NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 213 
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 4th was dark, and mild, and soft, the wind at south-west, and 
the thermometer at 58’} ; a pitch not common at that season of the 
year. Moreover, it may not be amiss to add in this place, that 
whenever the thermometer 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 nothing so much promotes this death-like stupor as a defect of 
heat. And farther, it is reasonable to suppose that two whole 
species, or at least many individuals of those two species of British 
hirundines do never leave this island at all, but partake of the 
same benumbed state ; for we cannot suppose, that after a month’s 
absence, house-martins can return from southern regions to appear 
for one morning in November, or that house-swallows should leave 
the districts of Africa to enjoy in March the transient summer of a 
couple of days. 
I am, &c. 
