An instance of vast longevity in such a poor
reptile!
Letter VIII
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne, Dec. 20, 1770.
Dear Sir,
The birds that I took for aberdavines were reed-sparrows (passeres
torquati).
There are doubtless many home internal migrations within this
kingdom that want to be better understood: witness those vast
flocks of hen chaffinches that appear with us in the winter without
hardly any cocks among them. Now was there a due proportion of
each sex, it should seem very improbable that any one district
should produce such numbers of these little birds; and much more
when only half of the species appears: therefore we may conclude
that the fringillae caelebes, for some good purposes, have a
peculiar migration of their own in which the sexes part. Nor should
it seem so wonderful that the intercourse of sexes in this species of
birds should be interrupted in winter; since in many animals, and
particularly in bucks and does, the sexes herd separately, except at
the season when commerce is necessary for the continuance of the
breed.
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