38 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE, 



is well known, at least, that the swallows and the fieldfares 

 do congregate with a gentle twittering before they make 

 their respective departure. 



You may depend on it that the bunting, Emheriza 

 miliaria^ does not leave this county 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. 



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

 wheatear (cenanthe) 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. 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 



