OBSERVATION'S ON BIRDS. 327 



the hirundines have disappeared for some \veeks, a, few are 

 oceasioually seen again ; sometimes, in the first week in 

 JS'ovember, and that only for one day. Do they not with- 

 (h'aw and shimher in some hiding-phice during the interval ? 

 ibr we cannot suppose they had migrated to warmer climes, 

 and so returned again for one day. Is it not more probable 

 that they are awakened from sleep, and, like the bats, 

 are come forth to collect a little food ? * Bats appear at a^ 



* Concerning; swallows, the reader will see, that Mr. White appears to 

 incline more and more in favour of their torpidity, and against their migration. 

 ^ii\ D. Barrington is still more positive on the same side of the question. See 

 his JMiscellanits, p. 225. The ancients generally mention this biid as winter- 

 ing in Africa. See Anacreon, Ky. ed. Brunk. p. 38. The Rhodians had a 

 festival called xeAiSoVta, when the bo}s brought about young swallows: 

 the song which thev sang may be seen in the works of Meursius, v. iii. 

 p. 974. fol. 



"^HASe, 'H\06, xeAiSo;;/ KaXas 

 "flpas ayouaaj kuI KaKovs ''EviavTovs 

 'Eiri yaarepa Aen/ca K ain vara jxeKaiva. 



*' He comes ! He comes ! who loves to bear 

 Soft sunny hours and seasons fair ; 

 The swallow hither comes to rest 

 His sable wings and snowy breast." 



And, alluding to this custom, Avienus (wlio may be considered only as a 

 very bad translator of au excellent poem, the Periegesis of Dionysius,) thus 

 says, V. 705, 



" Nam cum vere novo, tell us se dura relaxat, 

 Culminibusque cavis, blandum strepit ales hirundo. 

 Gens devota chores agitat !" 

 AViien the hard earth grows soft in early spring, 

 And on our roofs the noisy swallows sing. 



From a passage in the Birds of Aristophanes, we learn, that amorrg the Greeks, 

 the crane pointed out the time of sowing ; the arrival of the kite, the time of 

 sheep-shearing; and the swallow the time to put on summer clothes. Accord- 

 ing to the Gveeh Ccdendar of Flora, kept by Theophrastus at Athens, the 

 Ornithian winds blow, and the swallow comes, between the 28th of February 

 and the 1 2th of March ; tlie kite and nightingale appear between the 11th 

 and 2Gth of March ; the cuckoo appears at tlie same time the young figs come 

 out ; thence his name. See Stillingfleet's Tracts on Natural His- 

 tory, p. 324. 



Mr. AVhite says, p. 148, it is strange that rooks and starlings accompany 

 each other: but this is the case with other birds; the short-eared owl often 

 accompanies fliglits of woodcocks in this country. See Pennant's Scotland, i. 

 p. 11. In Greece, the cuckoo migrates with the turtle flocks, thence thsy 

 call him triyonokraxtes^ or turtle-leader. — Mitford. 



