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formed, is very infoluble in water, it tends to increase the quantity of powdery matter which is fo neceffary in this fpecies of foil. Befides, though we do not yet poffefs any certain knowledge of the proper food of vegetables, it has long been obferved, that fixed air promotes their growth; and, therefore, it will not be thought vifionary to fuppofe, that the liberation of this air, when the lime is uniting with the acid, will be favourable to vegetation *. But whatever we may attribute to this, the falt which is formed by the lime with the vitriolic acid, is itself a stimulus to vegetables, and, by this property, becomes highly useful to this land. We have well attefted accounts of the advant-ge of gypfum upon grafs land, which we have reafon to confider as a proof of its being a ftimulus to living vegetables.

tricity, &c. Now, as lime is a ftimu- fum, which is the new compound that lus to the animal fyftem, we may prefume, that it also excites vegetables; and, when this excitement is moderate, encreases the action of the fibres. The farmer already knows, from experience, that when lime is laid on fome kinds of grafs land, it increafes vegetation: but, when he is taught that it acts by ftimulating the vegetables, he is difpofed to confider what fpecies of foil requires this ftimulus to affist vegetation, and is guarded against the application of it, where the other stimuli already act with fufficient force. We may, perhaps, advance a flep farther, and upon these principles, explain the effects of lime upon a fpecies of foil, which contains only a finall mixture of vegetable mould, or of undecayed fibres. The foil, to which we refer, is a strong stiff clay, on which the effect of lime has always been more advantageous, than could be accounted for by its feptic power. This kind of foil is remarkably unfavourable to the fpeedy corruption of the dead vegetables which it contains, and therefore, lime becomes peculiarly neceffary to forward their putrefaction; but befides this, all clay contains a very confiderable quantity of alum, which is known to act as an aftringent and fedative on living animals. If it produce fimilar effects upon vegetables, it mult be hurtful in this climate, where the ftimuli to vegetation, are, in general, lower than what is required to the perfection-of growth: hence those foils are, in common language, called cold clays; even if the fummer be clear and warm, vegetables do not thrive upon them, for while the drought hardens the clay, and prevents the roots from penetrating the foil, it concentrates any alum which the moisture had diffolved, and thereby increases its action.

When lime is applied to this foil, it decompofes the aluminous mixture in the clay, as the vitriolic acid has a ftronger attraction for the calcareous earth than for the earth of alum, and thus destroys a fedative and injurious fubftance. At the fame time, as gyp

In attending to the effects of lime upon ftrong clay-land, we may, therefore, prefume that it is ufeful by deftroying a fedative fubftance, by affifting in pulverizing the foil, by forming a new falt which ftimulates the vegetable fibre, and, perhaps, by producing confiderable quantities of fixed air, which favours vegetation.

Thefe views, if well founded, may lead us to fuppofe, that the scientific farmer will alter the account which he has hitherto given of the manures employed by him. He has ufually divided them into two claffes, from his idea of their operation; the first comprehending those which promote the, putrefaçtion of the vegetable fubftances already in the foil; the other, those substances which themselves undergo putrefaction. But if vegetables be fubject to fimilar laws of excitement as animal fibres are, a third class of manures may be formed, containing thofe which act as a stimulus to vegetation; a clafs, in all probabi lity, of the highest importance in agriculture.

*If this be the cafe, would it not be better, in this inftance, at least, to apply the calcareous earth in its crude ftate?

OB

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OBSERVATIONS ON THE VARIOUS BENEFITS DERIVED
FROM THAT USEFUL ANIMAL, THE SHEEP.

