70 



KIDD'S LONDON JOUKNAL. 



little game: very useful in his station, and, 

 though he does not attack ring-doves, he often 

 scatters their flocks in great affright. The bold 

 sparrow-hawk throws all the birds, from the 

 barn-door fowl to " the wren which tells of perils 

 in the hedge," into commotion as he dashes 

 headlong after his quarry, surprised at the 

 sudden onset, following a stealthy advance. 



Of all our native birds there is none which 

 for elegance of flight can be compared to the 

 kestrel or wind-hover, a name so expressive of 

 his peculiar habit of fluttering over his prey, 

 which consists chiefly of beetles and field mice, 

 and it would be more compatible with common 

 sense and true justice if laws were enacted to 

 preserve these useful birds rather than the game 

 birds which are a curse to the whole community. 



The heron now haunts little streams where 

 trout resort to spawn, and we note with pleasure 

 his picturesque form perched on some tall look- 

 out tree, and his strong flight to his distant feed- 

 ing ground. The gallinule feeds freely upon 

 grain in winter, and if not molested they often 

 resort to gardens and shrubberies, where their 

 compact dark form, relieved by a little white co- 

 lor, and their active habits, render them very 

 ornamental. The evolutions of the wild geese 

 on the wing are very interesting ; they are shy 

 and wary, but the pertinacity with which they 

 will often return to large open fields of wheat 

 and clover, render it necessary to set a watch in 

 some districts. Such is a faint outline of the 

 more prominent of the familiar phenomena dis- 

 played in the daily winter habits of our land birds. 

 There are few men resident in the country, who 

 are not conversant to a certain extent with the 

 habits of birds in relation to seasons and atmo- 

 spheric changes; and a little more attention would 

 tend to increase not only the general habit of ob- 

 servation, but would give anew and hitherto un- 

 dreamt-of interest to the subject. — Physicus, in 

 the Gardeners' Journal. 



[We quite coincide with this view, and sin- 

 cerely hope that some of our observant friends, 

 far off as well as near, will send us minute par- 

 ticulars of what comes under their observation 

 in this way. To record these matters, is the 

 high road to making " science " popular and 

 universally interesting.] 



THE HAWTHORN. 



The trunk of an old hawthorn is more 

 gnarled and rough than, perhaps, that of 

 any other tree ; and this, with its hoary ap- 

 pearance, and its fragrance, renders it a 

 favorite tree with pastoral and rustic poets, 

 and with those to whom they address their 

 songs. Milton, in his L'Allegro, has not 

 forgotten this favorite of the village : — - 



" Every shepherd tells his tale 

 Under the hawthorn in the dale." 



When Bums, with equal force and delicacy, 

 delineates the pure and unsophisticated 

 affection of young, intelligent, and innocent 

 country people, as the most enchanting of 



human feelings, he gives additional sweet- 

 ness to the picture by placing his lovers 



" Beneath the milk-white thorn, that scents the 

 evening gale." 



There is something about the tree, which 

 one bred in the country cannot soon for- 

 get ; and which a visitor learns, perhaps, 

 sooner than any association of placid delight 

 connected with rural scenery. When, too, 

 the traveller, or the man of the world, after 

 a life spent in other pursuits, returns to the 

 village of his nativity, the old hawthorn is 

 the only playfellow of his boyhood that 

 has not changed. His seniors are in the 

 grave ; his contemporaries are scattered ; the 

 hearths at which lie found a welcome are 

 in the possession of those who -know him 

 not ; the roads are altered ; the houses re- 

 built ; and the common trees have grown 

 out of his knowledge : be it but half a cen- 

 tury or more, if man spare the old haw- 

 thorn, it is just the same — not a limb, 

 hardly a twig has altered from the picture 

 that memory traces of his early years ! 



NOTES ON SEES. 



Swarming, or Single Hiving System.— 

 The multiplication of families or colonies of 

 bees, in the natural manner, is accomplished 

 by the secession, or swarming of a portion 

 of the inhabitants of a stock-hive, which has 

 become over-peopled, with insufficient room 

 for the breeding and storing departments. This 

 act of emigration is frequently a matter of neces- 

 sity or expediency only ; and it may commonly 

 be prevented by a timely enlargement, and de- 

 creasing thereby the temperature of the hive. 

 As soon as warm weather sets in, a common 

 hive becomes filled with an augmented popula- 

 tion. Every part is crowded and heated to 

 excess; and at length the separation of a part 

 of the inhabitants must take place. In anticipa- 

 tion of this event, royal cells are constructed in 

 which to rear young queens, for without this pro- 

 viso no swarming occurs. On the occasion of a 

 first swarm the old queen accompanies it, leaving 

 her successor to the throne still in embryo. 

 The older and younger bees, mixed indiscrimin- 

 ately, and (though not without exceptions) 

 several hundreds of drones, form the swarm. 



It is not an unusual thing to hear a boast of a 

 number of swarms from a stock of bees; and one 

 of these will even sometimes throw off a swarm 

 the same year. Nothing is proved by this but 

 the fact, that an otherwise thriving colony has 

 been weakened (if not destroyed) by being split 

 up into fractions, which ought to have been held 

 together, as the greatest security against every 

 evil, and the surest source of profit to the pro- 

 prietor. 



In the words of Gelieu, "in the swarming 

 season the strong hives are almost entirely filled 

 with brood-combs. At that time also honey 

 becomes abundant; and when fine days succeed 

 each other, the working bees amass an astonish- 

 ing quantity. But where is it to be stored? 



