6 OUR SUMMER MIGRANTS. 



be heard there in full song if song it can be 

 called throughout the month of May. Whilst 

 walking from Liss to Selborne, I have on two 

 occasions met with a bird which Gilbert White 

 had not observed the Cirl Bunting ; and, to 

 return to the Wheatears, these birds, which 

 were formerly so plentiful in autumn that the 

 shepherds trapped them by dozens, are now far 

 less numerous at the same season, and the 

 practice of snaring them has perceptibly de- 

 clined. 1 It was remarkable that, although in 

 the height of the season i. e. y at wheat harvest 

 so many hundreds of dozens were taken, yet 

 they were never seen to flock, and it was a rare 

 thing to see more than three or four at a time ; 

 so that there must have been a perpetual flitting 

 and constant progressive succession. 



The Wheatear is partial to commons and 



1 As to other changes in the fauna and flora which have 

 taken place since Gilbert White's day in the district of which 

 he wrote, the reader may be referred to the Preface to my 

 edition of the " Natural History of Selborne " recently pub- 

 lished. 



