38 PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY. 



purposes as the snow-flake. The woodcock winters with 

 us, but retires in the spring to Sweden, Norway, and Lap- 

 land*. 



The fieldfare and the redwing resemble the woodcock in 

 their migrations, depart at the same season, and retire for 

 similar purposes to the same countries f. 



These instances may suffice to support the conclusion, 

 that all our winter birds of passage come from northern 

 countries, and that the winter visitants of the south of Eu- 

 rope become the summer visitants of its northern regions. 

 This is evidently an arrangement depending on the same 

 law by which the African winter visitants become the sum- 

 mer birds of passage in Europe. 



In support of this conclusion it may be mentioned, 

 that, in their progress southward, the winter visitants ap- 

 pear first in the northern and eastern parts of the island, 

 and gradually proceed to the southward and westward. 

 Thus the snow-bunting arrives in the Orkney islands about 

 the end of August, and often proves destructive to the 

 corn fields. It then passes into the mainland of Scotland, 

 and is seldom seen in the Lothians, even in the high 

 grounds, before November, In like manner, the woodcock, 

 which crosses the German Ocean, is first observed on the 

 eastern side of the island, and then by degrees disperses 

 towards the west and south. 



* ECKMARK says of this bird, as a Swedish summer bird of passage, 

 " Pullis in sylvis nostris exclusis, mare transmigrans, in Angliam avolat ; 

 ut ex Austria in Italiam. Vere autem novo, dum blatire incipit Tetrao te- 

 trix, illinc descedunt, matrimonjo junctae ad nos revertentes," Amcenitates 

 Academic*, iv. 591. 



} Mr BULIOCK, however, has informed me, that he found the redwing 

 breeding in the Island of Harris, one of the Hebrides, in 1818. It probably 

 frequents other islands, but has hitherto been confounded with the thrush* 



