fined to the metropolis, hath diffused a good ftyle of playing over the other bands of the capital, which is, by degrees, communicated to the fidler and ballad-singer in the streets; the organs in every church, as well as thofe of the Savoyards, contribute likewife to this improvement of mufical faculties in the Londoners. If the finging of the ploughman in the country is therefore compared with that of the London blackguard, the fuperiority is infinitely on the fide of the latter; and the fame may be obferved in comparing the voice of a country girl and London housemaid, as it is very uncommon to hear the former fing tolerably in tune. to meet with any perfon, who had not refided in London, whofe judgment or opinion on this subject I could the leaft rely upon; and a ftronger proof of this cannot be given, than that most people, who keep Canary birds, do not know that they fing chiefly either the titlark or nightingale notes Nothing, however, can be more marked than the note of a nightingale called its jug, which moft of the Canary birds brought from the Tyrol commonly have, as well as feveral nightingale ftrokes, or particular paffages in the fong of that bird. I mention this fuperior knowledge in the inhabitants of the capital, because I am convinced, that, if others are confulted in relation to the finging of birds, they will only mislead, inftead of giving any material or useful information †. Birds I do not mean by this, affert that the inhabitants of the country are not born with as good mufical organs; but only, that they have not the fame opportunities of learning from others, who play in tune themselves. - The other reafon for the inhabitants of London judging better in relation to the fong of birds, arifes from their hearing each bird fing diftinctly, either in their own or their neigh-fince, which fung as little. bours fhops; as alfo from a bird continuing much longer in fong whilft in a cage than when at liberty; the caufe of which I fhall endeavour hereafter to explain. *I once faw two of thefe birds which came They who live in the country, on the other hand, do not hear birds fing in their woods for above two months in the year, when the confufion of notes prevents their attending to the fong of any particular bird; nor does he continue long enough in a place, for the hearer to recollect his notes with accuracy. Befides this, birds in the fpring fing very loud indeed; but they only give thort jerks, and fcarcely ever the whole compass of their fong. For these reasons, I have never happened from the Canary Islands, neither of which had any fong at all; and I have been informed that a fhip brought a great many of them not long Moft of thofe Canary birds, which are imported from the Tyrol, have been educated by parents, the progenitor of which was inftructed by a nightingale; our English Canary birds have commonly more of the titlark note. The traffick in thefe birds makes a small article of commerce, as four Tyroleze generally bring over to England fixteen hundred every year; and though they carry them on their backs one thoufand miles, as well as pay 20/. duty for fuch a number, yet, upon the whole, it answers to fell these birds at 5s. a piece. The chief place for breeding Canary birds is Infpruck and its environs, from whence they are fent to Conftantinople, as well as every part of Europe. As it will not anfwer to catch birds with T3 clap Birds in a wild state do not commonly fing above ten weeks in the year? which is then alfo confined to the cocks of a few fpecies; I conceive that this laft circumftance arifes from the fuperior strength of the muscles of the larynx. I procured a cock nightingale, a cock and hen blackbird, a cock and hen rook, a cock linnet, as aifo a cock and hen chaffinch, which that very eminent anatomift, Mr. Hunter, F. R. S. was fo obliging as to diffect for me, and begged, that he would particularly attend to the ftate of the organs in the different birds, which might be fuppofed to contribute to finging. Mr. Hunter found the mufcles of the larynx to be ftronger in the nightingale than in any other bird of the fame fize; and in all other inftances (where he diffected both cock and hen) that the fame muscles were ftronger in the cock. 1 fent the cock and hen rook, in order to fee whether there would be the fame difference in the cock and hen of a fpccics which did not fing at all. Mr. Hunter, however, told me, that he had not attended fo much to their comparative organs of voice, as in the other kinds; but that, to the beft of his recollection, there was no difference at all. wild ones do not (as I obferved before") continue in fong above ten weeks. The food of finging birds confifts of plants, infects, or feeds, and of the two first of these there is infinitely the greatest profufion in the fpring. As for feeds, which are to be met with only in the autumn, I think they cannot well find any great quantities of them in a country fo cultivated as England is; for the feeds in meadows are deftroyed by mowing; in paftures, by the bite of the cattle; and in arable, by the plough, when most of them are buried too deep for the