NOTES OF BIRDS. 143 



that the owls about this village hoot in three different keys, in 

 G flat, or F sharp, in B flat and A flat. He heard two hooting 

 to each other, the one in A flat, and the other in B flat. Query : 

 Do these different notes proceed from different species, or only 

 from various individuals ? The same person finds upon trial that 

 the note of the cuckoo (of which we have but one species) varies 

 in different individuals ; for, about Selborne wood, he found they 

 were mostly in D : he heard two sing together, the one in D, the 

 other in D sharp, who made a disagreeable concert : he after- 

 wards heard one in D sharp, and about Wolmer-forest some in 

 C. As to nightingales, he says that their notes are so short, and 

 their transitions so rapid, that he cannot well ascertain their key. 

 Perhaps in a cage, and in a room, their notes may be more dis- 

 tinguishable. This person has tried to settle the notes of a swift, 

 and of several other small birds, but cannot bring them to any 

 criterion. 



As I have often remarked that redwings are some of the first 

 birds that suffer with us in severe weather, it is no wonder at 

 all that they retreat from Scandinavian winters : and much more 

 the ordo of grallee, who all, to a bird, forsake the northern parts 

 of Europe at the approach of winter. " Grallee tanquam conjuratce 

 unanimiter in fug am se conjiciunt ; ne earum unicam quidem inter 

 nos habitantem invenire possimus ; ut enim testate in australibus 

 degere nequeunt ob defectum lumbricorum, terramque siccam it a 

 nee infrigidis ob eandem causam" says Ekmarck the Swede, in 

 his ingenious little treatise called Migrationes Avium, which by 

 all means you ought to read while your thoughts run on the 

 subject of migration. See Amcenitates Academicce, vol. 4, p. 565. 

 Birds may be so circumstanced as to be obliged to migrate 

 in one country and not in another :* but the grallee (which pro- 

 cure their food from marshes and boggy grounds) must in win- 

 ter forsake the more northerly parts of Europe, or perish for 

 want of food. 



I am glad j ou are making enquiries from Linnaeus concerning 

 the woodcock : it is expected of him that he should be able to 

 account for the motions and manner of life of the animals of his 

 own fauna. 



Faunists, as you observe, are too apt to acquiesce in bare de- 



* Thus the robin, and the blackbird, and the song thrush, migrate regularly in Germany, but 

 not iu Britain, our winters being considerable milder. In fact we receive accessions of all three 

 in autumn from the Scandinavian peninsula ; principally, however, of the two latter, though I 

 have known instances of the robin also alighting on vessels in the German Ocean. ED. 



