J68 NATURAL HISTORY 



He heard two hooting to each other, the one in A flat, and 

 the other in B flat. Query : Do these different notes pro- 

 ceed from different species, or only from various individuals ? 

 The same person finds upon trial that the note of the cuckoo 

 (of which we have but one species) varies in different indi- 

 viduals; for about Selborne Wood he found they were 

 mostly in D. He heard two sing together, the one in D, 

 the other in D sharp, who made a disagreeable concert. He 

 afterwards heard one in D sharp, and about Wolmer Forest 

 some in C. 1 As to nightingales, he says that their notes are 

 so short, and their transitions so rapid, that he cannot well 

 ascertain their key. Perhaps in a cage and in a room, their 

 notes may be more distinguishable. This person has tried 

 to settle the notes of a swift, and of several other small 

 birds, but cannot bring them to any criterion. 



As I have often remarked that redwings are some of the 

 first birds that suffer with us in severe weather, it is no 

 wonder at all that they retreat from Scandinavian winters ; 

 and much more the Ordo of Grailce, who all, to a bird, for- 

 sake the northern parts of Europe at the approach of winter. 

 " Grallce tanquam conjuratce unanimiter in fugam se conji- 

 ciunt; ne earum unicam quidem inter nos habitantem invenire 

 possimus ; ut enim cestate in australibus degere nequeunt ob 

 defectum lumbricorum, terramque siccamj ita nee in frigidis 

 ob 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 Acadcmicce, 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. 



1 Dr. Arne in his music to the " Cuckoo's Song" in "Love's Labour's 

 Lost" gives the note of the cuckoo as C natural and G : Gungl in his 

 " Cuckoo Galop" gives it as B natural and G sharp. For some further 

 particulars respecting the notes of owls and cuckoos, see " The Ornith- 

 ology of Shakespeare," pp. 90 and 151. ED. 



