184 THE NATURAL HISTORY [LETT. 



naked bodies, their unwieldy disproportioned dbdomina, and 

 their heads too heavy for their necks to support, we could not 

 but wonder when we reflected that these shiftless beings in 

 little more than a fortnight would be able to dash through the 

 air almost with the inconceivable swiftness of a meteor ; and 

 perhaps, in their emigration, must traverse vast continents and 

 oceans as distant as the equator. So soon does Nature advance 

 small birds to their fj\ncia, or state of perfection ; while the 

 progressive growth of men and large quadrupeds is slow and 

 tedious ! 



SELBORNE, Sept. 28, 1774. 



LETTER LXIII. 

 TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRING TON. 



BY means of a straight cottage-chimney I had an opportu- 

 nity this summer of remarking at my leisure how swallows 

 ascend and descend through the shaft ; but my pleasure in con- 

 templating the address with which this feat was performed to a 

 considerable depth in the chimney was somewhat interrupted 

 by apprehensions lest my eyes might undergo the same fate 

 with those of Tobit. 



Perhaps it may be some amusement to you to hear at what 

 times the different species of hirundines arrived this spring in 

 three very distant counties of this kingdom. With us the 

 swallow was seen first on April the 4th, the swift on April the 

 24th, the bank-martin on April the 1.2th, and the house-martin 

 not till April the 30th. At South Zele, Devonshire, swallows did 

 not arrive till April the 25th ; swifts, in plenty, on May the 1st ; 

 and house-martins not till the middle of May. At Blackburn, in 

 Lancashire, swifts were seen April the 28th, swallows April the 

 29th, house-martins May the 1st. Do these different dates in 

 such distant districts prove anything for or against migration ? 



