OBSERVATIONS ON BIEDS. 327 



the Tiirundines have disappeared, for some weeks, a few are 

 occasionally seen again; sometimes, in the first week in 

 November, and that only for one day. Do they not with- 

 draw and slumber in some hiding-place during the interval ? 

 for we cannot suppose they had migrated to warmer climes, 

 and so returned again for one day. Is it not more probable 

 that they are awakened from sleep, and, like the bats, 

 are come forth to collect a little food?* Bats appear at all 



* Concerning swallows, the reader will see, that Mr. White appears to 

 incline more and more in favour of their torpidity, and against their migration. 

 Mr. D. Barrington is still more positive on the same side of the question. See 

 his Miscellanies, p. 225. The ancients generally mention this bird as winter- 

 ing in Africa. See Anacreon, \y. ed. Brunk. p. 38. The Rhodians had a 

 festival called ^eXiS^/io, w h e n the boys brought about young swallows : 

 the song which they sang may be seen in the works of Meursius, v. iii. 

 p. 974. fol. 



"flpas dyouffOf Kal KO.\OVS 'EviavTovs 

 'Eirl yaffrepa \evKa K &TTL vura ^ueAcuj/a. 



" He comes ! He comes ! who loves to bear 

 Soft sunny hours and seasons fair ; 

 The swallow hither comes to rest 

 His sable wings and snowy breast." 



And, alluding to this custom, Avienus (who may be considered only as 

 very bad translator of an excellent poem, the Periegesis of Dionysius,) thus 

 says, v. 705, 



" Nam cum vere novo, tellus se dura relaxat, 

 Culminibusque cavis, blandum strepit ales hirundo, 

 Gens devota choros agitat ! " 

 When the hard earth grows soft in early spring, 

 And on our roofs the noisy swallows sing. 



From a passage in the Birds of Aristophanes, we learn, that among the Greeks, 

 the crane pointed out the time of sowing ; the arrival of the kite, the time of 

 sheep-shearing ; and the swallow the time to put on summer clothes. Accord- 

 ing to the Greek Calendar of Flora, kept by Theophrastus at Athens, the 

 Ornithian winds blow, and the swallow comes, between the 28th of February 

 and the 12th of March ; the kite and nightingale appear between the llth 

 and 26th of March ; the cuckoo appears at the same time the young figs come 

 out ; thence his name. See STILLINGFLEET'S Tracts on Natural His- 

 tory, p. 324. 



Mr. White says, p. 148, it is strange that rooks and starlings accompany 

 each other : but this is the case with other birds ; the short-eared owl often 

 accompanies flights of woodcocks in this country. See PENNANT'S Scotland, i. 

 p. 11. In Greece, the cuckoo migrates with the turtle flocks, thence they 

 call him trigonoJcractes, or turtle-leader. MITFORD. 



