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 §^ai)ingtou. Milts, ^ 



^n alJtjanceti ©rnitijologist of tlje X8tl) Ceutiirg. 



By the Rev. A. C. SMiTH^^^^y 



(N 1780 was published anonymously, price one shilling, in 

 i ^ paper covers, "printed and sold, for the Author, by Collins 

 and Johnson, of Salisbury ; sold also by Fielding and Walker, of 

 Paternoster Row," a post 8vo treatise of x. and 45 pages, bearing on 

 its title-page the following very lengthy description of its contents, 

 after the manner of the age in which it was written : — 



" A discourse on the Euiigration of British Birds, or this Question at last solv'd, 

 Whence come the Stork and the Turtle, the Crane and the Swallow, when they 

 know and observe the appointed time of their coming? Containing a curious, 

 particular and circumstantial account of the respective retreats of all those Birds 

 of Passage which visit our island at the commencement of spring, and depart at 

 the approach of veinter; as, the Cuckow. Turtle. Stork, Crane, Quail, Goatsucker, 

 the Swallow tribe. Nightingale. Blackcap, Wheatear, Stonechat, Whinchat, 

 Willow Wren, Whitethroat, Etotoli, Flycatcher, &c., &c. Also a copious en- 

 tertaining and satisfactory relation of Winter Birds of Passage, among which are 

 the Woodcock, Snipe, Fieldfare. Redwing, Roj'ston Crow, Dotterel, &c. ; shewing 

 the different countries to which they retire, the places where they breed, and how 

 they perform their Annual Emigrations, &c., with a short account of those Birds 

 that migrate occasionally, or only shift their quarters at certain seasons of the 

 year. To which ai'e added Reflections ou that truly admirable and wonderful 

 instinct, the Annual Migration of Birds I By a Naturalist." 



What makes this treatise so remarkable is that it enunciates the 

 true story of the migration of birds-, so far in advance of general 

 belief on that point: for at the period when it was written, and 

 indeed well into the present century, it, was commonly su^jposed 

 that hybernation in hollow trees, holes of rocks and caves, and even 

 submergence at the bottom of ponds, lakes, and rivers, during the 

 winter, was the best explanation of the disappearance of the swallows, 

 warblers, and other soft-billed species in the autimin. We all know 



