OF SKIBORNE. 19 



vemfcr, more than twenty house-martins, 

 whichjin appearance, had all departed about 

 the seventh of October, were seen again, for 

 that one morning only, sporting between my 

 fields and the Hanger, and feasting on in- 

 sects which swarmed in that sheltered dis- 

 trict. The preceding day was wet and 

 blustering, but the fourth was dark and 

 mild, and soft, the wind at south-west, and 

 the thermometer at 58^ ; a pitch not com- 

 mon at that season of the year. Moreover, 

 it may not be amiss to add in this place, 

 that whenever the thermometer is above 

 50, the bat comes flitting out in every Au- 

 tumnal and Winter-month. 



From all these circumstances laid toge- 

 ther, it is obvious that torpid insects, rep 

 tiles, and quadrupeds, are awakened from 

 their profoundest slumbers by a little un- 

 timely warmth ; and therefore that nothing 

 so much promotes this death-like stupor as 

 a defect of heat. And farther, it is reason- 

 able to suppose that two whole species, or 

 at least many individuals of those two 

 species, of British hirundines, do never leave 

 c2 



