HOUSE-MARTINS. 301 



ciled to our climate, as to thrive and multiply very 

 fast in our ponds arid stews. Linnaeus ranks this 

 species of fish under the genus of cyprinus, or carp, 

 and calls it cyprinus auratus. 



Some people exhibit this sort of fish in a very 

 fanciful way; for they cause a glass bowl to be 

 blown with a large hollow space within, that does 

 not communicate with it. In this cavity they put 

 a bird occasionally, so that you may see a goldfinch 

 or a linnet hopping, as it were, in the midst of the 

 water, and the fishes swimming in a circle round it. 

 The simple exhibition of the fishes is agreeable and 

 pleasant; but in so complicated a way, becomes 

 whimsical and unnatural, and liable to the objection 

 due to him, 



I 



" Qui variare cupit rem prodigialiter imam." 



Who loves to vary every single thing 

 Prodigiously. 



LETTER XCIX. 



TO THE SAME. 



October 10, 1781. 

 DEAR SIR, 



I THINK I have observed before, that much the 

 most considerable part of the house-martins with- 

 draw from hence about the first week in October ; 

 but that some, the latter broods, I am now convinced, 

 linger on till towards the middle of that month ; and 

 that, at times, once perhaps in two or three years, a 

 flight, for one day only, has shown itself in the first 

 week in November. 



Having taken notice, in October, 1780, that the 







