NIGHTINGALES THE CHOUGH. Ill 



some people were shooting in the parish of Trotton, in the 

 county of Sussex, they killed a duck in that dreadful winter, 

 1 708-9, with a silver collar about its neck, * on which were 

 engraven the arms of the King of Denmark. This anecdote 

 the rector of Trotton at that time has often told to a near 

 relation of mine ; and, to the best of my remembrance, the 

 collar was in the possession of the rector. 



At present, I do not know any body near the seaside that 

 will take the trouble to remark at what time of the moon 

 woodcocks first come : if I lived near the sea myself, I would 

 soon tell you more of the matter. One thing I used to observe 

 when I was a sportsman, that there were times in which wood- 

 cocks were so sluggish and sleepy, that they would drop again 

 when flushed just before the spaniels, nay, just at the muzzle 

 of a gun that had been fired at them : whether this strange 

 laziness was the effect of a recent fatiguing journey, I shall 

 not presume to say. ]* 



Nightingales not only never reach Northumberland and 

 Scotland, but also, as I have been always told, Devonshire 

 and Cornwall. In those two last counties, we cannot attribute 

 the failure of them to the want of warmth : the defect in the 

 west is rather a presumptive argument, that these birds come 

 over to us from the continent at the narrowest passage, and 

 do not stroll so far westward. J 



Let me hear from your own observation whether skylarks 

 do not dust. I think they do : and if they do, whether they 

 wash also. 



The alauda pratensis of Ray was the poor dupe that was 

 educating the booby of a cuckoo mentioned in my letter of 

 October last. 



Your letter came too late for me to procure a ringousel for 

 Mr Tunstal during their autumnal visit ; but I will endeavour 

 to get him one when they call on us again in April. 1 am 

 glad that you and that gentleman saw my Andalusian birds ; 



* I have read a like anecdote of a swan. 



f It is quite evident that such must be attributed to fatigue after their 

 long excursions, as mentioned in our note at page 105. ED. 



| The farthest north which this bird has been known to extend in 

 England, is the neighbourhood of Doncaster, in Yorkshire. It is certainly 

 a strange circumstance that the nightingale has never been met with in 

 Devonshire and Cornwall, as these counties appear peculiarly calculated for 

 their residence, both from the mildness of the temperature and the variety 

 of ground. The bounds prescribed to all animals and plants, is one of 

 the most singular arrangements in the economy of nature. ED. 



Letter XXXVIII. To the Hon. Daines Barrington. 



