118 NATURAL IlISTOKY 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 



THE NATURALIST'S SUMMER- 

 EVENING WALK. 



-equidem credo, quia sit divinitus illis 



Injienium Virg. Georg. 



o 



When day declining sheds a milder gleam, 

 What time the May-fly* haunts the pool or stream ; 

 When the still owl skims round the grassy mead. 

 What time the timorous hare limps forth to feed j 

 Then be the time to steal adown the vale. 

 And listen to the vagrant cuckoo'si* tale ; 

 To hear the clamorous curlew J; call his mate. 

 Or the soft quail his tender pain relate; 



* The angler's May-fly, the ephemera vulgnta Linn. 

 coracs forth from its aurelia state, and emerges out of 

 the water about six in the evening, and dies about eleven 

 at night, determining the date of its fly state in about five 

 or six liours. Tbcy usually begin to appear about the 

 •ttli of June, and continue in succession for near a fort- 

 night. See Swammcrduw, Dcrham, Scopoli, ^-c. 



+ Vagrant cuckoo ; so called 1)ocausc, being tied down 

 by no incubation or attendance about the nutrition of its 

 young, it wanders without control. 



\ Charndiius Ocdicncmus. 



