THE UNIVERSAL FAMILY PAPER FOR INTER-COMMUNICATIONS ON 



NATURAL HISTORY-POPULAR SCIENCE— THINGS IN GENERAL, 



Conducted by WILLIAM KIDD, of Hammersmith,— 



Author of the Familiar and Popular Essays on "Natural History;" "British Song 

 Birds; " "Birds of Passage;" "Instinct and Reason;" "The Aviary," &c. 



"the OBJECT of our work is to make men WISER, without obliging them to turn over folios and 



QUARTOS.— TO FURNISH MATTER FOR THINKING AS WELL AS READING."— EVELYN. 



No 29.— 1852. 



SATURDAY, JULY 17. 



Price 3d. 



Or, in Monthly Parts, Price Is. Id. 



A RURAL RAMBLE 



to 



SHARPHAM WOOD, NEAR TOTNES. 



BY SAMUEL HANNAFORD, JUN. 



Books ! 'tis a dull and endless strife : 

 Come hear the woodland linnet ; 



How sweet his music ! on my life, 

 There's more of wisdom in it. 



Wordsworth. 



HOW TRULY EXPRESSIVE OF OUR FEELINGS 



were these beautiful lines a few days since, 

 when, after a week's successive rain and 

 study consequent thereon, we were tempted 

 one glorious evening to pay a visit to the 

 Wood at Sharpham, the seat of Richard 

 Durant, Esq. It is situated on the Dart, 

 about three miles from Totnes, famed for its 

 echo. A more lovely spot it is scarcely 

 possible to imagine ; the dense foliage of the 

 trees overhanging the river, forming a 

 perfect level on its edge for many a mile. 



Our beautiful river — of which Carrington, 

 who was indeed a true lover of nature, has 

 sung so sweetly — takes its rise from Dart- 

 moor, to which it gives its name, and flows 

 meandering along amidst hills and rocks and 

 scenery the most varied, towards Totnes, 

 where its course is somewhat diverted by 

 the salmon weir, — one portion gliding 

 smoothly along through the meadows to the 

 town mills ; the other rushing wildly over the 

 weir in its course to the sea at Dartmouth, 

 some ten miles below. 



" The voice of Dart 

 Is loud, and hoarse his cataracts uplift 

 Their roarings to the woods; but oh, how sweet 

 The music of his gentle tones, — for he 

 Has tones of touching sweetness." 



Many and many a happy hour have we spent 

 on its margin, — lulled by the rippling of the 

 stream, watching the habits of the dipper 

 (Cinclus aquaticus). He appears now to 

 prefer the more rocky parts of the river 

 above Hood Bridge ; although a year or 



two since, we saw a pair frequently fly from 

 a bank by the river's edge near the weir, but 

 have never since observed them in the same 

 spot. The habits of this bird are very accu- 

 rately described by Macgillivray in the 

 second volume of his valuable " British 

 Birds ;" and from our own experience we can 

 confirm his remark, that it does not immerse 

 itself head foremost like the king fisher, from 

 its perch overhanging the stream. It walks 

 into the water, or alights on it ; and then, 

 with the wings slightly expanded, suddenly 

 plunges in and disappears. Although we 

 have had no opportunities of judging of the 

 nature of its food, feeling it incumbent on 

 us, fond as we are of ornithology, rather to 

 preserve than destroy so rare a bird as it is 

 in this neighborhood ; yet did we never 

 observe it with fish, after its submersion. 

 We are indebted in common with all other 

 admirers of this 



" Solitary bird that makes 

 The rock his sole companion," 



to Mr. Macgillivray ; and more recently 

 to R. Gray, Esq., for his eloquent defence of 

 this, one of our favorites, in an early number 

 of the " Naturalist," which bears ample 

 testimony to his kind heart. We earnestly 

 recommend the perusal of it to all readers 

 of Kidd's Journal. The dipper is de- 

 stroyed on all possible occasions in Scotland, 

 from an idea (an erroneous one we believe), 

 that it feeds on the ova of salmon ; but 

 Macgillivray assures us that in the 

 stomachs of many which he examined, he 

 found nothing but beetles, a few molluscae, 

 grains of sand, &c, &c. It is this persecu- 

 tion which has endeared the bird so greatly 

 to us ; and much pleasure has its companion- 

 ship afforded us on many a fishing- excursion. 

 Here, it is by no means common ; two or 

 three pairs being all that have been observed 

 for many miles, in suitable localities. 



The king-fisher is another of our friends, 

 of whom we could say much. The otter 

 too, whose shrill whistle we love, although 



Vol. II. 



