ISO NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



kind of birds (what few remained of them) did not depart as 

 usual, but were seen lingering about till the beginning of June. 



The best authority that we can have for the nidification of the birds 

 above-mentioned in any district, is the testimony of faunists that 

 have written professedly the natural history of particular countries. 

 Now as to the fieldfare, Linnaeus, in his " Fauna Suecica," says of 

 it, that " maximis in arboribus nidificat ; " and of the redwing he 

 says, in the same place, that " nidificat in mediis arbusculis^ sive 

 sepibus : ova sex cceruleo-viridia macnlis nigris variis" Hence we 

 may be assured that fieldfares and redwings build in Sweden. 

 Scopoli says, in his " Annus Primus," of the woodcock, that 

 "nupta ad nos venit circa aquinoctium vernale /" meaning in Tyrol, 

 of which he is a native. And afterwards he adds " nidificat in 

 paludibus alpinis : ova ponit 3-5." It does not appear from 

 Kramer that woodcocks breed at all in Austria ; but he says, 

 " Avis hcec septentrionalium provinciarum cestivo tempore incola est ; 

 ubi plerumque nidificat. Appropinquante hyeme australiores pro- 

 vincias petit ; hinc circa pleniluniurn mensis Octobris plerumque 

 Austriam transmigrat. Tune riirsus circa plenilunium potissimum 

 mensis Martii per Austriam matrimonio juncta ad septentrionales 

 provincias redit" For the whole passage (which I have abridged) 

 see " Elenchus," etc., p. 351. This seems to be a full proof of 

 the migration of woodcocks ; though little is proved concerning 

 the place of breeding. 



P.S. There fell in the county of Rutland, in three weeks of 

 this present very wet weather, seven inches and a half of rain, 

 which is more than has fallen in any three weeks for these thirty 

 years past in that part of the world. A mean quantity in that 

 county for one year is twenty inches and a half. 



NOTE TO LETTER VIII. 



1 Every year several woodcocks' nests are found in Norfolk and Suffolk. 

 While reading my Field last Saturday, May 3ist, 1879, I came upon the 

 following most interesting note : 



"I had a curious adventure with a woodcock last week. My keeper told 

 me he had found the bird in a covert sitting on four eggs, and I went at once 

 with him to see it. The woodcock remained on its. nest perfectly motionless 



