ject, they tell you
that the case has been so from time immemorial; and smile at your
simplicity if you ask them whether the situation of these two different
breeds might not be reversed? However, an intelligent friend of mine
near Chichester is determined to try the experiment; and has this autumn,
at the hazard of being laughed at, introduced a parcel of black-faced
hornless rams among his horned western ewes. The black-faced poll-sheep
have the shortest legs and the finest wool.

As I had hardly ever before travelled these downs at so late a season of
the year, I was determined to keep as sharp a look-out as possible so
near the southern coast, with respect to the summer short-winged birds of
passage. We make great inquiries concerning the withdrawing of the
swallow kind, without examining enough into the causes why this tribe is
never to be seen in winter; for, _entre nous_, the disappearing of the
latter is more marvellous than that of the former, and much more
unaccountable. 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., 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 ploughed up in a
fallow on the downs under a furrow, but it is thought a rarity. At the
time of wheat-harvest they begin to be taken in great numbers; are sent
for sale in vast quantities to Brightelmstone and Tunbridge; and appear
at the tables of all the gentry that entertain with any degree of
elegance. About Michaelmas they retire and are seen no more till March.
Though the birds are, when in season, in great plenty on the so