OF SELBORNE. 175 
of the first birds that suffer with us in severe weath- 
er, it is no wonder at all that they retreat from 
Scandinavian winters ; and much more the ordo of 
gralle, who all, to a bird, forsake the northern parts 
of Europe at the approach of winter, “ Gralle tan- 
quam conjurale unanimiter in Sugam Se conjiciunt ; 
ne earum unicam quidem inter nos habitantem inve- 
nire possimus ; ut enim astate in australibus degere 
nequeunt ob defectum lumbricorum, terramque sic- 
cam; ita nec in frigidis 0b eandem causam,” says 
Ekmarck the Swede, in his ingenious little treatise 
called Migrationes Avium, which by all means you 
ought to read while your thoughts run on the sub- 
ject of migration.—See Amenitates Academica, 
vol. iv., p. 565. 
Birds may be so circumstanced as to be obliged 
to migrate in one country and not in another ; but 
the gralle (which procure their food from marshes 
and boggy ground) must in winter forsake the more 
northerly parts of Europe, or perish for want of 
food. 
I am glad you are making inquiries from Lin- 
nzus concerning the woodcock ; it is expected of 
him that he should be able to account for the mo- 
tions and manner of life of the animals of his own 
Fauna. 
Faunists, as you observe, are too apt to acquiesce 
in bare descriptions and a few synonymes : the rea- 
son is plain; because all that may be done at home 
in a man’s study; but the investigation of the life 
and conversation of animals is a concern of much 
more trouble and difficulty, and is not to be attained 
but by the active and inquisitive, and by those that 
reside much in the country. 
