OBSERVATIONS. 315 



trees could be found in the survey made in 1 793. 1 re- 

 marked in 1811, that some of these were gone, but the 

 pinaster and the ilex remain. 



P. 154. To this most awful summer of 1783, Cowper 

 also alludes, in his Task, Book ii. p. 41. 



" A world that seems 



To toll the death-bell of its own decease ; 

 And by the voice of all the elements 

 To preach the general doom." 



P. 202. Mr. White observes, that birds of prey, as 

 hawks, feed on insects. There is reason to believe, that 

 insects form also part of the food even of the large?' heasts 

 of prey. *' Beetles, flies, worms, form part of tlie lion 

 and tigers food, as they do that of t\\cfox" See Jarrold's 

 Dissert, on Man. 



P. 212. Concerning the " hybrid pheasant," see the 

 account by John Hunter, in the Philosophical Transact. 

 Art. XXX. 1760. "The subject of the account is a 

 hen pheasant with the feathers of the cock. The author 

 concludes that it is most probable that all those hen 

 pheasants which are found wild, and have the feathers 

 of the cock J were formerly perfect hens, but that now 

 they are changed with age, and perhaps by certain 

 constitutional circumstances." It appears also, that 

 the hen taking the plumage of the cock, is not confine^ 

 to the pheasant alone, it takes place also with the pea- 

 her, as may be seen in the specimen belonging to Lady 

 Tynte, which was in the Leverian Museum. After many 

 broods, this hen took much of the plumage of the cock. 



