J92 NATURAL HISTORY 



barley, which they collected in the stub- 

 bles. But, of late years, since the vast 

 increase of turnips, that vegetable has fur- 

 nished a great part of their support in hard 

 weather : and the holes they pick in these 

 roots greatly damage the crop. From 

 this food their flesh has contracted a ran- 

 cidness which occasions them to be re- 

 jected by nicer judges of eating, who 

 thought them before a delicate dish. They 

 were shot not only as they were feeding 

 in the fields, and especially in snowy wea- 

 ther, but also at the close of the evening, 

 by men who lay in ambush among the 

 woods and groves to kill them as they came 

 in to roost.* These are the principal circum- 

 stances relating to this wonderful internal 

 migration, which with us takes place to- 

 wards the end of November, and ceases early 

 in the Spring. Last Winter we had in Sel- 

 borne high wood about an hundred of these 



* Some old sportsmen say that the main part of these 

 flocks used to withdraw as soon as the heavy Christmas 

 frosts were over. 



