44 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



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 ? 

 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 chirping, as if they were about to break up 

 their winter quarters and betake themselves to their 

 proper summer homes. It is well known, at least, that 

 the swallows and the fieldfares do congregate with a 

 gentle twittering before they make their respective de- 

 parture. 



You may depend on it that the bunting, emberiza 

 miliaria, does not leave this country 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 thewheatear 

 (aenanlhe) 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 



