30 CLINTON'S 



With norse they cut the clouds, and leave behind 

 The wintry tempest and the freezing wind." 

 TASSO, v. 2. b. 20. (22) 



The secret departure of many species of birds has introduced much 

 (able into ornithology. It is time that the submersion of swallows, and 

 the fascination of serpents, should be banished from our natural, and the 

 welsh nations of Indians from our civil, history. In the midst of winter, 

 when occasional mild weather occurs, birds that were supposed to have 

 left the country suddenly reappear. This has induced a belief that many 

 of them remain in a torpid state duriflg the winter, in the fissures of rocks, 

 or in hollow trees ; all these indications ought to be carefully watched. 

 Bufibn says, that of three hundred species of quadrupeds, and one thou- 

 sand fire hundred of birds, man has selected but nineteen or twenty ; and 

 that only nine species of biros have been domesticated. He is greatly 

 mistaken in the number of species, although he is nearly right in other 

 respects. (23) The list of useful domestic birds may be greatly increased. 

 The Canada goose and the turkey, it is believed, have been added by 

 America. : the black duck, brant, wood duck, and prairie hen, have, in 

 many instances, been tamed ; and \vhy might not teal and grouse be also 

 domesticated ? Our stock of domestic fowl might also be increased by 

 the peruvian hen and the boco or cnrasso of South America ; which is 

 about the size of a turkey ? the flesh of both is much esteemed ; and why 

 might not our useful wild birds be augmented by importing from Europe 

 the red-1 paged partridge, and the pheasant : it is supposed that pheasants 

 were brought into Europe by the Argonauts, one thousand two hundred 

 and fifty years before the Christian era, from the banks of the Phasis a river 

 in Colchis in Asia Minor.(24) 



Our ichthyology has received little attention. Dr. Mitchill, to whom 

 science is greatly indebted, has recently published a small work on the 

 fishes of New- York, and it is to be hoped that he will continue his useful 

 labours. (25) The migration of fishes is as curious an object of inquiry as 

 that of birds. The anadromous fish affords, particularly, great scope for 

 observation. It is true that while the herrings ascend on one side of the 

 Hudson above Albany, that the siiad proceed on the other ?(26) Our great 

 lakes, and the streams which run into them, present a wide field for re- 

 mark : it is worthy of notice that there are in the lakes fishes correspond- 

 ing in appearance with those in the sea: the sheep's head, the sturgeon, 

 and the bass, may be mentioned as instances. It has been judged very 

 difficult to discover how sturgeon get into Lake Erie, on account of the 

 Falls of Niagara ; and it is said that a freuch governor had some conveyed 

 into it from Lake Ontario ; but it is very easy to account for it in another 

 way: the Illinois river frequently communicates, in spring and autumn, 

 with the Chicago creek which discharges itself into Lake Michigan. (27) 



The production and migration of eels have puzzled naturalists. The 



