OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS. 285 



The royal pack, accustomed to have the deer turned out 

 before them, never drew the coverts with any address and 

 spirit, as many people that were present observed ; and this 

 remark the event has proved to be a true one : for as a person 

 was lately pursuing a pheasant that was wing-broken, in 

 Harteley Wood, he stumbled upon the stag by accident, and 

 ran in upon him as he lay concealed amidst a thick brake of 

 brambles and bushes. 



OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 

 BIRDS IN GENERAL. 



I.\ severe weather, fieldfares, redwings, skylarks, and titlarks, 

 resort to watered meadows for food ; the latter wades up to 

 its belly in pursuit of the pupse of insects, and runs along upon 

 the floating grass and weeds. Many gnats are on the snow 

 near the water : these support the birds in part. 



Birds are much influenced in their choice of food by colour; 

 for though white currants are much sweeter fruit than red, yet 

 they seldom touch the former till they have devoured every 

 bunch of the latter. 



Redstarts, fly-catchers, and black-caps, arrive early in April. 

 If these little delicate beings are birds of passage, (as we have 

 reason to suppose they are, because they are never seen in 

 winter,) how could they, feeble as they seem, bear up against 

 such storms of snow and rain, and make their way through 

 such meteorous turbulences, as one should suppose would 

 embarrass and retard the most hardy and resolute of the 

 winged nation ? Yet they keep their appointed times and 

 seasons ; and, in spite of frost and winds, return to their 

 stations periodically, as if they had met with nothing to 

 obstruct them. The withdrawing and appearance of the 

 short-winged summer birds, is a very puzzling circumstance 

 in natural history. 



When the boys bring me wasps' nests, my bantam fowls 

 fare deliciously, and, when the combs are pulled to pieces, 



