ILL] OF SELBORNE. 117 



the first time, he saw one dead in the market on the 3rd of 

 September. 



When the stone-curlew (oedicnemv.s) flies, it stretches out its 

 legs straight behind, like a heron. 



SELBORNE, Nov. 26, 1770. 



LETTER XLI. 



TO THE HONOURABLE flAIXES BARUIXGTOX. 



THE birds that I took for aberdavincs were reed-sparrows (Pas- 

 seres torquati). 



There are doubtless many home internal migrations within 

 this kingdom that want to be better understood : witness those 

 vast flocks of hen chaffinches that appear with us in the winter 

 with hardly any cocks among them. Now, was there a due 



. * 



CH \FFI.VCH 



proportion of each sex, it would seem very improbable that any 

 one district should produce such numbers of these little birds ; 

 and much more when only one half of the species appears : there- 

 fore we may conclude that the Fringillce ccclebes, for some good pur- 

 poses, have a peculiar migration of their own in which the sexes 

 part. Nor should it seem so wonderful that the intercourse of 

 sexes in this species of birds should be interrupted in winter; since 

 in many animals, and particularly in. bucks and does, the sexes 

 herd separately, except at the season when commerce is necessary 

 for the continuance of the breed. For this matter of the chaffinches 

 see " Fauna Suecica," p. 85, and " Systema Naturae," p. 318. I 

 see every winter vast flights of hen chaffinches, but none of cocks. 

 Your method of accounting for the periodical motions of the 

 British singing birds, or birds of flight, is a very probable one ; 



