r 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 coeruleo-viridia maculis nigris variis_." Hence we may be assured
that fieldfares and redwings build in Sweden. Scopoli says, in his
"Annus Primus," of the woodcock, that "_nupta ad nos venit circa
oequinoctium vernale_;" meaning in Tyrol, 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 hoec septentrionalium provinciarum oestivo 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 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 IX.

FYFIELD, near ANDOVER, _Feb. 12th_, 1772.

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 from south to north, according to the season.
And these vast migrations con