34 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



Mr. Still ingfleet, in his Tracts, says that " if the wheatear (ananthe) 

 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 during their voyage up or down the channel. 

 What Hasselquist says on that subject is remarkable; there were little 

 short-winged birds frequently coming on board his ship all the way 

 from our channel quite up to the Levant, especially before squally 

 weather. 



What you suggest, with regard to Spain, is highly probable. The 

 winters of Andalusia are so mild, that, in all likelihood, the soft-billed 

 birds that leave us at that season may find insects sufficient to support 

 them there. 



Some young man, possessed of fortune, health, and leisure, should 

 make an autumnal voyage into that kingdom; and should spend 

 a year there, investigating the natural history of that vast country. 

 Mr. Willughby * passed through that kingdom on such an errand ; 

 but he seems to have skirted along in a superficial manner and an 

 ill-humour, being much disgusted at the rude dissolute manners of 

 the people. 



I have no friend left now at Sunbury to apply to about the swallows 

 roosting on the aits of the Thames : nor can I hear any more about 

 those birds which I suspected were Merulce torquatce. 



As to the small mice, I have farther to remark, that though they 

 hang their nests for breeding up amidst the straws of the standing 

 corn, above the ground ; yet I find that, in the winter, they burrow 

 deep in the earth, and make warm beds of grass : but their grand 

 rendezvous seems to be in corn-ricks, into which they are carried at 

 harvest. A neighbour housed an oat-rick lately, under the thatch of 

 which were assembled near an hundred, most of which were taken, 

 and some I saw. I measured them ; and found that, from nose to tail, 

 they were just two inches and a quarter, and their tails just two inches 

 long. Two of them, in a scale, weighed down just one copper half- 

 penny, which is about the third of an ounce avoirdupois' : so that I 

 suppose they are the smallest quadrupeds in this island. A full-grown 



* See "Ray's Travels," p. 466. 



