FIELDFARES. 105 



their migration this autumn, appearing, as before, 

 about the 30th of September ; but their flocks were 

 larger than common, and their stay protracted some- 

 what beyond the usual time. If they came to spend 

 the whole winter with us, as some of their congeners 

 do, and then left us, as they do, in spring, I should 

 not be so much struck with the occurrence, since it 

 would be similar to that of the other winter birds of 

 passage ; but when I see them for a fortnight at 

 Michaelmas, and again for about a week in the mid- 

 dle of April, I am seized with wonder, and long to 

 be informed whence these travellers come, and whi- 

 ther they go, since they seem to use our hills merely 

 as an inn, or baiting place. 



Your account of the greater brambling, or snow- 

 fleck, is very amusing ; and strange it is, that such a 

 short-winged bird should delight in such perilous 

 voyages over the northern ocean ! Some country 

 people in the winter time have every now and then 

 told me that they have seen two or three white larks 

 on our downs ; but, on considering the matter, I be- 

 gin to suspect that these are some stragglers of the 

 birds we are talking of, which sometimes, perhaps, 

 may rove so far to the southward.* 



It pleases me to find that white hares are so fre- 

 quent on the Scottish mountains, and especially as 

 you inform me that it is a distinct species ; for the 

 quadrupeds of Britain are so few, that every new 

 species is a great acquisition. 



The eagle-owl,f could it be proved to belong to 



* In the snow-fleck, which is now separated from the bunt- 

 ings, and, with the Lapland finch, forms the genus plectrophanes 

 of Meyer, and modern ornithologists, the wings are of consider- 

 able length, fitting them for more extensive journeys than the 

 true emberizae. W. J. 



f This is now admitted into the British Fauna, having been 

 killed at different times in various parts of Great Britain. W. J. 



