Trans. vol. xx. 105; li. 459; liii. 101; lxiv. 156; lxv. 258, 343, &c. Pontop. Hist. Nor. ii. 98. Raii Synop. p. 71. Russel Alep. 70. Shaksp. Win. Tale, act iv. scene 3. l. 136; Mac. act i. scene 6. Î. 5; Tim. Ath. act iii. scene 6; Merch. Venice, act ii. scene 9. 1. 27. Thomps. Seas Aut. 1. 841. Trans. Lin. Soc. vol. i. 121; iii. 12; iv. 6. Will. Orn. lib. ii. cap. 3. tab. 39. p. 212. White Nat. Hist. Selb. vol. i. 283, 293; ii. 74, 197, 201. Zinnan. Nou. 34.

There are many other writers, who speak of the Swallow, cited by Gesner, as Achaeus, Eustathius, Gyraldus, Thrasyllus, Nicol, Myrepsus, Fuchsius, &c. See also several works on popular Antiquities; Calendars of Flora and Fauna, &c. &c. Consult likewise " Deutschland's Vögel," "Wilson's Ornith." and the Journals of Meteorology. Gent. Mag. vol. x. p. 182; xix. 446; xxix. 356, 360; xxxi. 536; xxxii. 321; xxxiii. 514; xl. 57, 260, 263, 294; xlvi. 203, 270; li. 177; lvi. p. 708; lvii. 1190; lx. 24, 124, 495; lxi. 1102, 1207; lxii. 99, 506, 602, 713, 798, 805, 843, 677, 912, 978, 982, 1027, 1035, 1161, 1181; lxiii. 124, 135, 605, 703, 817; lxv. 980; lxvi. 3, 4, 96, 115, 196, 197, 210, 267, 270, 279, 385, 394, 399, 401, 480, 731, 994; lxvii. 179, 272, 1010; Ixix. 291; lxxi. 976; lxxiii. 415, 416; lxxiv. 410, 525, 620, 624, 713, 728, 829, 1118, 1187, 1211; lxxv. 114, 314, 704, 812, 1005, 1025, 1106; lxxvi. 430, 471, 703, 923, 995, 1016; Ixxvii. 8, 228, 326, 428, 503; lxxviii. 37, 409, &c; and particularly Gent. Mag. for 1823, plates. Month. Mag. vol. xix. p. 541; xxi. 415. Nicholson's Journal Nat. Phil. 1810. Tilloch's Phil. Mag. 1813, and Notes to Meteorol. Journals of T. Forster. To these we may add, Gmel. Syst. i. 1017. Scop. Ann. i. 250. Trich. t. 17. Borowsk, Nat. Hist. iv. 154. Gunth. N. u. Eg. t. 28. Dr. Clarke's, of Cambridge, Travels, vol. iii. and iv. Conf. also Scop. Anni. p. 165. Muller, No. 28. Kram. El. No. 1, p. 380. Brun. Orn. p. 73. Geor. Reise, p. 175. Frisch. Tab. 18. Pall. Tr. vol. ii. 709. Act. Holm. 1769. Spic. Zoolog. Planch. Enl. 545, f. i. Bris. Ornithol. ii. No. 6. Mem. sur Cayenne, vol. ii. 276. Edwards, &c. &c. &c.

April 3.

SS. Agape, &c. Martyrs. St. Richard.
St. Nicolas. St. Ulpian, Martyr.

FAUNA. The Lesser Pettychaps, or Least Willow Wren Ficedula pinetorum begins now to be numerous. This is the smallest of the Willow Wrens, and is the Sylvia Hippolais of Latham's Synopsis. This bird remains with us till the beginning of Winter.-See Forster's Synoptical Catalogue of British Birds, published by Nicholls and Co. in 1817, No. 103, where it is called Trochilus Minor.

