The Natural History of Se /borne 59 



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 sunshine, 

 and join all in a gentle sort of chirping, as if they were about to 

 break up their winter quarters and betake themselves to their proper 

 summer homes. It is well known, at least, that the swallows and 

 the fieldfares do congregate with a gentle twittering before they make 

 their respective departure. 



You may depend on it that the bunting, Emberiza miliaria, does 

 not leave this county [Hampshire] in the winter. In January 1767, 

 I saw several dozen of them, in the midst of a severe frost, among 

 the bushes on the downs near Andover : in our woodland enclosed 

 district it is a rare bird. 



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 

 {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 



