226 REDWING ROCKBIRDS. 



yards off, very quiet, with your gun. This is more 

 amusement for a man who is fond of shooting, than 

 netting the rabbits ; and the shots are not so difficult 

 in this way, because a rabbit, when bolted by a ferret, 

 does not, in general, go off so fast as when started by a 

 dog. All other rabbit shooting is so well known, that 

 my fancying I could give instructions on the subject 

 would be like the Lisbon barber informing Baretti that 

 grapes grew in Portugal. Though one word more (by 

 the by) : In shooting a rabbit, always consider the 

 foremost half 'of him as your target, or he will probably 

 be shot in a slovenly manner ; and if there is an earth 

 near, most likely scramble to it, and make his escape. 



REDWING, SWINEPIPE, or WIND THRUSH*. 

 Turdus iliacus Le mauvis. 



The redwing is a smaller bird than the fieldfare, and 

 not so wild ; but its habits are much the same as those 

 of that bird. 



When redwings appear on the eastern coast, they as 

 commonly announce the approach of the woodcock, as 

 does the arrival of the wryneck that of the cuckoo in 

 the south. 



ROCKBIRDS. 



Those, which are commonly called rockbirds, are 

 the various tribes of the Guillemot and Auk or Pen- 

 guin Genus, which, previously to the month of May, 

 assemble by myriads, to breed among the cliffs that 

 surround the British Isles. For brevity's sake, they 



* The last of these three is in many places the provincial name 

 given to the missel bird, or storm thrush. 



