Wagtails, both white and yellow, are with us all the winter.
Quails crowd to our fouthern coaft, and are often killed in
numbers by people that go on purpofe.
Mr. Stilling fleet, in his T rafts, fays that “ if the wheatear / ananthe)
“ does not quit England, it certainly fliifts places; for about
“ harveft they are not to be found, where there was before great
“ plenty of them.” This well accounts for the vaft quantities
that are caught about that time oft the fouth downs near Lewes,
where they are efteemed a delicacy. There have been fhepherds,
I have been credibly informed, that have made many pounds in
a feafon by catching them in traps. And though fuch multitudes
are taken, I never faw (and I am well acquainted with thofq
parts) above two or three at a time: for they are never gregarious.
They may perhaps migrate in general; and, for that purpofe, draw
towards the coaft of Suflflex in autumn: but that they do not all
withdraw I am fure; becaufe I fee a few ftragglers in many
counties, at all times of the year, cfpecially about warrens and
ftone quarries.
I have no acquaintance, at prefent, among the gentlemen of the
navy : but have Written to a friend, who was a fea-chaplain in the
late war, defiring him to look into his minutes, with refpeft to
birds that fettled on their rigging during their voyage up or down
the channel. What Haflelquifl fays on that fubjeft is remarkable.
there were little Ihort-winged birds frequently coming on board
•his Ihip all the way from our channel quite up to the Levant,
cfpecially before fqually weather.
What you fuggeft, with regard to Spain, is highly probable.
The winters of Andalufla are fo mild, that, in all likelihpod, the
foft-billed birds that leave us at that feafon may find infefts
fufficient to fupport them there.
Some
■ Some young man, pofiefied of .fortune, health, and leifure,
firould make an autumnal voyage.into that kingdom; and fhould
(pend J year there, inyelUgating the natural hiftory of that vaft
country. Mr. tFi-llugjtly '-' -pitted through that kingdom on fuch
an errand; but he feems to have Ikirted along in. a fuperficial
manner and an ill humour, being much difgufted at the rude
diffolute manners of the peoplei ,
I have no friend left now at Spnbury to apply to about the-
fwallows roofting on the aits of the’ Thames: nor can I hear any
more about thofe birds which I fufpeftedwere merula torqmtit..
As to the fmall mice, I have farther to remark, that though
they hang their nefti for breeding, up amidft the ftraws of the-
ftanding corn, above the ground; yet I find that, in the winter,,
they burrow deep in the- earth, and make warm beds of grafs:
but their grand rendezvous feems to be in corn-ricks, into which
they are carried at harveft. A neighbour houfod an oat-rick
lately, under the thatch of which were affembled near an hundred,
moft of which were taken ; and fome I faw. I meafured them;
and found that, from nofe to tail, they were juft tWo: inches and a
quarter, and their tails juft two inches long. Two of them,,
in a fcale, weighed dawn juft one copper halfpenny, which is
about the third of an ounce avoirdupois: fo that I fuppofe they
are the fmalleft quadrupeds in this illand.. A full-grown ms\
medius domeflicus- weighs, I find, one ounce lumping, weight,
which is more than fix times as much as the moufe above ; and
meafures from nofe to rump four inches and a quarter, and the
fame in it’s tail. We have had,a very fevere froft and deep fnow
this month. My thermometer was-one day fourteen degrees and
u See Ray's Travels; p,. 4&>v
an