BUNTING WHEAT EAR. 43 



You may depend on it that the bunting, em- 

 beriza miliaria, does not leave this country in the 

 winter. In January, 1767, 1 saw several dozens 

 of them, in the midst of a severe frost, among 

 the bushes on the downs near Andover : in our 

 woodland enclosed districts it is a rare bird \ 



Wagtails, both white and yellow, are with us 

 all the winter 2 . 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 wheatear (ananthej doth 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 will account 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. 



1 A proportion of the common buntings do not migrate, 

 but we certainly receive a considerable number at the great 

 general migration, at the commencement of winter, most 

 probably from Sweden and Norway. They generally breed 

 in and frequent unenclosed countries, and assemble in flocks 

 during winter. W. J. 



2 Motacilla flava, yellow wagtail, is a summer bird of 

 passage, arriving about the end of May, and leaving us 

 about the end of August or middle of September. W. J. 



