NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 49 



come trooping in such numbers in the spring, I am at a 

 loss even what to suspect 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 pretends 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 ! l 



[Begging the continuance of y r most agreeable corre- 

 spondence I conclude with great esteem, 



Your most obedient servant, 



GIL: WHITE. 



P.S. What parts of England does the Goss-Hawk 

 frequent ?] 



1 And yet they do I No one would have more rejoiced at the discovery of the 

 winter homes of our small British migrants than Gilbert White. The Nightingale 

 and Spotted Flycatcher wend their way to the Gold Coast, where also the Garden 

 Warbler, the Willow Warbler, and the Wood Warbler are found during our winter. 

 The Blackcap then visits Senegambia, while the little Sedge Warbler reaches 

 South Africa in its migration, accompanied by the Willow Warbler, the 

 Garden Warbler, and the Spotted Flycatcher, to this distant portion of the earth. 

 Specimens of all these Warblers, from the winter localities above named, are in 

 the British Museum. See Letter XXXIII to Pennant (postea, p. 134), and 

 Letter IX to Barrington. [R. B. S.] 



G 



