328 OBSERVATIONS ON BIEDS. 



seasons through the autumn and spring months, when the 

 thermometer is at 50, because then phalcence and moths are 

 stirring. These swallows looked like young ones. 



WHITE. 



Of their migration, the proofs are such as will scarcely 

 admit of a doubt. Sir Charles Wager and Captain Wright 

 saw vast flocks of them at sea,* when on their passage from 

 one country to another. Our author, Mr. White, saw what 

 he deemed the actual migration of these birds, and which he 

 has described at p. 78 of his History of Selborne ; and of 

 their congregating together on the roofs of churches and 

 other buildings, and on trees, previous to their departure, 

 many instances occur ; particularly, I once observed a large 

 flock of house-martins on the roof of the church here at 

 Catsfield, which acted exactly in the manner here described 

 by Mr. White, sometimes preening their feathers, and 

 spreading their wings to the sun, and then flying off all 

 together, but soon returning to their former situation. The 

 greatest part of these birds seemed to be young ones. 



MARKWICK. 



WAGTAILS. While the cows are feeding in the moist 

 low pasture, broods of wagtails, white and grey, run round 

 them, close up to their noses, and under their very bellies, 

 availing themselves of the flies that settle on their legs, and 

 probably finding worms and larvce that are roused by the 

 trampling of their feet. Nature is such an economist, that 



* I have had so many facts sent me of vast flocks of swallows having 

 been seen at sea, and also of their settling on the rigging of ships, that the 

 proofs of their migration cannot he doubted. Indeed I have frequently 

 witnessed their departure from, and, in one instance, their arrival in this 

 country. In the latter case they settled on the ground in Kew Park, about 

 11 o'clock in the morning, and were so much exhausted, that they suffered me to 

 ride close to them. This was in April. The strong propensity of migratory birds 

 to leave and return at the appointed season, plainly demonstrates that this 

 unvarying principle within them is an instinct given them by a beneficent 

 Creator at the very time best adapted for their flight, and which is 

 apparently irresistible. Indeed, they seem to migrate as by a sudden impulse, 

 and neither sooner or later than is expedient, almost at the same time yearly ; 

 so that up to the hour of their flight, and as long as it is needful to stay for 

 their preservation, they appear to have no thought of departure. ED. 