AMONG the various animals with tables, chairs, looking-glaffes, and a
which Divine Providence has ftored the hundred other articles of convenience:
world for the ufe of man, none is to be and when the winter nights come on,
found more innocent, more useful, or while we are deprived of the cheering
more valuable, than the fheep. The light of the fun, the fheep fupplies us
fheep fupplies us with food and cloth- with an artificial mode of light, where-
ing, and finds ample employment for by we preferve every pleafure of do-
our poor at all times and fealons of the mestic fociety, and with whofe affiftance
year, whereby a variety of manufactures we can continue our work, or write or
of woollen cloth is carried on without read, and improve our minds, and en-
interruption to domeftic comfort, lofs joy the focial mirth of our tables. Ano-
to friendly fociety, or injury to health, ther part of the flaughtered animal fup-
as is the cafe with many other occupa plies us with an ingredient neceffary for
tions. Every lock of wool that grows making good common foap, a useful
on its back becomes the means of fup- ftore for producing cleanlinefs in every
port to ftaplers, dyers, pickers, fcourers, family, rich or poor. Neither need the
fcriblers, carders, combers, fpinners, horns be thrown away; for they are
Spoolers, warpers, queelers, we vers, converted by the button-makers and
fullers, tuckers, burlers, shearmen, pref- turners into a cheap kind of buttons,
fers, clothiers, and packers, who, cne tips for bows, and many useful orna-
after another, tumble and tofs, and twift, ments. From the very trotters an oil
and bake, and boil, this raw material, is extracted useful for many purposes,
till they have reach extracted a liveli and befides they afford good food.
hood out of it; and then comes the
merchant, who, in his turn, fhips it (in
its higheft ftate of improvement) to all
quarters of the globe, from whence he
brings back every kind of riches to his
country, in return for this valuable com-
modity which the sheep affords.

Even the bones are useful alfo; for by a late invention of Dr Higgins, they are found, when reduced to afhes, to be a useful and effential ingredient in the compofition of the finest artificial stone in ornamental work for chimney-pieces, cornices of rooms, houfes, &c. which renders the compofition more durable by effectually preventing its cracking.

If it is objected to the meek inoffenfive creature, that he is expenfive while living, in eating up our grafs, &c. it may be anfwered, that it is quite the contrary; for he can feed where every other animal has been before him, and grazed all they could find; and that if he takes a little grafs on our downs or in our fields, he amply repays us for every blade of grafs in the richness of the manure which he leaves behind him. He protects the hands from the

Befide this, the ufeful animal, after being deprived of his coat, produces another against the next year; and when we are hungry, and kill him for food, he gives us his fkin to employ the fell-mongers and parchment-makers, who fupply us with a durable material for fecuring our cftates, rights, and poffeffions; and if our enemies take the field against us, fupplies us with a powerful infirument for roufing our courage to repel their attacks. When the parch ment-maker has taken as much of the fkin as he can use, the glue-maker comes after and picks up every morfel that is cold wintry blaft, by providing_them left, and therewith fupplies a material for the carpenter and cabinet-maker, which they cannot do without, and which is effentially neceffary before we can have elegant furniture in our houses;

with the fofteft leather gloves. Every
gentleman's library is alfo indebted to
him for the binding of his books, for
the fheath of his fword, and for cafes
for his inftruments: In short, not to be

tedious

tedious in mentioning the various uses butes to render either more useful, conof leather, there is hardly any furniture venient, or ornamental. or utenfil of life but the fheep contri

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IN

VARIOUS

PARTICULARS IN THE NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS.
FROM A NATURALIST'S CALENDAR, WITH OBSERVATIONS
BRANCHES OF NATURAL HISTORY," COMPILED BY DR AICKEN, FROM
THE PAPERS OF THE LATE REV. GILBERT WHITE, M. A.
Birds in General.

the

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call one fpecies of buzzard buteo apivorus five vefpiviporus, or the honey buzzard, because fome combs of wafps happened to be found in one of their nefts. The combs were conveyed thither doubtlefs for the fake of the maggots or nymphs, and not for their honey: fince none is to be found in the

IN fevere weather, field fares, red wings, fky larks, and tit larks, refort to watered meadows for food; the lat ter wades up to its belly in purfuit of pupe of infects, and runs along upon the floating grafs and weeds. Many gnats are on the fnow near the water; thefe fupport the birds in part. combs of wafps. Birds of prey occaBirds are much influenced in their choice of food by colour; for though white currants are a much sweeter fruit than red, yet they feldom touch the former till they have devoured every bunch of the latter.

