82 INTRODUCTION. 



Intent ; and often, from the careless back 

 Of herds and flocks a thousand tugging bills 

 Pluck hair and wool." 



Spring. 



Tiie Migration of Birds is also a subject of considerable 

 interest in their natural history. 



u . The birds of air 

 Now pleas'd return ; they perch on every spray, 

 And swell their little throats, and warble wild 

 Their vernal minstrelsy." 



Mason's English Garden, Book iv. 



It was formerly supposed that many birds, which, it is 

 now known, unquestionably migrate, retired to some secure 

 retreat, and remained dormant during the winter ; so certain 

 was this supposed to be, that, in some districts of the king* 

 doni, seven of the migratory birds obtained the name of the 

 seven sleepers. I am not exactly aware of all the names 

 of these sleeping birds, but I remember very well that the 

 Cuckoo was called in Somersetshire, when I was a boy, and 

 I dare say is so still by the uninformed peasantry there, one 

 of the seven sleepers. However, more accurate observation 

 has, in great measure, dispelled these fancies: for they ap- 

 pear to be no more than fancies. There is, notwithstanding, 

 a disposition in some persons still to credit the opinion that 

 swallows, or at least some of them, do actually remain 

 dormant during the winter in this country, As I am not 

 aware that any well attested facts of a late date have been 

 observed and made public concerning this very doubtful 

 subject, and, as almost every thing which we know con- 

 cerning this bird tends to the contrary opinion, namely, that 

 it invariably migrates, or, if it remain here, it most probably 

 dies, I am not disposed to countenance an opinion so con- 



