OF S E L B O R N E« 137 
former pair before they retire, and that the hens are forward with 
egg, I myfelf, when I v/as a fportfman, have often experienced, 
it cannot indeed be denied but that now and then we hear of a 
woodcock's nefl, or yaung birds, difcovered in fome part or other 
of this ifland : but then they are always mentioned as rarities, and 
fomewhat out of the common courfe of things : but as to redwings 
and fieldfares, no fportfman or naturalift has ever yet, that I could 
hear, pretended to have found the neft or young of thofe fpecies 
in any part of thefe kingdoms. And I the more admire at this in- 
ftance as extraordinary, fince, to all appearance, the fame food in 
fummer as well as in winter might fupport them here which main- 
tains their congeners, the blackbirds and thrufhes, did ihey chufeto 
flay the fummer through. From hence it appears that it is not 
food alone which determines fome fpecies of birds with regard to 
their fray or departure. Fieldfares and redwings difappear fooner 
or later according as the warm weather comes on earlier or later. 
For I well remember, after that dreadful winter 1739-40, that cold 
north-eaft winds continued to blow on through April and May, and 
that thefe kinds of birds (what few remained of them) did not de- 
part as ufual, but were feen lingering about till the beginning of 
June. 
The beft authority that we can have for the nidification of the 
birds above mentioned in any diftrift, is the teftimony of faunifts 
that have written profefledly the natural hiftory of particular coun- 
tries. Now, as to the fieldfare, Linnccus, in his Fauna Suecica, fays 
of it that maxlmis in arboribus nidificat and of the redwing he 
fays, in the fame place, that nidificat in mediis arbufcuUs^five fepibust 
ova fex citruleo-viridia maculis nigris variis " Hence we may be afilired 
that fieldfares and redwings breed in 'Szveden. ScopoU fays, in his 
Annus Primtts, of the vv^oodcock, that nupta ad nos venit circa aquinoc- 
tlum vernale meaning in T/Vo/, of which he i^ a native. And 
T -afterwards 
