194 The Natural History of Selborne 



..." Rang'd in figure wedge their way, 



And set forth 



Their airy caravan high over seas 

 Flying, and over lands with mutual wing 

 Easing their flight : " . . . . MILTON 



but scout and hurry along in little detached parties of six or seven 

 in a company ; and sweeping low, just over the surface of the land 

 and water, direct their course to the opposite continent at the 

 narrowest passage they can find. They usually slope across the bay 

 to the south-west, and so pass over opposite to Tangier, which, it 

 seems, is the narrowest space. 



In former letters we have considered whether it was probable that 

 woodcocks in moonshiny nights cross the German ocean from 

 Scandinavia. As a proof that birds of less speed may pass that sea, 

 considerable as it is, I shall relate the following incident, which, 

 though mentioned to have happened so many years ago, was strictly 

 matter of fact : As some people were shooting in the parish of 

 Trotton, in the county of Sussex, they killed a duck in that dreadful 

 winter, 1708-9, with a silver collar about its neck,* on which were 

 engraven the arms of the king of Denmark. This anecdote the 

 rector of Trotton at that time has often told to a near relation of 

 mine ; and, to the best of my remembrance, the collar was in the 

 possession of the rector. 



At present I do not know anybody near the seaside that will take 

 the trouble to remark at what time of the moon woodcocks first 

 come ; if I lived near the sea myself I would soon tell you more of 

 the matter. One thing I used to observe when I was a sportsman, 

 that there were times in which woodcocks were so sluggish and 

 sleepy that they would drop again when flushed just before the 

 spaniels, nay, just at the muzzle of a gun that had been fired at 

 them ; whether this strange laziness was the effect of a recent 

 fatiguing journey I shall not presume to say. 



Nightingales not only never reach Northumberland and Scotland, 

 but also, as I have been always told, Devonshire and Cornwall. In 

 those last two counties we cannot attribute the failure of them to the 



* I have read a like anecdote of a swan. 



