244 NATURAL ILISTORY 
much entertainment and information at the same 
time, and would open a large and new field in nat- 
ural history. Worms work most in the spring, 
but by no means lie torpid in the dead months; 
are out every mild night in the winter, as any per- 
son may be convinced that will take the pains to 
examine his grassplats with a candle. 
oe 
LEP dE BX Keel Te 
Selborne, Nov. 22, 1777. 
Dear Sir,—Yovu cannot but remember that the 
26th and 27th of last March were very hot days, 
so sultry that everybody complained and were 
restless under those sensations to which they had 
not been reconciled by gradual approaches. 
This sudden summer-like heat was atteaded by 
many summer coincidences; for on those two 
days the thermometer rose to 66° in the shade; 
many species of insects revived and came forth; 
some bees swarmed in this neighbourhood ; the old 
tortoise, near Lewes, in Sussex, awakened, and 
came forth out of its dormitory ; and, what is most 
to my present purpose, many house-swallows ap- 
peared, and were very alert in many places, and 
particularly at Cobham, in Surrey. 
But as that short warm period was succeeded 
as well as preceded by harsh, severe weather, with 
frequent frosts, and ice, and cutting winds, the in- 
sects withdrew, the tortoise retired again into the 
ground, and the swallows were seen no more until 
the 10th of April, when, the rigour of the spring 
abating, a softer season began to prevail, . 
