INTRODUCTION. XXV. 



parts of Europe to the woods and lakes of Lapland and 

 other arctic regions, there to perform the functions of in- 

 cubation and nutrition in full security. They and their 

 young quit their retreats in September, and disperse them- 

 selves over Europe. With us they make their appearance 

 in the beginning of October, circulate first round our shores, 

 and when compelled by severe frost, betake themselves to 

 our lakes and rivers." In winter, the Bernacles and Brent 

 Geese appear in vast flocks on the north-west coast of 

 Britain, and leave us in Eebruary, when they migrate as far 

 as Lapland, Greenland, or Spitzbergen. 



The Solan Geese or Gannets are birds of passage; their 

 first appearance is in March, and they continue till August 

 or September. The long-legged Plover and Sanderling visit 

 us in winter; and it is worthy of remark, that most of the 

 species of the Scolopax and Tringa genera, as well as some 

 of the Plovers, which forsake us in the spring, retire to 

 Sweden, Poland, Russia, Norway, and Lapland, to breed, 

 and return to us as soon as the young are able to fly; for 

 the frosts, which set in early in those countries, deprive them 

 totally of the means of subsistence. 



Besides these, there is a great variety of birds which per- 

 form partial migrations, or flittings, from one part of the 

 country to another. During hard winters, when the sur- 

 face of the earth is covered with snow, many birds, such as 

 Larks, Snipes, &c., withdraw from the inland parts of the 

 country towards the sea-shores in quest of food; others, as 

 the Wren, the Redbreast, and a variety of small birds, quit 

 the fields, and approach the habitations of men. The Chat- 

 terer, the Grosbeak, and the Crossbill, are only occasional 

 visitors, and observe no regular times in making their ap- 

 pearance. Great numbers of the Chatterer were taken in 

 the county of Northumberland, in the latter end of the years 

 1789 and 1790, before which they had seldom been observed 

 so far south as that county, but since that time, however, 

 several have visited the north of England. 

 VOL. i. d 



