THE migration of birds in general, is indeed a fertile fource of thofelouncommon and even fublime ideas which are effential to poetry What hore admirable than that fecret impulfe which Vincites every individual of as whole Ifpecies to cross immenfe feastsand a tracts of land in search of Las fecure retreatagainst unknown impending evils! What more beautiful than the order of their affembling and flight! What more aftonishing than their prodigious numbers when congregated for this purpose ! *« I have seen, ” says Linnæus "the fur ་པ་ face of the Calix, (a river in Lapland,) "for the space of eight days and nights, entirely covered with ducks, paffing evo towards the fea on their fouthern " ** journey,' exceeding in number I the armies of Xerxes, so that I could not mobog « have have imagined that fuch a multitude ff of birds ever exifted!st bisbni al` dbidw asb amildul nove bas пommo 910 How fingularly picturefque is the appearance of the Bafs ifle, in the Firth of Forth, as defcribed by Dr. Harvey zins his Exercitations on the generation of -animals! I give the original Latin, as 1 well as ea vtranslation of the paffage, as a specimen of the claffical elegance, of ftyle in which this great philofopher *ን "EST infula parva, Scoti Baffe "nominant: haud amplius mille paf"fuum circuitu amplitudo ejus clau"ditur. Hujus infulæ fuperficies, "menfibus Maio & Junio nidis ovis pullifque propemodum tota inftrata eft, adeo ut vix, præ eorum copia pedem "pedem liberè ponere liceat: tantaque fupervolantium turba, ut nubi"um inftar, folem cœlumque auferant : "tantufque vociferantium clangor & « ftrepitus, ut propè alloquentes vix au« dias. Si fubjectum mare inde, tanquam ex edita turri & altiffimo præ cipitio defpexeris, idem quoquo ver"fûm, infinitis diverforum generum avibus natantibus prædæque inhianti"bus, opertum videas. Si circumnavigando imminentum clivum fufpicere libuerit; videas in fingulis prærupti "loci crepidinibus & receffibus, avi"um cujuflibet generis & magnitudinis, "ordines innumerabiles, plures fanè « quam nocte, fereno cœlo, ftellæ confpiciuntur. Si advolantes avolantefque eminùs adfpexeris, apum profec to " "to ingens examen credas. Exercit. 11. "THERE is a small Island, called by the Scotch the Bafs, not more than a mile in circumference. Its furface is almost entirely covered during the months of May and June with nefts, eggs, and young birds; fo that it is difficult to fet a foot without treading on them while the flocks of birds flying round are fo prodigious, that they darken the air like a cloud; and their noife and clamour is fo great, that perfons can fcarce hear one another fpeak. If from the fummit of the precipice you look down on the fubjacent ocean, you see it on every fide covered with infinite numbers of birds of diffe rent kinds, fwimming and hunting their prey. If you fail round the island, and furvey the impending cliffs, you 1979 77 behold in every fiffure and recess of the craggy rocks innumerable ranks 10 of birds of various kinds and fizes, furpaffing in multitude the ftars in a ferene fky. If you view from a dif ང་ tance the flocks flying to and from the island, you may imagine them a vaft fwarm of bees." MANY other of the western ifles of Scotland offer fpectacles equally grand and amufing; fo that the barrennefs of the vegetable creation in these regions, is amply compenfated, with refpect to the imagination at least, by the animated treasures of the fea and fky. Thomson was by no means fensible of the descriptive beauties ari [Sari |