grate 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.*

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

Common Linnet.

It is stated by Mr. Selby that "in Northumberland and Scotland, this separating takes place about the month of November; and" that, " from that period till the return of spring, few females are to be seen, and these few in distinct societies." This, however, requires a little qualifying, as there are many of both sexes that remain throughout the winter, and do not flock, even in the warmer parts of Scotland. In ordinary winters in the south of England, a very large proportion of them certainly do not congregate; and, of those that do, the sexes are not invariably apart, but associate together along with yellow-buntings, green gross-beaks, and sometimes mountain-spinks, or "bramble-finches." Once or twice I have met with flocks of white-winged spinks, or "chaffinches," consisting entirely of hens, in Kent and Surrey, which I suspect were from the north, but such flocks are here of comparatively rare occurrence, being the exception rather than the rule.-ED.

"Every one," observes Sir W. Jardine, in one of his excellent notes to the 8vo. edition of Wilson's Ornithology, "who has lived much in the country, must have often remarked the common European linnets congregating towards the close of a fine winter's evening, perched on the summit of some bare tree, pluming themselves in the last rays of the sun, chirruping the commencement of their evening song, and then bursting simultaneously into one general chorus, again resuming their single strains, and again joining, as if happy, and rejoicing at the termination of their day's employment." No particular allusion is here made to the approach of spring, which agrees with my own observation. It is remarkable that the males of our different species of linuet (sub-genus linaria), in confinement, never acquire the bright crimson and roseate tints which (chiefly in summer) more or less distinguish all of them in a state of nature. The feathers on the crown of the head and breast of the common species (fringilla linaria cannabina), which, in the wild state, are in winter dark brownish red, and are then fringed with deciduous dusky edgings, and which in the spring gradually change to a brilliant carmine, the tips, having by degrees disappeared, are in the cage produced of a dull sombre brown colour, a slight shine on them just intimating where the brighter hue is situate in the wild birds; and, although the deciduous fringes, or tips of the feathers, do partially wear off in due time, the colour of the feather itself undergoes not the slightest change during the whole summer. The males of the common dwarf-linnet or "lesser redpole" (fringilla linaria pusilla), and of the closely allied mealy linnet, or "greater" or "stony redpole" (fringilla linaria canescens), after moulting in the cage, become of a saffron tint upon the crown of the head and breast, somewhat similar to that on the heads of the wild females; and the bright roseate tint above the tail of the male mountainiinnet or "twite" (fringilla linaria montana), gives place in captivity to a like hue. None of the red-breasted linnets acquire, in the wild state, their full colours till after the second moult.-ED. The latter term I have invariably found to be applied by the London bird-catchers to this species, and not to the common and smaller one, as it is stated in the books,

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 country 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.*

Common Bunting.

Wagtails, both white and yellow,† are with us all the 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 (cenanthe) does not quit England, it certainly shifts places; for about harvest they are not to be found, where there was before

The "common" or corn-bunting (emberiza miliaria) is plentiful enough throughout the year in Surrey, and most parts of the south of England, frequenting the arable lands. Mr. Knapp says of it, "I witnessed this morning a rick of barley entirely stripped of its thatching, which the bunting had effected, by seizing the end of the straw and deliberately drawing it out, to search for any grain that might yet remain. The sparrow and other birds will burrow in the stack and pilfer the corn; but the deliberate operation of unroofing the edifice appears to be peculiar to this bunting."-ED.

