xNTRODUCTION. 
through the mild regions of the Temperate Zone, and even extends her 
dight beyond the limits of the Line. The Woodcock again discovers the 
vast umbrageous forests of the North, and the Swallow, the hot plains of 
Africa. Blessed with a memory tenacious and retentive, and with mental 
powers, adequate to the conducting of them in their wanderings, they 
return, after the intervention of many months, to the same country, the 
same province, nay, many of them to the self-same spot, where they had 
before reared their young ones in security, and found protection for them- 
selves ; their bodies, framed to be sensible of the slightest change of 
atmosphere, constantly intimate to their sure guide, when they soar beyond 
their rout, and exceed the parallels of latitude to which most of them are 
confined. It is probable, however, that the short-winged race retire from 
their summer retreats, in pairs, or in small companies, by easy Sittings, till 
they reach the shore, and then they try the strength of their pinions in 
crossing the sea ; but the powers of wing of these birds have, in general, 
been greatly under-rated, and rarely has the amazing strength of their 
pectoral muscles been taken into the account. There can scarcely be a 
doubt, but that, were it necessary, most of these little creatures, weak as 
they appear, can traverse vast distances, and take very long flights. Ac- 
Vide Ekmarck’s Migrationes Avium, and Adanson’s Voyage to Senegal. 
** A friend assured me, that he saw a (lock of Linnets aliglit on a ship in which he was, 
upwards of one hundred and fifty miles from any land ; and that three Woodcocks passed over 
the same vessel, about forty or fifty miles to the eastward of Tercera, one of the Azores; one 
of the Woodcocks was so much fatigued that it endeavoured to rest on the yard. To be fully 
satisfied, beyond the possibility of doubt, I applied to the crew individually, and they all con- 
firmed the statement made by my friend. I was informed by a respectable sea-captain, who had 
long been part owner of a large ship, that, as he was sailing in North Latitude about 5 6, West 
Longitude about 14 , an Owl, of extraordinary size, with plumage as white as snow, slightly tinged 
with streaks of brown, fatigued by exertion, alighted on his vessel ; that it was taken, kept many 
days, and afterwards flew away. His description of it agreed with the Strix Nyctea of Linnaeus, 
and the Hariang of Buffbn. He assured me that he neither before this occurrence, nor since, 
had seen a bird of the same species, nor did he know from what country it came. He added, 
L 
