NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 133 



the woodcock, that " nupta ad nos venit circa cequinoctium 

 vernale / " meaning in Tyrol, of which he is a native. And 

 afterwards he adds "nidificat in paludibus alpinis : ova 

 ponit 3-5." It does not appear from Kramer that wood- 

 cocks breed at all in Austria; but he says, "Avis hcec 

 septentrionalium provinciarum cestivo tempore incola est ; 

 ubi plerumque nidificat. Appropinquante hyeme austral' 

 iores provincias petit; hinc circa plenilunium mensis 

 Octobris plerumque Austrian* transmigrate Tune rursus 

 circa plenilunium potissimum mensis Martii per Austriam 

 matrimonio juncta ad septentrionales provincias redit.'* 

 For the whole passage (which I have abridged) see 

 ElencliuSy etc., p. 351. This seems to be a full proof of 

 the migration of woodcocks ; though little is proved 

 concerning the place of breeding. 



P.S. There fell in the county of Rutland, in three weeks 

 of this present very wet weather, seven inches and a half 

 of rain, which is more than has fallen in any three weeks 

 for these thirty years past in that part of the world. A 

 mean quantity in that county for one year is twenty inches 

 and a half. 



LETTER IX. 



FYFIELD, near ANDOVER, Feb. \Wi, 1772. 



You are, I know, no great friend to migration ; and 

 the well-attested accounts from various parts of the king- 

 dom seem to justify you in your suspicions, that at least 

 many of the swallow kind do not leave us in the winter, 

 but lay themselves up like insects and bats, in a torpid 



