2i 8 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



so that a person not very observant of such matters would con- 

 clude that they had taken their last farewell ; but then it may be 

 seen in my diaries also that considerable flocks have discovered 

 themselves again in the first week of November, and often on the 

 fourth day of that month only for one day; and that not as if 

 they were in actual migration, but playing about at their leisure 

 and feeding calmly, as if no enterprise of moment at all agitated 

 their spirits. And this was the case in the beginning of this 

 very month ; for on the 4th November, more than twenty house- 

 martins, which, in appearance, had all departed about the yth 

 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 its 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 Asia to enjoy in March the transient 

 summer of a couple of days. 



1 am, etc. 



