32 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



going under water in the beginning of September, as he would of his 

 poultry going to roost a little before sunset. 



An observing gentleman in London writes me word that he saw an 

 house-martin, on the twenty-third of last October, flying in and out of 

 its nest in the Borough. And I myself, on the twenty-ninth of last 

 October (as I was travelling through Oxford), saw four or five swallows 

 hovering round and settling on the roof of the county hospital. 



Now is it likely that these poor little birds (which perhaps had not 

 been hatched but a few weeks) should, at that late season of the year, 

 and from so midland a county, attempt a voyage to Goree or Senegal, 

 almost as far as the equator 1 * 



I acquiesce entirely in your opinion that, though most of the 

 swallow kind may migrate, yet that some do stay behind and hide with 

 us during the winter. 



As to the short-winged soft-billed birds, which come trooping in such 

 numbers in the spring, I am at a loss even what to suspect about them. 

 I watched them narrowly this year, and saw them abound till about 

 Michaelmas, when they appeared no longer. Subsist they cannot 

 openly among us, and yet elude the eyes of the inquisitive : and, as to 

 their hiding, no man pretends to have found any of them in a torpid 

 state in the winter. But with regard to their migration, what diffi- 

 culties attend that supposition ! that such feeble bad fliers (who the 

 summer long never flit but from hedge to hedge) should be able to 

 traverse vast seas and continents in order to enjoy milder seasons 

 amidst the regions of Africa ! ' 



LETTEE XIII, 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, Jan. 22rwf, 1768. 



SIR, 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 all 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 



* See " Adanson's Voyage to Senegal." 



