FLOCKS OF CHAFFINCHES. 35 



Now is it likely that these poor little birds (which perhaps had 

 not been hatched but a few weeks) should, at that late season of 

 the year, and from so midland a county, attempt a voyage to 

 Goree or Senegal, almost as far as the equator?* 



I acquiesce entirely in your opinion that, though most of the 

 swallow kind may migrate, yet that some do stay behind and 

 hide with us, during the winter. 



As to the short-winged soft-billed birds, which come trooping 

 in such numbers in the spring, I am at a loss even what to sus- 

 pect about them. I watched them narrowly this year, and saw 

 them abound till about Michaelmas, when they appeared no 

 longer. Subsist they cannot openly among us, and yet elude 

 the eyes of the inquisitive : and, as to their hiding, no man pre- 

 tends to have found any of them in a torpid state in the 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 ! 



LETTER XIII. To T. PENNANT, Esa 



SIB, Selborne, Jan. 22, 1/68 



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 neigh- 

 bours, who, after taking pains about the matter, declared that 

 they also thought them all mostly females ; at least fifty to one. 

 This extraordinary occurrence brought to my mind the remark 

 of Linnaeus ; that " before winter all their hen chaffinches mi- 



* See Adanson's voyage to Senega!. 

 D 2 