Nidification of Birds.-The warblers being now either arrived or arriving daily, begin the business of love, and commence the work of nestmaking; and the divers sorts of nests of each species, adapted to the wants of each, and springing out of their respective instincts, combined with the propensity to construct, form a curious subject of research for the Natural Historian. Every part of the world furnishes materials for the aerial architects: leaves and small twigs, roots and dried grass, mixed with clay, serve for the external; whilst moss, wool, fine hair, and the softest animal and vegetable downs, form the warm internal part of these

1

commodious dwellings. The following beautiful lines from Thomson are highly descriptive of the busy scene which takes place during the time of Nidification:

Of vernal songters-some to the holly hedge,
Nestling, repair, and to the thicket some;
Some to the rude protection of the thorn
Commit their feeble offspring: the cleft tree
Offers its kind concealment to a few,

Their food its insects, and its moss their nests:
Others apart, far in the grassy dale

Or roughening waste, their humble texture weave:
But most in woodland solitudes delight,
In unfrequented glooms or shaggy banks,
Steep, and divided by a babbling brook,
Whose murmurs soothe them all the livelong day,
When by kind duty fixed. Among the roots
Of Hazel, pendent o'er the plaintive stream,
They frame the first foundation of their domes,
Dry sprigs of trees, in artful fabric laid,
And bound with clay together. Now 'tis nought
But restless hurry through the busy air,
Beat by unnumbered wings. The Swallow sweeps
The slimy pool, to build the hanging house
Intent: and often from the careless back
Of herds and flocks a thousand tugging bills
Pluck hair and wool; and oft, when unobserved,
Steal from the barn a straw; till soft and warm,
Clean and complete, their habitation grows.

On the Nestling of Birds, from Bidlake.
A thousand bills are busy now; the skies
Are winnowed by a thousand fluttering wings,
While all the feathered race their annual rites
Ardent begin, and choose where best to build,
With more than human skill; some cautious seek
Sequestered spots, while some, more confident,
Scarce ask a covert. Wiser, these elude
The foes that prey upon their several kinds;
Those to the hedge repair, with velvet down
Of budding sallows beautifully white.
The cavernloving Wren sequestered seeks
The verdant shelter of the hollow stump,
And with congenial moss, harmless deceit,
Constructs a safe abode. On topmost boughs
The glossy Raven, and the hoarsevoiced Crow,
Rocked by the storm, erect their airy nests.
The Ousel, lone frequenter of the grove
Of fragrant pines, in solemn depth of shade
Finds rest; or 'mid the holly's shining leaves,
A simple bush the piping Thrush contents,
Though in the woodland concert he aloft
Trills from his spotted throat a powerful strain,
And scorns the humbler quire. The Lark too asks
A lowly dwelling, hid beneath a turf,

Or hollow, trodden by the sinking hoof;

M

Songster of heaven! who to the Sun such lays
Pours forth, as Earth ne'er owns. Within the hedge
The Sparrow lays her skystained eggs. The barn,
With eaves o'erpendant, holds the chattering tribe:
Secret the Linnet seeks the tangled copse:
The white Owl seeks some antique ruined wall,
Fearless of rapine; or in hollow trees,

Which age has caverned, safely courts repose:
The thievish Pie, in twofold colours clad,
Roofs o'er her curious nest with firmwreathed twigs,
And sidelong forms her cautious door; she dreads
The taloned Kite, or pouncing Hawk; savage
Herself, with craft suspicion ever dwells.

April 4.

ST. AMBROSE? St. Isidore. St. Plato.

St. Ambrose was, first, a praefect, or judge, and afterwards Bishop of Milan in Italy. While Ambrose was in his cradle, a swarm of Bees,' as Paulinus affirms, settled on his lips; a prognostic of future eloquence, similar to that related of Plato. At a very early period he had perfected himself in the study of the civil law, and practised as an advocate at Rome; where, being noticed for his superior talents, he was appointed Governor of Liguria and Aemilia.

Ambrose died at Milan, on the 4th of April 397, and was buried in the great church; a cathedral remarkable for the excellence of its structure and the beauty of its ornaments.

His works continue to be held in much respect, particularly the hymn of Te Deum,' which he is said to have composed when he baptized St. Augustine, his celebrated convert. St. Ambrose is considered as the first who introduced the antiphonant method of chanting, or one side of the choir alternately responding to the other; from whence that particular mode obtained the name of the Ambrosian Chant, while the plain song, introduced by St. Gregory, still practised in the Romish service, is called the Gregorian, or Roman Chant.-See St. Ambrose, Dec. 7.

FLORA. The Crown Imperial Fritillaria Imperialis is usually in blow by this time, as is the Chequered Daffodil Fritillaria Maleagris.

