NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 135 



the Equator without launching 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 



". . . Rang'd in figure wedge their way, 



And set forth 



Their airy caravan high over seas 

 Flying, and over lands with mutual wing 

 Easing their flight ; . . . . "—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 whether 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 some people were shooting in the parish of 

 Trotton, in the county of Sussex, they killed a duck in that 

 dreadful winter, 1708-9, 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 



* " I have read a like anecdote of a swan." 



