386 
TITMICE. 
SWALLOWS, 
AND GOAT- 
SUCKER. 
APPENDIX. VII. 
observed several Wheat-ears in the isle of Pur- 
beck, on the 18th of November. As these birds 
are incapable of very distant flights, we suspect 
that Spain, or the south of France, is their win- 
ter asylum. 
Never quit this country; they feed on insects 
-and their larve. 
Every species disappears at the approach of 
winter. 
WATER BIRDS. 
Or the vast variety of water fowl that fre- 
quent Great Britain, it is amazing to reflect how 
few are known to breed here: the cause which 
principally urges them to leave this country, 
seems to be not merely the want of food, but 
the desire of a secure retreat. Our country is 
too populous for birds so shy and timid as the 
bulk of these are: when a great part of our island 
was a mere waste, a tract of woods and fen; 
doubtless many species of birds (which at this 
time migrate) remained in security throughout 
the year. Egrets, a species of Heron, now 
scarcely known in this island, were in former 
times in prodigious plenty; and the Crane, that 
has totally forsaken this country, bred fami- 
liarly in our marshes: their place of incubation, 
as well as of all other cloven footed water birds 
