RETURN OF SWALLOWS. 



LETTER LXII. 



v 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, Sept. 1774. 

 DEAR SIR, 



BY means of a straight cottage chimney, I had 

 an opportunity this summer of remarking, at my 

 leisure, how swallows ascend and descend through 

 the shaft ; but my pleasure in contemplating the ad- 

 dress with which this feat was performed, to a con- 

 siderable depth in the chimney, was somewhat inter- 

 rupted by apprehensions lest my eyes might undergo 

 the same fate with those of Tobit.* 



Perhaps it may be some amusement to you to 

 hear at what times the different species of hirundines 

 arrived this spring in three very distant counties 

 of this kingdom. With us, the swallow was seen 

 first on April the 4th ; the swift on April the 24th ; 

 the bank-martin on April the 12th; and the house- 

 martin not till April the 30th. At South Zele, 

 Devonshire, swallows did not arrive till April the 

 25th ; swifts, in plenty, on May the 1st; and house- 

 martins not till the middle of May. At Blackburn, 

 in Lancashire, swifts were seen April the 28th ; 

 swallows, April the 29th ; house-martins, May the 

 1st. Do these different dates, in such distant dis- 

 tricts, prove any thing for or against migration ? 



A farmer near Weyhill fallows his land with two 

 teams of asses, one of which works till noon, and 

 the other in the afternoon. When th,ese animals 

 have done their work, they are penned all night, 



* Tobitii. 10. 



