on that fubjedt little fadsfadtion is to be found. ' Ingenious men
will readily advance plaufible arguments to fupport whatever
theory they fhall chufe to maintain; but then the misfortune is,,
every one’s hypothefis is each as good as another’s, fince they are
all founded on conjedture. The late writers of this fort, in whom
may be feen all the arguments of thofe that have gone before, as I
remember, flock America from the weftern eoaft of Africa and the
fouth of Europe; and then break down the Ifthmus that bridged
over the Atlantic. But this is making ufe of a violent piece- of
machinery ;: it is a difficulty worthy of the interpofirion of a god 1
“ lucre dubs odi” .
TO TH O M A S P E N N A N T , E S f tH IK E ..
T H E N A T U R A L I S T ’ S S U M M E R - E V E N I N G W A L K . .
-- equidem credo, quia fit divinitus illis
Ingenium. ' Vhcg. Georg«.
W h e n day d e c l in in g fheds a milder gleam,
What time the may-flyd haunts the pool or ftream;
When the ftill owl fkims: round the graffy mead,
What time the timorous hare limps forth to feed;
i -phe angler’s may-fly, the ephemera nmtgata Linn, comes forth from it’s aurelia:
ftate, and emerges out of the water about fix in the evening, and dies about eleven at
night, a^-rmlning the date of it’s fly ftate in about five or fix hours. They ufually begin
to appear about the 4th of June, and continue in. fucceffion for near a fortnight.
See Swammerdam, Derbam, Scopoliy&c.
Then
Then be the time to fteal adown the vale,
And liften to the vagrant' cuckoo’s tale;
T o hear the clamorous a curlew call his mate,
Or the foft; quail his tender pain relate;
To fee the fwallow fweep the dark’ning plain
Belated, to fupport her infant train;
T o mark the fwift in rapid giddy ring
Dafh round the fteeple, unfubdu’d of wing :
Amufive birds !— fay where your hid retreat
When the frofl rages and the tempefts beat;
Whence your return, by fuch nice inftindt led,
When fpring, foft feafon, lifts her bloomy head h
Such baffled fearches mock man’s prying pride,
The GOD of NATURE is your fecret guide !
While deep’ning fliades obfcure the face of day
T o yonder bench leaf-fhelter’d let us ftray,
’Till blended objedts fail the fwimming fight,
And all the fading landfcape finks in night;
To hear the drowfy dor come brufhing by
With buzzing wing, or the fhrilD cricket cry;
To fee the feeding bat glance through the wood;
To catch the diftant falling of the flood;
While o’er the cliff th’ awaken’d churn-owl hung
Through the ftill gloom protradls his chattering fong;.
While high in air, and pois’d upon his wings,.
Unfeen, the foft enamour’d h woodlark fings :.
e Vagrant cuckoo j fo called becaufe, being tied down by no incubation or attendance
about the nutrition- o f it’s young, it wanders without control.
f Charadrius oedicnemus. ' g Gryllus campejlris.
h In hot fummer nights woodlarks foar to a prodigious height and hang finging~ in
the air.