O F S E L B O R N E. 3 7 
For many years paft I have obferved that towards Chrlllmas vaft 
flocks of chaffinches have appeared in the fields ; many more, I 
ufed to think, than could be hatched in any one neighbourhood. 
But, when I came to obferve them more narrowly, I was amazed 
to find that they feemed to me to be almoft all hens. I com- 
municated my fijfpicions to fome intelligent neighbours, who, after 
taking pains about the matter, declared that they alfo thought 
them all moftly females ; at lead fifty to one. This extraordinary 
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 fome curious perfon in 
the north, whether there are any large flocks of thefe finches with 
them in the winter, and of which fex they moftly confifi:? For, 
from fuch intclHgence, one might be able to judge whether our 
female flocks migrate from the other end of the ifland, or whether 
they come over to us from the continent. 
We have, in the winter, vaft flocks of the common linnets; 
more, I think, than can be bred in any one difiirid. Thefe, I 
obferve, when the fpring advances, afifemble on fome tree in the 
funlhine, and join all in a gentle fort of chirping, as if they were 
about to break up their winter quarters and betake themfelves to 
their proper fummer homes. It is well known, at leaft, that the 
fwallows and the fieldfares do congregate with a gentle twittering 
before they make their refpeiflivc departure. 
"You may depend on it that the bunting, emberha miliaria^ 
does not leave this county in the winter. In January 1767 I faw 
feveral dozen of them, in the midft of a fevere froft, among the 
bufhes on the downs near Andovcr : in our woodland enclofed 
diftrid it is a rare bird. 
Wagtails^ 
