that the less spotted woodpecker does the same. may be heard a furlong or more. *

This noise

Now is the only time to ascertain the short-winged summer birds; for, when the leaf is out, there is no making any remarks on such a restless tribe; and, when once the young begin to appear, it is all confusion; there is no distinction of genus, species, or sex.

In breeding time, snipes play over the moors, piping and humming; they always hum as they are descending. Is not their hum ventriloquous, like that of the turkey? Some suspect that it is made by their wings. †

This morning, I saw the golden-crowned wren, whose crown

Prestwick Car, near Newcastle, in 1794; and Selby has one, which was shot at North Sunderland, in 1818.

Under the craw of the turtle dove, are placed glands, which secrete a lacteal fluid, probably common to all the genus.Ed.

* A nuthatch, which had been accidentally winged by a sportsman, was kept in a small cage of plain oak wood and wire. During a night and a day in which he was in captivity, his tapping labour was incessant; and after occupying his prison for that short time, he left the wood-work pierced and worn like worm-eaten timber. He manifested extreme impatience at his situation; he was unremitting in his endeavours to effect his escape, and in these efforts exhibited much intelligence and cunning. He was fierce, fearlessly bold, and eat voraciously of food which was placed before him. At the close of the third day, he sank under the combined effects of vexation, assiduous labour, and voracious appetite. This nuthatch was peculiarly laborious under his confinement, and pecked in a manner different from all other birds; "grasping hard with his immense feet, he turned upon them as upon a pivot, and struck with the whole weight of his body." S

Mr Bree informs us, that having caught a nuthatch in the common brick trap used by boys, he was struck with the, singular appearance of its bill. It was so obliquely obtuse at the point, that it had the appearance of being cut off, which he had no doubt was produced by its efforts to escape. No persecution will force this bold little bird from its nest during incubation. It defends it with determined courage; strikes the intruder with its bill and wings, making all the while a loud hissing noise, and will allow itself to be taken in the hand rather than yield. -ED.

The sound proceeds from the throat, and not the wings. Montagu says, "in the breeding season the snipe changes its note entirely from that it makes in winter. The male will keep on the wing for an hour together, mounting like a lark, uttering a shrill piping noise; it then descends with great velocity, making a bleating sound, not unlike an old goat, which is repeated alternately round the spot possessed by the female, especially while she is sitting on her nest."-ED.

§ Mag. of Nat. Hist. i. p. 328; ii. 243

glitters like burnished gold. It often hangs, like a titmouse, with its back downwards. *

LETTER XVII.

TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ.

SELBORNE, June 18, 1768.

DEAR SIR,-On Wednesday last, arrived your agreeable letter of June the 10th. It gives me great satisfaction to find that you pursue these studies still with such vigour, and are in such forwardness with regard to reptiles and fishes.

The reptiles, few as they are, I am not acquainted with, so well as I could wish, with regard to their natural history. There is a degree of dubiousness and obscurity attending the propagation of this class of animals something analogous to that of the cryptogamia in the sexual system of plants; and the case is the same with regard to some of the fishes,—as the eel, &c. +

This elegant little species is the smallest of British birds; its weight seldom exceeds eighty grains. This minute bird braves the severest winter of our climates. Two remarkable instances of its being migratory are recorded by Selby. He says, on the 24th and 25th October, 1822, "after a very heavy gale and thick fog from the north-west, thousands of these birds were seen to arrive upon the sea shore and sandbanks of the Northumbrian coast."

more extraordinary circumstance in the economy of this bird took place during the same winter, viz. the total disappearance of the whole tribe, natives as well as strangers, throughout Scotland and the north of England. This happened towards the conclusion of the month of January, 1823, and a few days previous to the long continued snow-storm, so severely felt through the northern counties of England, and along the eastern parts of Scotland. The range and point of this migration are unascertained, but it must probably have been a distant one, from the fact, that not a single pair returned to breed or pair the succeeding summer, in the situations they had been known always to frequent; nor was one of the species to be seen till the following October."*. .ED.

