BIRDS. 
145 
In the preceding observations on the characters and habits of our native 
birds, I have frequently referred to summer and winter visitants, to polar 
and equatorial migrations, and to stragglers. The reader who wishes to in- 
vestigate the laws regulating the distribution and migration of birds, with 
which the above mentioned terms are connected, may consult my “ Philoso- 
phy of Zoology,” vol. ii. chap. 2. It may be proper, however, to bear in 
mind that birds, in reference to these islands, maybe contemplated under the 
following divisions. 
1. Birds ^ which are permanently resident, and able to remain in their ordi- 
nary stations, independent of the changes of the seasons,— such as the Com- 
pion Partridge, Blackbird, and Sparrow. 
2. Summer Visitants. — Birds of this class arrive in spring, and depart in 
autumn. During their residence amongst us, they pair, build their nests, 
and bring forth their young. They retire to spend the winter in regions 
nearer the Equator, — such as the Swallow, Turtle Dove, Nightingale, and 
Corncrake. 
3. Winter Visitants. — These come to us in autumn, and depart in spring. 
Their breeding-places are in regions nearer the pole,— such as the Snow- 
Bunting, Wood-Cock, and Wild-Goose. 
4. Stragglers Under this division species are included, individuals of which 
have occurred in this country at distant and uncertain intervals. They 
usually appear after boisterous weather, and seem, in such circumstances, to 
have been driven from their ordinary haunts, or course of migration, by the 
fury of the wind. Many birds belonging to the Continent of Europe, have, 
in this manner, made their appearance amongst us, and have been inconsider- 
ately ranked as native birds by systematical writers, — such as the Bee- 
eater, the Great Black Woodpecker, and Nutcracker, and a host of other spe- 
cies. North America has furnished a few species under similar circumstan- 
ces, such as the Falco furcatus., and the White-winged Grossbill. To this division 
I have to add the occurrence of a single individual, of a species hitherto un- 
known, even as a straggler, to European ornithologists, and which I have re- 
ceived since the preceding sheets had passed through the press ; the Passen- 
ger Pigeon.) Columba migratoria, Wilson's Americart, Ornithology.^ vol. v. p. 102. 
tab. xliv. fig. 1. It was shot, while perched on a wall in the neighbourhood 
of a pigeon-house at Westhall, in the parish of Monymeal*, Eifeshire, 31st 
• Length from tip of the bill to the oil-bag 8 /gth inches ; to the end of the 
tail 8 = 16/„th inches. Breadth 24| inches ; weight 9 ounces. Bill an inch, 
black, lengthened, slender ; nasal scale wrinkled ; a slight flexure in the line 
of the gape, immediately under the nostrils. Upper mandible longer than 
the under, and bent downwards, with the rudiments of a notch ; symphysis 
of the lower mandible short, subascending, slightly prominent retrally, with 
a shallow mesial groove ; inside of the mouth livid. Tongue blunt. Bare 
pace round the eyes, livid. Irides reddish-orange. Feet reddish, paler be- 
hind than before. Tarsus 1 x^pth ; the middle toe, exclusive of the nail, the 
same. Claws black, arched and grooved below. Chin, cheeks, head, back, 
and rump, bluish-grey ; shoulders with a tinge of yellowish-brown. Side of 
the neck, and behind, rich reddish-purple, iridescent. Fore-neck deep ches- 
nut, becoming paler on the breast, or rather salmon-coloured, and passing to 
white on the belly and vent. Thighs like the breast. Quills brownish-black, 
the grey colour of the margin of the outer web increasing at the base of the 
secondaries, and towards the ends of the inner ones. Bastard wing and great- 
er covers of the primaries brownish-black ; greater covers of the secondaries 
grey. Lesser covers and outer scapulars tinged with yellowish-brown, with 
black spots. The second quill the longest, the first and fourth equal, but 
these not at full growth. Tail of 12 feathers, the two middle produced, the 
K' 
VOL. T. 
