NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 139 



winters : and much more the or do of grallce, who, all to 

 a bird, forsake the northern parts of Europe at the 

 approach of winter. ^* Grallce tanquam conjuratcB, unani- 

 miter in fug am se conjiciunt ; ne earum unicam quidem 

 inter nos habitantem invenire possimus ; ut enim cestate in 

 australibus degere nequeunt oh defectum lumhricorum^ 

 terramque siccam, ; ita nee in frigidis oh eandem causam,'* 

 says Ekmarck the Swede, in his ingenious little treatise 

 called Migrationes Avium, which by all means you ought 

 to read while your thoughts run on the subject of 

 migration. See Amoenitates Academicce, vol. iv., p. 565. 



Birds may be so circumstanced as to be obliged to 

 migrate in one country, and not in another : but the grallce 

 (which procure their food from marshes and boggy grounds) 

 must in winter forsake the more northerly parts of Europe, 

 or perish for want of food. 



I am glad you are making inquiries from Linnaeus con- 

 cerning the woodcock : it is expected of him that he should 

 be able to account for the motions and manner of life 

 of the animals of his own " Fauna." 



Faunists, as you observe, are too apt to acquiesce in bare 

 descriptions, and a few synonyms : the reason is plain ; 

 because all that may be done at home in a man's study, but 

 the investigation of the life and conversation of animals 

 is a concern of much more trouble and dijSiculty, and is not 

 to be attained but by the active and inquisitive, and by those 

 that reside much in the country. 



Foreign systematics are, I observe, much too vague in their 

 specific differences, which are almost universally constituted 

 by one or two particular marks, the rest of the description 

 running in general terms. But our countryman, the 

 excellent Mr. Ray, is the only describer that conveys some 

 precise idea in every term or word, maintaining his 



