I20 The Natural History 



The best authority that we can have for the nidification 

 of the birds above-mentioned in any district, is the 

 testimony of faunists that have written professedly the 

 natural history of particular countries. Now, as to the 

 fieldfare, Linnceus, in his Fauna Suecica, says of it that 

 ^^ jnaximis in arboribus 7iidificat^^ ; and of the redwing 

 he says, in the same place, that "' nidificat in meJiis 

 arbiiscu/iSj sive sepibus : ova sex cceruleo-viridia macuUs 

 jiip-is variis.^^ Hence we may be assured that field- 

 fares and redwings breed in Sweden. Scopoli says, 

 in his A?inus Primus^ of the woodcock, that " nupta 

 ad iios ve7iit circa csquinoctiiim ver?iale " .* meaning in 

 Tirol, 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 hctc septentrionalium 

 provinciarum cestivo iempore ificola est ; ubi pleru7nqu& 

 nidificat. Appropifupiatite hyeme aiistraliores provincias 

 petit : hinc circa pleniluniiitn i)ie7isis Octobris plermnque 

 Austria77i tra7isi/iigrat. Time rurstis circa ple7\iluniu7n 

 potissi77m77i ?/ie7isis Martii per Austria7n 7/icidrii7io7uo 

 jimcta ad septentrio7iaIes provincias redit.'^ For the 

 whole passage (which I have abridged) see ^letichus^ 

 etc., p. 351. This seems to be a full proof of the 

 migration of woodcocks ; though little is proved con- 

 cerning 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 

 an 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 an half. 



