The reader may be amused to learn, that very
recently we were assured by one, who _knew it for an absolute fact_, that
ducks and even chickens (!!!) had been found in a certain farmer's pond,
laid up in winter quarters, which were revived by the warmth of the sun
and upper air, upon being fished out of it!! "Regarding _Birds' Eggs_,"
says the Naturalist in his interesting Journal, "we have a very foolish
superstition here (Gloucestershire:) the boys may take them unrestrained,
but their mothers so dislike their being kept in the house, that they
usually break them; their presence may be tolerated for a few days, but by
the ensuing Sunday they are frequently destroyed, under the idea that they
bring bad luck, or prevent the coming of good fortune, as if in some way
offensive to the domestic deity of the hearth."
Here, then, we pause; some abler hand may, perhaps, be tempted to take up
the subject as we leave it, for there are yet gleanings, in the field, of
"Superstitions and Fables connected with animals," over which our leisure
has allowed us but lightly to pass; gleanings sufficient to reward the
industrious and the curious; or, it may even be, that we shall return,
some day, to this topic ourselves, time and materials permitting.
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