40 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
We have, in the winter, vast flocks of the common linnets: more? 
I think, than can be bred in any one district. These, I observe, 
when the spring advances, assemble on some tree in the sunshine, 
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 pro- 
per 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 departure. 
You may depend on it that the bunting, Zwberiza miliaria, does 
not leave this county in the winter. In January, 1767, I saw several 
dozen of them, in the midst of a severe frost, among the bushes on 
the downs near Andover: in our woodland enclosed district it isa 
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 
(enanthe) does not quit England, it certainly shifts places; for 
about harvest they are not to be found, where there was before 
great plenty of them.” This well accounts 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 coast 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. 
their separate retreats to nest and rear their young. When this great object is accom- 
plished and winter approaches, they join and congregate together in large parties, but the 
migratory birds, at the time of their moving, appear to assemble in sexes, for we know 
that the males of many of our summer birds of passage arrive before the females. ‘The 
remark of Linnzeus that is quoted may be correct; it is probable that we receive an 
addition to the numbers of the chaffinch in the end of autumn, and Mr. Thompson is 
disposed to believe that some of those that flock together in Ireland have migrated from 
more northern latitudes. The evidence from British ornithologists of the separation of the 
sexes of the chaffinch is at variance, and we think that the division has been overrated. 
The young males not having attained their full plumage may have been one cause of 
deception, and may have, without a minute examination, been assumed to be females. 
* White must have had in view the grey wagtail, Motacilla boarula, many pairs of 
which remain during winter, and these wanting the dark throat of the breeding plumage 
are nearly all yellow on the under parts. The yellow wagtail, Budytes flava, is a regulai 
summer visitant, arriving rather late, and leaving us about the end of August or middle of 
September. 
