NATURAL HISTORY of JV k'W A T. 



is a Bird of paflage ; it comes in the Spring, and goes away in 

 the Winter. 



S E C T. VI. 



The Solfort, or MnTel-Bird, is a fmall Bird, fcniething like a soifort. 

 Thrufh or Starling, and is of that fpecies : it is reckoned deli- 

 cate food, like the reft of that kind ; they diftinguifti 'themfelves 

 by ringing on Summer evenings till midnight. 



The Spette, Traee-pikker, or Trase-hakker, the Wood -pecker, s P ette. 

 is a middle-fized Bird of various colours, with a very fhong beak, 

 and in it a long and pointed tongue, of a peculiar fhape, £he 

 end of which is hard, and like horn; the beak is fo {harp and 

 ftrong, that the Wood-pecker can bore a very deep hole with it in 

 a tree. They build their nefts in hollow trees ; their feet have 

 four long toes, of which two ftand forward, and the other two 

 quite backward ; they live chiefly upon worms, maggots and in- 

 fects, that they find under the bark of trees: they hunt them 

 about, and kill them with their long ftiarp-pointed tongue ; with 

 which they can exactly hit the fmalleft prey. There are many 

 forts of Wood-peckers, differing only in colours; as the green, 

 the black, and the yellow Wood-pecker ; the two firft have red 

 caps as it were on their heads. 



The Spove, or Godwit, is a Land-bird of that kind, that fre-Spove. 

 quent the fea-coaft without going into the water. They watch 

 along the Ihore to catch the ftiell-fifti and other finall fifties that 

 are driven up. It is a middle-fized Bird, almoft like a Partridge; 

 brown and grey, fpeckled under the breaft, and has long legs 

 for a Bird of its fize ; thefe are like a Stork's : it has alfo a very 

 long and crooked bill, longer than the Snipe's. They build 

 their neft in the open country, not far from the lea, and lay 

 three darkifti eggs, about the fize of a hen's, which the male 

 and female fit on alternately for 14 days. They come in the 

 rSpring and go away in Autumn, tho' late, when the firft fnow 

 falls. 



The Spur re, the Sparrow, is here, as in other places, morespurr*, 

 common than the farmer could wifh. The grey Spurrer, which 

 %fually keeps near the houles, are called here Huus-kseld : the 

 yellow and greenifti fort lives moftly in the woods % The 

 white Spurrer, of which Aldrovandus, in Ornitholog. Lib. xv. 

 c. 10. {peaks, are alio found here in the Winter in fbme places, 



* A perfon of judgment afTures me that thefe are not properly of the fecond kind ; 

 and that they are fetn in great numbers in the Winter; they are called in Germany 

 Emmerling, and build their neft in fmall bufhes. 



Part II. C c tho' 



97 



