134 THE NATURAL HISTORY [LETT. 



times, and then retire again to their latdrtc. Nor make I the 

 least doubt but that, if I lived at Newhaven, Seaford, Bright- 

 helmstone, or any of those towns near the chalk-cliffs of the 

 Sussex coast, I should by proper observations, see swallows 

 stirring at periods of the winter when the noons were soft 

 and inviting and the sun warm and invigorating. And I am 

 the more of this opinion from what I have remarked during 

 some of our late springs, that though some swallows did make 

 their appearance about the usual time, namely, the 13th or 

 14th of April, yet meeting with a harsh reception, and 

 blustering cold north-east winds, they immediately withdrew, 

 absconding for several days, till the weather gave them better 

 encouragement. 



March 9, 1772. 



LETTER L. 

 TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 



BY my journal for last autumn it appears that the house- 

 martins bred very late, and staid very late in these parts ; for 

 on the 1st of October I saw young martins in their nest nearly 

 fledged ; and, again, on the 21st of October, we had at the 

 next house a nest full of young martins just ready to fly ; 

 and the old ones were hawking for insects with great alertness. 

 The next morning the brood forsook their nest, and were flying 

 round the village. From this day I never saw one of the 

 swallow kind till the 3rd of November ; when twenty, or per- 

 haps thirty, house-martins were playing all day long by the side 



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

 According to the Greek calendar of Flora, kept by Theophrastus at Athens, the 

 Ornithian winds blow, and the swallow conies 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. STILLINGFLEET'S Tract} on Natural History. 



