experiments, which were chiefly intended to determine, whether birds had any innate ideas of the notes or fong, which is fuppofed to be peculiar to each species, I fhall now make fome general obfervations on their finging though perhaps the fubject may appear to many a very minute one. Every poet, indeed, fpeaks with raptures of the harmony of the groves; yet thofe even, who have good mufical ears, feem to pay little attention to it, but as a pleafing noife. I am also convinced (though it may feem rather paradoxical) that the inhabitants of London diftinguish more accurately, and know more on this head, than of all the other parts of the island taken together. This feems to arife from two causes. The firft is, that we have not more mufical ideas which are innate, than we have of language; and therefore those even, who have the happiness to have organs which are capable of receiving a gratifica tion from this fixth fenfe (as it hath been called by fome) require, however, the best inftruction. The orchestra of the opera, which is confined to the metropolis, hath diffused a good ftyle of playing over the other bands of the capital, which is, by degrees, communicated to the fidler and ballad-finger in the ftreets; the organs in every church, as well as thofe of the Savoyards, contribute likewife to this improvement of mufical faculties in the Londoners. If the finging of the ploughman in the country is therefore compared with that of the London blackguard, the fuperiority is infinitely on the fide of the latter; and the fame may be observed in comparing the voice of a country girl and London houfemaid, as it is very uncommon to hear the former fing tolerably in tune. I do not mean by this, to affert that the inhabitants of the country are not born with as good mufical organs; but only, that they have not the fame opportunities of learning from others, who play in tune themselves. The other reafon for the inhabitants of London judging better in relation to the fong of birds, arifes from their hearing each bird fing diftinctly, either in their own or their neighbours fhops; as alfo from a bird continuing much longer in fong whift in a cage, than when at liberty; the caufe of which I fhall endeavour hereafter to explain. They who live in the country, on the other hand, do not hear birds fing in their woods for above two months in the year, when the confufion of notes prevents their attending to the fong of any particular bird; nor does he continue long enough in a place, for the hearer to recollect his notes with accuracy. Befides this, birds in the fpring fing very loud indeed; but they only give fhort jerks, and scarcely ever the whole compafs of their fong. For these reasons, I have never happened to meet with any perfon, who had not refided in London, whofe judgment or opinion on this fubject I could the leaft rely upon; and a ftronger proof of this cannot be given, than that most people, who keep Canary birds, do not know that they fing chiefly either the titlark, or nightingale notes Nothing, however, can be more marked than the note of a nightingale called its jug, which moft of the Canary birds brought from the Tyrol commonly have, as well as feveral nightingale ftrokes, or particular paffages in the fong of that bird. I mention this fuperior knowledge in the inhabitants of the capital, because I am convinced, that, if others are confulted in relation to the finging of birds, they will only miflead, inftead of giving any material or useful information t. Birds in a wild ftate do not commonly I once faw two of thefe birds which came from the Canary Islands, neither of which had any fong at all; and I have been informed, that a fhip brought a great many of them not long fince, which fung as little Moft of thofe Canary birds, which are imported from the Tyrol, have been educated by parents, the progenitor of which was inftructed by a nightingale; our English Canary birds have commonly more of the titlark note. The traffic in thefe birds makes a fmall article of commerce, as four Tyroleze generally bring over to England fixteen hundred every year; and though they carry them on their backs one thousand miles, as well as pay 20. duty for fuch a number, yet, upon the whole, it anfwers to fell thefe birds at 5 s. a piece. The chief place for breeding Canary birds is Infpruck and its environs, from whence they are fent to Conftantinople, as well as every part of Europe. fing above ten weeks in the year; which is then alfo confined to the cocks of a few fpecies; I conceive that this laft circumftance arifes from the fuperior ftrength of the mufcles of the larynx. I procured a cock nightingale, a cock and hen blackbird, a cock and hen rook, a cock linnet, as alfo a cock and hen chaffinch, which that very eminent anatomift, Mr. Hunter, F. R. S, was fo obliging as to diffect for me, and begged, that he would particularly attend to the ftate of the organs in the different birds, which might be fuppofed to contribute to finging. Mr. Hunter found the mufcles of the larynx to be stronger in the nightingale than in any other bird of the fame fize; and in all thofe inftances (where he dif. fected both cock and hen) that the fame mufcles were ftronger