NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 217 



These hints we think proper to throw out in order to set the 

 inquisitive and discerning to work. 



A good monography of worms would afford much entertainment 

 and information at the same time, and would open a large and 

 new field in natural history. Worms work most in the spring ; 

 but by no means lie torpid in the dead months : are out every 

 mild night in the winter, as any person may be convinced that 

 will take the pains to examine his grass-plots with a candle ; are 

 hermaphrodites, and much addicted to venery, and consequently 

 very prolific. 



I am, etc. 



LETTER XXXVI. 



SELBORNE, Nov. 22nd, 1777. 



DEAR SIR, You cannot but remember that the 26th and 27th 

 of last March were very hot days, so sultry that everybody com- 

 plained and were restless under those sensations to which they 

 had not been reconciled by gradual approaches. 



This sudden summer-like heat was attended by many summer 

 coincidences; for on those two days the thermometer rose to 

 66 in the shade ; many species of insects revived and came forth ; 

 some bees swarmed in this neighbourhood ; the old tortoise, near 

 Lewes, in Sussex, awakened and came forth out of its dormitory; 

 and, what is most to my present purpose, many house-swallows 

 appeared and were very alert in many places, and particularly at 

 Chobham, in Surrey. 



But as that short warm period was succeeded as well as pre- 

 ceded by harsh severe weather, with frequent frosts and ice, and 

 cutting winds, the insects withdrew, the tortoise retired again 

 into the ground, and the swallows were seen no more until the 

 roth April, when, tne rigour ot the spring abating, a softer season 

 began to prevail. 



Again; it appears by my journals for many years past that 

 house-martins retire, to a bird, about the beginning of October; 



