FLOCKS OF CHAFFINCHES. 
35 
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 ?* 
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 sus- 
pect 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 pre- 
tends to have found any of them in a torpid state in the winter. 
But with regard to their migration, what difficulties attend that 
supposition I 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 ! 
LETTER XIII. To T. PENNANT, Esa 
SIR, Selhorne, Jan. 22, 1768 
As in one of your former letters you expressed the more satis- 
faction from my correspondence on account of my Hving 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 neigh- 
bours, who, after taking pains about the matter, declared that 
they also thought them all mostly females ; at least fifty to one. 
ITiis extraordinary occurrence brought to my mind the remark 
of Linnseus ; that " before winter all their hen chaffinches mi- 
* See Adanson's voyage to Senegal. 
D 2 