bird to reach them +. I know well that the finging of the cockbird in the fpring is attributed by many to the motive only pleafing its mate during incubation. They, however, who fuppofe this, should recollect, that much the greater part of birds do not fing at all, why fhould their mate therefore be deprived of this folace and amusement? The bird in a cage, which, perhaps, fings nine or ten months in a year, cannot do fo from this inducement: and, on the contrary, it arifes chiefly from contending with another bird, or indeed against almoft any fort of continued noife. Strength, however, in thefe muscles, feems Superiority in fong gives to birds a most not to be the only requifite: the birds must amazing afcendency over each other; as is have alfo great plenty of food, which feems to well-known to the bird-catchers by the fafcibe proved fufficiently by birds in a cage fing-nating power of their call-birds, which they ing the greatest part of the year*, when the clap-nets any where but in the neighbourhood of London, most of the birds which may be heard in a country town are nettlings, and confequent ly cannot fing the fuppofed natural fong in any perfection. Fifh alfo which are fupplied with a confient fuccefion of palatable food, continue in season throughout the greatest part of the year; trouts, therefore, when confined in a few and fed with minnows, are almost at all feafons of a good flavour, and are red when dreffed. The plough indeed may turn up fome few feeds, which may still be in an eatable state. contrive contrive fhould moult prematurely for this | in fome refpects borders on the nature of the purpose. reptile tribe. But, to fhew decifively that the finging of a bird in the spring does not arife from any attention to its mate, a very experienced catcher of nightingales hath informed me, that fome of thefe birds have jerked the inftant they were caught. He hath alfo brought to me a nightingale, which had been but a few hours in a cage, and which burft forth in a roar of fong. It is known to quit its element, and during night to wander along the meadows, not only for change of habitation, but also for the fake of prey, feeding on the fnails it finds in its paffage. During winter it beds itfelf deep in the mud, and continues in a ftate of reft like the ferpent kind. It is very impatient of cold, and will cagerly take fhelter in a wifp of ftraw flung into a pond in fevere weather, which has fometimes been practifed as a me At the fame time this bird is fo fulky on its first confinement, that he must be crammed for feven or eight days, as he will other-thod of taking them. Albertus goes fo far as wife not feed himfelf; it is alfo neceffary to tye his wings, to prevent his killing himself against the top or fides of the cage. I believe there is no inftance of any bird's finging which exceeds our black-bird in fize: and poffibly this may arife from the difficulty of its concealing itself, if it called the attention of its enemies, not only by bulk, but by the proportionable loudnefs of its notes. I should rather conceive, it is for the fame reafon that no hen-bird fings, because this talent would be ftili more dangerous during incubation; which may poffibly alfo account for the inferiority in point of plumage. Barrington. to fay, that he has known cels to fhelter in an hay-rick, yet all perished through excels of cold. It has been obferved, that in the river Nyne there is a variety of finall cel, with a leffer head and narrower mouth than the com mon kind; that it is found in clusters in the bottom of the river, and is called the bed-eel; thefe are fometimes roufed up by violent floods, and are never found at that time with meat in their ftomachs. This bears fuch an analogy with the clustering of blindworms in their quiefcent ftate, that we cannot but confider it as a further proof of a partial agreement in the nature of the two genera. The ancients adopted a mott wild opinion about the generation of thefe fith, believing them to be either created from the mud, or that the fcrapings of their bodies which they left on the flones were animated and became young cels. Some moderns gave into thefe opinions, and into others that were equally extravagant. They could not account for the appearance of hefe rith in ponds that never were stocked with them, and that were even fo remote as to make their being met with in fuch places a phenomenon that they could T 4 ՈՐԻ not folve. But there is much reason to believe that many waters are fupplied with thefe fifh by the aquatic fowl of prey, in the fame manner as vegetation is fpread by many of the land birds, either by being dropped as they carry them to feed their young, or by paffing quick through their bodies, as is the cafe with herons; and fuch may be the occafion of the appearance of the fish in places where they were never feen before. As to their immediate generation, it has been fufficiently proved to be effected in the ordinary course of nature, and that they are viviparous. They are extremely voracious, and very deftructive to the fry of fish. No fish lives fo long out of water as the cel: it is extremely