MIGRATION. 49 



that, from the time they began to congregate, for- 

 saking 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 per- 

 suaded 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 23d of 

 last October, flying in and out of its nest in the 

 Borough ; and I myself, on the 29th 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 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 



* See ADANSON'S Voyage to Senegal. 



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