+ Many absurd opinions have prevailed regarding the propagation of eels, such as their originating from the hairs of the mane and tail of horses thrown into rivers, with various other theories equally unfounded. These have arisen from the circumstance that the roe of the eel does not present the same appearance as that of other fishes. On this intricate subject Mr Couch makes the following observations:-"The generation of eels has been involved in extraordinary obscurity, notwithstanding the attention which eminent naturalists have paid to the subject. I have no doubt that the pearly substance which lies along the course of the spine *Wernerian Memoirs, v. p. 397.

The method in which toads procreate and bring forth, seems to be very much in the dark. Some authors say that they are viviparous; and yet Ray classes them among his oviparous animals, and is silent with regard to the manner of their bringing forth. Perhaps they may be ἔσω μὲν ὠοτόκοι, ἔξω δε ζωοτόκοι, as is known to be the case with the viper.*

The copulation of frogs (or at least the appearance of itfor Swammerdam proves that the male has no penis intrans) is notorious to every body; because we see them sticking upon each other's backs, for a month together, in the spring; and

of this fish (the situation of the roe in most fishes) is the roe. Contrary to what is found in most species of fish, this roe contains a large quantity of fine oil, so free from fishy flavour, as to be commonly employed (at least that found in the conger) in crust and other culinary uses in Cornwall. In the fish, its use seems to be to protect the delicate sexual organs from cold. The whole constitution of the eel is remarkably susceptible of cold; it feels every change of temperature. There are no eels in the Danube, nor in any of its tributary streams. The rivers of Siberia, though large and numerous, are destitute of them."

It appears pretty evident that eels are not viviparous, although this opinion has long prevailed amongst naturalists.

That snakes are oviparous there can be little doubt. A correspondent in the Magazine of Natural History, iv. p. 268, having killed an adder in Essex, opened it, and "discovered a string of eggs, fourteen in number, in each of which was a young adder, perfectly formed, and enveloped in a glutinous fluid. These little creatures, although they had never seen the light, were lively, and, I thought, even evinced an inclination to bite. I took some of them out of the eggs, and they soon died; but those which were laid on a piece of paper, with their envelope unbroken, were alive and active many hours afterwards. As may be supposed, the present animal was now in nearly an empty state; but, on examining its heart, I perceived that it was still strongly convulsed. I removed it with a penknife; and, laying it on a piece of white paper, was much interested in watching its motions. It continued to beat, with little abatement of force, for an hour, when its palpitations, though strong, became less rapid; and ceased in half an hour more."— ED.

*Toads procreate exactly in the same manner as frogs, and are also oviparous. The eggs are imbued by the spermatic fluid of the male, at the time of their extrusion. The eggs of frogs are deposited in water, in irregular congeries, while those of the toad are extruded in catinated strings. Schneider, a zealous observer of nature, affirms, that toads eat the skin which they cast periodically. This fact has been confirmed by Mr Bell, in a paper in the Zoological Journal.

The manner in which a frog takes his prey is very curious. When he first notices a worm or fly, he makes a point at it, like a pointer dog setting game. After a pause of some seconds, the frog makes a dart at the worm, endeavouring to seize it with his mouth; in which attempt he frequently fails more than once, and generally waits for a short interval before he renews the attack.-ED.

yet I never saw, or read of toads being observed in the same situation. It is strange that the matter with regard to the venom of toads has not been yet settled. That they are not noxious to some animals is plain; for ducks, buzzards, owls, stone-curlews, and snakes, eat them, to my knowledge, with impunity. And I well remember the time, but was not eyewitness to the fact, (though numbers of persons were,) when a quack, at this village, ate a toad to make the country people stare afterwards he drank oil.

I have been informed also, from undoubted authority, that some ladies (ladies, you will say, of peculiar taste) took a fancy to a toad, which they nourished, summer after summer, for many years, till he grew to a monstrous size, with the maggots which turn to flesh flies. The reptile used to come forth, every evening, from a hole under the garden steps; and was taken up, after supper, on the table to be fed. But at last a tame raven, kenning him as he put forth his head, gave him such a severe stroke with his horny beak, as put out one eye. After this accident, the creature languished for some time, and died.

