RITUAL GLEANINGS. 



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useful offices, nature, it seems, sets as much value upon the life of the 

 one as upon the other, and for the preservation of it she has not im- 

 planted any spirit of constant warfare between them ; but when hun- 

 ger threatens the destruction of the stronger, he then breaks the 

 amicable bond, and preys upon the weaker. 



Heronries are now very scarce in England, and the nearest to Lon- 

 don of the few remaining is situated not far from this in Wanstead 

 Park. This one, I am informed, for I have not yet visited it, is of 

 long establishment and very populous, and the birds, I am told, are 

 frequently seen flying many miles distant from the spot. Epping 

 Forest is just now a delightful aviary, being inhabited by wood-pigeons, 

 blackbirds, cuckoos, thrushes, woodpeckers, tree-creepers, tom-tits, 

 yellow-hammers, greenfinches, chaffinches, nightingales, linnets, larks, 

 bullfinches, butcher-birds, reed-sparrows, redstarts, wrens, and some 

 few others. I find it extremely difficult to discover the nests of birds 

 in this county, which I fancy are better concealed than in most places, 

 for when I ornithologise in Kent, Surrey, or Middlesex, I find them 

 easily enough and in plenty. I have however found one nest and only 

 one, which is that of the reed-sparrow. I found it at Snaresbrook, 

 situated among some reeds in a pond, but not fastened to them, being 

 only supported by their pressing upon all sides of it, and concealed by 

 loftier ones drooping over it. Externally it was composed of rather 

 coarse hay, having withinside a lining of the same material, but of a 

 finer and softer quality. 



Upon the thorns of a furze-bush, a few days since, I found some 

 bees and moths impaled by the butcher-bird, which, as all your readers 

 are probably aware, receives its name from this butchering habit, to 

 explain the reason of its practising which naturalists have not as yet 

 been able. 



Finding a mole boring into the side of a ditch, which I thought 

 would be too damp a situation for it, I took it up in my hand and con- 

 veyed it to a drier soil in quest of a hole for it. Having discovered a 

 hole which had evidently been excavated by one of its brethren, I 

 placed its snout to the entrance, but it refused several times to enter 

 it, being apparently reluctant to intrude into the dwelling of another, 

 from whom it might not have anticipated a very cordial reception. 

 But finding that I would not allow of its receding, and longer exposing 

 itself to danger by remaining above ground, it at length made a speedy 

 descent. This mole was, I observed, infested with fleas, very similar 



