THE CRANE KIND. 34,5 



the earth is congealed into one solid mass, and 

 the birds are obliged to forsake a region where 

 they can no longer find subsistence. 



Such are our visitants. With regard to those 

 which keep with us continually, and breed here, 

 they are neither so delicate in their food, nor 

 perhaps so warm in their constitutions. The lap- 

 wing, the ruff, the red-shank, the sandpiper, the 

 sea-pie, the Norfolk plover, and the sea-lark, breed 

 in this country, and for the most part reside 

 here. In summer they frequent such marshes as 

 are not dried up in any part of the year, the Essex 

 hundreds, and the fens of Lincolnshire. There, 

 in solitudes formed by surrounding'marshes, they 

 breed and bring up their young. In winter they 

 come down from their retreats, rendered uninha- 

 bitable by the flooding of the waters, and seek 

 their food about our ditches and marshy meadow 

 grounds. Yet even of this class all are wanderers 

 upon some occasions, and take wing to the north- 

 ern climates to breed and find subsistence. This 

 happens when our summers are peculiarly dry, 

 and when the fenny countries are not sufficiently 

 watered to defend their retreats. 



But though this be the usual course of nature with 

 respect to these birds, they often break through 

 the general habits of their kind ; and as the lap- 

 wing, the ruff, and the sandpiper, are sometimes 

 seen to alter their manners, and to migrate from 

 hence instead of continuing to breed here, so we 

 often find the woodcock, the snipe, and the cur- 

 lew, reside with us during the whole season, and 

 breed their young in different parts of the conn- 



