SWALLOWS. 157 



upper mandible, have a more delicate feeling in 

 their beaks than other round-billed birds, and can 

 grope for their meat when out of sight. Perhaps, 

 then, their associates attend them on the motive 

 of interest, as greyhounds wait on the motions of 

 their finders, and as lions are said to do on the yelp- 

 ings of jackals. Lapwings and starlings sometimes 

 associate. 



LETTER XLIX. 



y) ' 



I 



TO THE SAME. 



March 9, 1772. 

 DEAR SIR, 



As a gentleman and myself were walking, on 

 the 4th of last November, round the sea-banks at 

 Newhaven, near the mouth of the Lewes river, in 

 pursuit of natural knowledge, we were surprised to 

 see three house swallows gliding very swiftly by 

 us. That morning was rather chilly, with the wind 

 at north-west; but the tenor of the weather, for 

 some time before, had been delicate, and the noons 

 remarkably warm. From this incident, and from re- 

 peated accounts which I meet with, I am more and 

 more induced to believe that many of the swallow 

 kind do not depart from this island, but lay them- 

 selves up in holes and caverns, and do, insect-like and 

 bat-like, come forth at mild times, and then retire 

 again to their latebrte, or lurking-places. Nor make 

 I the least doubt but that, if I lived at Newhaven, 

 Seaford, Brighthelmstone, or any of those towns near 

 the chalk cliffs of the Sussex coast, by proper ob- 

 servations, I should see swallows stirring at periods 

 of the winter, when the noons were soft and inviting, 



