hinc circa plenilunium potissimum mensis Octobris plerumque Austriam transmigrat. Tunc rursus circa plenilunium potissimum mensis Martü per Austriam matrimonio juncta ad septentrionales provincias redit." For the whole passage (which I have abridged) see Elenchus, &c. p. 351. This seems to be a full proof of the emigration of woodcocks; though little is proved concerning the place of their breeding.

P.S.-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 thirty years past, in that part of the world. A mean quantity in that county for one year is twenty inches and a half.*

LETTER XLII.

TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON.

FYFIELD, near ANDOVER, February 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, and 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

*The average quantity of rain, which falls annually, has been calculated at between thirty-one and thirty-two inches. In Scotland, it varies, as in all other countries, with the locality. In Glasgow, it is thirty-one inches; Dumfries, thirty-six inches; and Dalkeith, twenty-five inches, making an average between thirty and thirty-one inches, or twenty-eight cubit feet of water. Countries adjacent to the coast of an extended ocean have usually more rain than inland districts. In some parts of India it is from one hundred and three to one hundred and twelve, but the average is eighty-five inches annually. ED.

The migration of swallows is not confined to Britain, for they appear to be influenced by a general law in every variety of climate. It has been satisfactorily proved, that swallows leave even the most extreme southern parts of Europe, as the kingdom of Naples, Sicily, the Morea, &c. and migrate to Africa and Asia. Mr Rae Wilson gives us positive

from south to north, according to the season. And these vast migrations consist not only of hirundines, but of bee-birds, *

assurance of these migrations in his travels in Egypt. He says, he had the proof, in the immense bodies of these birds which he perceived pushing their way in the direction of Egypt from Europe, during the month of November, when the winter sets in.

We are told by Wilson, that the swallows of America are also migratory,"arriving in Pennsylvania late in April, or early in May; dispersing themselves over the whole country, wherever there are vacant chimneys, in summer, sufficiently high and convenient for their accommodation. In no other situation, with us, are they observed at present to build. This circumstance naturally suggests the query, Where did these birds construct their nests before the arrival of Europeans in this country, when there were no such places for their accommodation? I would answer, Probably in the same situations in which they still continue to build in the remote regions of our western forests, where European improvements of this kind are scarcely to be found, namely, in the hollow of a tree, which, in some cases, has the nearest resemblance to their present choice, of any other. One of the first settlers in the state of Kentucky informed me, that he cut down a large hollow beech tree, which contained forty or fifty nests of the chimney swallow, most of which, by the fall of the tree, or by the weather, were lying at the bottom of the hollow; but sufficient fragments remained, adhering to the sides of the tree, to enable him to number them. They appeared, he said, to be of many years' standing."

Dr Richardson says, In the fur countries, where the habitations of man are few and far between, the barn-swallow inhabits caves, particularly in the limestone rocks; and it frequents the out-houses of all the trading ports. When Fort Franklin was erected on the shores of the Great Bear Lake, in the autumn of 1825, we found many of the nests in the ruins of a house that had been abandoned for more than ten years." In that northern latitude they arrive about the 15th of May, and take their departure early in August. Swallows were noticed by Dr Richardson at Fort Good Hope in latitude sixty-seven and a half degrees, the most northerly post in America.-ED.

*What our author calls bee-bird, is the European bee-eater, merops apiaster of Linnæus. It is the only one of the genus found in Europe. It is not uncommon in the south of France, Italy, Germany, and Sweden, but abounds in the southern Russian provinces bordering on the Don and Wolga. It is gregarious and migratory, leaving its summer quarters for more southern latitudes in autuinn. This bird has been frequently taken in Britain, but was not noticed till July, 1794, when one was shot at Mattishall, county of Norfolk. In the same year, a flock of about twenty was seen in June, and, in October following, a flight, much fewer in number-in all probability the same-passed over the place where they had been first seen. This bird feeds on all winged insects, which it takes on the wing like a swallow.-ED.

Sir William Jardine, in a paper on "the Birds of Madeira," in the Edinburgh Journal of Natural and Geographical Science, mentions that the common swift remains in that island all the year round. Notwithstanding the very respectable authority of Mr Carruthers, on whose observations he states this, we are inclined to suppose his conclusions

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.-ED.

The geographical range of the vultures and eagles

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