244 TORPIDITY OF SWALLOWS. 



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 fourth of November, more than twenty house- 

 martins, which, in appearance, had all departed 

 about the seventh of 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 fourth 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 au- 

 tumnal 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 this 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 these two species of British hirundines, do never 

 leave this island at all, but partake of the same be- 

 numbed 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 Africa to enjoy, in March, the transient 

 summer of a couple of days. 