tenacious of life, as its parts will move a confiderable time after they are flayed and cut in pieces." The eel is placed by Linnæus in the genus of muræna, his firft of the apodal fish, or fuch which want the ventral fins. The eyes are placed not remote from the end of the nofe: the irides are tinged with red: the under jaw is longer than the upper; the teeth are fmall, fharp, and numerous; beneath cach eye is a minute orifice: at the end of the nose two others, fmall and tubular. The fish is furnished with a pair of pectoral fins, rounded at their ends. Another narrow fin on the back, uniting with that of the tail; and the anal fin joins it in the fame manner beneath. Behind the pectoral fins is the orifice to the gills, which are concealed in the skin. Eels vary much in their colours, from a footy hue to a light olive green; and those which are called filver eels, have their bellies white, and a remarkable clearness through out. Befides thefe, there is another variety of this fish, known in the Thames by the name of grigs, and about Oxford by that of grig or gluts. These are fcarce ever feen near Oxford in the winter, but appear in fpring, and bite readily at the hook, which common eels in that neighbourhood will not. They have a larger head, blunter nofe, thicker skin, and lefs fat than the common fort; neither are they fo much efteemed, nor do they often exceed three or four pounds in weight. Common cels grow to a large fize, fometimes fo great as to weigh fifteen or twenty pounds, but that is extremely rare. As to inftances brought by Dale and others, of these fifh increafing to a fuperior magnitude, we have much reason to suspect them to have been congers, fince the enormous fish they defcribe have all been taken at the mouth of the Thames or Medway. The eel is the most universal of fish, yet is fcarce ever found in the Danube, though it is very common in the lakes, and rivers of Upper Auftria. The Romans held this fish very cheap, probably from its likeness to a snake. Vos anguilla manet longæ cognata colubræ, Vernula riparum pinguis torrente cloaca. Juvenal, Sat. v. For you is kept a fink-fed fnake-like eel. On the contrary, the luxurious Sybarites were fo fond of this fifh, as to exempt from every kind of tribute the perfons who fold them. § 23. The PErch. The perch of Ariftotle and Aufonius is the fame with that of the moderns. That mentioned by Oppian, Pliny, and Athenæus, It is not lefs admired at prefent as a firm and delicate fifh; and the Dutch are particularly fond of it when made into a difh called water fouchy. The firft dorfal fin confifts of fourteen ftrong fpiny rays: the fecond of fixteen foft ones: the pectoral fins are transparent, and confift of fourteen rays; the ventral of fix; the anal of eleven. The tail is a little forked. The colours are beautiful: the back and part of the fides being of a deep green, marked with five broad black bars pointing downwards: the belly is white, tinged with red: the ventral fins of a rich fcarlet: the anal fins and tail of the fome colour, but rather paler. It is a gregarious fifh, and loves deep holes and gentle ftreams. It is a most vo- In a lake called Llyn Raithlyn, in Mcracious fith, and eager biter: if the angler rionethfhire, is a very fingular variety of meets with a thoal of them, he is fure of tak-perch: the back is quit hunched, and the ing every one. It is a common notion that the pike will not attack this fifh, being fearful of the fpiny fins which the perch erects on the approach of the former. This may be true in refpect to large fifh; but it is well known the fmall ones are the most tempting bait that can be laid for the pike. The perch is a fifh very tenacious of life: we have known them carried near fixty miles in dry straw, and yet furvive the journey. Thefe fifh feldom grow to a large fize: we once heard of one that was taken in the Serpentine river, Hyde Park, that weighed nine pounds; but that is very uncom mon. The body is deep: the fcales very rough the back much arched: fide-line near the back. : lower part of the back bone, next the tail, strangely distorted: in colour, and in other refpects, it refembles the common kind, which are as numerous in the lake as these deformed fifh. They are not peculiar to this water; for Linnæus takes notice of a fimiliar variety found at Fahlun, in his own country. I have alfo heard that it is to be met with in the Thames near Marlow. 24. The TROUT. It is matter of furprife that this common fish has efcaped the notice of all the ancients, except Aufonius: it is alfo fingular, that fo delicate a fpecies fhould be neglected at a time when the folly of the table was at its height; and that the epicures thould overlook a fith that is found in fuch quantities in the lakes of their neighbournood, when they ranfacked The irides golden: the teeth fmall, difpofed the univerfe for dainties. The milts of muin the jaws and on the roof of the mouth:rence were brought from one place, the livers the edges of the covers of the gills ferrated: of feari from another; and oysters even on the lower end of the largest is a tharp fpine. Suetonius. vita Vitellii. from |