Picus principalis, the King of the Wood-peckers, is found here, though very seldom, and only at a certain season. [[86]]
Picus pileatus, the crested Wood-pecker; this I have already mentioned.
Picus auratus, the gold-winged Wood-pecker: This species is plentiful here, and the Swedes call it Hittock, and Piut; both these names have a relation to its note; it is almost continually on the ground, and is not observed to pick in the trees; it lives chiefly on insects, but sometimes becomes the prey of hawks; it is commonly very fat, and its flesh is very palatable. As it stays all the year, and cannot easily get insects in winter, it must doubtless eat some kinds of grass or plants in the fields. Its form, and some of its qualities, make it resemble a cuckow.
Picus Carolinus, the Carolina Wood-pecker. It lives here likewise, and the colour of its head is of a deeper and more shining red than Catesby has represented it, vol. i. p. 19. t. 19.
Picus villosus, the spotted, hairy, middle-sized Wood-pecker is abundant here; it destroys the apple-trees by pecking holes into them.
Picus erythrocephalus, the red-headed Wood-pecker. This bird was frequent in the country, and the Swedes called it merely Hackspick, or Wood pecker. They give the same name to all the birds which I now enumerate, the gold-winged wood-pecker excepted. This species is destructive [[87]]to maize-fields and orchards, for it pecks through the ears of maize, and eats apples. In some years they are very numerous, especially where sweet apples grow, which they eat so far, that nothing but the mere peels remain. Some years ago there was a premium of two pence per head, paid from the public funds, in order to extirpate this pernicious bird, but this law has been repealed. They are likewise very fond of acorns. At the approach of winter they travel to the southward. But when they stay in numbers in the woods, at the beginning of winter, the people look upon it as a sign of a pretty mild winter.
Picus varius, the lesser, spotted, yellow-bellied Wood-pecker. These birds are much more numerous than many people wished; for this, as well as the preceding and succeeding species, are very hurtful to apple-trees.
Picus pubescens, or the least spotted Wood-pecker. This species abounds here. Of all the wood-peckers it is the most dangerous to orchards, because it is the most daring. As soon as it has pecked a hole into the tree, it makes another close to the first, in a horizontal direction, proceeding till it has pecked a circle of holes [[88]]round the tree. Therefore the apple-trees in the orchards here have several rings round their stems, which lie very close above each other, frequently only an inch distant from each other. Sometimes these wood-peckers peck the holes so close, that the tree dries up. This bird, as Catesby remarks, is so like the lesser spotted wood-pecker, in regard to its colour and other qualities, that they would be taken for the same bird, were not the former (the Picus pubescens) a great deal less. They agree in the bad quality, which they both possess, of pecking holes into the apple-trees.
Rana ocellata are a kind of frogs here, which the Swedes call, Sill-hoppetosser, i. e. Herring-hoppers, and which now began to quack in the evening, and at night, in swamps, pools, and ponds. The name which the Swedes give them is derived from their beginning to make their noise in spring, at the same time when the people here go catching what are called herrings, which however differ greatly from the true European herrings. These frogs have a peculiar note, which is not like that of our European frogs, but rather corresponds with the chirping of some large birds, and can nearly be expressed by picet. With this noise they continued throughout a great [[89]]part of spring, beginning their noise soon after sun-setting, and finishing it just before sun-rising. The sound was sharp, but yet so loud that it could be heard at a great distance. When they expected rain they cried much worse than commonly, and began in the middle of the day, or when it grew cloudy, and the rain came usually six hours after. As it snowed on the 16th of the next month, and blew very violently all day, there was not the least sign of them at night, and during the whole time that it was cold, and whilst the snow lay on the fields, the frost had so silenced them, that we could not hear one; but as soon as the mild weather returned, they began their noise again. They were very timorous, and it was difficult to catch them; for as soon as a person approached the place where they lived, they are quite silent, and none of them appeared. It seems that they hide themselves entirely under water, except the tip of the snout, when they cry. For when I stepped to the pond where they were in, I could not observe a single one hopping into the water. I could not see any of them before I had emptied a whole pool, where they lodged in. Their colour is a dirty green, variegated with spots of brown. When [[90]]they are touched they make a noise and moan; they then sometimes assume a form, as if they had blown up the hind part of the back, so that it makes a high elevation; and then they do not stir, though touched. When they are put alive into spirits of wine, they die within a minute.
March the 12th. The bird which the English and Swedes in this country call Robin-red-breast[17], is found here all the year round. It is a very different bird from that which in England bears the same name. It is Linnæus’s Turdus migratorius. It sings very melodiously, is not very shy, but hops on the ground, quite close to the houses.