"Naturam expellas furcâ. . . tamen ufque recurret.” I have confulted a sportsman, now in his feventy-eighth year, who tells me that fifty or fixty years back, when the beechen woods were much more extenfive than at prefent, the number of woodpigeons was aftonishing; that he has often killed near twenty in a day; and that with a long wild-fowl piece he has fhot feven or eight at a time on the wing as they came wheeling over his head: he moreover adds, which I was not aware of, that often there were among them little parties of fmall blue doves, which he calls rockiers. The food of thefe numberless emigrants was beech-mast and some acorns; and particularly barley, which they collected in the ftubbles. But of late years, fince the vaft increase of turnips, that vegetable has furnished a great part of their fupport in hard weather; and the holes they pick in thefe roots greatly damage the crop. From this food their flesh has contracted a rancidnefs which occafions them to be rejected by nicer judges of eating, who thought them before a delicate dish. They were hot not only as they were feeding in the fields, and efpecially in fnowy weather, but alfo at the clofe of the evening, by men who lay in ambush among the woods and groves to kill them as they came in to rooft*. These are the principal circumtances relating to this wonderful internal migration, which with us takes place towards the end of November, and ceafes early in the fpring. Laft winter we had in Selborne high wood about an hundred of thefe doves; but in former times the flocks were fo vaft, not only with us but all the district round, that on mornings and evenings they traversed the air, like rooks, in ftrings, reaching for a mile together. When they thus rendezvoufed here by thousands, if they happened to be fuddenly roufed from their rooft-trees on an evening, "Their rifing all at once was like the found Of thunder heard remote.". It will by no means be foreign to the prefent purpose to add, that I had a relation in this neighbourhood who made it a practice, for a time, whenever he could procure the eggs of a ring-dove, to place them under a pair of doves that were fitting in his own pigeonhoufe; hoping thereby, if he could bring about a coalition, to enlarge his breed, and teach his own doves to beat out into the woods and to fupport themfelves by malt: the plan was plaufible, but fomething always interrupted the fuccefs; for though the birds were ufually hatched, and fometimes grew to half their fize, yet none ever arrived at maturity. I myself have feen these foundlings in their neft difplaying a ftrange ferocity of nature, fo as fcarcely to bear to be looked at, and fnapping with their bills by way of menace. In fhort, they always died, perhaps for want of proper fuftenance: but the owner thought that by their fierce and wild demeanour they frighted their fofter-mothers, and fo were starved.' In two letters to the Hon. Daines Barrington, Mr. W. gives a lift of fummer and winter birds of paffage obferved at Selborne, and another of finging birds. He relates many curious Some old fportsmen say that the main part of these flocks used to withdraw as foon as the heavy Christmas frosts were over.' facીs, facts, and offers several ingenious obfervations on the fubject of the migration of birds, hitherto fo imperfectly understood. The following letter on this fubject is particularly curious: You are, I know, no great friend to migration; and the well attefted accounts from various parts of the kingdom feem to justify you in your fufpicions, that at leaft many of the fwallow kind do not leave us in the winter, but lay themfelves up like infects and bats, in a torpid ftate, and flumber away the more uncomfortable months till the return of the fun and fine weather awakens them. But then we must not, I think, deny migration in general; becaufe migration certainly does fubfift in fome places, as my brother in Andalufia has fully informed me. Of the motions of thefe birds he has ocular demonftration, for many weeks together, both fpring and fall: during which periods myriads of the fwallow kind traverle the Straits from north to fouth, and from fouth to north, according to the feafon. And thefe vaft migrations confift not only of hirundizes, but of bee-birds, hoopoes, oro pendolos, or golden thrushes, &c. &c. and alfo of many of our foft billed fummer birds of passage; and moreover of birds which never leave us, fuch as all the various forts of hawks and kites. Old Belon, two hundred years ago, gives a curious account of the incredible armies of hawks and kites which he faw in the fpring time traverfing the Thracian Bofphorus from Afia to Europe. Befides the above mentioned, he remarks that the procef.. fon is fwelled by whole troops of eagles and vultures. Now it is no wonder that