52 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



winter. 1 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 wheat- 

 ear (cenanthe) 2 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. 



I have no acquaintance, at present, among the gentle- 

 men of the navy : but have written to a friend, who was 

 a sea-chaplain in the late war, desiring him to look into 



1 The Pied Wagtail (Motacilla lugubris) is almost entirely a British bird, 

 but is subject to a partial migration, as the species visits in winter the south-west 

 of France and Spain. Many, however, remain throughout the winter in England. 

 The White Wagtail (Motacilla alba) is a tolerably regular visitor to Great Britain 

 every year, and has been known to breed with us. It is a wide-spread species in 

 Europe and Northern Asia during the nesting-season, and migrates to Northern 

 Africa and India in winter. The only other species of Wagtail found in winter in 

 England is the Grey Wagtail (Motacilla mclanope), a bird of nearly the same dis- 

 tribution as the White Wagtail. The ' Yellow ' Wagtail of our fields in summer is 

 Motacilla campestris. It is known as Ray's Wagtail, and leaves for West and 

 South Africa in the autumn. It would be the Grey Wagtail to which Gilbert 

 White was alluding. [R. B. S.] 



2 Professor Bell (vol. i. p. 41 note) says that the Wheatear is a rare bird in 

 the vicinity of Selborne, though ' multitudinous ' on the downs in Hampshire. The 

 fact that Gilbert White mentions his observation of Wheatears " at all times of 

 the year" makes one doubt whether he had not also the Stonechat (Pratittcola 

 rubicola) in his mind. The Wheatear (Saxicola cenanthe) leaves England in the 

 autumn and betakes itself to Senegambia and North-eastern Africa, reaching to 

 the Equatorial provinces of the latter continent. [R. B. S.] 



