The hirundines,
if they please, are certainly capable of migration; and yet no doubt
are often found in a torpid state: but redstarts, nightingales, white-
throats, black-caps, etc., etc., are very ill provided for long flights;
have never been once found, as I ever heard of, in a torpid state,
and yet can never be supposed, in such troops, from year to year to
dodge and elude the eyes of the curious and inquisitive, which
from day to day discern the other small birds that are known to
abide our winters. But, notwithstanding all my care, I saw nothing
like a summer bird of passage: and, what is more strange, not one
wheat-ear, though they abound so in the autumn as to be a
considerable perquisite to the shepherds that take them; and though
many are to be seen to my knowledge all the winter through in
many parts of the south of England. The most intelligent shepherds
tell me that some few of these birds appear on the downs in March,
and then withdraw to breed probably in warrens and stone-quarries:
now and then a nest is plowed up in a fallow on the downs under a
furrow, but it is thought a rarity.
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