OBSERVATIONS. 313 



" In Aprill, 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 accompanies 

 flights of woodcocks in this country. See Pennant's 

 Scotland, i. p. 11. In Greece, the cuckoo migrates with 

 the <Mr^/e-flocks, thence they call him trigonokracti, or 

 turtle-leader. 



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

 Mr. White remarks, ridiculously slow, is taken notice of 

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



2>ecv\oi iroa-tv ^xiwvaa,, 



'* Feeding far oiF from man, the flowery herb. 

 Slow-moving with his feet." 



P. 259- Mr. White has observed, that the owl returns 

 to its young with food once in Jive minutes. Mr. Mon- 

 tagu 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 amount- 

 ing to five hundred and seventy-six. See Omitholog. 

 Diet. p. S5. To this, I will add, that the swallow never 

 fails to return to its nest at the expiration of every second 

 or third minute. 



