144 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



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 grallse, who, all to a 

 bird, forsake the northern parts of Europe at the approach 

 of winter. " Grallse lanquam conjuratx unanimiter in 

 fugam se conjiciunt ; ne earum unicam quidem inter nos 

 liabitantem invenire possimus ; ut enim sestate in austra- 

 libus degere nequeunL ob defectum lumbricorum, terramque 

 siccam ; iia nee in frigidis ob eandem causam," says 

 Eckmarck the Swede, in his ingenious little treatise called 

 Migraiiones Avium, which by all means you ought to 

 read while your thoughts run on the subject of migration. 

 See Amsenitates Academiese, vol. 4, p. 565. 



Birds may be so circumstanced as to be obliged to 

 migrate in one country and not in another : but the 

 grallse (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 Linnceus 

 concerning 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 

 difficulty, 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 



