ing the bell, to get her accustomed meal; but it happened one day that she was shut up in a chamber, and it was in vain for her that the bell had sounded. Some hours after, having been emancipated from her confinement, she hastened to the hall, but found nothing left for her. The cat thus disappointed got to the bell, and sounding it endeavoured to summon the family to a second dinner, in which she doubted not to participate. Migration of the Swallow.-The mystery which attends the retreat of the swallows from our northern climes during winter, is one which promises little hopes of ever being solved. To whatever clime or part of the world they proceed, their flight is at an elevation far beyond the reach of human optics. With the first ray of the morning they depart so directly upwards, as to elude all research; and with the first dawn of day they return, but whence no man can tell: they drop as from the clouds, and take up their abode in their former haunts, as if they had just left them the hour before. The preparation for their annual flight is marked by some interesting circumstances. After the swallows have got their second brood, which is generally about the middle of September, they devote the whole of their remaining time to training the young for their ultimate flight. The regularity and order with which this is done is extraordinary. After the business of the food gathering is over, they assemble in multitudes from all quarters in general conversation, on the roof of some building, or some large tree. While the assembly are seated together, he who seems commander in-chief keeps aloft on the wing, flying round and round; at last darting upwards with great swiftness with a loud, sharp, and repeated call, he seems as if he gave the word of command; instantly the whole flock are on the wing, rising upwards in the most beautiful spiral track, till they attain regions beyond the reach of human view. They remain in the upper regions of the atmosphere from a quarter to half an hour, when they all return by scores and dozens, to the place whence they took their flight. This manoeuvre they will repeat two or three times in the evening when the weather is fair; and after ten or twelve days of such practising, they take their final departure for the season. The theory of their submerging during winter is now, we believe, generally regarded as all a dream. It has arisen, apparently, from an optical illusion, which is very well explained in the following anecdote, related by Mr. Gavin Inglis. (Phil. Mag. vol. iii). “On the 11th of April, 1812, returning from Glasgow with a friend, we stopped at Kinross to corn our horses, and take a parting dinner-before dinner was ready, we took a turn down to the old chapel; and returning by the loch (lake) side, we both expressed our astonishment at the vast assemblage of swallows, the first we had seen that season, hovering over the surface of the corner of the lake. What,' said my companion, can the creatures have emerged from the water? some people assert, that they hibernate at the bottom of lakes and rivers. It must be so: see, there is one just risen.' To a superficial observer, they had certainly all the appearance of just emerging from the bosom of the lake. But looking attentively, we perceived them regularly descending in a slanting direction, and take something from the surface of the water, in which exercise they always in skimming struck the water with their breast, dashing a spray around them, which looked very much like to shaking the water from their wings. This I have since observed a thousand times, in the swallow skimming the river or mill-dam, catching the water flies, but which to persons not interesting themselves in the result, and at some little distance from the scene of action, is certainly very delusive, and without a close inspection, apt to leave the impression of their emerging from the water, upon the mind. The weather was still cold, and not a fly abroad in the air to support them; no doubt remained with us, of their thus gathering food; an idea in which we were soon strengthened, by stepping down to the edge of the lake, when we saw the surtace of the water all along the shore, and as far as the eye could reach, swarming with insects, in appearance like gross gunpowder, and the water itself filled with the maggot of the water fly, upon which there can be no doubt whatever the birds were feeding." Some similar occurrences had doubtless given birth to the theory of submerging; and Mr. Daines Barrington and others, who so confidently assert that they have seen them with their own eyes rising out of the lakes and rivers, and shaking the water from their wings, must have been deceived with their eyes open. Buffon tells us that a shoemaker in Basle, anxious to obtain a solution of this singular mystery, put a collar on a swallow containing an inscription to this effect: "Pretty swallow, tell me whither thou goest in winter?" In the ensuing spring, he received by the same courier the following answer: "To Anthony of Athens:-Why dost thou inquire?" Assuming the story to be true, it is pretty evident that the answer must have been the work of some wag much nearer than Athens, for both Belon and Aristotle assure us, that though the swallows live half the year in Greece, they always pass the winter in Africa. A better answer to the son of St. Crispin would have been, Ne sutor ultra crepidam; and in any future edition of Buffon, the story would not lose any thing by substituting this as the real fact. A Short Dialogue at the Theatre." Smith, my dear fellow, I must squeeze a lady in your box!" " If you do,” replied the other, "I'll kick you out of it." |