338 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



The swallows and martins were skimming 

 overhead, uttering from time to time their 

 delightful cheep. The redbreast poured 

 forth its own sweet song — the solitary 

 blackcap, too, was there flitting about from 

 bush to bush, more commonly heard than 

 seen. Sweet tells us that it is a real mock 

 bird, and will imitate the nightingale, the 

 blackbird, thrush, and greater pettychaps so 

 faithfully, that it is almost impossible to 

 detect it, except when it runs from one into 

 the other, or shows itself in the open part of 

 a tree. " Listen to those strains," says 

 Macgillivray, " that issue from the midst of 

 that broad plane-tree, so loud, so clear, so 

 melodious, so modulated, so surpassingly 

 beautiful, if one may so speak, that surely 

 no bird ever sang so sweetly. It is a 

 thrush ; I know it by that peculiar inflec- 

 tion: yet no, it cannot be, for the sounds 

 are not quite so loud, nor is the strain so 

 broken. The notes follow each other with 

 rapidity ; now the enunciation is hurried, 

 anon deliberate, but always distinct, and 

 neither strained nor slurred by haste. You 

 fancy that parts of the song resemble that 

 of the redbreast, the garden warbler, the 

 song-thrush, and perhaps the skylark ; or 

 that it is the graceful and harmonious com- 

 bination of the songs of these and perhaps 

 other birds. Yet if you listen more atten- 

 tively, you will be persuaded that the bird 

 is no imitator, but that it sends forth in 

 gladness the spontaneous, unpremeditated, 

 and unborrowed strains that Nature has 

 taught it to emit as the expression of its 

 feelings." The whitethroat's warble was 

 now and then heard, as he glided along in 

 the hedgerows, and 



" List — 'twas the cuckoo ! Oh, with what delight 

 Heard I that voice ! and catch it now, though 



faint, 

 Far off and faint, and melting into air, 

 Yet not to be mistaken." 



The cuckoo, and our other migratory birds, 

 were very late this spring, in consequence of 

 the cold winds ; but the blackcap, in spite of 

 them, was heard as early as the 9th of April. 

 I observed many lepidoptera — the Vanessa 

 Io, or peacock butterfly, the speckled wood, 

 green veined, brimstone, and the wood white. 

 In endeavoring to capture one of the latter, 

 I came upon the bright blue funnel-shaped 

 flowers of the evergreen alkanet (Anchusa 

 sempervirens), which is decidedly wild in 

 this county, and very abundant around 

 Totnes. It is said to take its name from 

 agchousa, paint ; one species having been used 

 for coloring, for which there is an ancient 

 receipt in the Forme of Cury, p. 29. I 

 gathered specimens of Ranunculus auricomus 

 (Goldilocks), Vicia sepium (common bush 

 vetch), Lotus corniculatus (bird's-foot trefoil), 



Prunus cerasus (wild cherry), P. spinosa 

 (blackthorn), Mespilus oxyacantha (white- 

 thorn, or hawthorn), Geranium rdbertianum 

 (herb robert), G. molle (dove's foot crane's 

 bill), Veronica hederifolia (ivy-leaved speed- 

 well), V. serpyllifolia (thyme-leaved speed- 

 well), and V. chamcedrys (germander speed- 

 well)., Gardamine pratense (lady's smock, or 

 cuckooflower'), Oxalis acetosella (wood sorrel), 

 with which the hedges were quite white in 

 some places. This plant is called cuckoo 

 bread in Halliwell's Dictionary of Provincial 

 Words. In a cornfield I found Fedia olitoria 

 (corn salad), Liihospermum arvense (corn 

 gromwell), Scandix pecten Veneris (Venus's 

 comb, or shepherd's needle) Fumana offici- 

 nalis (common fumitory) ; and having filled 

 my botanical case, I bent my steps home- 

 wards in that happy frame of mind which 

 one ever feels from an intercourse with 

 Nature, and called to mind these truly 

 beautiful lines of McCarthy's : — 



" The summer is come! the summer is come! 

 With its flowers and its branches green, 

 Where the young birds chirp on the blossom- 

 ing boughs, 

 And the sun-light struggles between; 

 And like children, o'er the earth and sky 



The flowers and the light clouds play: 

 But never before, to my heart or eye, 

 Came there ever so sweet a May 

 As this 

 Sweet May! sweet May! 

 Totnes, May 1, 1852. 



BIRDS OF SOKG. 



Give me but 

 Something whereunto I may bind my heart, 

 Something to love, to rest upon, — to clasp 

 Affection's tendrils round. Mrs. Hemans. 



No. XII.— CAGE BIRDS.— THE CANARY. 



When you remove your nestlings 

 for the purpose of bringing them up by hand, 

 mind and take the nest with them. They 

 are used to it ; and for the short time they 

 will remain in it (being eight days old when 

 you take them away), it will answer well 

 enough for your purpose. Remember and be 

 kind to your young charge; for you stand 

 towards these innocents in loco parentis. If 

 you carefully attend to them, they will amply 

 repay you for your trouble. Neglect them, 

 and they will perish ! 



Wherever there are birds, there most as- 

 suredly will mice congregate. It is next to 

 an impossibility to keep these pests out, and 

 they poison all they touch. Examine there- 

 fore very narrowly, every corner of the room, 

 and whenever you see a hole, nail over it a 

 piece of tin or zinc. So cunning are these 

 vermin that they conceal themselves in the 

 most unsuspected situations. We have ac- 



