THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. ° 61 
The late writers of this sort, in whom may be seen all the 
arguments of those that have gone before, as I remember, 
stock America from the western coast of Africa and the south 
of Europe ; and then break down the Isthmus that bridged 
over the Atlantic. But this is making use of a violent piece 
of machinery ; it is a difficulty worthy of the interposition of 
agod! “I am disgustedly incredulous.” 
To THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 
THE NATURALIST’S SUMMER-EVENING WALK. 
When day declining sheds a milder gleam, 
What time the May-fly + haunts the pool or stream ; 
When the still owl skims round the grassy mead, 
What time the timorous hare limps forth to feed ; 
Then be the time to steal adown the vale, 
And listen to the vagrant ? cuckoo’s tale ; 
To hear the clamorous curlew call his mate, 
Or the soft quail his tender pain relate ; 
To see the swallow sweep the dark’ning plain 
Belated, to support her infant train ; 
To mark the swift in rapid giddy ring 
Dash round the steeple, unsubdued of wing ; 
Amusive birds !—say where your hid retreat 
When the frost rages and the tempests beat ; 
Whence your return by such nice instinct led, 
When spring, soft season, lifts her bloomy head ? 
1 The angler’s May-fly comes forth from its aurelia state, and emerges 
out of the water about six in the evening, and dies about eleven at night, 
determining the date of its fly state in about five or six hours. They 
usually begin to appear about the 4th June, and continue in succession for 
near a fortnight. See Swammerdam, Derham, Scopoli, etc. — W. 
2 Vagrant cuckoo ; so called because, being tied down by no incubation 
or attendance about the nutrition of its young, it wanders without control. 
—W. 
oe. y id 
Va 
