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OF THE CRIMEA.

459

the fkirts of woods. Partridges are uncommonly frequentthroughout the year, though quails arrive chiefly in autumn;when they vifit the vallies between the mountains, and migratelate in the feafon towards Anatolia. Great numbers are caughtby the fhepherds with bafkets attached to poles, which areplaced over the birds while they defeend clofe to the ground.Many are alfo taken by means of fparrow-hawks and dogs.Among the fmaller birds, I have in Grim-Tartary only metwith the common nightingale (not that fweet warbler of thenight, whofe notes are incomparably more perfecT:); the robin-red-breaft; the wood-pecker, or Certhia ; the grey wren; andthe large titmoufe. Of birds preying upon grain, there oeeurthe fparrow, and the grey-hammer, which remains through-out the winter, and often perifhes during intenfe frofts.The king-fifher is rare, but the bee-eater, or Merops, isfrequent, as well as the common fwallows ; though the latterform only one neft in the feafon. Wild and tarne pigeonsare not very numerous.—Of poultry, the peacock, guinea-hen,turkey-cock, and common hen, thrive very well, and areextremely prolific. The goofe and fwan are likewife reared;but the tarne duck is bred with difficulty: along the fea-fhore,and on the banks of rivers, are to be feen only the March-duck,the long-tailed duck, and the teal; which, like wild geefe,remain upon the fea, near the fouthern coaft, throughout thewinter. The red and Turkifh ducks are fearce. The bitternis frequent only in the Bofphorus, and cormorants are birdsof paflage. There appear to be but few fpecies of fea-gulls;among which the laughing and the black-headed gull are theraoft diftinguifhed. The common crane feldom builds its neft

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