OF SELBORNE 113 



young of those species in any part of these kingdoms.^ And I 

 the more admire at this instance as extraordinary, since, to all 

 appearance, the same food in summer as well as in winter might 

 support them here which maintains their congeners, the black- 

 birds and thrushes, did they chuse to stay the summer through. 

 From hence it appears that it is not food alone which determines 

 some species of birds with regard to their stay or departure. 

 Fieldfares and redwings disappear sooner or later according as 

 the warm weather comes on earlier or later. For I well re- 

 member, after that dreadful winter of 1739-40, that cold north- 

 east winds continued to blow on through April and May, and that 

 these kinds of birds (what few remained of them) did not depart 

 as usual, but were seen lingering about till the beginning of June. 



The best authority that we can have for the nidification of the 

 birds above mentioned in any district, is the testimony of faunists 

 that have written professedly the natural history of particular 

 countries. Now, as to the fieldfare, Linrueus, in his Fauna 

 Suecica, says of it that " maximis in arhorihus nidificat " : and of 

 the redwing he says, in the same place, that " nidificat in mediis 

 " arhusculis, sive sepibus : ova sex cwruleo-viridia maculis nigris 

 "variis". Hence we may be assured that fieldfares and red- 

 wings breed in Sweden. Scopoli says, in his Annus Primus, of the 

 wood-cock, that " nupta ad nos venit circa cequinoctium vernale" : 

 meaning in Tirol, of which he is a native. And afterwards he 

 adds " nidificat in paludibus alpinis : ova ponit 3 5 ". It 



does not appear from Kramer that woodcocks breed at all in 

 Austria : but he says " Avis fuse septentrionalium provinciarum 

 " cEstivo tempore incola est; ubi plerumque nidificat. Appropinquante 

 " hyeme australiores provincial petit : hinc circa plenilunium mensis 

 " Octobris plerumque Austriam transmigrat. Tunc rursus circa 

 "plenilunium potissimum mensis Martii per Aiistriam matrimonio 

 "juncta ad septentrionales provindas redit.". For the whole passage 

 (which I have abridged) see Elenchus, &c. p. 351. This seems 

 to be a full proof of the migration of woodcocks ; though Uttle 

 is proved concerning the place of breeding. 



P.S. There fell in the county of Rutland, in three weeks of 

 this present very wet weather, seven inches and an half of rain, 

 which is more than has fallen in any three weeks for these thirty 

 years past in that part of the world. A mean quantity in that 

 county for one year is twenty inches and an half. 



' [Mr. Harting quotes a number of instances in which both the redwing and the 

 fieldfare are reported to have nested in the British Islands.] ' 



8 



