that supposition! that such feeble, bad fliers (who the summer long never flit but from hedge to hedge) should be able to traverse vast seas and continents, in order to enjoy milder seasons amid the regions of Africa!

LETTER XIII.

Selborne, Jan. 22, 1768.

SIR, AS in one of your former letters you expressed the more satisfaction from my correspondence on account of my living in the most southerly county, so now I may return the compliment, and expect to have my curiosity gratified by your living much more to the north.

For many years past I have observed that, towards Christmas, vast flocks of CHAFFINCHES have

appeared in the fields; many more, I used to think, than could be hatched in any one neighbourhood.

But, when I came to observe them more narrowly, I was amazed to find that they seemed to me to be almost all hens. I communicated my suspicions to some intelligent neighbours, who, after taking pains about the matter, declared that they also thought them all mostly hens, at least fifty to one. This

extraordinary occurrence brought to my mind the remark of Linnæus, that "before winter all their hen chaffinches migrate through Holland into Italy." Now I want to know, from some curious person in the north, whether there are any large flocks of these finches with them in the winter, and of which sort they mostly consist; for from such intelligence one might be able to judge whether our female flocks migrate from the other end of the island, or whether they come over to us from the Continent.

We have, in the winter, vast flocks of the common LINNETS, more, I think, than can be hatched

in any one district. These, I observe, when the spring advances, assemble on some tree in the sun

shine, and join all in a gentle sort of chirping, as if they were about to break up their winter-quarters, and betake themselves to their proper summer homes. It is well known, at least, that the swal. lows and the fieldfares do congregate with a gentle twittering before they make their respective depar

ture.

You may depend on it that the bunting, emberiza miliaria, does not leave this country in the winter. In January, 1767, I saw several dozens of them, in the midst of a severe frost, among the bushes on the Downs near Andover: in our woodland enclosed districts it is a rare bird.

Wagtails, both white and yellow, are with us all the winter. Quails crowd to our southern coast, and are often killed in numbers by people that go on purpose.

Mr. Stillingfleet, in his Tracts, says that, "if the WHEATEAR (ananthe) doth not quit England, it

certainly shifts places; for about harvest they are not to be found where there was before great plen.

ty of them." This will account for the vast quantities that are caught about that time on the South Downs near Lewes, where they are esteemed a delicacy. There have been shepherds, I have been credibly informed, that have made many pounds in a season by catching them in traps. And, though such multitudes are taken, I never saw (and I am well acquainted with those parts) above two or three at a time; for they are never gregarious. They may, perhaps, migrate in general, and for that purpose draw towards the cost of Sussex in autumn; but that they do not all withdraw I am sure, because I see a few stragglers in many counties at all times of the year, especially about warrens and stone-quarries.

I have no acquaintance at present among the gentlemen of the navy, but have written to a friend, who was a sea-chaplain in the late war, desiring him to look into his minutes with respect to birds that settled on their rigging during their voyage up or down the Channel. What Hasselquist says on that subject is remarkable: there were little shortwinged birds frequently coming on board his ship all the way from our Channel quite up to the Levant, especially before squally weather.

What you suggest with regard to Spain is highly probable. The winters of Andalusia are so mild, that, in all likelihood, the soft-billed birds that leave us at that season may find insects sufficient to support them there.

Some young man, possessed of fortune, health, and leisure, should make an autumnal voyage into that kingdom, and should spend a year there, inves, tigating the natural history of that vast country.

Mr. Willoughby passed through that kingdom on such an errand; but he seems to have skirted along in a superficial manner and an ill humour, being much disgusted at the rude, dissolute manners of the people.

I have no friend left now at Sunbury to apply to about the swallows roosting on the aits of the Thames, nor can I hear any more about those birds which I suspected were merula torquate.

As to the small mice,* I have farther to remark,

that, though they hang their nests up amid the straws of the standing corn, above the ground, yet I find that in the winter they burrow deep in the earth, and make warm beds of grass; but their grand rendezvous seems to be in corn-ricks, into which they are carried at harvest. A neighbour housed an oat-rick lately, under the thatch of which

* The mus messorius, harvest-mouse, was first discovered and described by Mr. White.