232 NATURAL HISTORY 



to the south-west, and so pass over opposite to Tangier, 

 which, it seems, is the narrowest space. 



In former letters we have considered whether it was 

 probable that woodcocks in moonshiny nights cross the 

 German ocean from Scandinavia. As a proof that birds 

 of less speed may pass that sea, considerable as it is, 

 I shall relate the following incident, which, though 

 mentioned to have happened so many years ago, was 

 strictly matter of fact: As some people were shooting 

 in the parish of Trotton, in the county of Sussex, they 

 killed a duck in that dreadful winter, 1708-9, with a 

 silver collar about its neck 2 , on which were engraven 

 the arms of the king of Denmark. This anecdote the 

 rector of Trotton at that time has often told to a near 

 relation of mine ; and, to the best of my remembrance, 

 the collar was in the possession of the rector. 



At present I do not know any body near the seaside 

 that will take the trouble to remark at what time of the 

 moon woodcocks first come: if I lived near the sea 

 myself, I would soon tell you more of the matter. One 

 thing I used to observe when I was a sportsman, that 

 there were times in which woodcocks were so sluggish 

 and sleepy that they would drop again when flushed 

 just before the spaniels, nay, just at the muzzle of a 

 gun that had been fired at them : whether this strange 

 laziness was the effect of a recent fatiguing journey, I 

 shall not presume to say. 



Nightingales not only never reach Northumberland 

 and Scotland, but also, as I have been always told, 

 Devonshire and Cornwall. In those two last counties 

 we cannot attribute the failure of them to the want of 

 warmth : the defect in the west is rather a presumpth o 

 argument that these birds come over to us from the 

 continent at the narrowest passage, and do not stroll 

 so far westward 3 . 



2 I have read a like anecdote of a swan. 



3 In a western direction the nightingale visits Dorsetshire and the 

 eastern part only of Devonshire; is never heard in Cornwall; visits 