in the cock. I fent the cock and hen rook, in order to fee whether there would be the fame difference in the cock and hen of a fpecies which did not fing at all. Mr. Hunter, however, told me, that he had not attended fo much to their comparative organs of voice, as in the other kinds; but that, to the best of his recollection, there was no difference at all. Strength, however, in these muscles, feems not to be the only requifite; the birds must have alfo great plenty of food, which feems to be proved fufficiently by birds in a cage finging the greatest part of the year, when the wild ones do not (as I obferved before) continue in fong above ten weeks. The food of finging birds confifts of plants, infects, or feeds, and of the two first of thefe there is infinitely the greatest profufion in the fpring. As for feeds, which are to be met with only in the autumn, I think they cannot well find any great quantities of them in a country fo cultivated as England is; for the feeds in meadows are deftroyed by mowing; in pastures, by the bite of the cattle; and in arable, by the plough, when most of them are buried too deep for the bird to reach them t. The plough indeed may turn up fome few feeds, which may ftill be in an eatable itate. I know well that the finging of the cock-bird in the fpring, is attributed by many to the motive only of pleafing its mate during incubation. They, however, who fuppofe this, fhould recollect, that much the greater part of birds do not fing at all, why fhould their mate therefore be deprived of this folace and amusement? The bird in a cage, which, perhaps, fings nine or ten months in a year, cannot do fo from this inducement; and, on the contrary, it arifes chiefly from contending with another bird, or indeed against almoft any fort of continued noife. Superiority in fong gives to birds a most amazing afcendancy over each other; as is well known to the bird-catchers by the fafcinating power of their call-birds, which they contrive fhould moult prematurely for this purpofe. But, to fhew decifively that the finging of a bird in the spring does not arife from any attention to its mate, a very experienced catcher of nightingales hath informed me, that fome of thefe birds have jerked the inftant they were caught. He hath alfo brought to me a nightingale, which had been but a few hours in a cage, and which burst forth in a roar of fong. At the fame time this bird is fo fulky on its first confinement, that he must be crammed for feven or eight days, as he will otherwife not feed himself; it is alfo neceffary to tye his wings, to prevent his killing himself against the top or fides of the cage. I believe there is no inftance of any bird's finging which exceeds our blackbird in fize: and poffibly this may arife from the difficulty of its concealing itfelf, if it called the attention of its enemies, not only by bulk, but by the proportionable loudnefs of its notes *. I should rather conceive, it is for the fame reason that no hen-bird fings, because this talent would be ftill more dangerous during incubation; which may poffibly alfo account for the inferiority in point of plumage. Barrington. FISH E S, $22. The EEL. The cel is a very fingular fish in feveral things that relate to its natural history, For the fame reafon, moft large birds are wilder than the fmaller ones. and in fome refpects borders on the nature of the reptile tribe. It is known to quit its element, and during night to wander along the meadows, not only for change of habitation, but also for the fake of prey, feeding on the fnails it finds in its paffage. During winter it beds ittelf deep in the mud, and continues in a state of ret like the ferpent kind. It is very impatient of cold, and will eagerly take fhelter in a whifp of straw flung into a pond in fevere weather, which has fometimes been practifed as a method of taking them. Albertus goes fo far as to fay, that he has known eels to fhelter in a hay-rick, yet all perished through excefs of cold. It has been obferved, that in the river Nyne there is a variety of fmall eel, with a leffer head and narrower mouth than the common kind; that it is found in clusters in the bottom of the river, and is called the bed-ecl; these are sometimes roufed up by violent floods, and are never found at that time with meat in their ftomachs. This bears fuch an analogy with the cluftering of blindworms in their quiefcent tate, that we cannot but confider it as a further proof of a partial agreement in the nature of the two genera. The ancients adopted a moft wild opinion about the generation of thefe fih, believing them to be either created from the mud, or that the fcrapings of their bodies which they left on the ftones were animated and became young eels. Some moderns gave into thefe opinions, and into others that were equally extravagant. They could not account for the appearance of thefe fin in ponds that never were flocked with them, and that were even fo remote as to make their being met with in fuch places a phænomenon that they could not folve. But there is much reafon to believe, that many waters are fupplied with thefe fif by the aquatic fowl of prey, in the fame manner as vegetation is fpread by many of the