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4 - 
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. — 119 
redwings disappear sooner or later according as the warm 
weather comes on earlier or later. For I well remember, after 
that dreadful winter of 1739-40, that cold northeast winds 
continued to blow on through April and May, and _ that 
these kind of birds (what few remained of them) did not 
depart as usual, but were seen lingering about till the 
beginning of June. 
The best authority that we can have for the nidification of 
the birds above-mentioned in any district, is the testimony 
of faunists that have written professedly the natural history 
of particular countries. Now as to the fieldfare, Linnzus, in 
his Mauna Suecica, says of it, that “it builds mostly in trees”’; 
and of the redwing he says, in the same place, that “it builds 
in the midst of bushes or hedges, and lays six eggs of a 
-bluish-green color, with variegated black spots.” Hence we 
may be assured that fieldfares and redwings breed in Sweden. 
Scopoli says, in his Annus Primus, of the woodcock, that “ it 
arrives with us, paired, about the vernal equinox’”’; meaning in 
Tirol, of which he is a native. And afterwards he adds that 
“it builds its nest in the Alpine marshes, and lays from three 
to five eggs.”’” It does not appear from Kramer that woodcocks 
breed at all in Austria; but he says, “ This bird is a denizen in 
the summer time of the northern provinces, where for the most 
part it builds its nest. On the approach of winter it seeks the 
more southern provinces, migrating about the time of full moon 
in October. Then, after pairing, it returns to the north through 
Austria, about the time of the March full moon.” ‘This seems 
to be a full proof of the migration of woodcocks ; though little 
is proved concerning the place of breeding.’ 
There fell in the county of Rutland, in three weeks of this 
present very wet weather, seven inches and a half of rain, 
which is more than has fallen in any three weeks for these 
1 It is now an ascertained fact, that though woodcocks arrive here in 
the autumn, and leave us again in the spring, many remain here to breed. 
