through apprehensions from pole-cats and stoats, they never trust themselves to coverts, but nestle together in the midst of large fields, far removed from hedges and coppices, which they love to haunt in the day, and where at that season they can sculk more secure from the ravages of rapacious birds. As to ducks and geese, their awkward splay web-feet forbid them to settle on trees; they therefore, in the hours of darkness and danger, betake themselves to their own element the water, where, amidst large lakes and pools, like ships riding at anchor, they float the whole night long in peace and security. HEN PARTRIDGE A hen partridge came out of a ditch, and ran along shivering with her wings, and crying out as if wounded and unable to get from us. While the dam acted this distress, the boy who attended me saw her brood, that was small and unable to fly, run for shelter into an old foxearth under the bank. So wonderful a power is instinct. A HYBRID PHEASANT Lord Stawell sent me from the great lodge in the Holt a curious bird for my inspection. It was found by the spaniels of one of his keepers in a coppice, and shot on the wing. The shape, air, and habit of the bird, and the scarlet ring round the eyes, agreed well with the appearance of a cock pheasant: but then the head and neck, and breast and belly were of a glossy black: and though it weighed three pounds three ounces and a half,' the weight of a large full-grown cock pheasant, yet there were no signs of any spurs on the legs, as is usual with all grown cock pheasants, who have long ones. The legs and feet were naked of feathers, and therefore it could be nothing of the grouse kind. In the tail were no long bending feathers, such as 1 Hen pheasants usually weigh only two pounds ten ounces. cock pheasants usually have, and are characteristic of the The tail was much shorter than the tail of a hen pheasant, and blunt and square at the end. The back, wing feathers, and tail, were all of a pale russet curiously streaked, somewhat like the upper parts of a hen partridge. I returned it with my verdict, that it was probably a spurious or hybrid hen bird, bred between a cock pheasant and some domestic fowl. When I came to talk with the keeper who brought it, he told me that some pea-hens had been known last summer to haunt the coppices and coverts where this mule was found. Mr. Elmer, of Farnham, the famous game painter, was employed to take an exact copy of this curious bird. N.B.-It ought to be mentioned, that some good judges have imagined this bird to have been a stray grouse or blackcock; it is however to be observed, that Mr. W. remarks, that its legs and feet were naked, whereas those of the grouse are feathered to the toes. LAND-RAIL A man brought me a land-rail or daker-hen, a bird so rare in this district that we seldom see more than one or two in a season, and those only in autumn. This is deemed a bird of passage by all the writers: yet from its formation seems to be poorly qualified for migration; for its wings are short, and placed so forward, and out of the centre of gravity, that it flies in a very heavy and embarrassed manner, with its legs hanging down; and can hardly be sprung a second time, as it runs very fast, and seems to depend more on the swiftness of its feet than on its flying. When we came to draw it, we found the entrails so soft and tender, that in appearance they might have been dressed like the ropes of a woodcock. The craw or crop was small and lank, containing a mucus; the gizzard thick and strong, and filled with small shell snails, some whole, and many ground to pieces through the attrition which is occasioned by the muscular force and motion of that intestine. We saw no gravels among the food: perhaps the shell snails might perform the functions of gravels or pebbles, and might grind one another. Land-rails used to abound formerly, I remember, in the low wet bean fields of Christian Malford in North Wilts, and in the meadows near Paradise Gardens at Oxford, where I have often heard them cry crex, crex. The bird mentioned above weighed 7 oz., was fat and tender, and in flavour like the flesh of a woodcock. The liver was very large and delicate. FOOD OF THE RING-DOVE One of my neighbours shot a ring-dove on an evening as it was returning from feed and going to roost. When his wife had picked and drawn it, she found its craw stuffed with the most nice and tender tops of turnips. These she washed and boiled, and so sat down to a choice and delicate plate of greens, culled and provided in this extraordinary manner. Hence we may see that graminivorous birds, when grain fails, can subsist on the leaves of vegetables. There is reason to suppose that they would not long be healthy without; for turkeys, though corn fed, delight in a variety of plants, such as cabbage, lettuce, endive, etc. and poultry pick much grass; while geese live for months together on commons by grazing alone. "Nought is useless made; On the barren heath The shepherd tends his flock that daily crop Close-grazer, finds wherewith to ease her want." PHILIPS's Cyder. HEN HARRIER Mr. White of Newton sprung a pheasant in a wheat stubble, and shot at it; when, notwithstanding the report of the gun, it was immediately pursued by the blue hawk, known by the name of the hen-harrier, but escaped into some covert. He then sprung a second, and a third, in the same field, that got away in the same manner; the hawk hovering round him all the while that he was beating the field, conscious no doubt of the game that lurked in the stubble. Hence we may conclude that this bird of prey was rendered very daring and bold by hunger, and that hawks cannot always seize their game when they please. We may farther observe, that they cannot pounce their quarry on the ground, where it might be able to make a stout resistance, since so large a fowl as a pheasant could not but be visible to the piercing eye of a hawk, when hovering over the field. Hence that propensity of cowring and squatting till they are almost trod on, which no doubt was intended as a mode of security: though long rendered destructive to the whole race of gallinae by the invention of nets and guns. GREAT SPECKLED DIVER, OR LOON As one of my neighbours was traversing Wolmer forest from Bramshot across the moors, he found a large uncommon bird fluttering in the heath, but not wounded, which he brought home alive. On examination it proved to be colymbus glacialis Linn. the great speckled diver or loon, which is most excellently described in Willughby's Ornithology. Every part and proportion of this bird is so incomparably adapted to this mode of life, that in no instance do we see the wisdom of God in the creation to more advantage. The head is sharp and smaller than the part of the neck adjoining, in order that it may pierce the water; the wings are placed forward and out of the centre of gravity for a purpose which shall be noticed hereafter; the thighs quite at the podex, in order to facilitate diving; and the legs are flat, and as sharp backwards almost as the edge of a knife, that in striking they may easily cut the water: while the feet are palmated, and broad for swimming, yet so folded up when advanced forward to take a fresh stroke, as to be full as narrow as the shank. The two exterior toes of the feet are longest; the nails flat and broad, resembling the human, which give strength and increase the power of swimming. The foot, when expanded, is not at right angles to the leg or body of the bird but the exterior part inclining towards the head forms an acute angle with the body; the intention being not to give motion in the line of the legs themselves, but by the combined impulse of both in an intermediate line, the line of the body. Most people know, that have observed at all, that the swimming of birds is nothing more than a walking in the water, where one foot succeeds the other as on the land; yet no one, as far as I am aware, has remarked that diving fowls, while under water, impel and row themselves forward by a motion of their wings, as well as by the impulse of their feet but such is really the case, as any person may easily be convinced, who will observe ducks when hunted by dogs in a clear pond. Nor do I know that any one has given a reason why the wings of diving fowls are placed so forward: doubtless, not for the purpose of promoting their speed in flying, since that position certainly impedes it; but probably for the increase of their motion under water, by the use of four oars instead of two; yet were the wings and feet nearer together, as in land-birds, they would, when in action, rather hinder than assist one another. It This colymbus was of considerable bulk, weighing only three drachms short of three pounds avoirdupois. measured in length from the bill to the tail (which was very short) two feet, and to the extremities of the toes, four inches more; and the breadth of the wings expanded was 42 inches. A person attempted to eat the body, but found it very strong and rancid, as is the flesh of all birds living on fish. Divers or loons, though bred in the most northerly parts of Europe, yet are seen with us in very severe winters; and on the Thames are called sprat loons, because they prey much on that sort of fish. The legs of the colymbi and mergi are placed so very |