[ 211 j 



A fishmonger, however, knows immediately whether a fiiK is 

 in good eating order or not, on the firft inflection : becaufe this 

 is a circumftance which interefts him. 



I mail, however, by no means fupprefs two arguments in fa- 

 vour of migration, which feem to require the fulleft anfwer that 

 can be given to them. 



The firft. is, that there are certain birds, which appear during 

 the winter, but difappear during the fummer ; and it may be 

 a(ked, where fuch birds can be fuppofed to breed, if they do not 

 migrate from this Hland. Thefe birds are in number four; viz. the 

 fnipe, woodcock, red-wing, and fieldfare* 



As for the fnipe, I have a very fhort anfwer to give to the ob- 

 jection, as far as it relates to this bird ; becaufe it conftantly 

 breeds in the fens of Lincolnshire, . Wolmar foreft, and Bodmyn 

 downs ; it is therefore highly probable that it does the fame hi 

 almoft every county of England. 



I muft own, however, that, till within thefe few years, I 

 conceived the neft of a fnipe was as rarely feen in England as that 

 of a woodcock or fieldfare ; and that able ornithologifh Mr. Ed- 

 wards fuppofes this to be the fact, in the late publication of his 

 ingenious Effays on Natural Hiftory \ 



Woodcocks likewife are known to build in fome parts of Eng- 

 land every year ; but, as the inftances are commonly thofe of a 

 iingle neft, I would by no means pretend to draw the fame proof 

 againft the fummer migration of this bird, as in the former cafe of 

 the fnipe. It is remarkable, however, that Belon afferts, without 

 the leaft doubt of the fact, that in France the woodcocks leave the 

 plains for the mountains, in order to make their nefts b ; and Wil- 

 lughby flum'd them in the months of June and July on mount Jura. 



* P. 72. 



b Belon, p. 273 * 



E e 2 



I will 