t By "yellow" Mr. White here evidently intends the gray-wagtail of the books (motacilla cinerea, boarula of Linnæus), a species partly yellow, but which in general only appears in the southern counties during the winter, and of which no instance that I am aware of has been bitherto recorded of its having been known to breed in the south of England. I once, however, observed a pair of them upon Penge-common, Kent, at the end of May, that evidently had a nest in the neighbourhood, though I was unsuccessful in my repeated endeavours to find it. The common field-wagtail (motacilla-budytes flavissima), or "yellow-wagtail" of most writers, but which is now with propriety arranged in a separate minimum division, invariably migrates, a fact of which (independently of their disappearance) I have the best possible evidence, having noticed a small flock of them, early one morning in September, upon the sands in the isle of Jersey, which had apparently not long alighted from a journey across the channel, and had probably taken their departure from some part of the west of England. They re-appear in the southern counties about April. An allied continental species, the blue-headed field-wagtail (motacilla-budytes neglecta), differing considerably in the colour of its head, but otherwise very similar to the flavissima, has lately been detected by Mr. Doubleday, in Essex, the attention of that gentleman having been aroused by observing a pair of them in the month of October, some time after the common kind had left the country, from which, indeed, it would seem, that the motacilla-budytes neglecta departs later in the season. Both are handsome, but songless birds, in which latter they differ from the more typical motacilla (of which our common pied species may be considered a characteristic example), which do sing a little. They differ also in their habits, frequenting corn-fields and enclosures rather than the vicinity of water, and generally abound very much where sheep are pastured. The general character of their colouring is different, and they have the long hind claw and very much the form and manners of the typical pipits (anthus), to which genus they are considerably allied. All these birds undergo two general changes of feather in the year. The field-wagtail's summer garb is merely much brighter than that of winter; but the summer plumage of all the typical motacilla exhibits a black throat, and their winter dress a white one (as in many of their plovers), besides which they otherwise more or less differ, according to the species.-En.

great plenty of them." This well accounts 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 informed, that have made many pounds in a season by catching them in traps. And though such multitudes are taken, I never saw (and

Wheatear.

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.*

I have no acquaintance, at present, among the gentlemen of the navy but have written to a friend, who was a sea-chaplain 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.t

What you suggest, with regard to Spain, is highly probable.

By far the great majority of fallow-chats or "wheatears" (saricola ananthe), migrate. Mr. White is perfectly correct in saying that they never flock, though this has been by some disputed; many may often be seen in autumn collected about one spot, but they never fly together.-ED.

In the seasons of migration, nothing is more common, in the Channel and German Ocean, than for our various short-winged birds of passage to settle on the rigging of vessels, a fact which no doubt must influence in some slight degree their distribution, species being thus occa sionally brought to our shores which otherwise would not have landed here, and others, perhaps being carried away far to sea. I once knew as many as sixteen different kinds (in all about a hundred and fifty individuals) to alight on a single trading smack, during its voyage to Aberdeen and back to London, in the month of September. There were nine or ten of the tiny goldencrowned kinglets (regulus auricapillus), the smallest of British birds, which appeared to have arrived from the north-east, having probably winged their way from Norway. These were greatly exhausted, and suffered themselves to be taken without difficulty. An astonishingly extensive migration of the same diminutive bird is related by Mr. Selby. See his "British Ornithology," in loco. For its size even, this species is comparatively feeble upon the wing, and can only migrate when borne along by a favourable gale of wind. The thousands which that gentleman observed to arrive on the Northumbrian coast, he states to have been " after a very severe gale, with thick fog, from the north-east (but veering towards its conclusion to the east and south of east) ;" and he adds that "many of them were so fatigued by the length of their flight, or perhaps by the unfavourable shift of wind, as to be unable to rise again from the ground, and great numbers were in consequence caught or destroyed. This flight," he continues, "must have been immense in quantity, as its extent was traced through the whole length of the coasts of Northumberland and Durham."-ED.

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. Willughby† 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 hear any more about those birds which I suspected were merula torquatæ.

As to the small mice, I have further to remark, that though they hang their nests for breeding up amidst the straws of the standing corn, above the ground;‡ yet I find that, in the winter, they burrow deep in the earth, and make warm beds of grass: but their grand rendezvous seems to be in corn-ricks, into which they are carried at harvest. A neighbour housed an oat-rick lately, under the thatch of which were assembled near an hundred, most of which were taken; and some I saw. I measured them; and found that, from nose to tail, they were just two inches and a quarter, and their tails just two inches long. Two of them, in a scale, weighed down just one copper halfpenny, which is about the third of an ounce avoirdupois: so that I suppose they are the smallest quadrupeds in this island.§ A fullgrown mus medius domesticus weighs, I find, one ounce lumping

* Syria, Egypt, and the interior of the Barbary States, appear to be the general rendezvous, in winter, of most of our European summer-birds of passage, but very few, if any, remaiu in Spain. -ED.

