DEVOLUTIONS. % 107 



selves to all its annual changes. Such arc the fox and the 

 otter, the eagle and the grouse. 



2. Periodical Visitants. These arrive and depart at 

 stated seasons of the year. The Equatorial visitants continue 

 during the winter, arriving in autumn and departing in 

 spring. Such are the fieldfare and woodcock. The Po- 

 lar visitants arrive in spring and depart in autumn. Dur- 

 ing their abode, they bring forth their young, and differ 

 from the resident animals chiefly in the circumstance of be- 

 ing unable to counteract the changes which winter produ- 

 ces in their condition. Such are the swallow and nightin- 

 gale. 



to> 

 r 



3. Irregular Visitants or Stragglers. The species here 

 referred to, are either the resident inhabitants or periodi- 

 cal visitants of the neighbouring regions, which have beer* 

 driven to this country by the fury of storms, or chaced 

 from their native haunts by their foes. In consequence of 

 these causes, and probably many others, a variety of ani- 

 mals have strayed to the British isles, and have been impror- 

 perly enrolled in our Fauna. Thus, several cetaceous ani- 

 mals, and palmated quadrupeds, have been in this manner, 

 as stragglers, observed and recorded. Among a few of these 

 may be enumerated, Manatus trichecus, or sea-cow ; Del- 

 phinus albicans, or Beluga ; and more recently, Trichecus 

 rosmarus, or Morse. Among birds, and fishes, and insects, 

 die number of stragglers is more considerable. A single 

 instance of the appearance of a single individual of a spe- 

 cies on British ground, has hitherto been considered as suf- 

 ficient to constitute a nominal right to citizenship. How 

 greatly would our lists be reduced, were the names of such 

 foreigners excluded ? It is, however, of importance to re- 

 cord the event of their occurrence, and the circumstances 



