XVI INTRODUCTION. 



classis of authors cleerly to reduce them. Surely 

 there are many found among us which are not 

 described ; and therefore such which you cannot 

 well reduce, may (if at all) be set down after 

 the exacter nomination of small birds as yet 

 of uncertain class of knowledge." 



I must ask pardon for this digression, but my 

 object has been to show the difficulties Browne 

 had to contend with and to emphasise the origi- 

 nality which pervades all his observations, a 

 characteristic so conspicuously absent in the 

 work of most of his predecessors. I should 

 like also to call attention to his references to 

 the migratory habits of many species of birds, 

 a phenomenon attracting little notice in his day, 

 but one which can be so readily observed on the 

 coast of Norfolk. These remarks were penned at 

 a time when hibernation in a state of torpidity 

 was thoroughly believed in — an idea of which 

 even Gilbert White a hundred years later 

 could not thoroughly divest himself In his 

 tract on " Hawks and Falconry," Browne 

 further says : " How far the hawks, merlins, 

 and wild-fowl which come unto us with a 

 north-west [east ?] wind in Autumn, fly in 

 a day, there is no clear account : but coming 

 over the sea their flight hath been long 

 or very speedy. For I have known them 



