144 NATURAL HISTORY 
As I have often remarked that redwings are fome of the firft 
birds that fuffer with us in fevere weather, it is no wonder at all 
that they retreat from Standinavian winters : afid much more the or do 
of graiLe, wdio, all to a bird, forfake the northern parts of Europe at 
the approach of winter. " Gralla ta-nquam conjurata unanimitcr In 
fngam fe conjkiunt ; m earum unlearn qiiidem niter nos habitant em in- 
" venire poffiinus; ut enlm afiate In auJiraVibus degere neqiieuntob defeBum 
" lumbrlcorum, terramque ficcam ; ita nec in frlgldls ob eandem caufam", 
fays Ekmarck the Swede, in his ingenious little treatife called Mlgra- 
tiones Avium, which by all means you ought to read while your 
thoughts run on the fubjed of migration. See Am^enitates Academics, 
vol. 4, p. 565. 
Birds may be fo circumftanced as to be obliged to migrate in one 
country and not in another : but the gralU, (which procure their 
food from marflies and boggy grounds) muft in winter forfake 
the more northerly parts of Europe, or perifli for want of food. 
I am glad you are making inquiries from Linnaeus concerning the 
woodcock : it is expedled of him that he fhould be able to account 
for the motions and manner of life of the animals of his own 
Fauita. 
Faunifis, as you obferve, are too apt to acquiefce in bare defcrip- 
tions, and a few fynonyms : the reafon is plain ; becaufe all that 
may be done at home in a man's ftudy, but the inveftigation of 
the life and converfation of animals, is a concern of much more 
trouble and difficulty, and is not to be attained but by the aftive 
and inquifitive, and by thofe that relide much in the country. 
Foreign fyftematics are, I obferve, much too vague in their 
fpecific dilFerences ; which are almoft univerfally conftituted by 
one or two particular marks, the reft of the defcription running in 
general terms. But our countryman, the excellent Mr. Ray, is 
A the 
