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fing above ten weeks in the year; which is then alfo contined to the cocks of a few fpecies; I conceive that this laft circumftance arifes from the fuperior ftrength 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 also a cock and hen chatfinch, which that very eminent anatomitt, Mr. Hunter, F. R. S, was fo obliging as to diffect for me, and bgged, that he would particularly attend to the fate 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 fronger in the nightingale than in any other bird of the fame fize; and in all thofe inftances (where he diffected both cock and hen) that the fame mufcles were stronger in the cock.

I fent the cock and hen rook, in order to fee whether there would be the fame difference in the cock and hen of a fpecies 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 best of his recollection, there was no difference at all.

Strength, however, in thefe mufcles, feems not to be the only requifite; the birds must have alfo great plenty of food, which feems to be proved fufficiently by birds in a cage finging the greatest part of the year, when the wild ones do not (as I obferved before) continue in fong above ten weeks.

The food of finging birds confifls of plants, infects, or feeds, and of the two firft of thefe 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 moft of them are buried too deep for the bird to reach them †.

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The plough indeed may turn up fome few feeds, which may still be in an eatable state.

I know well that the finging of the cock-bird in the fpring, is attributed by many to the motive only of 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 almoit any sort of continued noise.

Superiority in fong gives to birds a mot amazing afcendancy over each other; as is well known to the bird-catchers by the fafcinating power of their call-birds, which they contrive fhould moult prematurely for this purpote.

But, to fhew decifively that the finging of a bird in the fpring 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.

At the faine time this bird is fo fulky on its firft confinement, that he must be crammed for feven or eight days, as he will otherwife not feed himfelt; 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 blackbird in fize: and poffibly this may arife from the difficulty of its concealing it If, if it called the attention of its enemies, not only by bulk, but by the proportionable loudnets of its notes.

I fhould rather conceive, it is for the fame reafon that no hen-bird fings, because this talent would be ftil! more dangerous during incubation; which may poffibly alfo account for the inferiority in point of plumage. Barrington.

FISHES,
$22. The EEL.

The eel is a very fingular fish in feveral things that relate to its natural history,

For the fame reason, most large birds are wilder than the fmaller ones.

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and in fome refpects borders on the nature of the reptile tribe.

It is known to quit its element, and during night to wander along the meadows, not only for change of habitation, but alfo for the fake of prey, feeding on the fnails it finds in its paffage.

During winter it beds itself deep in the mud, and continues in a state of reft like the ferpent kind. It is very impatient of cold, and will eagerly take fhelter in a whisp of ftraw flung into a pond in fevere weather, which has fometimes been practifed as a method of taking them. Albertus goes fo far as to fay, that he has known eels to fhelter in a hay-rick, yet all perished through excefs of cold.

It has been obferved, that in the river Nyne there is a variety of fmall eel, with a leffer head and narrower mouth than the common kind; that it is found in clusters in the bottom of the river, and is called the bed-eel; these 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 cluftering 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 moft 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 ftones were animated and became young eels. Some moderns gave into thefe opinions, and into others that were equally extravagant. They could not account for the appearance of thefe fih 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 phænomenon that they could not folve. But there is much reafon to believe, that many waters are fupplied with thefe fish 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 these fish in places where they were never seen before. As to their immediate generation, it has been fufficiently proved to be effected in the ordinary courfe 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 eel: it is extremely tenacious of life, as its parts will move a confiderable time after they are flayed and cut into pieces.

The eel is placed by Linnæus in the genus of murana, his firft of the apodal fish, or such 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 small, fharp, and numerous: beneath each 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 throughout.

Befides thefe, there is another variety of this fifh, known in the Thames by the name of grigs, and about Oxford by that of grigs or gluts. Thefe 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, a blunter nofe, thicker fkin, and lefs fat than the common fort; neither are they so much esteemed, nor do they often exceed three or four pounds in weight.

Common eels 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 thefe fifh increafing to a fuperior magnitude, we have much reafon to suspect them to have been congers, fince the enormous fish they describe have all been taken at the mouths of the Thames or Med

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For you is kept a fink-fed snake-like-eel.

On

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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.

It is a gregarious fifh, and loves deep holes and gentle ftreams. It is a moft voracious fish, and eager biter : if the angler meets with a fhoal of them, he is fure of taking every one.

It is a common notion that the pike will not attack this fish, being fearful of the fpiny fins which the perch erects on the approach of the former. This may be true in respect to large fish; 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 ftraw, and yet furvive the journey.

Thefe fish 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

uncommon.

The body is deep: the fcales very rough: the back much arched; fide-line near the back.

The irides golden: the teeth fmall, difpofed on the jaws and on the roof of the inouth: the edges of the covers of the gills ferrated on the lower end of the Target is a fharp fpine.

