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OBSERVATIONS ON NATURAL HISTORY.

SIR,

As

To the Editor of the Bee.

s the following account contains some new facts respecting the natural history of some birds natives of Great Britain and its adjacent islands, it would be obliging if you would give it a place in your Miscellany. R. J.

PELECANUS Carbo. Lin.
Corvorant.

This genus is remarkable for having a gullet capable of prodigious extension, as birds of this genus, (pelecanus onocratalis) have been fhown in England whose gullet could contain a man's head, and Salerne in his ornithology, mentions one fhown' in France, whose gape was so wide as to admit the legs of a man with boots on, but none of the species of this country have gullets capable of such vast and extraordinary extension. The species I fhall now give an account of is thus distinguished by Linnæus, "Cauda rotundato, corpore nigro cafsile suberistato." It is an inhabitant of the vast cliffs that hang over the sea in various parts of the coast of Great Britain; they are also found in the Shetland islands, particularly in Mainland, the largest of the islands; they are found there in vast numbers on two rocks in North Maven, and what is singular they inhabit them alternately, leaving one always unoccupied during the succeeding year, seemingly that the winter rains &c. might clear the place, where there

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Also inhabit the lofty cliffs of the Orkneys in vast numbers,

Nov. 13 is genarally much filth collected. They are very voracious, which the illustrious Pennant remarks is occasioned by their having a most sudden digestion, promoted by the infinite number of small worms that fill their intestines. They are also observed frèquently to steal from each other during the time of incubation, which gives rise to many severe battles, and the mother who returns from fishing, and finds her nest robbed either of straw or eggs, must either recover her property by force, or wait till her neighbour quit her nest, when the generally takes ample retribution. These birds are employed by the Chinese for fishing. An ingenious correspondent of mine in one of the Shetland islands, to whom I lie under great obligations for different communications with regard to the natural history of these little known islands, mentioned to me the following curious circumstance. "I have often observed, says he, these birds when they caught a fish by the middle, tail, or other inconvenient part for swallowing, with what agility they tofsed back their head in order to turn the fish and swallow it head-ways. As they would tofs the head over the center of gravity of the whole neck, I was led to expect some singular formation, and on difsection found a bone articulated to the third vertebræ of the neck, descending from the occipital bone." Upon difsection of the pelecanus gragalus, he found only a strong cartillaginous support to the back of the head. This peculiarity appears quite new to me, as I have never read any account of this by any author, but if this circumstance is mentioned, I should wish to know by what author.

66

To be continued.

For the Bee.

The following lines are extracted from a beautiful descriptive poem transmitted to the Editor by a friendly correspondent. It is with regret the Editor finds himself denied the satisfaction of inserting the whole, on account of its length. With a little revisal it would make a proper publication by itself.

ON A LADY BATHING.

When the gay songster pours his matin strain,
And rosy morn o'erspreads the dewy plain;
See on the fhore the ventrous fair one come,
And with quick step ascend the cover'd dome,
There safely fhelter'd from licentious sight
She draws the silk from legs of glowing white;
Untied, unpin'd, unlac'd, obedient fall

The hat, the gown the stays, and spangl'd fhawl:
Her auburn locks in rich luxuriance flow

O'er heaving breasts that emulate the snow:
And now the loosen'd floating lawn betrays

Those dazzling charms, which Heaven alone surveys.
A while fhe stands in faultlefs Eve's attire,
Shrinks blushing from herself with virgin fear;
Then in soft flannel plunges in the main

And fhines as summer's sun thro' summer's rain:
So the fair lily thro' the chrystal glows,
So thro' the morning dew the balmy rose.
The parting flood with joy its guest receives,
And round her Zephyr all his sweetness breathes.
Sportive with youth the wantons in the main,
Now sinks below now fkims the wave again:
Then back returns with kindly strengthen'd pace,
Her ev'ry feature beaming richer grace:
Then quickly throws her wat`ry garbs aside
And drest in careless haste fhe leaves the tide.
So charming Venus Love's imperial queen,
First rising from the curling wave was seen
VOL. Xviii.

I

AN EPISTLE FROM ASCANIUS TRIMONTANUS, TO HAFODIUS CAM

SIR,

BRESIS.

For the Bee.

While you delight in Ystwyth's roaring stream,
And leave thy golden vale*, Silurian theme:
Me gently gliding silver Tweed detains
From Forth's majestic wide extended plains.
Your eye you turn from soft Gibbonian art,
And cut a frock for honest old Froissart.
"You prize his tale tho' told in terms uncouth,
The charm of nature and the force of truth."
Me nor the coblers of a worn out state,
Nor scepter'd monarchs move my love or hate;
For bright Apollo with the golden hair,
Chaces the dreams and dims the horrid glare:
Come then my Hafod let us pierce the gloom
Of Gothic night, and visit Chimay + tomb :--
There with full hands of purple flowers adorn
His ancient stone-with civic oak his urn.
True faith and honour mark'd him for their own
And on his page quick nature's form was shown.

VERSES WRITTEN EXTEMPORE ON A YOUNG LADY.

To the Editor of the Bee.

Your inserting the following lines in your excellent publication the Bee, will singularly oblige &c.

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W. F.

*The rich and beautiful vale on the Dove in Herefordshire has commonly and antiently been so called.

+ Froissart was a canon, and treasurer of the convent of Chimay and was buried there.

FARTHER EXTRACTS FROM DR ANDERSON'S CORRESPONDENCE RESPECTING IMPROVEMENTS IN INDIA.

Continued from p. 37.

Mr Alexander Macleod to 7. Anderson, Esq. physician general, Fort St, George.

MY DEAR SIR,

I HAVE found near the hills at this place nine bread fruit trees, two of a very considerable size, the others about forty feet high. There is fruit on most of them growing, two at the extremity of almost every branch. The dimensions of the two largest trees, are as follow: Circumference of the stem at five feet from the ground, five feet six inches from that height downwards the stém enlarges, gradually terminating in a base, which forms a triangle, whose sides are small segments of a circle bending inwards.

The height of the tree I could not get from actual measurement; but it is at least two feet higher than the topmost leaves of any of the surrounding cocoanut trees; and the latter are full grown, and as high as any about Madras. The circumference of the other large tree is, at four feet above the ground, six feet. It ends like the first in a triangular base of equal dimensions. The height of this tree equals the first.

The fruit I procured from the largest tree is nearly circular, and measures fifteen inches in circumference, but it is not ripe. At Perincullum, the place I fhall go to tomorrow, there are six or eight trees, as I am informed, some of a still larger size than those above mentioned. I understand that in these districts there are about twenty or twenty-five, not more. The natives living near the hills

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