NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 37 



LETTER XIII. 



SELBORNE, Jan. 22nd, 1768. 



As in one of your former letters you expressed the more 

 satisfaction from my correspondence on account of my 

 living in the most southerly county; so now I may 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 me 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 

 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 1 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 chirp- 

 ing, as if they were about to break up their winter quarters 

 and betake themselves to their proper summer homes. It 



