570 



A HISTORY OF 



famine. The coldest mountains of the north 

 are then a preferable habitation ; the mar- 

 shes there are never totally dried up; and 

 the insects are in such abundance, that, both 

 above ground and underneath, the country 

 swarms with them. In such retreats, there- 

 fore, these birds would continue always ; 

 but that the frosts, when they set in, have the 

 same effect upon the face of the landscape, 

 as the heats of summer. Every brook is stif- 

 fened into ice ; all the earth is congealed 

 into one solid mass ; and the birds are obliged 

 to forsake a region where they can no longer 

 find subsistence. 



Such are our visitants. With regard to 

 those which keep with us continually, and 

 breed here, they are neither so delicate in 

 their food, nor perhaps so warm in their con- 

 stitutions. The lapwing, the ruff, the red- 

 shank, the sandpiper, the sea-pie, the Nor- 

 folk plover, and the sea-lark, breed in this 

 country, and, for the most part, reside here. 

 In summer they frequent such marshes as are 

 not dried up in any part of the year; the 

 Essex hundreds, and the fens of Lincolnshire. 

 There, in solitudes formed by surrounding 

 marshes, they breed and bring up their young. 

 In winter they come down from their retreats, 

 rendered uninhabitable by the flooding of the 

 waters, and seek their food about our ditches 

 and marshy meadow-grounds. Yet, even of 

 this class, all are wanderers upon some oc- 

 casions ; and take wing to the northern cli- 

 mates, to breed and find subsistence. This 

 happens when our summers are peculiarly 

 dry; and when the fenny countries are not 

 sufficiently watered to defend their retreats. 



But though this be the usual course of na- 

 ture, with respect to these birds, they often 

 break through the general habits of their 

 kind ; and as the lapwing, the ruff, and the 

 sandpiper, are sometimes seen to alter their 

 manners, and to migrate from hence, instead 

 of continuing to breed here; so we often find 

 the woodcock, the snipe, and the curlew, re- 

 side with us during the whole season, and 

 breed their young in different parts of the 

 country. In Casewood, about two miles 

 from Tunbridge, as Mr. Pennant assures us, 

 some woodcocks are seen to breed annually. 

 The young have been shot there in the be- 

 ginning of August ; and were as healthy and 



vigorous as they are with us in winter, though 

 not so well tasted. On the Alps, and other 

 high mountains, says Willoughby, the wood- 

 cock continues all summer; I myself have 

 flushed them on the top of Mount Jura, in 

 June arid July. The eggs are long, of a pale 

 red colour, and stained with deeper spots 

 and clouds. The nests of the curlew and 

 the snipe are frequently found ; and some 

 of these perhaps never entirely leave this 

 island. 



It is thus that the same habits are, in some 

 measure, common to all ; but in nestling, and 

 bringing up their young, one method takes 

 place universally. As they all run and feed 

 upon the ground, so they are all found to 

 nestle there. The number of eggs generally 

 to be seen in every nest, is from two to four; 

 never under, and very seldom exceeding. 

 The nest is made without any art ; but the 

 eggs are either laid in some little depression 

 of the earth, or on a few bents and long grass, 

 that scarcely preserve them from the moisture 

 below. Yet such is the heat of the body of 

 these birds, that the time of incubation is 

 shorter than with any others of the same size. 

 The magpie, for instance, takes twenty-one 

 days to hatch its young; the lapwing takes 

 but fourteen. Whether the animal oil, with 

 which these birds abound, gives them this 

 superior warmth, I cannot tell ; but there is 

 no doubt of their quick incubation. 



In their seasons of courtship, they pair as 

 other birds; but not without violent contests 

 between the males, for the choice of the fe- 

 male. The lapwing and the plover are often 

 seen to fight among themselves ; but there is 

 one little bird of this tribe, called the ruff, 

 that has got the epithet of the fighter, merely 

 from its great perseverance ana animosity on 

 these occasions. In the beginning of spring, 

 when these birds arrive among our marshes, 

 they are observed to engage with desperate 

 fury against each other: it is then that the 

 fowlers, seeing them intent on mutual destruc- 

 tion, spread their nets over them, and take 

 them in great numbers. Yet even in capti- 

 vity their animosity still continues : the peo- 

 ple that fat them up for sale, are obliged to 

 shut them up in close dark rooms ; for if they 

 let ever so little light in among them the 

 turbulent prisoners instantly fall to fighting 



