migrators that visit us for a short space every au- 

 tumn do not come from thence. 



And here, I think, will be the proper place to 

 mention that those birds were most punctual again 

 in their migration this autumn, appearing, as before, 

 about the thirtieth of September : but their flocks 

 were larger than common, and their stay protracted 

 somewhat beyond the usual time. If they came to 

 spend the whole winter with us, as some of their con- 

 geners do, and then left us, as they do, in spring, I 

 should not be so much struck with the occurrence, 

 since it would be similar to that of the other winter 

 birds of passage ; but when I see them for a fort- 

 night at Michaelmas, and again for about a week in 

 the beginning of April, I am seized with wonder, and 

 long to be informed whence these travellers come, 

 and whither they go, since they seem to use our 

 hills merely as an inn or baiting-place. 



Your account of the greater brambling, or snow- 

 flock, is very amusing ; and strange it is that such a 

 short-winged bird should delight in such perilous 

 voyages over the northern ocean ! Some country 

 people in the winter time have every now and then 

 told me that they have seen two or three white larks 

 on our downs; but, on considering the matter, I be- 

 gin to suspect that these are some stragglers of the 

 birds wo are talking of, which sometimes perhaps 

 may rove so far to the southward. 



It pleases me to find that white hares are so fre- 

 "5 



