hatched perhaps in a week. From hence we may see 

 the time of their breeding, which corresponds pretty 

 well with that of the swift, as does also the period of 

 their arrival. Each species is usually seen about the 

 beginning of May. Each breeds but once in a sum- 

 mer ; and each lays only two eggs. 



July 4, 1790. The woman who brought me two 

 fern-owls' eggs last year on July 14, on this day pro- 

 duced me two more, one of which had been laid this 

 morning, as appears plainly, because there was only 

 one in the nest the evening before. They were 

 found, as last July, on the verge of the down above 

 the hermitage under a beechen shrub, on the naked 

 ground. Last year those eggs were full of young, 

 and just ready to be hatched. 



These circumstances point out the exact time 

 when these curious nocturnal migratory birds lay 

 their eggs, and hatch their young. Fern-owls, like 

 snipes, stone-curlews, and some other birds, make no 

 nest. Birds that build on the ground do not make 

 much of their nests.]— Observations ox Nature. 



It would not be at all strange if the bat, which 

 you have procured, should prove a new one, since 

 five species have been found in a neighbouring king- 

 dom. The great sort that I mentioned is certainlv a 

 nondescript: I saw but one this summer, and that I 

 had no opportunity of taking. 



Your account of the Indian grass was entertain- 

 ing. I am no angler myself; but inquiring of those 



■^89 



