ber, &c. &c. By a table in the first part of the xvth volume of the Transactions of the Linnean Society, prepared by Messrs. SHEPPARD and WHITEAR, exhibiting the Times of Migration of Summer Birds of Passage, at Harleston, Norfolk, Offion in Suffolk, and Wrabness in Essex; the Swift is rarely seen till May; the Turtle Dove not before the 12th of the same month: the Black-cap as early as the first of April, sometimes as late as the 22d of the same month; the Swallow on the 7th or 8th of April, sometimes as late as the 30th of the same month; the Yellow-wren sometimes as early as the 27th of March; the Nightingale the 14th of April, more commonly after the 20th of the same month; the Cuckoo on the 10th of April, more commonly after the 20th of the same month.

There is room for believing that some migratory birds return, again and again, to the same spot which they have visited in former years; of the Swallow, indeed, this occurrence is said to have been particularly observed.

The Natural History of Birds is extremely interesting ; it is impossible in this short introduction to do it justice. If I shall by this work, altogether, excite a more general attention towards this department of nature's works, I shall be amply gratified for the labour and assiduity which I have bestowed upon it.

Nor is the study of the history of DOMESTICATED BIRDS to be neglected; it being, when unaccompanied with cruelty, a source of much gratification. Mason thus elegantly describes several of the tribe which minister to our pleasures or our wants:

"The feather'd fleet

Led by two mantling Swans, at every creek

Now touch'd, and now unmoor'd: now on full sail
With pennons spread and oary fect they plied

Their vagrant voyage; and now as if becalm'd
"Tween shore and shore at anchor seem'd to sleep.
Around those shores the fowl that fear the stream
At random rove: hither hot Guinea sends

Her gadding troop; here, 'midst his speckled dames,
The pigmy chanticleer of Bantam winds

His clarion; while supreme in glittering state
The Peacock spreads his rainbow train with eyes
Of sapphire bright, irradiate each with gold;
Meantime from every spray the Ring-doves coo,
The Linnets warble, captive none, but lur'd
By food to haunt the umbrage: all the glade
Is life, is music, liberty, and love."

English Garden, Book iv.

In consulting the NOTES it is necessary the reader should know that, in order to avoid repetition and to save room, in describing the species of each genus, the specific name only is given. Thus, under FALCO, the Eagle, Hawk, &c. instead of Falco Chrysaetos, will be found, The Chrysaetos, instead of Falco Ossifragus, The Ossifragus, and so on; so that the student will only have to add the generic term FALCO to the specific one Chrysaetos, and thus of every other genus respectively, to obtain the scientific names of every species throughout the work. As far also as they can be ascertained, the various provincial names of the different species of birds, are added; of the first utility in the study of ornithology. For the supply of this desideratum, besides his own resources, the author is greatly indebted to the Ornithological Dictionary of COLONEL MONTAGU, a work which, for its accuracy, will be ever

Those who desire to obtain Biographical Particulars of this distinguished naturalist, who was a native of Wiltshire, but died at Knowles, near Kingsbridge, in Devonshire, in 1815, will find

held in deserved estimation. A few names are also added from WILSON's American Ornithology, a work of singular merit, to which he owes the tribute of his thanks. To Dr. LATHAM'S work he is also, on this account, under some obligation.

Of Andrew WILSON, as he has long since paid the debt of nature, and who has been little heard of in this country, the following particulars may be here acceptable. He was born of poor parents, at Paisley, in Scotland, in 1766; his education was, of course, scanty, but considerably better than falls to the lot of persons of his condition in England. He was apprenticed to a weaver, his brother-in-law, the pursuit of whose trade he followed for many years; he subsequently shouldered his pack and became an itinerant pedlar. Becoming disgusted with trade, he wrote some papers for the Bee, a periodical work edited by Dr. ANDERSON; he wrote also a libel, for which he was prosecuted, and, for a short time, imprisoned, and sentenced besides to burn, with his own hands, the obnoxious work at the public high-cross at Paisley!

In 1792, he published, anonymously, a characterístic Poem, entitled " Watty and Meg," which was attributed to BURNS. Disliking Scotland, in 1794, he went to America; there, encountering various fate, he became a teacher in a school; and, subsequently, formed an acquaintance with the venerable naturalist, WILLIAM BARTRAM, by whom he was excited to devote his attention to the

them in the third volume of BRITTON'S Beauties of WILTSHIRE, lately published; a volume replete with antiquarian and biographical information; not the least interesting portion of which consists of an auto-biographical memoir of Mr. BRITTON himself, one of the most industrious of our literary bees.

Natural History of Birds, the drawing of which he also assiduously cultivated. Before he left Scotland, he had published a volume of poems, of, it is said, indifferent merit; a poem called the "Foresters," he published in America. Besides the art of drawing, he acquired also that of etching. He became afterwards, at a liberal salary, assistant editor of an American edition of Rees's Cyclopædia, the articles of which, on Natural History, it is presumed, were improved under his superintendance.

His work on Birds, the title of which is, American Ornithology, or Natural History of the Birds of the United States, illustrated with plates, engraved and coloured from original drawings taken from nature, by ALEXANDER WILSON, in nine volumes, folio, was published at Philadelphia by subscription. It was several years completing; the last volume appeared soon after his death, in 1814. A supplementary volume, containing some further observations on birds, and biographical particulars of the author, has been since published by Mr. GEO. ORD. This work has obtained for WILSON an imperishable name; it is little known in this country, but every lover of Natural History ought to be acquainted with it. WILSON'S whole study appears to have been nature; he derived little knowledge from books; but he traversed the United States in various directions for information concerning his favourite pursuit.

He died at Philadelphia, in 1813, aged 47, and left his ornithological work as a monument of his industry, his talent, and research. His descriptions of birds, although extremely accurate, are, nevertheless, highly poetical and picturesque; and the amiable spirit of humanity towards the objects of his attention, which breathes throughout his work, will never fail to excite for him a feeling of respect and esteem.

Besides furnishing the whole of the letter-press for his work, and the drawings for the plates, the plates themselves were almost wholly coloured by him, or under his immediate superintendance. A work of more accuracy in Natural History does not, perhaps, exist. America has reason to be proud of having been the foster-mother to ALEXANDER WILSON. The number of birds described by him is 278.

He was scrupulously just, social, affectionate, benevolent, and temperate; but of the genus irritabile, extremely pertinacious of his own opinion, and did not like to be told of his mistakes,--a weakness, for weakness it most certainly was, greatly to be deplored. His death deprived the world, most probably, of another work which he contemplated, namely, one on American Quadrupeds. He had a poetical mind, as the extracts from his work in the subsequent notes will shew,—but he wanted taste, to give that polish to his lines which most who read them will perceive they occasionally require. His description of the BALD EAGLE in Note 1, Part I. is, however, a masterpiece; it may be pronounced nearly a faultless picture.

It is said that upon some occasion the late President of the United States, JEFFERSON, treated WILSON with contempt. This it is extremely painful to hear; but it too often unfortunately happens that the worth of the living is unknown; we stand in need of death to set the seal to our pretensions and our merit. Surely JEFFERSON Could never neglect the truly meritorious and worthy, if he believed him to be so!

In concluding this notice of ANDREW WILSON, and his American Ornithology, it would be unpardonable here to omit the notice of a work, in some respects similar, on our BRITISH BIRDS, now in course of publication by Mr. SELBY; a work, the plates of which are on elephant folio, and co