INTRODUCTION. xxiii. 



To this list of migratory birds, some ornithologists have 

 added the Larks, Ouzels, Thrushes, and Starlings. 



Most of the soft-billed birds feed on insects, and not on 

 grain or seeds, and therefore usually retire before winter; 

 but the following, though they eat insects, remain with us 

 during the whole year, viz., the Redbreast, Hedge Warbler, 

 and Wren, which frequent out-houses and gardens, and eat 

 spiders, small worms, crumbs, &c.; the Pied, the Yellow, 

 and the Grey Wagtail, which frequent the heads of springs, 

 where the waters seldom freeze,, and feed on the aureliae of 

 insects usually deposited there. Besides these, the Whinchat, 

 the Stonechat, and the Golden-crested Wren,* are seen with 

 us during the winter; the latter, though the least of all the 

 British birds, is very hardy, and can endure the utmost 

 severity of our winters. The Wheatear, though not com- 

 mon, sometimes stays the winter with us. Of the winter 

 birds of passage, the following are the principal, viz.: 



1. The Redwing. 



2. The Fieldfare. [Both these arrive in great numbers 

 about Michaelmas, and depart about the end of February, 

 or beginning of March, but are sometimes detained by east- 

 erly winds till the middle of April.] 



3. The Hooded Crow visits us in the beginning of winter, 

 and departs with the Woodcock. 



* A pair of these little birds alighted on the deck of a ship, 

 belonging to Newcastle, commanded by John Tone, when the ves- 

 sel had passed about mid-seas over between Newfoundland and the 

 British shores. The captain nursed them in the cabin with all pos- 

 sible tenderness, but without success, for they were found the next 

 morning dead, each with its head under the other's wing; they most 

 likely had been blown out of their course by a tempest, in their long 

 migratory flight from Sweden, Norway, or Lapland, to their halting 

 places, the Zetland or the Orkney Isles, or had been driven, in their 

 last passage to this country, off the land, by adverse gales ; like 

 many thousands of other land birds thus blown to sea to become 

 food for fishes. 



