40 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



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 pro- 

 per 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 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 

 counties, at all times of the year, especially about warrens and stone 

 quarries. 



their separate retreats to nest and rear their young. When this great object is accom- 

 plished and winter approaches, they join and congregate together in large parties, but the 

 migratory birds, at the time of their moving, appear to assemble in sexes, for we know 

 that the males of many of our summer birds of passage arrive before the females. The 

 remark of Linnaeus that is quoted may be correct ; it is probable that we receive an 

 nddition to the numbers of the chaffinch in the end of autumn, and Mr. Thompson is 

 disposed to believe that some of those that flock together in Ireland have migrated from 

 more northern latitudes. The evidence from British ornithologists of the separation of the 

 sexes of the chaffinch is at variance, and we think that the division has been overrated. 

 The young males not having attained their full plumage may have been one cause of 

 deception, and may have, without a minute examination, been assumed to be females. 



* White must have had in view the grey wagtail, Motacilla boarula, many pairs of 

 which remain during winter, and these wanting the dark throat of the breeding plumage 

 are nearly all yellow on the under parts. The yellow wagtail, Bitdytcsjlava, is a rt-gula. 

 summer visitant, arriving rather late, and leaving us about the end of August or middle of 

 September. 



