THE CRANE KIND. 



569 



birds of this class live upon animals of one 

 kind or another. The long-billed birds suck 

 up worms and insects from the bottom; those 

 furnished with shorter bills, pick up such in- 

 sects as lie nearer the surface of the meadow, 

 or among the sands on the sea-shore. 



Thus the curlew, the woodcock, and the 

 snipe, are ever seen is plashy brakes, and 

 under covered hedges, assiduously employed 

 in seeking out insects in their worm state ; 

 and it seems, from their fatness, that they find 

 a plentiful supply. Nature, indeed, has fur- 

 nished them with very convenient instruments 

 for procuring their food. Their bills are 

 made sufficiently long for searching; but 

 still more, they are endowed with an exqui- 

 site sensibility at the point, for feeling their 

 provision. They are furnished with no less 

 than three pair of nerves, equal almost to the 

 optic nerves in thickness ; which pass from 

 the roof of the mouth, and run along the up- 

 per chap to the point. 



Nor are those birds with shorter bills, and 

 destitute of such convenient instruments, 

 without a proper provision made for their 

 subsistence. The lapwing, the sandpiper, 

 and the redshank, run with surprising rapidity 

 along the surface of the marsh or the sea- 

 shore, quarter their ground with great dex- 

 terity, and leave nothing of the insect kind 

 that happens to lie on the surface. These, 

 however, are neither so fat nor so delicate 

 as the former; as they are obliged to toil 

 more for a subsistence, they are easily satis- 

 fied with whatever offers; and their flesh 

 often contracts a relish from what has been 

 their latest, or their principal food. 



Most of the birds formerly described, have 

 stated seasons for feeding and rest; the eagle 

 kind prowl by day, and at evening repose ; 

 the owl by night, and keeps unseen in the 

 day-time: but these birds, of the crane kind, 

 seem at all hours employed ; they are sel- 

 dom at rest by day; and, during the whole 

 night-season, every meadow and marsh re- 

 sounds with their different calls, to courtship 

 or to food. 



This seems to be the time when they least 

 fear interruption from man; and though they 

 fly at all times, yet, at this season^ they ap- 

 p - ;r more assiduously employed, both in pro- 

 viding for their present support, and continu- 



ing that of posterity. This is usually the sea- 

 son when the insidious fowler steals in upon 

 their occupations, and fills the whole mea- 

 dow with terror and destruction. 



As all of this kind live entirely in waters, 

 and among watery places, they seem pro- 

 vided by nature with a warmth of constitu- 

 tion to fit them for that cold element. They 

 reside, by choice, in the coldest climates : 

 and as other birds migrate here- in our sum- 

 mer, their migrations hither are mostly in (he 

 winter. Even those that reside among us the 

 whole season, retire in summer to the tops of 

 our bleakest mountains ; where they breed, 

 and bring down their young, when the cold 

 weather sets in. 



Most of them, however, migrate, and retire 

 to the polar regions; as those that remain 

 behind in the mountains, and keep with us 

 during summer, bear no proportion to the 

 quantity which in winter haunt our marshes 

 and low grounds. The snipe sometimes 

 huilds here ; and the nest of the curlew is 

 sometimes found in the plashes of our hills ; 

 but the number of these is very small ; and 

 it is most probable that they are only some 

 stragglers who, not having strength or cou- 

 rage sufficient for the general voyage, take 

 up from necessity their habitation here. 



In general, during the summer, this whole 

 class either choose the coldest countries to 

 retire to, or the coldest and the moistest part 

 of ours to breed in. The curlew, the wood- 

 cock, the snipe, the godwit, the gray plover, 

 the green and the long-legged plover, the 

 knot, and the turnstone, are rather the guests 

 than the natives of this island. They visit 

 us in the beginning of winter, and forsake us 

 in the spring. They then retire to the moun- 

 tains of Sweden, Poland, Prussia, and Lap- 

 land, to breed. Our country, during the 

 summer season, becomes uninhabitable to 

 them. The ground parched up by the heat; 

 the springs dried away ; and the vermicular 

 insects already upon the wing ; they have no 

 means of subsisting. Their weak and deli- 

 cately pointed bills are unfit to dig into a 

 resisting soil; and their prey is departed, 

 though they were able to reach its retreats. 

 Thus, that season when nature is said to 

 teem with life, arid to put on her gayest live- 

 ries, is to them an interval of sterility and 



