OF SELBORNE. 245 
Again, it appears by my journals for many years 
past, that house-martins retire, to a bird, about the 
beginning of October, so that a person not very 
observant of such matters would conclude that they 
had taken their last farewell; but then it may be 
seen in my diaries, also, that considerable flocks 
have discovered themselves again in the first week 
of November, and often on the 4th day of that 
month, only for one day; and that not as if they 
were in actual migration, but playing about at their 
leisure and feeding calmly, as if no enterprise of 
moment at all agitated their spirits. And this was 
the case in the beginning of this very month; for 
on the 4th of November more than twenty house- 
martins, which, in appearance, had all departed 
about the 7th of October, were seen again, for that 
one morning only, sporting between my fields and 
the Hanger, and feasting on insects which swarmed 
in that sheltered district. The preceding day was 
wet and blustering, but the fourth was dark, and 
mild, and soft, the wind at southwest, and the ther- 
mometer at 581°—a pitch not common at that 
season of the year. Moreover, it may not be 
amiss to add in this place, that whenever the ther- 
mometer is above 50°, the bat comes flitting out in 
every autumnal and winter month. 
From all these circumstances laid together, it is 
obvious that torpid insects, reptiles, and quadrupeds 
are awakened from their profoundest slumbers by 
a little untimely warmth; and, therefore, that no- 
thing so much promotes this deathlike stupor as a 
defect of heat. And, farther, it is reasonable to 
suppose that two whole species, or, at least, many 
individuals of these two species, of British hzrun- 
X 2 
