NA TURA L HIST OR Y OF SEL B ORNE. 1 39 



arbusculis, sive sepibus : ova sex cceruleo-viridia maculis nigris 

 variis." Hence we may be assured that fieldfares and redwings 

 breed in Sweden.* Scopoli says, in his " Annus Primus," of the 

 woodcock, that " nupta ad nos venit circa cequinoctium vernale ; " 

 meaning in Tyrol, of which he is a native. And afterwards he 

 adds " nidificat in paludibus alpinis : ova ponit 3 5." It does 

 not appear from Kramer that woodcocks breed at all in Austria ; 

 but he says "Avis hcec septentrionalium provinciarum csstivo 

 tempore incola est / ubi plerumque nidificat. Appropinquante 

 hyeme australiores provincial petit j hinc circcl plenilunium mensis 

 Octobris plerumque Austriam transmigrat. J^unc rursiis circcL 

 plenilunium potissimum mensis Marti i per Austriam matrimonio 

 iuncta ad septentrionales provincias redit." For the whole passage 

 (which I have abridged) see " Elenchus," &c. p. 351. This seems 

 to be a full proof of the migration of woodcocks ; though little is 

 proved concerning the place of breeding. 



P.S. There fell in the county of Rutland, in three weeks of this 

 present very wet weather, seven inches and a half of rain, which 

 is more than has fallen in any three weeks for these thirty years 

 past in that part of the world. A mean quantity in that county for 

 one year is twenty inches and a half. 



* Mr. Hewitson made an excursion to Norway, for the express purpose of procuring the 

 eggs of some of our winter visitants, which were known to breed in Northern countries, 

 for his beautiful " British Oobgy," and thus describes the breeding place of the fieldfare. 

 " We were soon delighted by the discovery of several of their nests, and were surprised to 

 find them breeding in society. Their nests were at various heights from the ground, from 

 four to thirty or f >rty feet, or upwards, mixed with old ones of the preceding year; they 

 were for the most part placed against the trunk of the spruce fir, and resembled most 

 nearly those of the ring-ouzel." 



