SHORT WINGED BIRDS. 33 



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.* 



Mr Stillingfleet, in his Tracts, says, that, " if the wheatear 

 (csnantlie) 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. -p 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 gentlemen of 

 the navy, but have written to a friend, who was a sea chaplain 

 in the late war, desiring him to look into his minutes, with 

 respect to birds that settled on their rigging during their 

 voyage up or down the Channel. What Hasselquist says on 



northerly climates, which probably leave us again in the spring. In 

 winter they become familiar, and often visit farm-yards in large flocks. 

 Mr Knapp says, " I witnessed this morning a rick of barley entirely 

 stripped of its thatching, which the buntings had effected, by seizing the 

 end of the straw, and deliberately drawing it out, to search for any grain 

 that might yet remain. The sparrow and other birds will burrow in the 

 stack, and pilfer the corn ; and the deliberate operations of unroofing 

 the edifice appears to be peculiar to the bunting." 



There is considerable difficulty in conceiving how short-winged birds, 

 which must be bad flyers, should be able to cross extensive tracts of 

 water. St Pierre says, " Towards the end of September, the quails 

 avail themselves of a northerly wind to take their departure from Europe, 

 and flapping one wing, while they present the other to the gale, half sail, 

 half oar, they graze the billows of the Mediterranean with their feathered 

 rumps, and bring themselves to the sands of Africa, that they may serve 

 as food to the famished inhabitants of Zara." ED. 



* The spring wag-tail is migratory ; it visits us in May, and departs 

 in September. It is said to be found in Siberia and Russia in summer. 

 It continues in France the whole year. 



f Our author is wrong in stating that this species is never gregarious ; 

 for we care informed by Montagu, that on the 24th of March, 1804, a vast 

 flock of these birds, consisting entirely of males, made their appearance 

 on the south Devon coast, near Kingsbridge, and continued in flocks 

 during the day, busied in search of food. ED. 



c 



