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hoopoes, oro pendolos, or golden thrushes, + &c. and also of many of our soft-billed summer birds of passage, and moreover, of birds which never leave us, such as all the various sorts of hawks and kites. Old Belon, two hundred years ago, gives a curious account of the incredible armies of hawks and kites which he saw in the spring time traversing the Thracian Bosphorus, from Asia to Europe. Besides the above mentioned, he remarks that the procession is swelled by whole troops of eagles and vultures.

must have been formed from a few solitary instances, as we firmly believe that all the species of swifts and swallows are strictly migratory over the whole globe. It has been observed, that these birds migrate under even Afric's burning sun, the equinoctial regions of America, and the more uniform temperature of all intertropical climates. It would certainly be a remarkable deviation, were the common swift of Madeira to differ from its species, which are guided by one similar law in all other parts of the world.

* We have noticed the occasional appearance of the hoopoe in Britain, at page 25. This beautiful bird is twelve inches in length, and nineteen in breadth. The bill is about two inches long, black, slender, and somewhat curved; the eyes hazel; the tongue very short and triangular; the head is surmounted by a crest, consisting of a double row of feathers of a pale orange colour, tipped with black, the largest being about two inches in length; the neck is of a faint reddish brown; the breast and belly, white; the back, scapulars, and wings, are crossed with broad bars of black and white; the lesser coverts of the wings are light brown; the rump is white, and the tail consists of ten feathers, each marked with white, and, when closed, assumes the form of a crescent, with the horns pointing downwards; the legs are short and black. Except when under some excitement, the crest usually falls behind on its neck.

Bechstein informs us, that, in Germany, hoopoes frequent the meadows all the summer. In the month of August, they form themselves into families in the plains; and, early in September, leave that country, returning again in the month of April. - ED.

The golden thrush of our author is the golden oriole, oriolus galbula of Linnæus. It is an occasional visitant. This very elegant species is about the size of a blackbird; the male being of a bright golden yellow, with black wings, marked here and there with yellow; the two middle tail feathers are also black, the rest yellow. The female is of a dull greenish brown in those parts where the male is black; the breast is spotted with black. A male and female were shot in the neighbourhood of the Pentland Hills, near Edinburgh, and are now in the College Museum. These birds are plentiful in France and Germany: they congregate in August, and migrate to the warmer regions of Asia, and return again in May. En.

The geographical range of the vultures and eagles is much extended in various species; for example, the golden eagle has been found to breed in Britain, the continent of Europe, and also in America. That some of them have roving habits, extending their predatory excursions frequently to a great distance, is quite true; but we cannot admit the

Now, it is no wonder that birds residing in Africa should retreat before the sun as it advances, and retire o milder regions, and especially birds of prey, whose blood being heated with hot animal food, are more impatient of a sultry climate; but then I cannot help wondering why kites and hawks, and such hardy birds as are known to defy all the severity of England, and even of Sweden and all north Europe, should want to migrate from the south of Europe, and be dissatisfied with the winters of Andalusia.

It does not appear to me that much stress may be laid on the difficulty and hazard that birds must run in their migrations, by reason of vast oceans, cross winds, &c.; because, if we reflect, a bird may travel from England to the Equator without lanching out and exposing itself to boundless seas, and that by crossing the water at Dover, and again at Gibraltar. And I with the more confidence advance this obvious remark, because my brother has always found that some of his birds, and particularly the swallow kind, are very sparing of their pains in crossing the Mediterranean; for, when arrived at Gibraltar, they do not,

-Ranged in figure, wedge their way,
and set forth

Their airy caravan, high over seas

Flying, and over lands with mutual wing
Easing their flight;

MILTON.

but scout and hurry along in little detached parties, of six or seven in a company; and, sweeping low, just over the surface of the land and water, direct their course to the opposite continent, at the narrowest passage they can find. They usually slope across the bay to the south-west, and so pass over opposite to Tangier, which, it seems, is the narrowest space.*

In former letters, we have considered, whether it was probable that woodcocks, in moonshiny nights, cross the German Ocean from Scandinavia. As a proof that birds of less speed may pass that sea, considerable as it is, I shall relate the following incident, which, though mentioned to have happened so many years ago, was strictly matter of fact:- As

birds of these tribes to be classed among those which are migratory. It occasionally happens that these birds extend their flight from one country to another; but, then, these excursions are not marked by periodical regularity, nor influenced by atmospherical changes, but proceed from some unknown cause. - ED.

* Ceuta is the narrowest part of the Straits of Gibraltar. — ED.

some people were shooting in the parish of Trotton, in the county of Sussex, they killed a duck in that dreadful winter, 1708-9, with a silver collar about its neck,* on which were engraven the arms of the King of Denmark. This anecdote the rector of Trotton at that time has often told to a near relation of mine; and, to the best of my remembrance, the collar was in the possession of the rector.

At present, I do not know any body near the seaside that will take the trouble to remark at what time of the moon woodcocks first come: if I lived near the sea myself, I would soon tell you more of the matter. One thing I used to observe when I was a sportsman, that there were times in which woodcocks were so sluggish and sleepy, that they would drop again when flushed just before the spaniels, nay, just at the muzzle of a gun that had been fired at them: whether this strange laziness was the effect of a recent fatiguing journey, I shall not presume to say. †

Nightingales not only never reach Northumberland and Scotland, but also, as I have been always told, Devonshire and Cornwall. In those two last counties, we cannot attribute the failure of them to the want of warmth: the defect in the west is rather a presumptive argument, that these birds come over to us from the continent at the narrowest passage, and do not stroll so far westward.

Let me hear from your own observation whether skylarks do not dust. I think they do: and if they do, whether they wash also.

The alauda pratensis of Ray was the poor dupe that was educating the booby of a cuckoo mentioned in my letter of October last. §

Your letter came too late for me to procure a ringousel for Mr Tunstal during their autumnal visit; but I will endeavour to get him one when they call on us again in April. I am glad that you and that gentleman saw my Andalusian birds;

* I have read a like anecdote of a swan.

† It is quite evident that such must be attributed to fatigue after their long excursions, as mentioned in our note at page 105.-ED.

The farthest north which this bird has been known to extend in England, is the neighbourhood of Doncaster, in Yorkshire. It is certainly a strange circumstance that the nightingale has never been met with in Devonshire and Cornwall, as these counties appear peculiarly calculated for their residence, both from the mildness of the temperature and the variety of ground. The bounds prescribed to all animals and plants, is one of the most singular arrangements in the economy of nature. - ED.

§ Letter XXXVIII. To the Hon. Daines Barrington.

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