land-birds, either by being dropped as they carry them to feed their young, or by paffing quick through their bodies, as is the cafe with herons; and fuch may be the occafion of the appearance of these fifh in places where they were never feen before. As to their immediate generation, it has been fufficiently proved to be effected in the ordinary courfe of nature, and that they are viviparous. They are extremely voracious, and very deftructive to the fry of fish. No fish lives fo long out of water as the eel it is extremely tenacious of life, as its parts will move a confiderable time after they are flayed and cut into pieces. The eel is placed by Linnæus in the genus of murena, his first of the apodal fifh, or fuch which want the ventral fins. The eyes are placed not remote from the end of the note: the irides are tinged with red: the under jaw is longer than the upper: the teeth are fmall, fharp, and numerous: beneath each eye is a minute orifice: at the end of the nose two others, fmall and tubular. The fish is furnished with a pair of pectoral fins, rounded at their ends. Another narrow fin on the back, uniting with that of the tail: and the anal fin joins it in the fame manner beneath. Behind the pectoral fins is the orifice to the gills, which are concealed in the skin. Eels vary much in their colours, from a footy hue to a light olive green; and those which are called filver eels, have their bellies white, and a remarkable clearness throughout. Befides thefe, there is another variety of this fifh, known in the Thames by the name of grigs, and about Oxford by that of grigs or gluts. These are scarce ever feen near Oxford in the winter, but appear in fpring, and bite readily at the hook, which common eels in that neighbourhood will not. They have a larger head, a blunter nofe, thicker fkin, and less fat than the common fort; neither are they so much efteemed, nor do they often exceed three or four pounds in weight. Common eels grow to a large fize, fometimes fo great as to weigh fifteen or twenty pounds, but that is extremely rare. As to inftances brought by Dale and others, of thefe fish increafing to a fuperior magnitude, we have much reafon to fufpect them to have been congers, fince the enormous fish they defcribe have all been taken at the mouths of the Thames or Med On the contrary, the luxurious Sybarites were fo fond of theie fith, as to exempt from every kind of tribute the perfons who fold them. § 23. The PERCH. The perch of Ariftotle and Aufonius is the fame with that of the moderns. That mentioned by Oppian, Pliny, and Athenæus, is a fea-fish, probably of the Labrus or Sparus kind, being enumerated by them among fome congenerous fpecies. Our perch was much efleemed by the Romans: Nec te delicias menfarum PERCA, filebo AUSONIUS. It is not lefs admired at prefent as a firm and delicate fifh; and the Dutch are particularly fond of it when made into a difh called water fouchy. It is a gregarious fish, and loves deep holes and gentle streams. It is a moft voracious fish, and eager biter : if the angler meets with a fhoal of them, he is fure of aking every one. It is a common notion that the pike will not attack this fish, being fearful of the fpiny fins which the perch erects on the approach of the former. This may be true in respect to large fifh; but it is well known the fmall ones are the moft tempt ing bait that can be laid for the pike. The perch is a fifh very tenacious of life: we have known them carried near fixty miles in dry ftraw, and yet furvive the journey. we once heard of one that was taken in These fish feldom grow to a large fize: the Serpentine river, Hyde Park, that weighed nine pounds; but that is very uncommon. The body is deep: the fcales very rough: the back much arched: fide-line near the back. The irides golden: the teeth fmall, difpofed on the jaws and on the roof of the mouth the edges of the covers of the gills ferrated on the lower end of the largest is a fharp spine. The first dorfal fin confifts of fourteen ftrong fpiny rays; the fecond of fixteen foft ones: the pectoral fins are transparent, and confift of fourteen rays; the ventral of fix; the anal of eleven. The tail is a little forked. The colours are beautiful: the back and part of the fides being of a deep green, marked with five broad black bars point; ing downwards: the belly is white, tinged with red: the ventral fins of a rich fear. let; the anal fins and tail of the fame colour, but rather paler. In a lake called Llyn Raithlyn, in Merionethshire, is a very fingular variety of perch: the back is quite hunched, and the lower part of the back-bone, next the tail, ftrangely distorted: in colour, and in other refpects, it refembles the common kind, which are as numerous in the lake as these deformed fish. They are not peculiar to this water; for Linnæus takes notice of a fimilar variety found at Fahlun, in his own country. I have also heard that it is to be met with in the Thames near Marlow. 