The firft dorfal fin confifts of fourteen Arong 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 point

ing downwards: the belly is white, tinged with red: the ventral fins of a rich fear. let; the anal fins and tail of the fame colour, but rather paler.

In a lake called Llyn Raithlyn, in Merionethfhire is a very fingular variety of perch: the back is quite hunched, and the lower part of the back-bone, next the tail, ftrangely diftorted: in colour, and in other refpects, it refembles the common kind, which are as numerous in the lake as these deformed fish. They are not peculiar to this water; for Linnæus takes notice of a fimilar 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 a matter of furprise that this common fish has escaped 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 tacures fhould overlook a fish that is found ble was at its height; and that the epiin fuch quantities in the lakes of their neighbourhood, when they ranfacked the universe for dainties. The milts of mrana were brought from one place; the livers of feari from another; and oyfters even from fo remote a spot as our Sandwich but there was, and is a fashion in feem to have defpifed the trout, the piper, the article of good living. The Romans and the doree; and we believe Mr. Quin himfelf would have refigned the rich paps and the tongues of flamingos ||, though of a pregnant fow 1, the heels of camels, jowl of falmon with lobster-fauce. dreffed by Heliogabalus's cooks, for a good

When Aufonius fpeaks of this fish, he makes no eulogy on its goodness, but celebrates it only for its beauty.

Purpureifque SALAR ftellatus tergore guttis.

With purple spots the SALAR'S back is stain'd.

Thefe marks point out the fpecies he intended: what he meant by his fare is not so easy to determine: whether any fpecies of trout, of a fize between the falar and the falmon; or whether the salmon it

felf, at a certain age, is not very evident.

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Teque inter geminos fpecies, neutrumque et

utrumque,

Qui nec dum SALMO, nec SALAR ambiguufque Amborum medio FARIO intercepte fub ævo.

SALMON OF SALAR, I'll pronounce thee neither;

A doubtful kind, that may be none, or either.
FARIO, when stopt in middle growth.

In fact, the colours of the trout, and its fpots, vary greatly in different waters, and in different feafons: yet each may be reduced to one fpecies. In Llyndivi, a lake in South Wales, are trouts called cochy dail, marked with red and black spots as big as fixpences; others unfpotted, and of a reddith hue, that fometimes weigh near ten pounds, but are bad tafted.

In Lough Neagh, in Ireland, are trouts called there budaaghs, which I was told fometimes weighed thirty pounds; but it was not my fortune to fee any during my flay in the neighbourhood of that valt wa

ter.

Trouts (probably of the fame fpecies) are also taken in Hulfe-water, a lake in Cumberland, of a much fuperior fize to thofe of Lough Neagh. Thefe are fuppofed to be the fame with the trout of the lake of Geneva, a fish I have eaten more than once, and think but a very indifferent

one.

In the river Eynion, not far from Machyntleth, in Merionethhire, and in one of the Snowdon lakes, are found a variety of trout, which are naturally deformed, having a strange crookednefs near the tail, refembling that of the perch before defcribed. We dwell the lefs on these monftrous productions, as our friend, the Hon. Daines Barrington, has already given an account of them in an ingenious differtation on fome of the Cambrian fish, published in the Philofophical Transactions of the year 1767.

The ftomachs of the common trouts are uncommonly thick and mufcular. They feed on the fhell-fish of lakes and rivers, as well as on fmall fifh. They likewife take into their stomachs gravel, or fmall ftones, to affift in comminuting the teftaceous parts of their food. The trouts of certain lakes in Ireland, fuch as thofe of the province of Galway, and fome others, are remarkable for the great thicknefs of their ftomachs, which, from fome flight refemblance to the organs of digeftion in birds, have been called gizzards: the Irish name the fpecies that has them, Gillaroo trouts.

Thefe ftomachs are fometimes ferved up to table, under the former appellation. It does not appear to me, that the extraordinary ftrength of ftomach in the Irish fith, fhould give any fufpicion that it is a dif tint fpecies: the nature of the waters might increafe the thickness; or the fuperior quantity of thell-fith, which may more frequently call for the ufe of its comminuting powers than thofe of our trouts, might occafion this difference. I had opportunity of comparing the ftomach of a great Gillarco trout, with a large one from the Uxbridge river. The laft, if I recollect, was fmaller, and out of feafon; and its ftomach (notwithstanding it was very thick) was much inferior in ftrength to that of the former: but on the whole, there was not the leaft fpecific difference between the two fubjects

Trouts are most voracious fish, and afford excellent diverfion to the angler: the paffion for the fport of angling is fo great in the neighbourhood of London, that the liberty of fishing in fome of the ftreams in the adjacent counties, is purchafed at the rate of ten pounds per an

num,

Thefe fish fhift their quarters to spawn, and, like falmon, make up towards the heads of rivers to depofit their roes. The under jaw of the trout is fubje&t, at certain times, to the fame curvature as that of the falmon.

