DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.644#0178
CANGETIC HINDOOSTAN. 155
When I fpeak of the Zoology of the Woods, I muft confine Birds.
myfelf to the feathered tribe of the aquatic kind. All thofe of
Bengal may be found here, probably at all times, but raoft cer-
tainly in the dry feafon, when the woods and perpetual moif-
ture of the fwamps muft make them a defirable retreat, either
for the fake of food, or of laying their eggs, and bringing up
their young.
Du ring the parching heats moft other parts of Bengal, in- Water Fowl.
deed of India itfelf, becoraes uninhabitable to birds of the divi-
fion of water fowl. The wet tra<£ts about Surat may alfo be the
retreat of thofe of the weftern parts of India, and poffibly even
thofe of the remote Caucafan or Etnodal chains. Doctor Fryer,
p. 119, and p. 317, mentionsi?w^geefe; Br. Zool. ii. N° 270, and
birds which he calls Colum and Sera/s; thefe are both of the crane
kind : the Colum, he fays, is of a grey color, with body as large
as a turky, and with long legs and neck. The Serafs, he fays,
is of the fame fpecies, and that both are remarkable for a du-
plicature of the wind-pipe in form of a Frencb hörn ; the du-
plicature is double in the Colum and ringle in the Serafs; one of
them may be our common crane. He teils us that they come
in mighty flights from Mount Caucafus at the approach of the
cold, announcing their approach by very lond notes long before
they are feen. Do6tor Parfons, in Pb. Tranf. vol. lvi. p. 111, has
a juft idea of the genns of thefe birds, which he mentions from
the fame authority as I 60: they may be of fome of the fpe~°
cies of cranes I mention a little farther on. My friend Mr.
Latbam departs from his ufual judgment, when he fuppofes,
vol. ii. p. 434, that the Colum is our wild fwan; but then he
X 2 gives
When I fpeak of the Zoology of the Woods, I muft confine Birds.
myfelf to the feathered tribe of the aquatic kind. All thofe of
Bengal may be found here, probably at all times, but raoft cer-
tainly in the dry feafon, when the woods and perpetual moif-
ture of the fwamps muft make them a defirable retreat, either
for the fake of food, or of laying their eggs, and bringing up
their young.
Du ring the parching heats moft other parts of Bengal, in- Water Fowl.
deed of India itfelf, becoraes uninhabitable to birds of the divi-
fion of water fowl. The wet tra<£ts about Surat may alfo be the
retreat of thofe of the weftern parts of India, and poffibly even
thofe of the remote Caucafan or Etnodal chains. Doctor Fryer,
p. 119, and p. 317, mentionsi?w^geefe; Br. Zool. ii. N° 270, and
birds which he calls Colum and Sera/s; thefe are both of the crane
kind : the Colum, he fays, is of a grey color, with body as large
as a turky, and with long legs and neck. The Serafs, he fays,
is of the fame fpecies, and that both are remarkable for a du-
plicature of the wind-pipe in form of a Frencb hörn ; the du-
plicature is double in the Colum and ringle in the Serafs; one of
them may be our common crane. He teils us that they come
in mighty flights from Mount Caucafus at the approach of the
cold, announcing their approach by very lond notes long before
they are feen. Do6tor Parfons, in Pb. Tranf. vol. lvi. p. 111, has
a juft idea of the genns of thefe birds, which he mentions from
the fame authority as I 60: they may be of fome of the fpe~°
cies of cranes I mention a little farther on. My friend Mr.
Latbam departs from his ufual judgment, when he fuppofes,
vol. ii. p. 434, that the Colum is our wild fwan; but then he
X 2 gives