OF SELBORNE. 
tRe caufes why this tribe is never to be feen in winter : for, entre 
nous, the difappearing of the latter is more marvellous than that of 
the former, and much more unaccountable. The hirundines, if 
rhey pleafe, are certainly capable of migration ; and yet no doubt 
are often found in a torpid ftate : but redftarts, nightingales, 
white-throats, black-caps, &:c- &g. are very ill provided for long 
flights ; have never been once found, as I ever heard of, in a 
torpid ftate, and yet can never be fuppofed, in fuch troops, from 
year to year to dodge and. elude the eyes of the curious and inquifitive, 
which from day to- day difcern the other fmall birds that are known 
to abide our winters. But, notwithftanding all my care, I faw no- 
thing Uke a fummer bird of paffage : and, what is more ftrange, not 
one wheat-ear, though they abound fo in the autumn as to be a 
confiderable perquifite to the fnepherds that take them ; and though 
many are to be feen to my knowledge all the winter through in 
many parts of the fouth of England. The moft intelligent fhep- 
herds tell me that fome few of thefe birds appear on the downs in 
March, and then withdraw to breed probably in v^arrens and ftone- 
quarries: now and then a neft is plowed up in a fallow on the downs 
under a furrow, but it is thought a rarity. At the time of wheat-har- 
vefl they begin to be taken in great numbers ; are fent for fale in vaft 
quantities to BrightkelmJIone and T" mbridge ; and appear at the tables 
of all the gentry that entertain with any degree of elegance. About 
Michaelmas they retire and are feen no more till March. Though 
thefe birds are, when in feafon, in great plenty on the fouth downs 
sound LeweSf yet at Eajl-Bourn, which is the eaftern extremity of 
thofe downs, they abound much more. One thing is very remark- 
able — that though in the height of the feafon fo many hundreds of 
dozens are taken, yet they never are feen to flock ; and it is a 
rare thing to fee more than three or four at- a time : fo that, there 
muft: 
