called Migrationes Avium," which by all means you 

 ought to read while your thoughts run on the subject 

 of migration. — The grallce, as though they had con- 

 spired, take themselves to flight in an unmannerly 

 fashion; nor can we find even one dwelling amongst 

 us ; for as they cannot live in the south during sum- 

 mer because of the dryness of the ground, so neither 

 can they live in the cold countries of the north in 

 winter for the contrary reason." 



Birds may be so circumstanced as to be obliged 

 to migrate in one country and not in another: but 

 the grallcE (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. 



1 am glad you are making inquiries from Linnasus 

 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 ow^n " 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 their specific differences ; which are almost 

 universally constituted by one or two particular 



i68 



