36 The Natural History 



return the compliment, and expect to have my curiosity 

 gratified by your living much more to the north. 



For many years past I have observed that towards 

 Christmas vast flocks of chaffinches have appeared in the 

 fields ; many more, I used to think, than could be 

 hatched in any one neighbourhood. But, when I came 

 to observe them more narrowly, I was amazed to find 

 that they seemed to be almost all hens. I communicated 

 my suspicions to some intelligent neighbours, who, after 

 taking pains about the matter, declared that they also 

 thought them all mostly females; at least fifty to one. 

 This extraordinary occurrence brought to my mind the 

 remark of Linnaeus ; that " before winter, all their hen 

 chaffinches migrate through Holland into Italy." Now I 

 want to know, from some curious person in the north, 

 whether there are any large flocks of these finches with 

 them in the winter, and of which sex they mostly consist? 

 For, from such intelligence, one might be able to judge 

 whether our female flocks migrate from the other end of 

 the island, or whether they come over to us from the 

 continent. 



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, emheriza 

 miliaria^ does not leave this country 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. 