† See Ray's Travels, p. 466.

The breeding nests of the harvest mouse (mus messorius) vary a good deal in form, some of them being round, others oval, and many of a pear shape. They are usually attached to some growing vegetable, a bean stalk, or stem of wheat, with which they rock and waver in the wind. Occasionally, however, they are fixed in a bush.-ED.

§ They are the smallest of our known British quadrupeds, but not the most diminutive of the genus, a yet more minute species having been discovered in France, and named by M. F. Cuvier M. pumilus. There is indeed great reason to suspect that additional species will yet be detected in our own island, particularly in North Britain, whence I have information of at least two that I cannot reconcile with any description. Our smaller mammifers have been too much neglected by naturalists. The above-mentioned mouse (M. messorius), which Mr. White has the merit of discovering, is an extremely beautiful little species, common in many districts of the south of England, and is more allied to the house-mouse (M. domesticus) than to the common fieldmouse or "jumper-mouse," as the latter is termed in Surrey (M. sylvaticus), but is a livelier and more active species than either, and more scansorial in its make, having longer and more flexile toes, and a considerable muscular power in the tail, by means of which it is enabled to obtain a firmer hold of whatever it is climbing on, by slightly coiling this organ around it, but which does not exactly amount to what is ordinarily designated a prehensile power (as has been

weight, which is more than six times as much as the mouse above; and measures from nose to rump four inches and a quarter, and the same in its tail. We have had a very severe frost and deep snow this month. My thermometer was one day fourteen degrees and an half below the freezing point, within doors. The tender evergreens were injured pretty much. It was very providential that the air was still, and the ground well covered with snow, else vegetation in general must have suffered prodigiously. There is reason to believe that some days were more severe than any since the year 1739-40.

I am, &c. &c.

LETTER XIV. To T. PENNANT, Esq.

DEAR SIR,

Selborne, March 12, 1768.

When

If some curious gentleman would procure the head of a fallowdeer, and have it dissected, he would find it furnished with two spiracula, or breathing-places, besides the nostrils; probably analogous to the puncta lachrymalia in the human head. deer are thirsty they plunge their noses, like some horses, very deep under water, while in the act of drinking, and continue them in that situation for a considerable time: but, to obviate any inconvenience, they can open two vents, one at the inner corner of each eye, having a communication with the nose. Here seems to be an extraordinary provision of nature worthy our attention; and which has not, that I know of, been noticed by any naturalist. For it looks as if these creatures would not be suffocated, though both their mouths and nostrils were stopped.

stated), for the little animal could by no means thus support its weight. It is rather more insectivorous than the other species of the genus, flies and other insects being its favourite food, which it captures with great adroitness, springing after them to a considerable distance; and, in captivity, it displays very strikingly the hoarding instinct, so common among the rodent order of animals, always biting out the germ or growing part of each grain before storing it away, as is also done by ants, and I believe all other animals that have similar propensities. In the wild state, its ordinary drink is most probably the dew; for, even in confinement, like many small birds, it certainly prefers to quench its thirst by sipping pendent drops of water. After drinking it always cleans its face, raising itself upon the hind feet, at which time its attitudes are often particularly graceful and elegant, being enabled to extend its body at a very considerable angle. It is astonishingly active, and the length of time it will continue turning the rotatory appendage in its cage, will surprise any person unaccustomed to behold it. It has but little of the disagreeable odour of the common mouse, and will live for several years in captivity, but, unless taken when quite young, it mostly continues shy and timorous, especially before strangers, even to its death. With the exception of colour, and having rather smaller ears, its general aspect is very much that of the common mouse.-ED.