94 Dr. Jeniier on the Migration of' Birds. 



The winter birds (the females at least) may be said to seek 

 a better accommodation, upon the same principle as the poor 

 woman who quits her cottage for the comforts of a Lying-in 

 Hospital. Here, both herself and suckling are for a while 

 supported in that peculiar way which their situations at that 

 time require. For this reason, conceiving it will tend to lessen 

 confusion, I choose to call this country the home of the winter 

 birds (though not natives), and the countries from whence they 

 come, the home of the summer birds, looking upon the latter 

 merely as visitors ; and let it be recollected how soon the visits 

 of some of them are paid ; for, being governed by an unerring 

 principle, they stay to accomplish one great design only, that 

 of rearing their young, and then return. 



The countries to which many of the winter birds retire not 

 being very far distant, are better known to us than those to 

 which the summer birds migrate; but I must forbear enter- 

 ing into an inquiry upon this subject, as remote from the de- 

 sign of this paper; and indeed it may be thought 1 have al- 

 ready, in some instances, digressed too widely from my original 

 purpose. 



The migration of the winter birds is less distinctly marked 

 than that of the spring migrators. The snipe, the wild-duck, 

 the wood-pigeon, breed here in considerable numbers; the 

 two latter indeed, particularly the wood-pigeon, are so nu- 

 merous in summer, that we should hardly be reminded of the 

 migration, did they not pour in upon us in such immense 

 flocks in the winter. They are accompanied by the stock- 

 dove, which I have never known to breed here. The home- 

 bred wild-ducks are easily distinguished by the men who at- 

 tend decoy-pools, by the meanness of their plumage, when 

 compared to the brightness of those birds which come from 

 abroad. The former are taken some weeks earlier than the 

 latter. 



The most conspicuous among the winter migrating birds 

 are the redwings and fieldfares. These are regular and uni- 

 form in their appearance and disappearance, and I believe 

 never risk the trial of incubation here, at least I never could 

 hear of a single instance. The food of these birds has in the 

 works of every naturalist I have ever had access to, who had 

 written on the subject, been pointed out as the haw, the fruit 

 of the white-thorn *. 



This is an error that has long wanted a correction ; for in 

 open weather they take them in very scanty quantities, and 



* " The principal food of these birds, while with us, is the fruit of the 

 white-thorn, or haws, which hang on our hedges in winter in prodigious 

 plenty."— Phil. Trans, vol. xliv. p. 435. 



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