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attempt a voyage to Goree or Senegal, almost as far as the equator ?1

I acquiesce entirely in your opinion—that, though most of the swallow kind may migrate, yet that some do stay behind and bide 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 suspect 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 pretends to have found any of them in a torpid state in the winter. But with regard to their migration, what difficulties attend that supposition! 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!?

1 See Adanson's Voyage to Senegal.-G. W.

The late Dean of Manchester, the Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert, furnished an interesting note to this passage for Mr. Bennett's edition of this work, to the effect that late broods of young swifts, as soon as they leave the nest, are often obliged to migrate at once (see White's observations in Letter LII. to the Hon. Daines Barrington); and that the various species of hirundines remain in their nests till they are more completely feathered than any other birds, so that when they come forth at last, they are ready for flight. Whether the same individuals of a species, amongst birds, ever cross the equator is a question upon which ornithologists are not unanimously agreed. Certain it is, however, that the same species is often found on both sides of the line, as in the case of the common swallow, which, spending the summer in Europe, passes some portion of the year also at the Cape of Good Hope. On this subject the reader may be referred to an interesting article "On some new or littleknown points in the Economy of the Common Swallow," by Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser, published in the "Proceedings of the Zoological Society," 1870, p. 244.-Ed.

2 Some further observations on this subject, tending to a solution of the difficulties referred to, will be found in Letter XXXIII. to Pennant, and Letter IX. to the Hou. Daines Barrington.-ED.

LETTER XIII.

TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE.

SELBORNE, Jan. 22, 1768.

S in one of your former letters you expressed the more satisfaction 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.

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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 neighbourhood. 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 all mostly females; at least fifty to one. This extraordinary occurrence brought to my mind the remark of Linnæus;

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.1

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 sunshine, and join all in a gentle sort of chirping, as if they were about to break up their winter quarters, and betake themselves to their proper summer homes. It is well known, at least, that the swallows and the fieldfares do congregate with a gentle twittering before they make their respective departure.

You may depend on it that the bunting, Emberiza miliaria, does not leave this county in the winter. In January, 1767, I saw several dozen of them, in the midst of a severe frost, among the bushes on the downs near Andover: in our woodland enclosed district it is a rare bird.3 Wagtails, both white and yellow, are with us all the

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1 This separation of the sexes in winter has been noticed by other observers, but it is not universally the rule, for in some parts of the country many individuals of both sexes remain throughout the winter and do not flock.-ED.

2 Linnets flock in September, and continue to congregate till March. -ED.

3 Since this remark was penned by Gilbert White, another species of bunting has been observed in his parish, namely, the cirl bunting, Emberiza cirlus. Not only have we seen this bird there in autumn, but Mr. Bell (the fortunate owner of Gilbert White's old house), informs us that it has nested there to his knowledge on several occasions, and successfully reared its young.—ED.

4 By the yellow wagtail, White here means the winter yellow wagtail, or, as it is generally called, the grey wagtail (M. boarula, Linn.) It is a local resident, breeding regularly in Scotland and the north of England, but is generally regarded in the south of England as a winter visitant. It has, however, been found nesting in many of the southern counties, as Sussex, Dorset, Gloucester, Devon and Cornwall.-Ed.

winter.

Quails crowd to our southern coast, and are often killed in numbers by people that go on purpose.

Mr. Stillingfleet, in his Tracts, says that, "if the wheatear (Enanthe) does not quit England, it certainly shifts places; for about harvest they are not to be found, where

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This well accounts

there was before great plenty of them.' for the vast quantities that are caught about that time on the South Downs near Lewes, where they are esteemed a delicacy. There have been shepherds, I have been credibly

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1 Saxicola ananthe (Linn.) The popular name "wheatear" appears to have been originally local and confined to the South Downs. Elsewhere it is called "fallow-chat" and "white-tail." Willughby, referring to this bird, calls it "the fallow-smick, in Sussex the wheatear, because the time of wheat-harvest they wax very fat." Many other derivations of the name, however, have been suggested, amongst others the following is perhaps as plausible as any. Those who are acquainted with the wheatear, know that the basal half of the tail is white, and that as the bird moves, this white patch is very conspicuous. Wheat" may easily be a corruption of "whit" or "white," and as regards the "ear," if we affix the "e" instead of prefixing it, and insert a penultimate letter, we have the substantive by which our Saxon forefathers would have described that portion of the anatomy which is white. This view receives some support from the spelling adopted by the earlier English writers (cf. Chaucer's "Miller's Tale"), and Mr. Bennett has suggested that "Hwitærs" may possibly have been its Saxon name. In France to this day the bird is called "cul-blanc."-ED.

informed, that have made many pounds in a season by catching them in traps. And though such multitudes are taken, I never saw (and I am well acquainted with those parts) above two or three at a time: for they are never gregarious. They may perhaps migrate in general; and, for that purpose, draw towards the coast of Sussex in autumn; but that they do not all withdraw I am sure; because I see a few stragglers in many counties, at all times of the year, especially about warrens and stone quarries.1

I have no acquaintance, at present, among the gentlemen of the navy; but have written to a friend, who was a seachaplain in the late war, desiring him to look into his minutes, with respect to birds that settled on their rigging during their voyage up or down the Channel. What Hasselquist says on that subject is remarkable; there were little short-winged birds frequently coming on board his ship all the way from our Channel quite up to the Levant, especially before squally weather."

What you suggest, with regard to Spain, is highly probable. The winters of Andalusia are so mild, that, in all likelihood, the soft-billed birds that leave us at that season may find insects sufficient to support them there.

Some young man, possessed of fortune, health, and leisure, should make an autumnal voyage into that kingdom; and should spend a year there, investigating the natural history of that vast country. Mr. Willughby3 passed through that kingdom on such an errand; but he seems to have skirted along in a superficial manner and an ill humour, being much disgusted at the rude dissolute manners of the people.

I have no friend left now at Sunbury to apply to about the swallows roosting on the aits of the Thames; nor can I

1 On this subject the reader may be referred to Knox's "Ornithological Rambles in Sussex," p. 194; and Professor Newton's edition of Yarrell's "Hist. Brit. Birds," vol. i. pp. 350, 351.—Ed.

2 This statement has been confirmed repeatedly by subsequent observers.-ED.

* See Ray's "Travels," p. 466.-G. W.

E

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