154 WHITE 



swallow was seen first on April 4th, the swift on April 24th, 

 the bank-martin on April I2th, and the house-martin not till 

 April soth. At South Zele, Devonshire, swallows did not 

 arrive till April 25th, swifts in plenty on May ist, and house- 

 martins not till the middle of May. At Blackburn, in Lanca- 

 shire, swifts were seen April 28th, swallows April 29th, house- 

 martins May i st. Do these different dates, in such distant 

 districts, prove anything for or against migration ? 



A farmer, near Weyhill, fallows his land with two teams of 

 asses ; one of which works till noon, and the other in the after- 

 noon. When these animals have done their work, they are 

 penned all night, like sheep, on the fallow. In the winter they 

 are confined and foddered in a yard, and make plenty of dung. 



Linnaeus says that hawks " paciscuntur inducias cum avibus, 

 quamdiu cuculus cuculat ; " but it appears to me, that during 

 that period, many little birds are taken and destroyed by birds 

 of prey, as may be seen by their feathers left in lanes and 

 under hedges. 



The missel-thrush is, while breeding, fierce and pugnacious, 

 driving such birds as approach its nest with great fury to a 

 distance. The Welsh call it " pen y llwyn," the head or mas- 

 ter of the coppice. He suffers no magpie, jay, or blackbird 

 to enter the garden where he haunts ; and is, for the time, a 

 good guard to the new-sown legumens. In general, he is very 

 successful in the defence of his family ; but once I observed 

 in my garden, that several magpies came determined to storm 

 the nest of a missel-thrush : the dams defended their mansion 

 with great vigor, and fought resolutely pro arts et focis ; but 

 numbers at last prevailed, they tore the nest to pieces, and 

 swallowed the young alive. 



In the season of nidification the wildest birds are compara- 

 tively tame. Thus the ring-dove breeds in my fields, though 

 they are continually frequented ; and the missel-thrush, though 

 most shy and wild in the autumn and winter, builds in my 

 garden close to a walk where people are passing all day long. 



Wall-fruit abounds with me this year ; but my grapes, that 

 used to be forward and good, are at present backward beyond 

 all precedent : and this is not the worst of the story ; for the 

 same ungenial weather, the same black cold solstice, has in- 



