56 NATURAL HISTORY 
But, when I came to observe them more narrowly, 
I was amazed to find that they seemed to me to be 
almost all hens. J 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 Linnzeus, that “before winter all their 
hen chaffinches migrate through Holland into It- 
aly.” 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 com- 
mon 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- 