Origin of April.-April is derived from Aprilis of aperio, 'I open,' because the earth, in this month, begins to open her bosom for the production of vegetables. The Saxons called this month Ostermonat, from the goddess Goster, or because the winds were found to blow generally from the East in this month.

CHRONOLOGY.-Oliver Goldsmith died in 1774.

We have selected, to close the account of today, the following lines:

On the Return of Spring Birds, from Jago's Swallows.

At length the Winter's howling blasts are o'er,
Arrayed in smiles the lovely Spring returns;
Now fuelled hearths attractive blaze no more,
And every breast with inward fervour burns.

Again the Daisies peep, the Violets blow;
Again the vocal tenants of the grove,
Forgot the pattering hail or driving snow,
Renew the lay to melody and love.

And see, my Delia, see o'er yonder stream,
Where on the bank the lambs in gambols play;
Alike attracted by the sunny gleam,

Again the Swallows take their wonted way.

Welcome, ye gentle tribe, your sports pursue;
Welcome again to Delia and to me;
Your peaceful councils on my roof renew,
And plan new settlements, from danger free.

Again I'll listen to your grave debates;

Again I'll hear your twittering songs unfold

What policy directs your wandering states,

What bounds are settled, and what tribes enrolled.

April 5. St. Vincent Ferrer, C. St. Gerald. St. Becan. St. Tigernach.

NONAE. Megalesia.-Rom. Cal. Hebae. Ovid.

The Megalesia were games in honour of Cybele, instituted by the Phrygians, and introduced at Rome in the second Punic war, when the statue of the goddess was brought from Pessinus.-Liv. xxix. c. 14. Ovid. Fast. iv. v. 337.

CHRONOLOGY.-Some have pretended that this has been ascertained to be the day on which Jesus Christ rose from the dead, anno 33. We do not, however, consider the precise time of the first Easter to have been positively established. The reader may consult, on this subject, Ferguson, Newton, and other Astronomical Chronologists.

The miracle of the Resurrection is one of the grandest events in religious history, as affording the most positive proof of a future state. The three miracles of this sort, wrought by Jesus Christ in proof of his doctrine, are already well known to every one; and we would recommend to those who desire to pursue inquiries into this subject, to consult the accounts left of numerous similar miracles recorded and arranged in that mass of religious information, Butler's Lives

of the Saints, 12 vols. 8vo. 1812. For more particulars concerning Easter, see April 10.

Milton, in Lycidas, gives the following beautiful lines on the Resurrection of the Body:

Weep no more, woful Shepherds, weep no more,
For Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead,

Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor.
So sinks the daystar in the ocean bed,

And yet anon repairs his drooping head,

And tricks his beams, and with newspangled ore
Flames in the forehead of the morning sky:

So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high,

Through the dear might of him that walked the waves;
Where, other groves and other streams along,
With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves,
And hears the unexpressive nuptial song,
In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love.
There entertain him all the Saints above,
In solemn troops, and sweet societies,
That sing, and, singing in their glory, move,
And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes.
Now, Lycidas, the Shepherds weep no more;
Henceforth thou art the genius of the shore,
In thy large recompense, and shalt be good
To all that wander in that perilous flood.

April 6. St. Sextus I. Pope. St. Celsus. St. Prudentius. St. Celestine. St. William, C.

Orises at v. 25'. and sets VI. 35'.

Old Lady Day.

Fortunae Publicae Dianae Natalis.-Rom. Cal.

Fortune or the Goddess of Chances, celebrated today in the Roman Calendar, was thus addressed by Horace, lib. ì. ode 35:

O Diva, gratum quae regis Antium,
Praesens vel imo tollere de gradu
Mortale corpus, vel superbos

Vertere funeribus triumphos:
Te pauper ambit sollicitâ prece
Ruris colonus: te dominam aequoris,
Quicunque Bithynâ lacessit
Carpathium pelagus carinâ.

Te Dacus asper, te profugi Scythae,
Urbesque, gentesque, et Latium ferox,
Regumque matres barbarorum, et
Purpurei metuunt tyranni:

Injurioso ne pede proruas

Stantem columnam: neu populus frequens
Ad arma cessantes, ad arma

Concitet, imperiumque frangat.