in past ages, before subsequent researches had developed 

 the great sagacity of insects, and had facilitated the 

 knowledge of them, and rendered them interesting by 

 systematic arrangements, and had a delineation of their 

 generic and specific characters*. 



Of the different habits of birds which naturalists 

 have employed themselves to investigate, their local 

 habitation or places of residence have been always a 

 principal subject of their studies. Some remain all 

 the year round in one part of the world, as the sparrow, 

 the rook, the magpie, the owl, and most rapacious birds, 

 Others change their habitations in the same country, 

 in quest of food, and shift their quarters without travel- 

 ling to any great distance; as the wagtail and the red- 

 breast; and the wild geese and ducks, which come to 

 the southward parts of our island at the approach of 

 winter. Other birds cross the seas, and migrate to far 

 distant countries, as the soland goose, the gannet, the 

 blackcap, the cuckoo, and various other kinds of land 

 and water fowl. To these latter kinds the name of 

 migratory has generally been applied f. 



British migratory birds may be divided into those 

 which inhabit our island in the winter time, as fieldfares, 



* I allude particularly to the interesting accounts of Hiiber on 

 Bees, and on Ants. 



f Some birds which are stationary in one country, as" the kite for 

 instance, migrate in another, as the same bird in Aegypt. 



