BIRDS. 



513 



Hrrds, 



Migratory. 



and power of betaking themselves, to such countries 

 and climates, as are best suited, for the time, to yield 

 them proper f'-od, and that are the safest and most 

 convenient for their incubation. 



There are a few naturalists, however, and among 

 those principally Daines Barrington, who have dis- 

 puted, at least doubted, that birds pass any consider- 

 able extent of ocean, and are incapable of taking 

 the long flights, which the supporters of what he 

 calls the hypothesis of migration maintain. * This 

 assertion, the author of this article, independently of 

 other proofs, can, from his own personal observations, 

 completely confute ; for in particular, while on a 

 voyage, during the months of September and Octo- 

 ber 1799, on board of the Kenyon, bound from New- 

 York to Liverpool, in about N. lat. 48, W. long. 

 31, according to governor Pownal's chart of the At- 

 lantic Ocean, he saw several land birds perch upon 

 the rigging of the ship, and among these were two 

 or three hawks, and an owl, which visited them for 

 several successive nights ; and he was so fortunate, 

 as to catch a species of the alauda (lark,) which 

 though not a bird of passage, shews at least a power 

 at wing equal to a very long flight, being then 

 more than seven hundred from any continent, and not 

 less than four hundred and fifty miles from Corvo, 

 the nearest island from which they could come. Those 

 writers who deny the probability, if not the possi- 

 bility, of the migration of birds to other countries, 

 and to other climates, find much difficulty to account 

 for their regular disappearance, and to find out into 

 what holes and fastnesses they can hide themselves 

 when they become invisible here. They generally 

 say, that they creep into hollow trees, into clefts of 

 rocks, into crevices of old buildings, and remain in 

 such places in a torpid state during the winter. 

 Nay some affirm, that swallows retire underthe waters, 

 of pools, lakes, rivers, and seas ; that after this sub- 

 mersion, they revive before the coming spring ; and 

 that these birds of summer, with feathers unruffled, 

 and in vigorous case, emerge from their cold, suffoca- 

 ting, and uncomfortable winter retreat. Testimonies, 

 however, of people of supposed veracity, clergymen, 

 justices of peace, &c. have been brought forward 

 to support this most incongruous tale. We have for 

 a long course of years searched through many parts 

 of the kingdom, old towers, decayed buildings, 

 churches, barns, hollow trees, clefts of rocks, and 

 also occasionally used trawl or drag nets, in ponds, 

 lakes, and rivers, and never were so successful as to 

 find, either in life or in a torpid state, a single reput- 

 ed bird of passage in any of those places. Another 

 circumstance which these sceptics in migration offer 

 :n defence of their system, is to produce some well 

 authenticated proofs of woodcocks being seen, and 

 hatching in England during the summer. That a 

 k-w instances of this kind have happened, cannot be 

 disputed ; but such things are at least unknown to 

 us in Scotland, with one exception ; having in the 

 middle of June flushed a wounded woodcock, while 

 traversing a wood in the east corner of Perthshire. 

 As to field-fares, red-wings, and snow-flakes, &c. 

 hcse gentlemen are much puzzled how to dispose 



of them, and are therefore in a great degree 6ilent on Birds; 

 that head. Barrington, on the improbability of mi- Migratory. 

 gration, says, " that it is surprising, if true, that mi- / """ 



gratory birds are never, during their passage, either 

 heard, or seen by sailors, while navigating our seas." 

 We admit that they are not so often perceived at 

 might be expected ; but this we apprehend is owing 

 to the great acuteness of their sight, which keept 

 them at such a distance, as to be unobserved by ves- 

 sels, that might otherwise annoy them, on their eagec 

 destination. He then rather triumphantly observes, 

 " Besides this, the eastern coast of England, to which 

 birds of passage must necessarily come from the con- 

 tinent, hath many light-houses upon it ; they would 

 therefore, in a dark night, immediately make tor such 

 an object, and destroy themselves by flying with 

 violence against it, as is well known to every bat 

 fowler." This would imply that they never do so ; 

 but he is much mistaken, for woodcocks are frequent- 

 ly known to dash upon Cromer, and other lights 

 upon our eastern coast ; and at Cape Henlopen, upon 

 the point of Delaware Bay in North America, there 

 is a lighthouse, the lantern of which is about eight, 

 feet square, and from its situation and glare, vast 

 numbers of migratory and other birds are attracted, . 

 and often destroyed by flying against it, and to pre- 

 vent them from breaking the glass, it was found ne- 

 cessary to cover it with a wire lattice of uncommon 

 strength. Here in one morning upwards of a hun- 

 dred birds of various kinds were found dead, f Thit 

 evidently shews that birds at times fly during the 

 night ; a fact denied by this naturalist, and upon which 

 he founds one of his leading arguments against migra- 

 tion. 



Immediately after our summer visitants take their 

 departure for the more temperate climates of the 

 south, those of winter, to avoid the more cold and 

 icy regions of the north, arrive in Britain. It is some- 

 what surprising that birds of passage, although it 

 may seem much against the facility of their migra- 

 tion, and which is analogous to the swimming of fish 

 against the stream, always delight in steering their 

 course against the wind, if nt too strong for their 

 flight. Those of summer return to hatch on the 

 same grounds and spot on which they themselves 

 were hatched, while the parents frequently reoccupy 

 their former nests, and those of winter invariably take 

 possession of the same fields and woods which they 

 left, previous to the commencement of our spring. 

 Other particulars will come to be mentioned, when 

 we treat separately, of our most noted birds of pas- 

 sage ; and then we shall also produce a few speci- 

 mens of the opinions and testimonies of both the 

 writers, for and against submersion and migration. 



The most early harbinger of spring, among our The swa'- 

 birds of passage, is the Siva/tow. He appears in April low. 

 before the Cuckoo. Upon their arrival, the swal- 

 lows first attract our notice, when skimming along 

 some village green, or adjacent pool ; they then seem 

 in good case, their feathers unruffled, and in no re- 

 spect the worse of a long flight. Of this genus, we 

 have four species that visit this island. The chimney 

 swallow (hirundo rustica,) the house martin (ltirun~ 



Philotophical Trannetioni, vol lxi, 

 VOL. III. PART in. 



f Morse's American Cattttetr, art. Henlopen. 

 3t 



