WOODCOCK. 167 



gration. See Amcenitates Academics, vol. iv. 

 p. 565. 



Birds may be so circumstanced as to be obliged 

 to migrate in one country and not in another ; but 

 the grallcK (which procure their food from marshes 

 and boggy ground) must in winter forsake the 

 more northerly parts of Europe, or perish for 

 want of food. 



I am glad you are making inquiries from Lin- 

 naeus 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. 



Faunists, as you observe, are too apt to acquiesce 

 in bare descriptions, and a few synonymes : the 

 reason is plain ; because all that may be done 

 at home in a man's study ; but the investigation of 

 the life and conversation of animals is a concern 

 of much more trouble and difficulty, and is not to 

 be attained but by the active and inquisitive, and 

 by those that reside much in the country. 



Foreign systematists are, I observe, much too 

 vague in their specific differences ; which are al- 

 most universally constituted by one or two parti- 

 cular marks, the rest of the description running in 

 general terms. But our countryman, the excellent 

 Mr. Ray, is the only describer that conveys some 

 precise idea in every term or word, maintaining 

 his superiority over his followers and imitators in 

 spite of the advantages of fresh discoveries and 

 modern information. 



At this distance of years it is not in my power 

 to recollect at what periods woodcocks used to be 

 sluggish or alert when I was a sportsman; but, 

 upon my mentioning this circumstance to a friend, 

 he thinks he has observed them to be remarkably 

 listless against snowy foul weather : if this should 