Red farts, fly-catchers and black`caps arrive early in April. If thefe little delicate beings are birds of paffage, (as we have reason to fuppofe they are, because they are never feen in winter) how could they, feeble as they feem, bear up against fuch ftorms of fnow and rain, and make their way through fuch meteorous turbulencies, as one fhould fuppofe would embarrass and retard the moft hardy and refolute of the winged nation? Yet they keep their appointed times and seasons; and in spite of frofts and winds, return to their stations periodically, as if they had met with nothing to obstruct them. The with drawing and appearance of the fhort winged fummer birds is a very puzzling circumftance in natural hiftory!

When the boys bring me wafps nefts, my bantam fowls fare deliciously, and when the combs are pulled to pieces, devour the young wafps in their maggot ftate with the highest glee and delight. Any infect-eating bird would do the fame; and therefore I have often wondered that the accurate Mr Ray thould Given as an excellent fpecimen of a Diary of Natural History..

*

fionally feed on infects: thus have I feen a tame kite picking up the female ants full of eggs, with much fatisfaction. Rooks.

Rooks are continually fighting and pulling each others nefts to pieces : thefe proceedings are inconfiftent with living in fuch close community. And yet if a pair offers to build on a fingle tree, the neft is plundered and demolifhed at once. Some rooks rooft on their neft trees. The twigs which the rooks drop in building fupply the poor with brush-wood to light their fires. Some unhappy pairs are not permitted to finish any nelt till the reft have completed their building. As foon as they get a few sticks together, a party comes and demolishes the whole. As foon as rooks have finished their nests, and before they lay, the cocks begin to feed the hens, who receive their bounty with a fondling, tremulous voice, and fluttering wings, and all the little blandishments that are expreffed by the young while in a helpless ftate. This gallant deportment of the males is continued through the whole season of incubation. Thefe birds do not copulate on trees, nor in their nefts, but on the ground in open fields.

Thrushes.

THRUSHES, during long droughts, are of great fervice in hunting out thell fnails, which they pull in pieces for

their young, and are thereby very ferviceable in gardens.

Miffel thrushes do not deftroy the fruit in gardens like the other fpecies of turdi, but feed on the berries of the miffeltoe, and in the fpring on ivy berries, which then begin to ripen. In the fummer, when their young become fledged, they leave neighbourhoods, and retire to fheep walks and wild

commons.

The magpies, when they have young, deftroy the broods of miffel thrushes, though the dams are fierce birds, and fight boldly in defence of their nefts. It is probably to avoid fuch infults, that this fpecies of thrush, though wild at other times, delights to build near houfes, and in frequented walks, and gardens.

Land Rail.

A MAN brought me a land-rail or daker-hen, a bird fo are in this diftrict, that we feldom fee more than one or two in a season, and thofe only in autumn. This is deemed a bird of paffage by all the writers: yet from its formation feems to be poorly qualified for migration; for its wings are fhort, and placed fo forward, and out of the centre of gravity, that it flies in a very heavy and embarraffed manner, with its legs hanging down; and can hardly be fprung a fecond time, as it runs very faft, and feems to depend more on the fwiftnefs of its feet than on its flying,

of Chriftian Malford in North Wilts, and in the meadows near Paradife 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 wood-cock. The liver was very large and delicate.

Food of the Ring Dove.

One of my neighbours fhot a ringdove on an evening, as it was returning from feed and going to rooft. When his wife had picked and drawn it, she found its craw ftuffed with the most nice and tender tops of turnips. These fhe washed and boiled, and fo fate down to a choice and delicate plate of greens, culled and provided in this extraordinary manner.

Hence we may fee, that graminivorous birds, when grain fails, can subsist on the leaves of vegetables. There is reafon to fuppofe, that they would not long be healthy without; for turkies, though corn fed, delight in a variety of plants, fuch as cabbage, lettuce, endive, &c. And poultry pick much grass; while geefe live for months together on commons by grazing alone.

