82 INTRODUCTION. 



Intent ; and often, from the careless back 

 Of herds and flocks a thousand tujrgiog bills 

 Pluck hair and wool." 



Spring. 



The Migration of Birds is also a subject of considerable 

 interest in their natural history. 



'* The birds of air 

 Now pleas'd return ; they perch on every spray, 

 And swell their little throats, and warble wild 

 Their vernal minstrelsy." 



Mason's English Garden^ Book iv. 



It was formerly supposed (hat many birds, which, it is 

 now known, unqueslionably migrate, retired to some secure 

 retreat, and remained dormant during the winter ; so certain 

 was this supposed to be, that, in some districts of the king, 

 dom, seven of the migratory birds obtained the name of the 

 SEVEN SLEEPERS. I am not exactly aware of all the names 

 of these sleeping birds, but I remember very well that the 

 Cuckoo was called in Somersetshire, when I was a boy, and 

 I dare say is so still by the uninformed peasantry there, one 

 of the seven sleepers. However, more accurate observation 

 has, in great measure, dispelled these fancies: for they ap- 

 pear to be no more than fancies. There is, notwithstanding, 

 a disposition in some persons still to credit the opinion that 

 swallowSf or at least some of tliem, do actually remain 

 dormant during the winter in this country. As I am not 

 aware that any well attested facts of a late date have been 

 observed and made public concerning this very doubtful 

 subject, and, as almost every thing which we know con- 

 cerning this bird tends to the contrary opinion, namely, that 

 it invariably migrates, or, if it remain here, it most probably 

 dies, I am not disposed to countenance an opinion so con- 



