o f each fex, it fliould feem very-improbable that any one dillrtftv
fliould produce fuch numbers of thefe little birds ; and much more
when only one half of the fpecies appears : therefore we may con clude
that the fringilU Celebes, for fome good purpofes, have ra'
peculiar migration of their own in which the fexes part. Nor
fliould it feem. fo wonderful that the intercourfe of fexes in this
fpecies of birds fliould be interrupted in winter ; Alice in many
animals, and particularly in bucks and does, the Texes herd
feparately, except at the feafon when commerce is neceflary. for
the continuance of the breed. For this matter of the chaffinches
fee Fauna Suecica, p. 85, and Syjiema Nature, p. 318. I fee every
winter vaft flights of hen chaffinches, but none of cocks.
Your method of accounting for the periodical motions of the
f linging-birds, or birds of flight, is a very probable one,-
fince the matter of food is a great regulator of the aft-ions and proceedings
o f the brute'creation : there is but one that can be fet in*
competition with it,and that is love. But I cannot quite acquiefce with
you in one circumftance when you advance that, “ when they have
thus feafted, they again feparate into fmall parties of five or fix,
“ and get the belt fare they can within a certain diftrift, having
‘ no inducement to go in quell of frelh-turned earth.” Now
1 you mean that the bufinefs of congregating is quite at an end
Irom the conclufion of wheat-fowing to the feafon of barley and
oats, it is not the cafe with us; for larks and chaffinches, and
particularly linnets, flock and congregate as much in the very dead
of winter as when the hulbandman is bufy with his ploughs and
harrows. ° -
Sure there can be no doubt but that woodcocks and fieldfares
leave us in the fpnng, in order to crofs the feas, and to retire to
fome diftnfts more fuitable to the purpofe of breeding. That the
former
OF S E L BORNE.
> 3 7
former pair before they retire, and that the hens are forward with
^gg, I myfelf, when I was a fportfman, have often experienced.
It cannot indeed be denied but that now and then we hear of a
woodcock s nelt, or young birds, difeovered in fome part or other
o this lfland : but then they are always mentioned as rarities, and
fomewhat out of the common courfe of things : but as to redwings
and fieldfares, no fportfman or naturalift has ever yet, that I could
hear, pretended to have found the nelt or young of thofe fpecies
in any part of thefe kingdoms. And I the more admire at this in-
ftance as extraordinary, fince, to all appearance, the fame food in
fummer as well as in winter might fupport them here which maintains,
their congeners, the blackbirds and thrulhes, did they chufe to
flay the fummer through. From hence it appears that it is not
food alone which determines fome fpecies of birds with regard to
their ftay or departure. Fieldfares and redwings difappear fooner
or later according as the warm weather comes on earlier or later
For I well remember, after that dreadful winter 1739-40, that cold
north-eaft winds continued to blow on through April and May, and
that thefe kinds of birds (what few remained of them) did not depart
as ufual, but were feen lingering about till the beginning of
June.. &
, ; :--------wm m m m 1S mm ratimony of fauniits
that have written profefledly the natural hiftory of particular countries.
Now, as to the fieldfare, Linnxus, in his fauna Suecica, fays
of it that maxtmis m arboribus nidificat:’’ and of the redwing he
fays, in the fame place, that “ nidificat in mediis arbufiuUs,Jhe^bus- f f i t g macnlh WMl i f e Hencewe may be affufed
that fieldfares and redwings breed in Sweden, ScopoAys, in his
Annus Pnmus of the woodcock, that nuptaad nos Unit circa *p,inoc-
.hum vernale: meaning in Tirol, of which he is a native. And
'T'
afterwards