The Natural History of Selborne [57]
when I was a sportsman, have often experienced. It cannot indeed be denied but that now and then we hear of a woodcock's nest, or young birds, discovered in some part or other of this island: but then they are always mentioned as rarities, and somewhat out of the common course of things: but as to redwings and fieldfares, no sportsman or naturalist has ever yet, that I could hear, pretended to have found the nest or young of those species in any part of these kingdoms. And I the more admire at this instance as extraordinary, since, to all appearance, the same food in summer as well as in winter might support them here which maintains their congeners, the blackbirds and thrushes, did they choose to stay the summer through. From hence it appears that it is not food alone which determines some species of birds with regard to their stay or departure. Fieldfares and 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 north- east winds continued to blow on through April and May, and that these kinds 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, Linnaeus, in his Fauna Suecica, says of it that 'maximis in arboribus nidificat'; and of the redwing he says, in the same place, that 'nidificat in mediis arbusculis, sive sepibus: ova sex caeruleo-viridia maculis nigris variis.' Hence we may be assured that fieldfares and redwings breed in Sweden. Scopoli says, in his Annus Primus, of the woodcock, that 'nupta ad nos venit circa aequinoctium vernale'; meaning in Tirol, of which he is a native. And afterwards he adds 'nidificat in paludibus alpinis: ova ponit, 3-5.' It does not appear from Kramer that woodcocks breed at all in Austria: but he says 'Avis haec septentrionalium provinciarum aestivo tempore incola est; ubi plerumque nidificat. Appropinquante hyeme australiores provincias petit: hinc circa plenilunium mensis Octobris plerumque Austriam transmigrat. Tunc rursus circa plenilunium potissimum mensis Martii per Austriam matrimonio juncta ad septentrionales provincias redit. ' For the whole passage (which I have abridged) see Elenchus, etc., p. 351. This seems to be a full proof of the migration of woodcocks; though little is proved concerning the place of breeding.
P.S. There fell in the county of Rutland, in three weeks of this present very wet weather, seven inches and an half of rain, which is more than has fallen in any three weeks for these thirty years past in that part of the world. A mean quantity in that county one year is twenty inches and an half.
Letter IX To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Fyfield, near Andover, Feb. 12, 1771.
Dear Sir,
You are, I know, no great friend to migration; and the well attested accounts from various parts of the kingdom seem to justify you in your suspicions, that at least many of the swallow kind do not leave us in the winter, but lay themselves up like insects and bats, in a torpid state, to slumber away the more uncomfortable months till the return of the sun and fine weather awakens them.
But then we must not, I think, deny migration in general; because migration certainly does subsist in some places, as my brother in Andalusia has fully informed me. Of the motions of these birds he has ocular demonstration for many weeks together, both spring and fall: during which periods myriads of the swallow kind traverse the Straits from north to south, and from south to north, according to the season. And these vast migrations consist not only of hirundines but of bee-birds, hoopoes, oro pendolos or golden thrushes, etc., etc., and also many of our soft-billed summer-birds of passage; and moreover of birds
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, Linnaeus, in his Fauna Suecica, says of it that 'maximis in arboribus nidificat'; and of the redwing he says, in the same place, that 'nidificat in mediis arbusculis, sive sepibus: ova sex caeruleo-viridia maculis nigris variis.' Hence we may be assured that fieldfares and redwings breed in Sweden. Scopoli says, in his Annus Primus, of the woodcock, that 'nupta ad nos venit circa aequinoctium vernale'; meaning in Tirol, of which he is a native. And afterwards he adds 'nidificat in paludibus alpinis: ova ponit, 3-5.' It does not appear from Kramer that woodcocks breed at all in Austria: but he says 'Avis haec septentrionalium provinciarum aestivo tempore incola est; ubi plerumque nidificat. Appropinquante hyeme australiores provincias petit: hinc circa plenilunium mensis Octobris plerumque Austriam transmigrat. Tunc rursus circa plenilunium potissimum mensis Martii per Austriam matrimonio juncta ad septentrionales provincias redit. ' For the whole passage (which I have abridged) see Elenchus, etc., p. 351. This seems to be a full proof of the migration of woodcocks; though little is proved concerning the place of breeding.
P.S. There fell in the county of Rutland, in three weeks of this present very wet weather, seven inches and an half of rain, which is more than has fallen in any three weeks for these thirty years past in that part of the world. A mean quantity in that county one year is twenty inches and an half.
Letter IX To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Fyfield, near Andover, Feb. 12, 1771.
Dear Sir,
You are, I know, no great friend to migration; and the well attested accounts from various parts of the kingdom seem to justify you in your suspicions, that at least many of the swallow kind do not leave us in the winter, but lay themselves up like insects and bats, in a torpid state, to slumber away the more uncomfortable months till the return of the sun and fine weather awakens them.
But then we must not, I think, deny migration in general; because migration certainly does subsist in some places, as my brother in Andalusia has fully informed me. Of the motions of these birds he has ocular demonstration for many weeks together, both spring and fall: during which periods myriads of the swallow kind traverse the Straits from north to south, and from south to north, according to the season. And these vast migrations consist not only of hirundines but of bee-birds, hoopoes, oro pendolos or golden thrushes, etc., etc., and also many of our soft-billed summer-birds of passage; and moreover of birds