IO2 T'he Natural History of Se I borne 



remember, stock America from the western coast of Africa 

 and the south of Europe ; and then break down the Isthmus 

 that bridged over the Atlantic. But this is making use of a 

 violent piece of machinery; it is a difficulty worthy of the 

 interposition of a god ! " Incredulus odi." 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 

 THE NATURALIST'S SUMMER-EVENING WALK. 



-equidem credo, quia sit divinitus illis 



Ingenium. VIRG. Georg. 



When day declining sheds a milder gleam, 

 What time the may -fly* haunts the pool or stream; 

 When the still owl skims round the grassy mead, 

 What time the timorous hare limps forth to feed; 

 Then be the time to steal adoivn the vale, 

 And listen to the vagrant \ cuckocfs tale ; 

 To hear the clamorous \ curlew call his mate, 

 Or the soft quail his tender pain relate ; 

 To see the swallow sweep the darkening plain 

 Belated, to support her infant train; 

 To mark the swift in rapid giddy ring 

 Dash round the steeple, unsubdued of wing : 

 Amusive birds ! say where your hid retreat 

 When the frost rages and the tempests beat; 

 Whence your return, by such nice instinct led, 

 When spring, soft season, lifts her bloomy head? 

 Such baffled searches mock mari s prying pride, 

 The GOD 0/" NATURE is your secret guide / 



While deeftning shades obscure the face of day 

 To yonder bench leaf-sheltered let us stray, 



* The angler's may-fly, the ephemera vulgata, LINN., comes forth from 

 its aurelia state, and emerges out of the water about six in the evening, and 

 dies about eleven at night, determining the date of its fly state in about 

 five or six hours. They usually begin to appear about the 4th of June, 

 and continue in succession for near a fortnight. See Sivammerdatn, Der- 

 ham, Scopoli, &c. t Vagrant cuckoo ; so called because, being tied 

 down by no incubation or attendance about the nutrition of its young, 

 wanders without control. 1 Charadrius adicnemus. 



