its note is very particular; and its coming was connected with a very important part of business-harvest. The coming of the stork, from the South, announces the speedy withdrawing of the winter; the cooing of the turtle, together with the singing of the nightingale, affirms that the spring is come; and the voice of the cuckoo, that it is so far advanced that it is then time to begin harvest. Where the Prophet mentions. the stork in the heavens, he may be considered as contrasting them with the other birds, which returned more secretly, flying low near the earth. The taking notice of this circumstance is natural. In the Swedish calendar, given in the Collections of Mr. Stillingfleet, there are but three days between the coming of the stork and swallow, (which both arrived in one day,) and the hearing of the cuckoo, and the third day after the cuckoo and the nightingale is said to have sung." In the Norfolk calendar, formed by Stilling fleet on his own observations in that county, the swallow returned the 6th of April 1755, the nightingale sung the 9th, the cuckoo not heard till the 17th. According to this, as in the remote northern countries, vegetables hurry on, when summer comes thither, with much greater rapidity than with us, as appears by a Siberian or Lapland general calendar i the same writer;' so it should seem the coming of the various tribes of migratory birds follows " P. 266, 267. . P. 317. each other in a greater hurry than with us, and our's, perhaps, in quicker succession than in Judea, and it may be not exactly in the same order. But careful observations are wanting here. I will only add farther, that though classical readers, who are acquainted with Ovid, and the supposed metamorphosis of Progne into a swallow, may imagine the noise that bird makes is very melancholy, and therefore suppose the words of Hezekiah may very well be translated "like a swallow so did I chatter;" yet I believe the unprejudiced mind will be disposed to think, that the note of the cuckoo much more naturally expresses the softly complaining Oh! of the afflicted, when doubled as it often is Oh! oh! than the chattering of a swallow Not to dwell on an observation that may be made, that the word tsaph tsaph, translated chatter, appears to signify the low, melancholy, interrupted voice of the complaining sick, rather than a chattering noise, if we consult the other places in which it is used, which are Isaiah viii. 19, x, 14. xxix. 4. As for the chattering of the crane, it seems quite inexplicable. Swallows, however, appear in the Holy Land; they were seen at Acre y It is used also Ezek. xvii. 5. but there it is translated a willow tree in our version. Parkhurst confounds this root n tsaphah, to overspread or overflow; but they certainly have no connexion. It seems to be of the same import with the Arabic saffa, which signifies to make equal, arrange, set in order. EDIT. in 1774, in October, and were then about disappearing. OBSERVATION XXXIV. Of the cast Numbers of tame Turtle-doves found in Egypt, &c. Maillet does the A SACRED writer supposes that the turtledove is a migratory bird. same, as to many, not all: telling us, that when the cold sets in here in Europe, many kinds of birds come to Egypt, some fixing themselves near the mouths of the Nile, some taking up their abode near Cairo, and there are some that go as far as Upper Egypt; and among the migratory birds found in Egypt, upon the approach of winter, he mentions quails and turtle-doves of passage, which are, he says, very good. Two things appear in this account of Maillet: 1st. That many turtle-doves do not migrate; and 2d. That they are eaten in Egypt as food, and found to be very good. The first point is confirmed, I think, by Dr. Chandler, at the same time that he found the singing of the nightingale and the cooing of the turtle-dove were coincident things, according z A peine le froid commence à se faire sentir en Europe, qu'on ne manque ici ni de canards, ni de sarcelles, ni de becassines et de pluviers, ni meme de cailles et de tourterelles passagéres, qui sont fort bonnes. Desc, de l'Egypte, Let. 9, p. 21. 3 to Cant. ii. 12, of which I have elsewhere given some account.* On "We set out," says the Doctor, from Magnesia, on the 23d at noon, . . . . each side of us were orchards of fig-trees sown with corn; and many nightingales were singing in the bushes." Again, p. 202, At ten, our course was northward, on its bank," (the river Harpasus) "in a valley. We were surrounded with a delightful trilling of innumerable nightingales." On the same day, they arrived at Guzel-Hissar, at entering which town, he tells us, they were surprised to see around them innumerable tame turtle-doves, sitting on the branches of the trees, on the walls, and roofs of houses, cooing unceasingly, p. 205. These, according to the Doctor, were tame turtle-doves. They were found in a town, not heard as they travelled in the country; and their number was very large sitting every where on trees, on walls, and on the roofs. There is a difficulty which may have presented itself to some minds, and which this account of the tame turtle-doves of Guzel-Hissar may remove. They migrate on the approach of winter. Now in that season, it appears by a quotation from a Jewish writer, mentioned in a preceding volume, pigeons are not wont to d Outlines of a New Comment. &c. p. 149. 4 April 21. have young ones: how then could that law of Moses be obeyed, which relates to matters that happen at all times of the year, and which enjoined them to bring for an offering to the LORD two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons? But now it may be observed from hence, that if young pigeons could not be procured, as being in the winter, tame turtle-doves might supply their place, there being doubtless great numbers of them then in Judea; as there are now at Guzel Hissar. A religious consideration must have engaged the Jews to keep them; which can have no influence on the inhabitants of Asia Minor of our time. As to the other point-their being eaten, that appears evident from Maillet, who could not otherwise have pronounced concerning their goodness; yet it seems from the answers I received from some I consulted on this point, who had been in the Holy Laud, that they are not very commonly used for food there at this time, since they did not remember ever to have eaten of them in that country. They may be kept, possibly, at this time in such numbers in the Lesser Asia, merely for pleasure; but it is certain that St. Jerom, who lived long in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, speaks of fat turtles as luxurious eating, num e Lev. xii. 8. ch. xiv. 22, &c. f Procul sint a conviviis tuis phasides aves, crassi turtures, attagen Ionicus, et omnes aves, quibus amplissima. patrimonia avolant. Nec ideo te carnibus vesci non putes, si Suum, Leporum, atq; Cervorum, et quadrupedum animantium esculentias reprobes. Non enim hæc pedum nu |