XIII.] OF SELBORNE. 



found any of them in a torpid state in winter. But with regard 

 to their migration, what difficulties attend that supposition : 

 that such feeble bad fliers (who the summer long never flit but 

 from hedge to hedge) should be able to traverse vast seas and 

 continents, in order to enjoy milder seasons amidst the regions 

 of Africa ! 



November 4, 1767. 



LETTER XIII. 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 



As in one of your former letters you expressed the more satis- 

 faction from my correspondence on account of my living in the 

 most southerly county ; so now I may return the compliment, 

 and expect to have my curiosity gratified by your living much 

 more to the north. 



For many years past I have observed that towards Christmas 

 vast flocks of chaffinches have appeared in the fields; many 

 more, I used to think, than could be hatched in any one neigh- 

 bourhood. But, when I came to observe them more narrowly, I 

 was amazed to find that they seemed to me to be almost all hens. 

 I communicated my suspicions to some intelligent neighbours, 

 who, after taking pains about the matter, declared that they also 

 thought them mostly all females ; at least fifty to one. This extra- 

 ordinary occurrence brought to my mind the remark of Linnsus, 

 that, " before winter all their hen chaffinches migrate through 

 Holland into Italy." 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 sex they mostly 

 consist ? For, from such intelligence, 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 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 

 VOL. I. G 



