118 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



flat, or F sharp, in B flat and A flat. He heard two hooting to 

 each other, the one in A flat, and the other in B flat. Query : 

 Do these different notes proceed from different species, or only 

 from various individuals ? The same person finds upon trial that 

 the note of the cuckoo (of which we have but one species) varies 

 in different individuals ; for, about Selborne wood, he found they 

 were mostly in D : he heard two sing together, the one in D, 

 the other in D sharp, who made a disagreeable concert : he 

 afterwards heard one in D sharp, and about Wolmer-forest some 

 in C. 1 As to nightingales, he says that their notes are so short, 

 and their transitions so rapid, that he cannot well ascertain their 

 key. Perhaps in a cage, and in a room, their notes may be more 

 distinguishable. This person has tried to settle the notes of a 

 swift, and of several other small birds, but cannot bring them to 

 any criterion. 



As I have often remarked that redwings are some of the first 

 birds that suffer with us in severe weather, it is 110 wonder at all 

 that they retreat from Scandinavian winters : and much more the 

 ordo of grallce, who, all to a bird, forsake the northern parts of 

 Europe at the approach of winter. " Grallie tanquam conjiimtw 

 " unanimiter in fugam se conjiciunt ; ne earum unicam quidem inter 

 " nos habitantem invenire possimus ; ut enim (Estate in australibus 

 " degere nequeunt ob defectum lumbricorum, terramque siccam ; ita 

 " nee in frigidis ob eandem causam," says Eckmarck the Swede, in 

 his ingenious little treatise called Migrationes Avium, which by 

 all means you ought to read while your thoughts run on the 

 subject of migration. See Amcenitates Academicce, vol. 4, p. 565. 



Birds may be so circumstanced as to be obliged to migrate in 

 one country and not in another : but the grallce, (which procure 

 their food from marshes and boggy grounds) must in winter 

 forsake the more northerly parts of Europe, or perish for want 

 of food. 



I am glad you are making inquiries from Linnceus concerning 

 the woodcock : it is expected of him that he should be able to 

 account for the motions and manner of life of the animals of his 

 own Fauna. 



1 [The attempt to express the keys in which birds sing is useless, simply because 

 they do not use our, or any musical scale (see the quotation from Gassendus in 

 Letter LVI. to Harrington). Single notes of any kind can be accurately set down 

 in musical notation, and it may happen that the interval agrees with some interval 

 in a musical scale. White does not distinguish between musical notes and keys.'] 



