NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 33 



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, 1 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 anybody near the sea-side 

 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, Devon- 

 shire and Cornwall. In those last two counties we cannot 

 attribute the failure of them to the want of warmth ; the 

 defect in the west is rather a presumptive argument that 

 these birds come over to us from the continent at the 

 narrowest passage, and do not stroll so far westward. 



Let me hear from your own observation whether sky- 

 larks do not dust. I think they do ; and if they do, whether 

 they wash also. 



The alauda pratensis of Ray 2 was the poor dupe that 



1 I have read a like anecdote of a swan. [G. W.] 



2 The Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis). [R. B. S.] 

 VOL. II. E 



