i4« NATURAL HISTORY 
expofing itielf to boundlefs feas, and that by crOiTmg tlie water at 
Dover, and again at Gibraltar. And I with the more confidence 
advance this obvious remark, becaufe my brother has always fotmd 
that fome of his birds, and particularly the fwallow kind, are ver^ 
fparing of their pains in crofling the Mediterranean : for when 
arrived at Gibraltar they do not 
•— — — " Rang'd in figure wedge their way, 
, — — — — — " And fet forth 
*' Their airy caravan high over feas 
" Flying, and over lands with mutual wing 
Eafing their flight:" — — — — Milton. 
but fcout and hurry along in little detached parties of fix or feven 
in a company; and fweeping low, juft over the furface of the land 
and water, diredl their courfe to the oppofite continent at the 
narroweft palTage they can find. They ufuaily Hope acrofs the bay- 
to the fouth-wefl, and fo pafs over oppofite to 'Tangier, which, it 
feems, is the narroweft fpace. 
In former letters we have confidered whether it was probable 
that woodcocks in moon-ihiny nights crofs the German ocean from 
Scandinavia. As a proof that birds of lefs fpeed may pafs that fea, 
confiderable as it is, I fhall relate the following incident, which, 
though mentioned to have happened fo many years ago, was ftricflly 
matter of fa6l : — As fome people were fhooting in the parifh of 
Trotlon, in the county of Sujfex, they killed a duck in that dreadful 
winter 1708-9, with a lilver collar about it's neck^, on which were 
engraven the arms of the king 'of Denmark. This anecdote the 
rector of Trotton at that time has often told to a near relation of 
mine ; and^ to the beft of my remembrance, the collar was in the- 
poffeffion of the redor. 
3 I have read a like anecdote of afwan. 
At 
