BIRDS. 34.5 



if compared with the legs of mankind, is analogous to the heel ; 

 but as it is commonly conceived otherwise, I have conformed to 

 tiie general apprehension. I say, therefore, that all these birds 

 are bare of feathers above the knee ; and in some they are vvant- 



We have a very correct account of the migration of the woodcock in the 

 fullon-ing extract from Warner's Tour through Cornwall. 



" Before I quit the Lands-end it may be amusingf to mention a particular 

 of its natural history, which I think throws some light on the much disputed 

 subject of the inigralion of English birds. You are aware, perhaps, that a 

 controversy has long subsisted between ornitliologists, wliether these birds, 

 which are seen amongst us at particular seasons, remain in the kingdom 

 concealed in indiscoverable recesses during the period of their disappearance, 

 or wliether they are actually absent from our climate at tliis time, and resi- 

 dent in countries more congenial to their nature and instincts. In this list 

 of migratory birds, as they are called, the woodcock, that important article 

 of luxury and sport, is enumerated. Mr Daines Barrington, amongst 

 others, is a strenuous opponent to the doctrine of this species of bird mak- 

 ing a periodical passage from England to other coimtries ; contending that 

 it builds its nest, and breeds amongst us, in the same manner as other indi- 

 genous British birds ; and is invisible during the summer only from the 

 caution of its habits, and privacy of its retreats, in season. He further 

 makes the assertion with respect to migratory birds in general, that there 

 is no well-attested instan<-e of such migration actually taking place, which 

 he considers as a convincing negative proof of the falsehood of tliat opinion. 

 What the value of these examples of migration may be, which are adduced 

 by Willoughby, Buffon, Ad.anson, &c. I know not, as I have never paid 

 any attention to the controversy j but I will venture to assert, that liad 

 Mr Daines Barrington made the question, with respect to woodcocks, a 

 Bubject of his inquiry when he was in Cornwall, he would have learned a 

 fact at the Lands-end, which must have at once settled scepticism on that 

 particular head. He would here have been told by every peasant and fisher- 

 man, that the annual periodical arrival of the woodcocks from the Atlantic, 

 at the close of the year, is as naturally expected, and as surely takes place, 

 as the return of winter and autumn ; and that the time of their visit is di. 

 rected by so certain an instinct, that the inhabitants can tell, by the tem- 

 perature of the air, the week, if not the day, on which they will arrive. 

 He would have been convinced that migration is the general habit of the 

 species, and not the wayw!U"d act of an individual bird, by the prodigious 

 (locks of tliem which reach the shore at the same time ; and no doubt would 

 liav(! reinaiiu'd on his mind of their coming from Asar, when he had been 

 told, tliat after their arrival, they might, for a day or two, bo easily knocked 

 dmvn, or catched by dogs, from the extreme exhaustion induced by their 

 flight. A short respite indeed amongst the bushes and stones of the Lands- 

 end again invigorates them, and enables them to take an inland course ; but 

 till they are thus recruited, they are an easy prey, and produce no mean 

 protit to tho.^e who live in the neighbourhooil of this place, at their firbt 

 binding in Kiigland. We were told at Truro, .as a proof of the defmitive 

 time of their arrival, that a gentleman there liiui sent to llie Lands-end for 

 several brace, to be forwarded to him for a purticiUar occasion. liia correa. 



