166 8ALMON1A. [SIXTH DAT. 



a great flight appeared on the 3rd of April, and 

 the day after heavy rain set in, which greatly inter- 

 fered with my sport."* The vulture, upon the same 

 principle, follows armies ; and I have no doubt, that 

 the augury of the ancients was a good deal founded 

 upon the observation of the instincts of birds. 

 There are many superstitions of the vulgar owing to 

 the same source. For anglers, in spring, it is always 

 unlucky to see single magpies, but two may be 

 always regarded as a favourable omen; and the 

 reason is, that in cold and stormy weather one 

 magpie alone leaves the nest in search of food, the 

 other remaining sitting upon the eggs or the young 

 ones ; but when two go out together, the weather is 

 warm and mild, and thus favourable for fishing. 



POIET. The singular connexions of causes and 

 effects, to which you have just referred, make 

 superstition less to be wondered at, particularly 

 amongst the vulgar ; and when two facts, naturally 

 unconnected, have been accidentally coincident, it is 

 not singular that this coincidence should have been 



* [The snipe is common in Ceylon, and throughout the year, passing 

 from one side of the island to the other, with the change of monsoon, 

 that monsoon, which, on one side, is accompanied by the rainy 

 season, on the other bringing in the dry season ; thus affording a 

 striking example of migration in connection with the cause, as inti- 

 mated in the text, a cause which seems to influence equally the 

 human race and the brute, and may be held to be the general motive 

 one ; any other being the exception, rather than the rule. J. D.J 