A trout taken in Llynallet, in Denbighfhire, which is famous for an excellent kind, measured feventeen inches, its depth three and three quarters, its weight one pound ten ounces: the head thick; the nose rather fharp; the upper jaw a little longer than the lower; both jaws, as well as the head, were of a pale brown, blotched with black: the teeth fharp and strong: difpofed in the jaws, roof of the mouth and tongue, as is the cafe with the whole genus, except the gwyniad, which is toothlefs, and the grayling, which has none on its tongue.

The back was dufky; the fides tinged with a purplish bloom, marked with deep purple fpots, mixed with black, above and below the fide line which was strait: the belly white.

The dorfal fin was fpotted; the fpurious fin brown, tipped with red; the pectoral, ventral, and anal fins, of a pale brown; the edges of the anal fin white: the tail very little forked when extended.

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25. The PIKE or JACK. The pike is common in most of the lakes of Europe, but the largest are thofe taken in England, which, according to Schaeffer, are fometimes eight feet long. They are taken there in great abundance, dried, and expofed for fale. The largest fifh of this kind which we ever heard of in England, weighed thirty-five pounds.

According to the common faying, thefe fifh were introduced into England in the reign of Henry VIII. in 1537. They were fo rare, that a pike was fold for double the price of a houfe-lamb in February, and a pickerel for more than a fat capon.

All writers who treat of this fpecies bring inftances of its vaft voracioufnels. We have known one that was choaked by attempt. ing to swallow one of its own fpecies that proved too large a morfel. Yet its jaws are very loosely connected; and have on each fide an additional bone like the jaw of a viper, which renders them capable of greater diftention when it fwallows its prey. It does not confine itself to feed on fifh and frogs; it will devour the water rat, and draw down the young ducks as they are fwimming about. In a manufcript note which we found, p. 244, of our copy of Plott's Hiftory of Staffordshire, is the following extraordinary fact: "At Lord Gower's "canal at Trentham, a pike feized the "head of a fwan as the was feeding under "water, and gorged fo much of it as kilthem both. The fervants perceiving "the fwan with its head under water for a longer time than usual, took the boat, "and found both fwan and pike dead." But there are inftances of its fiercenefs ftill more furprising, and which indeed border a little on the marvellous. Gefner + relates, that a famifhed pike in the Rhone feized on the lips of a mule that was brought to water, and that the beaft drew the fifh out before it could difengage itself. That people have been bit by thefe voracious creatures while they were washing their legs, and that they will even contend with the otter for its prey, and endeavour to force it out of its mouth.

Small fifh fhew the fame uneasiness and deteftation at the prefence of this tyrant, as the little birds do at the fight of the hawk or owl. When the pike lies dormant near

This note we afterwards difcovered was wrote by Mr. Plott, of Oxford, who affured me he inleited it on good authority. + Geiner pifc. 593.

the furface (as is frequently the cafe) the lefler fish are often obferved to swim around. it in vaft numbers, and in great anxiety. Pike are often haltered in a noose, and taken while they lie thus afleep, as they are often found in the ditches near the Thames, in the month of May.

In the fhallow water of the Lincolnshire fens they are frequently taken in a manner peculiar, we believe, to that country, and the ifle of Ceylon. The fishermen make use of what is called a crown-net, which is no more than a hemifpherical basket, open at top and bottom. He ftands at the end of one of the little fenboats, and frequently puts his basket down to the bottom of the water, then poking a flick into it, discovers whether he has any booty by the striking of the fish: and vaft numbers of pike are taken in this manner.

The longevity of this fifhis very remarkable, if we may credit the accounts given of it. Rzazcynfki tells us of one that was ninety years old; but Gefner relates that in the year 1497, a pike was taken near Hailbrun, in Suabia, with a brazen ring affixed to it, on which were these words in Greek characters: I am the filh which was first of all put into this lake by the hands of the governor of the univerfe, Frederick, the fecond, the 5th of October, 1230: fo that the former must have been an infant to this Methufalem of a fish.

Pikes fpawn in March or April, according to the coldness or warmth of the wea ther. When they are in high season their colours are very fine, being green, spotted with bright yellow; and the gills are of a most vivid and full red. When out of season, the green changes to grey, and the yellow fpots turn pale.

The head is very flat; the upper jaw broad, and is fhorter than the lower; the under jaw turns up a little at the end, and is marked with minute punctures.

The teeth are very fharp, difpofed only in the front of the upper jaw, but in both fides of the lower, in the roof of the mouth, and often the tongue, The flit of the mouth, or the gape, is very wide; the eyes fmall.

The dorfal fin is placed very low on the back, and confifts of twenty-one rays; the pectoral of fifteen; the ventral of eleven; the anal of eighteen.

The tail is bifurcated.

§ 26. The CARP. This is one of the naturalized fish of our country, having been introduced here by Leonard

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