EIKDS. 353 



former ; as they are obliged to toil more for a subsistence, tliey 

 are easily satisfied with whatever oifers ; and their flesh often 

 contracts a relish of what has been their latest, or their principal 

 food. 



Most of the birds formerly described, have stated seasons for 

 feeding and rest : the eagle kind prowl by day, and at evening 

 repose ; the owl by night, and keeps unseen in the day-time : but 

 these birds, of the crane kind, seem at all hours employed ; they 

 are seldom at rest by day; and, during the whole night-season, 

 ?very meadow and marsh resounds with their different calls, to 

 courtship or to food. 



This seems to be the time when they least fear interruption 

 from man ; and though they fly at all times, yet at this season, 

 they appear more assiduously employed, both in providing for 

 their present support, and continuing that of posterity. This is 

 usually the season when the insidious fowler steals in upon their 

 occupations, and fills the whole meadow with tenor and de- 

 struction. 



As all of this kind live entirely in waters, and among watery 

 places, they seem provided by nature with a warmth of constitu- 

 tion to fit them for that cold element. They reside, by choice, 

 in the coldest climates : and as other birds migrate here in our 

 summer, their migrations hither are mostly in the winter. Even 

 those that reside among us the whole season, retire in summer 

 to the tops of our bleakest mountains ; where they breed, and 

 bring down their young, when the cold weather sets in. 



Most of them, however, migrate, and retire to the polar re- 

 );'wus -, as those that remain behind in the mountains, and keep 

 with us during summer, bear no proportion to the quantity which 

 in winter haunt our marshes and low grounds. The siii])e some- 

 times builds here ; and the nest of the curlew is sometimes found 

 in the plashes of our hills ; but the number of these is very 

 small ; and it is most probable that they are only some straggleis 

 who, not having strength or courage suilieierit for the general 

 voyage, take up from necessity their habitation here. 



In general, during the summer, this whole class either choose 

 the coldest countries to retire to, or the coldest and the moistest 

 part of ours to breed in. The curlew, the woodcock, the snipe, 

 the godwit, the gray plover, the green and the long-legged j>lovcr, 

 I lie knot, and the turnstone, are rather the guests than the natives 



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