or RINGOUSEL, were lately seen in this neighbour.

hood. I employed some people to procure me a specimen, but without success. (See Letter VIII.)

Query-Might not Canary birds be naturalized to this climate, provided their eggs were put, in the spring, into the nests of some of their conge. ners, as goldfinches, greenfinches, &c.? Before winter, perhaps, they might be hardened, and able to shift for themselves.

About ten years ago, I used to spend some weeks yearly at Sunbury, which is one of those pleasant villages lying on the Thames, near Hampton Court. In the autumn I could not help being much amused with those myriads of the swallow kind which assemble in those parts. But what struck me most was, that from the time they began to congregate, forsaking the chimneys and houses, they roosted every night in the osier-beds of the aits or islets of that river. Now this resorting towards that element, at that season of the year, seems to give some countenance to the nor

thern opinion (strange as it is) of their retiring under water. A Swedish naturalist is so much persuaded of that fact, that he talks, in his Calendar of Flora, as familiarly of the swallow's going under water in the beginning of September, as he would of his poultry going to roost a little before

sunset.

An observing gentleman in London writes me word that he saw a house-martin, on the 23d of last October, flying in and out of its nest in the Borough; and I myself, on the 29th of last October (as I was travelling through Oxford), saw four or five swallows hovering round and settling on the roof of the County Hospital.

Now is it likely that these poor little birds (which, perhaps, had not been hatched but a few weeks) should, at that late season of the year, and from so midland a county, attempt a voyage to Goree or Senegal, almost as far as the equator ?*

I'acquiesce entirely in your opinion, that, though most of the swallow kind may migrate, yet some do stay behind and hide with us during the winter.

As to the short-winged, soft-billed birds, which come trooping in such numbers in the spring, I am at a loss even what to suspect about them. I watched them narrowly this year, and saw them abound till about Michaelmas, when they appeared no longer. Subsist they cannot openly among us, and yet elude the eyes of the inquisitive; and as to their hiding, no man pretends to have found any of them in a torpid state in the winter. But with regard to their migration, what difficulties attend

* See Adamson's Voyage to Senegal.

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 in. telligence 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 swallows 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