year, and from fo midland a county, attempt a voyage to Goree
or Senegal, almoft as far as the equator
I acquiefce entirely in your opinion— that, though moft of the
fwallow kind may migrate, yet that fome do ftay behind an d
hide with us during the winter.
As to the fhort-winged foft-billed birds, which come trooping
in fuch numbers in the fpring, I am at a lofs even what to fufpeft
about them. I watched them narrowly this year, and faw them
abound till about Michaelmas, when they appeared no longer-
Sublift they cannot openly among us, and yet elude the eyes of
the inquifitive : and, as to their hiding, no man pretends to-have
found any of them in a torpid ftate in the winter,. But with regard
to their migration, what difficulties attend that: fuppofition! that
fuch feeble bad fliers (who the fummer long never flit but from
hedge to hedge) fhould be able to traverfe vafl feas and continents
in order to enjoy milder feafons amidft the regions of Africa !
L E T T E R XIIITO
THE SAME.
1 I,
5 I R, Selborxe, Jan. it, ,768.
As in one of your former letters you exprefied the more fatisfac-
tion from my correfpondence on account of my living in the moft
foutherly county; fo now I may return the compliment, and ex-
pecft to have my curiofity gratified by your living much more to
the North.
* See Adanfon 5 Voyage to Senegal,
1 ■ 'i'C. y -» ■ —^ . ■ — >1 r .—— .
For
J9Z--
HIMFor
many years paft I have obferved that towards. Chriftmas vaft
flocks of chaffinches have appeared in the fields; many more, 1
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 famed to me to be almoft all hens. I communicated
my fufpicions to fome intelligent naghbours who after
taking pains about the matter, declared that they alfo thought
moia, femalesjj d t a * K »
occurrence brought to m , mind the rcmuk “
« before winter all their hen chaffinches migrate through Holland
U into Italy." Now I want to know, from fome curious perfonin
the north, whether there are any large flocks
them in the winter, and of which fex they moftly confift^ Fo
from fuch intelligence, one might be able to judge whether our
female flocks migrate from the other end of the ifland,; or whether,
thdv come over to us from the continent.
We have, in the.winter, vaft:flocks of ^ c om m o n linnets,
more, I think, than can be bred in any one diftnft. Thefe
obferve, when the fpring advances, affemble on fome ™
funfhine, and join all in a gentle fort of chirping, as-if they were
about to break up their winter quarters and M M
their proper fummer homes/ It is well known,, at toft, that the
fwallowsPand the fieldfares do-congregate , with a gentle witten g
before they make their refpeftive departure.. _
You may depend on it that the bunting, embermc mdmia,
does not leave this county in the winter. In January 1767 few
feveral dozen of them, in the midftof a fevere
bufhes on the downs near Andover: m our woodland enclofed
Wagtails,