NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 51 



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 de- 

 parture. 



You may depend on it that the bunting, emberiza 

 mth'aria, does not leave this county in the winter. 1 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 



crimination of naturalists as regards the young males, which have not attained 

 their full plumage, and may thus be confounded with the adult females. In his 

 original letter Gilbert White says : " For many years past I have observed that 

 about November vast flocks of chaffinches, " &c. At that time of year, "towards 

 Christmas," there can be no question of confounding a male and female Chaffinch, 

 for at the first autumn moult the young male puts on his full plumage, obscured 

 slightly no doubt by the overlying winter plumage. The full spring dress in this 

 and in other species of Finches is gained, not by a moult, but by the shedding 

 of the brown edges of the feathers, and at any time during the winter the perfect 

 spring plumage can be detected by lifting the feathers, and discounting the effect 

 of the dusky margins sooner or later to be shed. In a mild winter the young 

 males would soon commence to throw off their dull aspect, and would not be 

 distinguishable from the old males, which go through the same transformation. 

 Some of the changes of plumage are fully described by me in the " Catalogue of 

 Birds" (vol. xiii. p. 172). Mr. Harting says that the separation of the sexes in 

 winter is not universally the rule, for in some parts of the country many indi- 

 viduals of both sexes remain throughout the winter and do not flock (ed. Selborne, 

 p. 47 note). [R. B. S.] 



1 Professor Bell (vol. i. p. 40 note) confirms Gilbert White's opinion that the 

 Common Bunting is a rare bird near Selborne. He also alludes to the fact that 

 White never appears to have detected the Cirl Bunting (Emberiza ctrlus} in the 

 neighbourhood, though Bell found it actually nesting in his garden in the year 

 1848. It was recorded for the first time as a British species by Montagu after 

 White's death. Bell also mentions the occurrence of the Brambling (Fringilla 

 monlifringilla) in the beech-woods near Selborne, another species supposed to 

 have been undetected by Gilbert White. [R. B. S.] 



