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 anybody near the sea- 

 side 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 pre- 

 sume to say. 



Nightingales not only never reach Northumber- 

 land and Scotland, but also, as I hav^e 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. 



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 

 159 