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MR White of Newton fprung a pheafant 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 efcaped into fome covert. He then fprung a second, and a third, in the fame field, that got away in the fame manner; the hawk

When we came to draw it, we found the entrails fo foft and tender, that in appearance they might have been dreffed like the ropes of a wood-cock. The craw or crop was fmall and lank, containing a mucus; the gizzard thick and ftrong, and filled with small shell fnails, fome whole, and many ground to pieces through the attrition which is occafioned by the muscular force and motion of hovering round him all the while that that inteftine. We faw no gravels among the food: perhaps the fhell fnails might perform the functions of gravels or pebbles, and might grind one another. Land-rails ufed to abound formerly, I remember, in the low wet bean fields

he was beating the field, confcious no doubt of the game that lurked in the ftubble. Hence we may conclude, that this bird of prey was rendered very daring and bold by hunger, and that hawks cannot always feize their game

when

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when they please. We may farther ob ferve, that they cannot pounce their quarry on the ground where it might be able to make a ftout refiftance, fince fo large a fowl as a pheasant could not but be vifible to the piercing eye of a hawk when hovering over a field. Hence that propensity of cowring and fquatting till they are almost trod on, which no doubt was intended as a mode of fecurity; though long rendered deftructive to the whole race of galline by the invention of nets and guns.

felves, but by the combined impulse of both, in an intermediate line, the line of the body.

Moft people know, that have obfer. ved at all, that the fwimming of birds is nothing more than a walking in the water, where one foot fucceeds 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 themfelves forward by a motion of their wings, as well as by the impulfe of their feet but fuch is really the cafe, Great Speckled Diver, or Loon. as any perfon may easily be convinced As one of my neighbours was tra- who will obferve ducks when hunted verfing Wolmer foreft from Bramfhot by dogs in a clear pond. Nor do I across the moors, he found a large un- know that any one has given a reafon common bird fluttering in the heath, why the wings of diving fowls are but not wounded, which he brought placed fo forward: doubtless, not for home alive. On examination it proved the purpose of promoting their speed in to be Colymbus glacialis Linn: the great flying, fince that pofition certainly imSpeckled Diver or Loon, which is moft excellently defcribed in Willoughby's ornithology.

Every part and proportion of this bird is fo incomparably adapted to its mode of life, that in no inftance do we fee 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 that shall be noticed hereafter; the thighs quite at the podex, in order to facilitate diving; and the legs are flat, and as fharp backward almost as the edge of a knife, that in ftriking they may easily cut the water; while the feet are palmated, and broad for fwimming, yet fo 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 longeft; the nails flat and broad, refembling the human, which give ftrength, and increafe the power of fwimming. The foot, when expanded, is not at right angles to the leg or body of the bird: but the exterior part inclining toward the head, forms an acute angle with the body; the invention being not to give motion in the line of the legs themVOL. LVIII.

pedes it; but probably for the increase of their motion under water, by the use of four oars inftead of two; yet were the wings and feet nearer together, as in land birds, they would, when in action, rather hinder than affist one another.

This Colymbus was of confiderable bulk; weighing only three drachms fhort of three pounds avoirdupois. It measured in length, from the bill to the tail, (which was very fhort) two feet; and to the extremities of the toes four inches more; and the breadth of the wings expanded was forty-two inches. A perfon attempted to eat the body, but found it very ftrong and rancid, as is the flesh of all birds living on fish. Divers or Loons, though bred in the moft northerly parts of Europe, yet are feen with us in very fevere winters; and on the Thames are called Sprat Loons, because they prey much on that fort of fifh.

The legs of the Colymbi and Mergi are placed fo very backward, and fo out of all centre of gravity, that these birds cannot walk at all. They are called by Linnæus compedes, becaufe they move on the ground as if fhackled, or fettered.

(To be concluded in our next.)
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