44 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



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. 2 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 

 a 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, I am 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." 



