tire into that element, yet they may conceal themselves in the banks of pools and rivers during the uncomfortable months of winter.*

One of the keepers of Wolmer Forest sent me a

* Swallows, congregating and disappearance of, from Miscellaneous Observations:

"During the severe winds that often prevail late in spring, it is not easy to say how the hirundines subsist, for the withdraw. ing themselves is hardly ever seen; nor do any insects appear for their support. That they can retire, to rest and sleep away those uncomfortable periods, as bats do, is a matter rather to be suspected than proved: or do they not rather spend their time in deep and sheltered vales, near waters, where insects are more likely to be found? Certain it is that hardly any individuals of this genus have at such times been seen for several days together.

"September 13, 1791. The congregating flocks of hirundines on the church and tower are very beautiful and amusing. When they fly off together on any alarm, they quite swarm in the air; but they soon settle into heaps, and preening their feathers, and lifting up their wings to admit the sun, seem highly to enjoy the warm situation. Thus they spend the heat of the day, preparing for their emigration, and, as it were, consulting when and where they are to go. The flight about the church seems to consist chiefly of house-martins, above four hundred in number; but there are other places of rendezvous about the village frequented at the same time.

"It is remarkable, that though most of them sit on the battlements and roof, yet many hang there for some time by their claws against the surface of the walls, in a manner not practised by them at any other time of their remaining with us.

"The swallows seem to delight more in holding their assemblies on trees. It is very remarkable, that after the hirundines have disappeared for some weeks, a few are occasionally seen again, sometimes in the first week of November, and that only for one day. Do they not withdraw and slumber in some hidingplace during the interval? for we cannot suppose that they had migrated to warmer climates, and so returned again for one day. Is it not more probable that they are awakened from sleep, and, like the bats, are come forth to collect a little food? Bats appear at all seasons through the autumn and spring months, when the thermometer is at 50°, because their phalanæ and moths are thinning.

"These swallows looked like young ones."

of that district, as it was devouring a wood-pigeon. The falco peregrinus, or haggard falcon, is a noble species of hawk, seldom seen in the southern counties. In winter, 1767, one was killed in the neighbouring parish of Faringdon, and sent by me to Mr. Pennant into North Wales.* Since that time I have met with none till now. The specimen mentioned above was in fine preservation, and not injured by the shot: it measured forty-two inches from wing to wing, and twenty-one from beak to tail, and weighed two pounds and a half standing weight. This species is very robust, and wonderfully formed for rapine: its breast was plump and muscular; its thighs long, thick, and brawny; and its legs remarkably short and well-set: the feet were armed with most formidable, sharp, long talons; the eyelids and cere of the bill were yel. low, but the irides of the eyes dusky; the beak was thick and hooked, and of a dark colour, and

* See Letters X. and XI., Part I.

had a jagged process near the end of the upper mandible on each side; its tail or train was short in proportion to the bulk of its body, yet the wings, when closed, did not extend to the end of the train. From its large and fair proportions, it might be supposed to have been a female; but I was not permitted to cut open the specimen. For one of the birds of prey, which are usually lean, this was in high case in its craw were many barley-corns, which probably came from the crop of the woodpigeon on which it was feeding when shot; for voracious birds do not eat grain; but, when devouring their quarry, with undistinguishing vehemence, swallow bones and feathers, and all matters indiscriminately. This falcon was probably driven from the mountains of North Wales or Scotland, where they are known to build, by rigorous weather and deep snows that had lately fallen.

LETTER LIV.

My near neighbour, a young gentleman in the service of the East India Company, has brought home a dog and a bitch of the Chinese breed from Canton, such as are fattened in that country for the purpose of being eaten they are about the size of a moderate spaniel, of a pale yellow colour, with coarse bristling hair on their backs, sharp upright ears, and peaked heads, which give them a very fox-like appearance. Their hind legs are unusually straight, without any bend at the hock or ham, to such a degree as to give them an awkward gait

when they trot. When they are in motion their tails are curved high over their backs, like those of some hounds, and have a bare place each on the outside from the tip midway, that does not seem to be matter of accident, but somewhat singular. Their eyes are jet black, small, and piercing; the insides of their lips and mouths of the same colour, and their tongues blue. The bitch has a dew-claw on each hind leg, the dog has none. When taken out into a field, the bitch showed some disposition for hunting, and dwelt on the scent of a covey of partridges till she sprung them, giving her tongue all the time. The dogs in South America are dumb, but these bark much in a short, thick man. ner, like foxes, and have a surly, savage demean. our, like their ancestors, which are not domesticated, but bred up in sties, where they are fed for the table with rice-meal and other farinaceous food. These dogs, having been taken on board as soon as weaned, could not learn much from their dam; yet they did not relish flesh when they came to England. In the islands of the Pacific Ocean the dogs are bred upon vegetables, and would not eat flesh when offered them by our circumnavigators.

We believe that all dogs in a state of nature have sharp, upright, fox-like ears; and that hanging ears, which are esteemed so graceful, are the effect of choice breeding and cultivation. Thus, in the Travels of Ysbrandt Ides from Muscovy to China, the dogs which draw the Tartars on snowsledges, near the river Oby, are engraved with prick-ears, like those from Canton. The Kamtschatdales also train the same sort of sharp-eared, peaked-nosed dogs to draw their sledges, as may

be seen in an elegant print engraved for Captain Cook's last voyage round the world.

Now we are upon the subject of dogs, it may not be impertinent to add that spaniels, as all sportsmen know, though they hunt partridges and pheasants as it were by instinct, and with much delight and alacrity, yet will hardly touch their bones when offered as food; nor will a mongrel dog of my own, though he is remarkable for finding that sort of game. But when we came to offer the bones of partridges to the two Chinese dogs, they devoured them with much greediness, and licked the platter clean.

No sporting dogs will flush woodcocks till inured to the scent and trained to the sport, which they then pursue with vehemence and transport; but then they will not touch their bones, but turn from them with abhorrence even when they are hungry.

Now that dogs should not be fond of the bones of such birds as they are not disposed to hunt is no wonder; but why they reject and do not care to eat their natural game is not so easily accounted for, since the end of hunting seems to be, that the chase pursued should be eaten. Dogs, again, will not devour the more rancid water-fowls, nor, indeed, the bones of any wild-fowls, nor will they touch the fœtid bodies of birds that feed on offal and garbage; and, indeed, there may be somewhat of providential instinct in this circumstance of dislike, for vultures, and kites, and ravens, and crows,

*

* Hasselquist, in his Travels to the Levant, observes that the dogs and vultures at Grand Cairo maintain such a friendly inter course as to bring up their young together in the same place.