116 APRIL. 



on the subject. But they come, it is said, with 

 great secrecy, and go with great secrecy ! So 

 does the heavy woodcock ; and yet no one ever 

 doubted of the migration of that plethoric bird, 

 whose usual flight is not many hundred yards. A 

 few are sometimes seen after the rest have de- 

 parted, on the breaking out of a few fine days; 

 and a few, which in spring appear first, as sud- 

 denly disappear on the return of cold. Can this be 

 any wonder in birds of such velocity ? Some how- 

 ever have been found in a dormant state here. 

 This is a fact : but a fact only of a few, and of 

 rare occurrence; and proves no more than that, 

 when accident prevents their departure, Nature has 

 given them the power of so existing. But of all 

 the absurd hypotheses broached on this head, that 

 of their remaining at the bottom of pools and 

 marshes under water, during the winter, is the 

 most preposterous. Dissection has proved that 

 they have no organic provision for such a state, 

 and could not live half an hour in submersion ; so 

 that we are obliged to sacrifice our love of the 

 marvellous and mysterious, and let the poor birds 

 go, as Nature has given them power, to the 

 southern lands of summer. 



The whinchat and yellow wagtail are said to 

 remain in the southern counties through the winter 

 but they disappear from the northern and midland 

 ones. The ring-ousel merely passes through this 

 country on its spring and autumnal journeys, stay- 

 ing a few days in some particular spots. In the 