birds refiding in Africa should retreat before the fun as it advances, and retire to milder regions, and efpecially birds of prey, whofe blood being heated with hot animal food, are more impatient of a fultry climate: but then I cannot help wondering why kites and hawks, and fuch hardy birds as are known to defy all the feverity of England, and even of Sweden and all north Europe, fhould want to migrate from the fouth of Europe, and be diffatisfied with the winters of Andalusia. It does not appear to me that much flrefs may be laid on the difficulty and hazard that birds muft run in their migrations, by reafon of vaft oceans, cross winds, &c.; becaufe, if we reflect, a bird, may travel from England to the equator without launching out and expofing itself to boundless feas, and that by croffing the water at Dover, and again at Gibraltar. And I with the more confidence advance this obvious remark, becaufe my brother has always found that fome of his birds, and particularly the fwallow kind, are very fparing of their pains in croffing the Mediterranean: for when arrived at Gibraltar they do not 66 Rang'd in figure wedge their way, Their airy caravan high over feas Flying, and over lands with mutual wing Eafing their flight:" MILTON. but fcout and hurry along in little detached parties of fix or seven in a company; and fweeping low, juft over the furface of the land and water, direct their courfe to the oppofite continent at the narrowest paffage they can find. They ufually flope across the bay to ·D 4 the the fouth-weft, and fo pafs over oppofite to Tangier, which, it seems, is the narroweft space. In former letters we have confidered whether it was probable that woodcocks in moon-fhiny nights cross the German ocean from Scandinavia. As a proof that birds of lefs fpeed may pass that sea, confiderable as it is, I fhall relate the following incident, which, though mentioned to have happened fo many years ago, was ftrictly matter of fact:-As fome people were shooting in the parish of Trotton, in the county of Suffex, they killed a duck in that dreadful winter 1708-9, with a filver collar about its neck, on which were engraven the arms of the King of Denmark. This anecdote the rector of Trotton at that time has often told to a near relation of mine; and, to the best of my remembrance, the collar was in the poffeffion of the rector. At prefent I do not know any body near the fea fide that will take the trouble to remark at what time of the moon woodcocks firft come: if I lived near the fea myself I would foon tell you more of the matter. One thing I used to obferve when I was a fportfman, that there were times in which woodcocks were fo fluggish and fleepy that they would drop again when flushed just before the fpaniels, nay juft at the muzzle of a gun that had been fired at them: whether this ftrange lazinefs was the effect of a recent fatiguing journey I fhall not prefume to fay. Nightingales not only never reach Northumberland and Scotland but alfo, as I have been always told, Devonshire and Cornwall. In those two last counties we cannot attribute the failure of them to the want of warmth the defect in the weft is rather a prefumptive argument that these birds come over to us from the continent at the narrowest paffage, and do not ftroll fo far weftward.' The preceding extracts may fuffice to fhew the author's accuracy in remarking facts, and his ingenuity in commenting on them for further entertainment of the fame kind we must refer the reader to the work itself. In the second part of this volume, which treats of the Antiquities of Selborne, we were particularly entertained with a curious account of the vifitation of Wykeham, Bishop of Worcefter, to the priory: but it is too long for our infertion. The antiquary will here meet with many amufing particulars cancerning this priory, the church, and the ancient state of the parish of Selborne, which we cannot diftinctly notice. This elegant and pleafing work, in fhort, abounds with information; and affords a happy proof, that the most retired fituation may be rendered agreeable and refpectable, by the diligent ftudy of nature, and an affiduous application to fcientific purfuits. The plates, nine in number, are very neatly executed. I have read a like anecdote of a fwan.' ART. ART. VI. Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, concluded; See Review for December last, p. 513. ANTIQUITIES, concluded. Article IV. Ancient Gaelic Poems, refpecting the Race of the Fians. Collected in the Highlands of Scotland in the Year 1784: by the Rev. Matthew Young, D. D. Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. HE original Gaelic poems, and the English translation, are here faithfully publifhed together; and they occupy above fixty quarto pages. It will be no longer poffible for the blindeft prejudice to affert with Dr. Johnfon, that the Poems of Offian never exifted in any other form than that which Mr. M.Pherfon had given them. It appears, indeed, that the laft mentioned gentleman has taken very great liberties with his originals, retrenching, adding, and altering as he judged proper. He has always omitted the name of St. Patrick, which occurs very often in the Gaelic poems, with the defign of fupporting their high antiquity, and referring the æra of their compofition to the end of the fecond, rather than to the middle of the fifth, century; although, for the former opinion, he feems to have little better authority than the refemblance of Offian's Caracul, to the Caracalla of the Roman hiftory; and the force even of this argument is deftroyed by the criticism of Mr. Gibbon, who obferves, that in the Caledonian war, the son of Severus was known only by the appellation of Antoninus, and that his nick-name of Caracalla was invented four years afterward, and scarcely used by the Romans till after his death. As to the merit of the Highland poems, we have often given our opinion. We think they are chiefly interefting as a literary curiofity; and confidered in this view, they were of far lefs value while it ftill remained uncertain what was Offian's, and what was the tranflator's. By the inquiries of fuch men as Dr. Young, and the labours of the Royal Academy of Dublin, and the Antiquarian Society of Perth, we may hope to fee this queftion honeftly decided; meanwhile, we would recommend to the curious reader, The Prayer of Offian, which seems to be the most interesting of all the Irish or Gaelic poems, hitherto communicated to the public. We had fome thoughts of inferting it; but our limits will not admit of it, in addition to our other extracts from the prefent volume. The next Effay contains an Account of the Greek Manuscript of St. Matthew's Gospel, in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin; by the Rev. Mr. Barrett. Mr. Barrett gives a very particular description of this manufcript, which fupplies the deficiencies of the Alexandrian, Ephrem, Ephrem, and manufcript of Cambridge. He beftows much pains in determining its date. All writing in Greek manufcript, he obferves, may be reduced to three claffes. The first comprehends manufcripts in round and fquare uncials; the fecond, manufcripts in oval, oblong, and inclined uncials; the third, those written in fmall letters. The first clafs is referred to the fixth century, the fecond to the ninth, and the third has univerfally prevailed fince the eleventh century. From the fpecimen annexed to his defcription, it appears that this manufcript of St. Matthew's gofpel belongs to the firft clafs; which conclufion is ftrengthened by its want of accents, of contractions, and of the Eufebian numbers. The next Effay in this Collection contains an Account of Ancient Coins, found at Ballylinam, in the Queen's County, Ireland; with Conjectures concerning them. By William Beauford, A. M. The rude refemblance of heads on thefe coins are all armed with the clofe helmet of the northern nations, which prevailed from the tenth to the fifteenth century; and the figure of the crofs, which is uniformly ftamped on the reverfe, clearly proves their origin to be within the Chriftian æra. Gold and filver are faid to have been introduced into Ireland by the Danes and Anglo Saxons about the beginning of the eighth century; from which period, the Irish chiefs who commanded the different provinces and diftricts, caufed money to be coined in their names, until they were prohibited by the English. This prerogative of fovereignty was exercifed by the O'Niels even fo late as the fifteenth century. The coins are filver, with Irish infcriptions, in the character called Ogh'am Croabh, without dates, but from what has been obferved, are not earlier than the eighth, nor later than the fifteenth, century. POLITE LITERATURE. In the article of Polite Literature, this volume contains, I. An Effay on the Sublimity of Writing, by the Rev. Dr. Stack. II. Two Effays on the Style of Dr. Johnfon, by the Rev. Robert Burrowes. III. Thoughts on Lyric Poetry, by William Prefton, A. M. To which is fubjoined, IV. An irregular Ode to the Moon. Dr. Stack obferves that Longinus, in his treatise on the Sublime, has not confidered the pathetic; having reserved that interefting topic for a fubfequent work. With a view to fupply this defect, in the performance of the juftly celebrated ancient critic, Dr. S. remarks, that all emotions of the foul which fink its native dignity, and which betray a weak and pufillanimous difpofition, are contrary to the fublime; but, on the other hand, that almost all paffions are fufceptible of fublime expreffion, when the cause which excites them is great and powerful, when the |