This person has
tried to settle the notes of a swift, and of several other small birds,
but cannot bring them to any criterion.
As I have often remarked that redwings are some of the first birds
that suffer with us in severe weather, it is no wonder at all they
retreat from Scandinavian winters: and much more the ordo of
grallae, who, all to a bird, forsake the northern parts of Europe at
the approach of winter. 'Grallae tanquam conjugatae unanimiter in
fugam se conjiciunt; ne earum unicam quidem inter nos habitantem
invenire possimus; ut enim aestate in australibus degere nequeunt
ob defectum lumbricorum, terramque siccam; ita nec in frigidis ob
eandem causam,' says Eckmarck the Swede, in his ingenious little
treatise called Migrationes Avium, which by all means you ought
to read while your thoughts run on the subject of migration. See
Amoenitates Academicae, vol. iv, p. 565.
Birds may be so circumstanced as to be obliged to migrate in one
country and not in another: but the grallae (which procure their
food from marshes and boggy grounds) must in winter forsake the
more northerly parts of Europe, or perish for want of food.
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