68 NATURAL HISTORY 



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 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 3 . 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 5 , 



termed flight birds, and are captured males and females together. At the 

 beginning of April they are taken in pairs. The flocking as the spring 

 advances, when they assemble on some tree in the sunshine, and join all 

 in a gentle sort of chirping, is for the purpose of choosing their mates, 

 and their emigration is only to the nests which the season renders 

 necessary. 



Last season I reared a nest of linnets ; these were very tame, having 

 been brought up by hand. At the latter end of September, having nearly 

 completed moulting their quill feathers, they suddenly became very wild, 

 dropping their wings below their tails, stooping as if preparing to make 

 a start, and fluttering towards the light. This continued upwards of a 

 fortnight The true cause did not at first strike me, and I changed their 

 position, thinking that some object frightened them; but the change of 

 place was without effect, as they still continued wild and shy. I then 

 concluded, and have no doubt correctly, that they were instinctively 

 aware of the annual flocking of the species, in the season of flight. 

 G. D. 



3 The yellow wagtail cannot remain at Selborne all the winter. It is 

 a common summer visitant: but departs early. White most probably 

 was deceived by observing in the winter months the gray wagtail, the 

 under parts of which are yellow : this bird, as well as the pied wagtail, 

 is stationary throughout the year in the south of England. G. D. 



4 [Saxicola (Enanthe, BECKST.] 



5 The popular name wheat-ear appears to have been originally local, 

 its use having been confined to the South Downs. It is believed to have 



