LINNETS BUNTING. 51 



the winter, and of which sex they mostly consist? 

 For, from such intelligence, one might he 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 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 proper summer homes. It is well known, at 

 least, that the swallows and the fieldfares do congre- 

 gate with a gentle twittering before they make their 

 respective departures. 



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,f 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 (cenanthej does not quit England, it 



* A proportion of the common buntings do not migrate, 

 but we certainly receive a considerable number at the great 

 general migration, at the commencement of winter, most pro- 

 bably from Sweden and Norway. They generally breed and 

 frequent unenclosed countries, and assemble in flocks during 

 winter. W. J. 



f Motadlla fiava, yellow wagtail, is a summer bird of passage, 

 arriving about the end of May, and leaving us about the end of 

 August, or middle of September. W. J. 

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