168 
NATURAL HISTORY 
He heard two hooting to each other, the one in A flat, and 
the other in B flat. Query : Do these different notes pro- 
ceed from different species, or only from various individuals ? 
The same person finds upon trial that the note of the cuckoo 
(of which we have but one species) varies in different indi- 
viduals; for about Selborne Wood he found they were 
mostly in D. He heard two sing together, the one in D, 
the other in D sharp, who made a disagreeable concert. He 
afterwards heard one in D sharp, and about Wolmer Forest 
some in C.^ As to nightingales, he says that their notes are 
so short, and their transitions so rapid, that he cannot well 
ascertain their key. Perhaps in a cage and in a room, their 
notes may be more distinguishable. This person 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 GrallcGy who all, to a bird, for- 
sake the northern parts of Europe at the approach of winter. 
*^ Grallce tanquam conjuratce unanimiter in fugam se conji- 
ciunt; ne earum unicam quidem inter nos hahitantem invenire 
fossimus ; ut enim cestate in australihus degere nequeunt oh 
defectum lumhricorumj terramque siccamj ita nec in frigidis 
oh eandem causam/' says Ekmarck, the Swede, in his 
ingenious little treatise called Migrationes Avium, which by 
all means you ought to read while your thoughts run on the 
subject of migration. See Amoenitates Academicce, vol. iv. 
p. 565. 
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. 
^ Dr. Arne in his music to the " Cuckoo's Song" in "Love's Labour's 
Lost" gives the note of the cuckoo as C natural and G : Gungl in his 
*' Cuckoo Galop " gives it as B natural and G sharp. For some further 
particulars respecting the notes of owls and cuckoos, see The Ornith- 
ology of Shakespeare," pp. 90 and 15 L — Ed. 
