es a feat An a 
' \ 7 y 
7 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. , 125 
want of worms and the hardened earth, so for the same reason 
they cannot exist in the cold north,” says Ekmarck the Swede, 
in his ingenious little treatise called Migrationes Avium, which 
by all means you ought to read while your thoughts run on the 
subject of migration. 
Birds may be so circumstanced as to be obliged to migrate 
in one country, and not in another: but the Grad/e (which 
procure their food from marshes and boggy grounds) must in 
winter forsake the more northerly parts of Europe, or perish 
for want of food. 
I am glad you are making inquiries from Linnzus concern- 
ing the woodcock: it is expected of him that he should be 
able to account for the motions and manner of life of the 
animals of his own Fauna. 
Faunists, as you observe, are too apt to acquiesce in bare 
~ descriptions, and a few synonyms: the reason is plain; 
because all that may be done at home in a man’s study, but 
the investigation of the life and conversation of animals, is a 
concern of much more trouble and difficulty, and is not to be 
attained but by the active and inquisitive, and by those that 
__ reside much in the country. 
Foreign systematics are, I observe, much too vague in their 
specific differences, which are almost universally constituted 
by one or two particular marks, the rest of the description 
running in general terms. But our countryman, the excellent 
Mr. Ray, is the only describer that conveys some precise idea 
in every term or word, maintaining his superiority over his 
_ followers and imitators in spite of the advantage of fresh 
discoveries and modern information. 
_ At this distance of years it is not in my power to recollect 
at what periods woodcocks used to be sluggish or alert when I 
was a sportsman: but, upon my mentioning this circumstance 
¥ to a friend, he thinks he has observed them to be remarkably 
listless against snowy foul weather ; if this should be the case, 
“ 