I need not remind a gentleman of your extensive reading, of the excellent account there is from Mr Derham, in Ray's Wisdom of God in the Creation, p. 365, concerning the migration of frogs from their breeding ponds. In this account, he at once subverts that foolish opinion, of their dropping from the clouds in rain; shewing, that it is from the grateful coolness and moisture of those showers that they are tempted to set out on their travels, which they defer till those fall.* Frogs

The following paragraph is extracted from a late number of the Belfast Chronicle:" As two gentlemen were sitting conversing on a causey pillar, near Bushmills, they were very much surprised by an unusually heavy shower of frogs, half formed, falling in all directions some of which are preserved in spirits of wine, and are now exhibited to the curious by the two resident apothecaries in Bushmills."

Mr. Loudon says, "When at Rouen, in September, 1828, I was assured by an English. family, resident there, that, during a very heavy thunder shower, accompanied by violent wind, and almost midnight darkness, an innumerable multitude of young frogs fell on and around the house. The roof, the window-sills, and the gravel walks, were covered with them; they were very small, but perfectly formed; all dead; and the next day being excessively hot, they were dried up to so many points, or pills, about the size of the heads of pins. The most obvious way of accounting for this phenomenon, is by supposing the water and frogs of some adjacent ponds to have been taken up by wind in a sort of whirl, or tornado."-Mag. of Nat. Hist. ii. p. 103.

We have records of this kind, in all ages; and I have selected the above

are as yet in their tadpole state; but, in a few weeks, our lanes, paths, fields, will swarm, for a few days, with myriads of those emigrants, no larger than my little finger nail. Swammerdam gives a most accurate account of the method and situation in which the male impregnates the spawn of the female. How wonderful is the economy of Providence with regard to the limbs of so vile a reptile! While it is an aquatic, it has a fishlike tail, and no legs; as soon as the legs sprout, the tail drops off as useless, and the animal betakes itself to the land!

Merret, I trust, is widely mistaken when he advances that the rana arborea is an English reptile; it abounds in Germany and Switzerland.*

It is to be remembered that the salamandra aquatica of Ray, (the water newt, or eft,) will frequently bite at the angler's bait, and is often caught on his hook. I used to take it for granted, that the salamandra aquatica was hatched, lived, and died, in the water. But John Ellis, Esq. F. R. S. (the Coralline Ellis) asserts, in a letter to the Royal Society, dated June the 5th, 1766, in his account of the mud inguana, an amphibious bipes from South Carolina, that the water eft, or newt, is only the larva of the land eft, as tadpoles are of frogs. Lest I should be suspected to misunderstand his meaning, I shall give it in his own words. Speaking of the opercula, or coverings to the gills of the mud inguana, he proceeds to say, that "the form of these pennated coverings approaches very near to what I have some time ago observed in the larva, or aquatic state, of our English lacerta, known by the name of eft, or newt, which serve them for coverings to their gills, and for fins to swim with while in this state; and which they lose, as well as the fins of their tails, when they change their state, and

two recent instances, to prove that our author is wrong. A shower of young herrings fell in Kinross-shire, about ten years ago, many of which were picked up, in the fields around Loch Leven, by persons with whom I am acquainted. The reason why frogs go abroad during showers, is thus accounted for by Dr Townson, founded on certain experiments which he instituted regarding them. He says, "That frogs take in their supply of liquid through the skin alone, all the aqueous fluids which they imbibe being absorbed by the skin, and all they reject being transpired through it. One frog, in an hour and a half, absorbed nearly its own weight of water."- -ED.

* It has never been verified that the tree-frog is a native of Britain. But Mr Don discovered the edible frog, rana esculenta, in the neighbourhood of lakes in Forfarshire. This species is principally distinguished from the common one, by its larger size, and having three longitudinal yellow lines on its back.-ED.