OF SELBORNE. 41 



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. Stillingfleetj in his Tracts, says that " if the wheatear, 

 " (cenanthe) 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, 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-chap- 

 lain 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. What Hasselquist says on 

 that subject is remarkable : there were little short-winged 



hibiting any signs of fear. The species had been previously noticed in 

 this neighbourhood by Mr. Blyth, who, in the second volume of the ' Na- 

 turalist/ page 221, has this passage : The Girl Bunting " is nowhere 

 more plentiful than in the vicinity of Alton, near Selborne, whence it is 

 strange that Gilbert White should have overlooked it." As Montagu 

 first detected it " among flocks of yellow buntings and chaffinches," it is 

 possible that this was the cause of its having been overlooked. While 

 on the subject of these flocks composed of various species, I may mention 

 that the brambling (Frmgilla montifringilla, Linn.) is frequently asso- 

 ciated with them j but they also assemble by themselves under the beeches 

 on the hill, feeding on the beech-mast. T. B.] 



* [The Wheatear, multitudinous as it is about the downs of Hampshire, 

 Sussex, and other counties, is a fare bird at Selborne, never occurring there 

 in any numbers. See Letter XVII. to Daines Barrington. T. B.] 



