NOTES OF BIRDS. 
143 
that the owls about this village hoot in three different keys, in 
G flat, or F sharp, in B flat and A flat. He heard two hooting 
to each other, the one in A flat, and the other in B flat. Query : 
Do these different notes proceed from diflferent 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 individuals ; 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 after- 
wards 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 dis- 
tinguishable. 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 grallce, who all, to a bird, forsake the northern parts 
of Europe at the approach of winter. " Grallce tanquam conjuratce 
unanimiter in fugam se conjiciunt ; ne earum unicam quidem inter 
nos habitantem invenire possimus ; ut enim (Estate hi australibus 
degere nequeunt oh defectum lumbricorum, terramque siccam ; ita 
nec in frigidis ob 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 Amcenitates Academicce, vol. 4, p. 565. 
Birds m^ay be so circumstanced as to be obliged to migrate 
in one country and not in another :* but the grallce (which pro- 
cure their food from marshes and boggy grounds) must in win- 
ter forsake the more northerly parts of Europe, or perish for 
want of food. 
I am glad }ou are making enquiries from Linnceus 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 
own fauna. 
Faunists, as you observe, are too apt to acquiesce in bare de- 
* Thus the robin, and the blackbird, and the song thrush, migrate regularly in Germany, but 
not in Britain, our winters being considerable milder. In fact we receive accessions of all three 
in autumn from the Scandinavian peninsula ; principally, however, of the two latter, though I 
have known instances of the robin also alighting on vessels in the German Ocean. — Ed. 
