42 On the Ornithology of Wilts, 
above the sea, and on the immense deserts of rock and snow, com- 
posing the Norwegian “fjelds.”” Even more than this, that inde- 
fatigable naturalist, De Saussure, who first surmounted the avalanches 
and glaciers, which presented, till then, an impassable barrier to 
the ascent of Mont Blane, discovered on the very top of that glorious 
mountain several minute insects, revelling in the cold and rarified 
air of that exalted spot, upwards of 15,000 feet above the sea. Now 
if there are living creatures to be found in every kind of country, 
in remote, inhospitable, and almost inaccessible rocks and snows, 
as well as in more genial and milder regions, and if each creature, 
of whatever class and however minute, is still most wonderfully 
formed and fitted for the particular locality assigned to it, we may 
assert again, without fear of contradiction, that the distriet which 
comprises the greatest variety of scenery, will also be found to afford 
the greatest variety of species. I have been induced to digress a 
little on this point, because I would clearly show that an opinion 
which I have heard frequently expressed with regard to this county 
is not tenable, viz., that whereas the greater part of it is composed 
of bleak open downs, therefore it is impossible there should be a 
good field of research for the naturalist. Now I contend that 
Wiltshire is especially rich in Ornithological productions; and for 
the same reason I doubt not in the productions of other branches of 
Zoology, because of that great diversity of scenery, which manifestly 
belongs to it. It is scarcely necessary for’ me standing in the very 
midst of the county, to call attention to this fact. We have, it is true, 
our broad expanding downs: (and what native of Wiltshire does not 
glory in them?) but we have at the same time our richly-timbered 
enclosed vales: if we have hill we have also dale; if we have open 
plains we have also large woods and thick forests. From this very 
variety, then, of scenery, we should expect to find a variety of 
species of birds, and such is certainly the result of our inquiries. 
Taking into consideration that this is an inland district, and there- 
fore cannot be expected to abound in birds whose habitat is the 
sea and sea-shore, I maintain that Wiltshire yields to no other in 
the number and variety of the species of birds to be found there, 
and I now proceed to prove this more in detail. 
Of the five orders into which birds are commonly divided, three 
compose that large class called the “Land Birds,” and two the 
“Water Birds.” Now the work which is at this present day 
almost universally accepted by Ornithologists as their manual and 
book of reference (I mean Yarrell’s British Birds,) contains in the 
last edition, published and revised up to 1845, a list of 171 land 
birds. This list contains the names not only of every bird which 
inhabits this country throughout the year, or which being migra- 
tory is a periodical sojourner here during the summer or winter, 
or an occasional visitant, passing us on its way to northern or 
southern latitudes, but also of every bird which has ever been seen 
in this country. If an accidental straggler from Africa or America 
