] 10 WOODCOCK. 



Now, it is no wonder that birds residing in Africa should 

 retreat before the sun as it advances, and retire :o milder 

 regions, and especially birds of prey, whose blood being 

 heated with hot animal food, are more impatient of a sultry 

 climate; but then I cannot help wondering why kites and 

 hawks, and such hardy birds as are known to defy all the 

 severity of England, and even of Sweden and all north 

 Europe, should want to migrate from the south of Europe, 

 and be dissatisfied with the winters of Andalusia. 



It does not appear to me that much stress may be laid on 

 the difficulty and hazard that birds must run in their migrations, 

 by reason of vast oceans, cross winds, &c. ; because, if we 

 reflect, a bird may travel from England to the Equator without 

 lanching out and exposing itself to boundless seas, and that 

 by crossing the water at Dover, and again at Gibraltar. And 

 I with the more confidence advance this obvious remark, 

 because my brother has always found that some of his birds, 

 and particularly the swallow kind, are very sparing of their 

 pains in crossing the Mediterranean ; for, when arrived at 

 Gibraltar, they do not, 



Ranged in figure, wedge their way, 



- and set forth 



Their airy caravan, high over seas 



Flying, and over lands with mutual wing 



Easing their night ; MILTON. 



but scout and hurry along in little detached parties, of six or 

 seven in a company ; and, sweeping low, just over the surface 

 of the land and water, direct their course to the opposite 

 continent, at the narrowest passage they can find. They 

 usually slope across the bay to the south-west, and so pass 

 over opposite to Tangier, which, it seems, is the narrowest 

 space.* 



In former letters, we have considered, w r hether it was 

 probable that woodcocks, in moonshiny nights, cross the 

 German Ocean from Scandinavia. As a proof that birds of 

 less speed may pass that sea, considerable as it is, I shall 

 relate the following incident, which, though mentioned to have 

 happened so many years ago, was strictly matter of fact: As 



birds of these tribes to be classed among those which are migratory. I 

 occasionally happens that these birds extend their flight from one country 

 to another ; but, then, these excursions are not marked by periodical 

 regularity, nor influenced by atmospherical changes, but proceed from 

 some unknown cause. ED. 



* Ceuta is the narrowest part of the Straits of Gibraltar. ED. 



