294 On the Ornithology of Wilts \^]irerulid(e]. 



minable forests, one of which we traversed for no less than 100 

 miles, while on the Swedish side it stretched out 50 miles on our 

 left, with but one road for wheels throughout its length and breadth ; 

 scarcely meeting a human being in those vast solitudes, save only 

 at the few posthouses, at long intervening distances ; imagine all 

 this, and it may be understood how full of enjoyment it was to 

 listen to the delicious notes of the redwing, poured forth in the 

 wildest yet most harmonious strains from the tops of some of the 

 highest trees around us. Indeed the absence of the redwing would 

 be a serious blank in Norway, and very sensibly felt by the inhab- 

 itants, who being a remarkably primitive and simple people, un- 

 sophisticated, and kind hearted, never wantonly illtreat their birds 

 or animals, but cherish and protect them, and are rewarded by the 

 most unbounded confidence in return ; birds which are wildest and 

 shyest with us building close to the houses of the Norwegians, and 

 not caring to move out of the way, as you drive by. But if this 

 long digression on the home of the redwing appears irrelevant to 

 my subject on "Wiltshire birds, and the pages of this Magazine, I 

 submit, that the cause of its introdution is the hope of inducing 

 those who have thoughtlessly persecuted those poor birds, when 

 they are driven by inexorable winter to seek shelter and food in 

 our more genial climate, to stay their hand from such ruthless 

 slaughter, and reflect that while it is thought here almost an act 

 of sacrilege to destroy the nightingale and robin, the one so en- 

 deared to us by its song, the other by its confidence in man, the 

 Swedish nightingale partakes of both these virtues, and moreover 

 is quite harmless and innocent, seeking nothing from man's stores 

 for its support, but frequenting the meadows during the open wea- 

 ther, where it feeds on worms, snails, and larvae, and when frost 

 sets in, repairing (not to the rickyard and cornstack, but only) to 

 the hedges, where the berries of the ivy, the hawthorn, and the 

 holly supply its wants; and if unusually severe weather occurs, 

 migrating (as is reported by naturalists) still further southwards, 

 even to the shores of the Mediterranean. Montagu reports that 

 vast numbers of these birds resorted to this and the adjacent 

 counties in the hard winter of 1799, when exhausted by long 



