38 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
being much amused with those myriads of the swallow kind which 
assemble in those parts. But what struck me most was, that, from 
the time they began to congregate, forsaking the chimneys and 
houses, they roosted every night in the osier-beds of the aits of 
that river. Now this resorting towards that element, at that season 
of the year, seems to give some countenance to the northern opinion 
(strange as it is) of their retiring under water. A Swedish 
naturalist is so much persuaded of that fact, that he talks, in his 
calendar of Flora, as familiarly of the swallow’s going under water 
in the beginning of September, as he would of his poultry going 
to roost a little before sunset. 
An observing gentleman in London writes me word that he saw 
an house-martin, on the twenty-third of last October, flying in and 
out of its nest in the Borough. And I myself, on the twenty-ninth 
of last October (as I was travelling through Oxford), saw four or 
five swallows hovering round and settling on the roof of the county 
hospital. 
Now is it likely that these poor little birds (which perhaps had 
not been hatched but a few weeks) should, at that late season of 
the year, and from so midland a county, attempt a voyage to Goree 
or Senegal, almost as far as the equator ?* 
I acquiesce entirely in your opinion—that, though most of the 
swallow kind may migrate, yet that some do stay behind and hide 
with us during the winter. 
As to the short-winged soft-billed birds, which come trooping in 
such numbers in the spring, Iam at a loss even what to suspect 
about them. I watched them narrowly this year, and saw them 
abound till about Michaelmas, when they appeared no longer, 
Subsist they cannot openly among us, and yet elude the eyes of 
the inquisitive : and, as to their hiding, no man pretends to have 
found any of them in a torpid state in the winter. But with 
regard to their migration, what difficulties attend that supposition ! 
that such feeble bad fliers (who the summer long never flit but 
from hedge to hedge) should be able to traverse vast seas and con- 
tinents in order to enjoy milder seasons amidst the regions of 
Africa! 
* See “‘ Adanson’s Voyage to Senegal.” 
