486 THE PHILOSOPHY 



< tliefe vaft migrations confift not only of hirudines (fwallows,) 



< but of bee birds y hoopoes ^ oropendulos^ ox golden thrujhes^ &c. &c« 



< and alfo many of our foft billed fummer birds of pajfage ; and, 

 « moreover, of birds which never leave us, fuch as all the 

 * various forts of hawks and kites. Old Belon, two hundred 



< years ago, gives a curious account of the incredible armies 



< of hawks and kites, which he faw in the fpring-time trav- 



< erfing the Thracian Bofphorus from Aiia to Europe. Be- 

 « fides the above mentioned, he remarks, that the proceflion 



< is fwelled by whole troops of eagles and vultures*.' 



Mr. White like wife, with much propriety, remarks, that 

 our inquiries concerning the migration of birds have been 

 too much confined to the fwallow tribes ; while little atten- 

 tion has been paid to the fhort-winged birds of paflage, 

 fuch as quails, red-ftarts, nightingales, wliite-throats, black- 

 caps, &c. All thefe, though feemingly ill qualified for long 

 flights, difappear in the winter, and not one of them, not- 

 withftanding their immenfe numbers, has ever been found 

 in a torpid ftate. 



To mark the times of the arrival and departure of birds 

 of paflage in diff'erent countries, and in difterent diftricfts of 

 the fame countries, and the probable motives arifing from 

 the ftate of the country with regard to heat and cold, and to 

 that of the food peculiar to each kind, would throw much 

 light upon the hifliory of migration. To Mr. White of Sel- 

 borne we are obliged for the following lifts of birds of paf- 

 fage which he has obferved in his neighbourhood. Thefe 

 lifts are arranged nearly in the order of time. 



• M'hkeN Natural Hifcory of Selborne, page 139. 



