410 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



To examine the living, and to remove the 

 dead, was the work of a few moments only. 

 We found the surviving nestlings paralysed 

 from fright, and shrinking from the touch. 

 One of them had been struck by the paw of 

 the tyrant ; and it lay in the nest, cold and 

 motionless. Subsequently, by the care of 

 the mother, and by the warmth imparted by 

 her incubation, it recovered. Every night 

 after this, we erected a wall of close wooden 

 trellis round the rock -work, — thus defying 

 the enemy, and at the same time affording 

 ingress and egress to the papa and mamma. 

 These latter will never forget us, nor our good 

 offices. The young have safely taken their 

 flight (their exodus was a droll sight !) ; and 

 all now come to the window to greet us 

 throughout the livelong day. 



We may remark here, that the nest of five 

 young thrushes, built within arm's length 

 of our window, and of which we before made 

 mention,— have also taken wing. 



Hitherto, we have had one eye upon the 

 cats. Henceforward, we shall have two. 

 We have, moreover, other two pairs of eyes 

 actively engaged on the same look-out. 

 These animals have (each) one hundred lives. 

 Some of them, Ave imagine, are held on a 

 " precarious tenure." We would not " in- 

 sure " them ! 



Our Subscribers are reminded, that it 

 will be needful for them to order imme- 

 diately, through their respective Book- 

 sellers, any of the back numbers of this 

 Journal which they may require to com- 

 plete their Sets. 



The Stock is being made up intoVoLUMES ; 

 and there may be, hereafter, some difficulty, 

 if not an impossibility, of obtaining any parti- 

 cular Number or Part that may be wanted. 



A copious Index to the First Twenty -six 

 Numbers, with Title-page, Preface, &c, is 

 now ready, price Threepence. This, which 

 is procurable in the same manner as the 

 Journal, is also done up with Part VI., 

 price Thirteen-pence. 



GKIGINAL CGHltESPOIfBEI^CE. 



Tameness of the Thrush. — I was much pleased 

 with your truly interesting account of the song 

 thrush, which has built so close to your house. 

 Are these birds usually so tame, or is their tame- 

 ness the result of living in sequestered grounds 

 like yours? It must be delightful to have such 

 sweet visitors near one's window and to see 

 them feed their young. — G. Lamb, Stockwell. 



[The thrush is a less suspicious bird than 

 most; and therefore it confides more than it 

 ought to do in the good feeling of mankind, 

 London, and its suburbs, can witness the truth 

 of what we affirm. Thousands upon thousands 

 of young thrushes are, while we write, doing 

 penance between bars of iron and wood„ Their 



parents, for this year, are " wise too late." They 

 will be more cautious for the future. In private 

 gardens, the thrush builds fearlessly. He seems 

 to know that he is there secure. As you seem 

 interested about the habits of the thrush, we 

 transcribe for you a " note "' on that bird, 

 which appears in White's Sdborne. — " In the 

 neighborhood of Pitlessie, in Fife, a pair of 

 thrushes built their nest in a cart-shed, while 

 four wheel- wrights were engaged in it as a work- 

 shop. It was placed between one of the hulls 

 of the harrow and the adjoining tooth. The men 

 were busily employed at the noiseful work of 

 joining wood all the day; yet these birds flew in 

 and out at the door of the shed, without fear or 

 dread, and finished their nest with mortar. On 

 the second day, the hen laid an egg, on which 

 she sat, and was occasionally relieved by the 

 cock. In thirteen days the birds came out of 

 the shells, which the old ones always carried 

 off. They fed their young with shell-snails, 

 butterflies, and moths," — Where these birds are 

 unmolested, they love to let you see them feed 

 their young; and a pretty sight it is!] 



Muscular Strength and Voracity of the Insect 

 World,— Dear Mr. Editor— In a little work I 

 have just been reading, there is a most interest- 

 ing description given of the ail-but incredible 

 power of inseefs, in reference to locomotion. 

 I have copied it, and now send it to the Public's 

 •' Own Journal " for insertion. — " The fables 

 of antiquity have seldom ventured to .attribute 

 to the most redoubtable of mythological heroes, 

 such deeds as are every day performed before 

 our own eyes ; for the labors of Hercules, and 

 the masonry of the Cyclops, equally slide into 

 insignificance when compared with the most 

 ordinary achievements of the members of the 

 insect world. Should any of our readers be 

 sceptical upon this point, perhaps the following 

 illustrations of super- herculean strength with 

 which the commonest insects are endowed, se- 

 lected from various sources, may prepare us to 

 credit more easily the facts which we shall have 

 to record in subsequent pages. The common 

 flea, as every one knows, will, without much 

 apparent effort, jump two hundred times its own 

 length ; and several grasshoppers and locusts 

 are said to be able to perform leaps quite as 

 wonderful. In the case of the insect, they 

 scarcely excite our notice; but if a man were 

 coolly to take a standing leap of three hundred 

 and eighty odd yards, which would be an equi- 

 valent exertion of muscular power, perhaps our 

 admirers of athletic sports might be rather 

 startled at such a performance. Again, for a 

 man to run ten miles within the hour would be 

 admitted to be a tolerably good display of 

 pedestrianism; but what are we to say to the 

 little fly observed by Mr. Del isle, ' so minute as 

 almost to be invisible,' which ran nearly six 

 inches in a second, and in that space was calcu- 

 lated to have made one thousand and eighty 

 steps ? This, according to the calculation of 

 Kirby and Spence, is as if a man whose steps 

 measured only two feet, should run at the incre- 

 dible rate of twenty miles in a minute." — From 

 the same volume, I have collected evidence of 

 the destructive powers of certain lepidoptcrous 



