144 GOLDCEEST. 



with the hand. Selby relates his having observed an immense 

 flight on the 26th. of October, 1822, after a heavy gale 

 on the two preceding days from the north-east, which also 

 brought over the Redwings, Fieldfares, and Woodcocks. He 

 ascertained the flight to have extended from Berwick-on-Tweed 

 to Whitby, in Yorkshire. They were completely exhausted 

 on their first arrival, and numbers were taken with the hand, 

 but they shortly afterwards spread over the country, and at 

 Christmas few more than the usual numbers were visible. He 

 also adds the following, and it is certainly a very remarkable 

 fact, as proving that non-migratory birds may become so on 

 occasion, at all events to some distant part of the country, 

 which indeed probably is the case with some of the present 

 species every year for some cause or other, prescient of 

 unfavourable seasons or inclement weather: 



*A more extraordinary circumstance in the economy of this 

 bird took place during the same winter, namely, the total 

 disappearance of the whole tribe, natives as well as strangers, 

 throughout Scotland and the north of England. This happened 

 towards the conclusion of the month of January, 1823, and a 

 few days previous to the long-continued snow-storm so severely 

 felt throughout the northern counties of England, and along 

 the eastern parts of Scotland. The range and point of this 

 migration are unascertained, but it must probably have been 

 a distant one, from the fact of not a single pair having 

 returned to breed, or pass the succeeding summer, in the 

 situations they had been known always to frequent, nor was 

 one of the species to be seen till the following October, or 

 about the usual time, as I have above stated, for our receiving 

 an annual accession to our indigenous birds.' Spurn Point, 

 at the south-east extremity of Yorkshire, is said to be a favourite 

 place for assemblage on arrival and departure. For a week 

 or more in the month of October they come thither in a 

 succession of small parties, and when they have formed into 

 flocks of a few thousands, they disappear. The same thing 

 was observed in November, 1844, on a smaller scale, on Looe 

 Island, in Cornwall. In the year 1833, on the 7th. of October, 

 a flock alighted on the rigging of a ship fourteen miles from 

 land, off Whitby. 



Their favourite haunt is the pine, fir, or larch plantation, 

 or wood, where they may be seen hanging in every variety 

 of attitude, pictures of active existence, intent on their life's 

 great business, the procuring of their food. They also at 



