SELBORNE, _Jan. 22nd_, 1768.

Sir,--As 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.

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 mostly females--at least fifty to one. This
extraordinary occurrence brought to my mind the remark of Linnaeus, 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. 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.

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 (_oenanthe_)
does not quit England, it certainly shifts places; for about harvest they
are not to be found, where there was before great plenty