24. The TROUT. It is a matter of furprife that this common. fifh has escaped the notice of all the anthat fo delicate a fpecies fhould be negcients, except Aufonius: it is alfo fingular, lected at a time when the folly of the table was at its height; and that the epicures fhould overlook a fish that is found neighbourhood, when they ransacked the in fuch quantities in the lakes of their univerfe for dainties. The milts of malivers of jeari from another; and oysters rana were brought from one place; the wicht: but there was, and is a fashion in even from fo remote a spot as our Sandfeem to have defpifed the trout, the piper, the article of good living. The Romans and the doree; and we believe Mr. Quin himfelf would have refigned the rich paps dreffed by Heliogabalus's cooks, for a good of a pregnant fow 1, the heels of camels, and the tongues of flamingos |, though jowl of falmon with lobster-fauce. When Aufonius fpeaks of this fifh, he lebrates it only for its beauty. makes no eulogy on its goodness, but ce Purpureifque SALAR ftellatus tergore guttis. Teque inter geminos fpecies, neutrumque et utrumque, Qui nec dum SALMO, nec SALAR ambiguufque Amborum medio FARIO intercepte fub ævo. SALMON OF SALAR, I'll pronounce thee neither; A doubtful kind, that may be none, or either. In fact, the colours of the trout, and its fpots, vary greatly in different waters, and in different feafons: yet each may be reduced to one fpecies. In Llyndivi, a lake in South Wales, are trouts called cochy dail, marked with red and black fpots as big as fixpences; others unípotted, and of a reddish hue, that fometimes weigh near ten pounds, but are bad tafted. In Lough Neagh, in Ireland, are trouts called there budaaghs, which I was told fometimes weighed thirty pounds; but it was not my fortune to fee any during my Ray in the neighbourhood of that valt wa ter. Trouts (probably of the fame fpecies) are alfo taken in Hulfe-water, a lake in Cumberland, of a much fuperior fize to thofe of Lough Neagh. Thefe are fuppofed to be the fame with the trout of the lake of Geneva, a fish I have eaten more than once, and think but a very indifferent one. In the river Eynion, not far from Machyntleth, in Merionethfhire, and in one of the Snowdon lakes, are found a variety of trout, which are naturally deformed, having a ftrange crookedness near the tail, refembling that of the perch before defcribed. We dwell the less on these monftrous productions, as our friend, the Hon. Daines Barrington, has already given an account of them in an ingenious differtation on fome of the Cambrian fish, published in the Philofophical Transactions of the year 1767. The ftomachs of the common trouts are uncommonly thick and mufcular. They feed on the fhell-fish of lakes and rivers, as well as on fmall fish. They likewife take into their ftomachs gravel, or fmall ftones, to affift in comminuting the teftaceous parts of their food. The trouts of certain lakes in Ireland, fuch as thofe of the province of Galway, and fome others, are remarkable for the great thickness of their ftomachs, which, from fome flight refemblance to the organs of digeftion in birds, have been called gizzards: the Irish name the fpecies that has them, Gillaroo trouts. These ftomachs are fometimes ferved up to table, under the former appellation. It does not appear to me, that the extraordi- . nary ftrength of ftomach in the Irish fish, fhould give any fufpicion that it is a dif tinct fpecies: the nature of the waters might increase the thickness; or the fuperior quantity of fhell-fith, which may more frequently call for the ufe of its comminuting powers than thofe of our trouts, might occafion this difference. I had opportunity of comparing the ftomach of a great Gillaroo trout, with a large one from the Uxbridge river. The laft, if I recollect, was fmaller, and out of feafon; and its ftomach (notwithstanding it was very thick) was much inferior in ftrength to that of the former: but on the whole, there was not the least specific difference between the two fubje&ts Trouts are most voracious fish, and afford excellent diverfion to the angler: the paffion for the fport of angling is fo great in the neighbourhood of London, that the liberty of fishing in fome of the ftreams in the adjacent counties, is purchafed at the rate of ten pounds per ́an num, Thefe fifh fhift their quarters to spawn, and, like falmon, make up towards the heads of rivers to depofit their roes. The under jaw of the trout is subject, at certain times, to the fame curvature as that of the falmon. A trout taken in Llynallet, in Denbighfhire, which is famous for an excellent kind, measured feventeen inches, its depth three and three quarters, its weight one pound ten ounces: the head thick; the nofe rather fharp; the upper jaw a little longer than the lower; both jaws, as well as the head, were of a pale brown, blotched with black: the teeth fharp and ftrong: difpofed in the jaws, roof of the mouth and tongue, as is the cafe with the whole genus, except the gwyniad, which is toothless, and the grayling, which has none on its tongue. The back was dufky; the fides tinged with a purplish bloom, marked with deep purple fpots, mixed with black, above and below the fide line which was strait: the belly white. The dorfal fin was fpotted; the fpurious fin brown, tipped with red; the pectoral, ventral, and anal fins, of a pale brown; the edges of the anal fin white: the tail very little forked when extended. |