52 WHEATEAE. 



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) 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, t 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. 



I have no acquaintance at present among the gentlemen 

 of the navy, but have written to a friend, who was a sea 

 chaplain in the late war, desiring him to look into his 

 minutes, with respect to birds that settled on their rigging 

 during their voyage up or down the Channel. J What 

 Hasselquist says on that subject is remarkable ; there were 

 little short-winged birds frequently coming on board the 

 ship all the way from our Channel quite up to the Levant, 

 especially before squally weather. 



"What you suggest with regard to Spain is highly 



* Wagtails certainly perform partial migrations. I lose sight of them in 

 my neighbourhood for weeks together. A curious fact may here be related 

 of them. A pair of pied wagtails built their nest last summer in a vacuum 

 under a sleeper of the Brighton railway, near the terminus at that place. 

 Trains at all times of the day were passing close to the nest, but in this 

 situation the young were hatched and reared. A gentleman in the neigh- 

 bourhood who watched the progress of the birds in their nidification, can 

 vouch for the truth of this anecdote. En. 



j- The Lewes shepherds here informed me that the wheatear has nearly 

 forsaken their downs. I find it in Bushy-park all the year round, where 

 they breed in the rabbit-burrows. ED. 



J Many naval men have assured me of the fact of migratory birds settling 

 on the rigging of their ships. Indeed the circumstance may now be considered 

 as indisputable.- ED. 



