with food once 'mfive minutes. Mr. 

 Montagu has observed, that the wren returns once in 

 two minutes, or upon an average thirty-six times in an 

 hour; and this continued full sixteen hours in a day, 

 which if equally divided between eight young ones, 

 each would receive seventy-two feeds in the day, the 

 whole amounting to five hundred and seventy-six. 

 See Ornitholog. Diet. p. 35. To this, I will add, that 

 the swallow never fails to return to its nest at the expi- 

 ration of every second or third minute. 



