332 ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 
to seize on the white worm (ver blanc) which, for three years before 
metamorphosing into a cockchafer, gnaws at the roots of our grasses. 
Here we pause, not to weary our reader, and yet the list of useful 
birds is scarcely glanced at. 
Page 228. The woodpecker, as an augur.—Are the methods 
of observation adopted by meteorology serious and efficacious? Some 
men of science doubt it. It might, perhaps, be worth while examining 
if we could not deduce any part of the meteorology of the ancients 
from their divination by birds. The principal passages are pointed 
out in Pauly’s Encyclopedia (Stuttgard), article Divinatio. 
“The woodpecker is a favoured bird in the steppes of Poland and 
Russia. In these sparsely wooded plains he constantly directs his 
course towards the trees; by following him, you discover a hidden 
ravine, a little later some springs, and finally descend towards the 
river. Under the bird’s guidance you may thus explore and recon- 
noitre the country.” (Mickiewicz, Les Slaves, vol. i, p. 200.) 
Page 235. Song.—Do not separate what God has joined together. 
If you place a bird in a cage beside you, his song quickly fatigues 
you with its sonorous timbre and its monotony. But in the grand 
concert of Nature, that bird would supply his note, and complete the 
harmony. This powerful voice would subdue itself to the modulations 
of the air; soft and tender it would glide, borne upon the breeze. 
