XIII.] OF SELBORNE. 41 
found any of them in a torpid state in winter. But with regard 
to their migration, what difficulties attend that supposition : 
that such feeble bad Hiers (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 ! 
November 4, 1767. 
LETTER XIIL 
TO THOMAS PENNANT, T:SQ. 
As in one of your former letters you expressed the more satis- 
faction 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 neigh- 
bourhood. 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 mostly all females ; at least fifty to one. This extra- 
ordinary occurrence brought to my mind the remark of Linnaeus, 
that, " before winter all their hen chaffinches migrate through 
Holland into Italy." Now I 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 
