176 WHITE 



and cutting winds, the insects withdrew, the tortoise retired 

 again into the ground, and the swallows were seen no more 

 until the loth April, when, the rigor of the spring abating, a 

 softer season began to prevail. 



Again ; it appears by my journals for many years past that 

 house-martins retire, to a bird, about the beginning of October; 

 so that a person not very observant of such matters would con- 

 clude that they had taken their last farewell; but then it may 

 be seen in my diaries also that considerable flocks have dis- 

 covered themselves again in the first week of November, and 

 often on the fourth day of that month only for one day ; and 

 that not as if they were in actual migration, but playing about 

 at their leisure and feeding calmly, as if no enterprise of 

 moment at all agitated their spirits. And this was the case in 

 the beginning of this very month ; for on the 4th November, 

 more than twenty house-martins, which, in appearance, had 

 all departed about the /th October, were seen again for that 

 one morning only sporting between my fields and the Hanger, 

 and feasting on insects which swarmed in that sheltered district. 

 The preceding day was wet and blustering, but the 4th was 

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

 mometer at 58^ ; a pitch not common 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 autumnal and winter month. 



From all these circumstances laid together, it is obvious that 

 torpid insects, reptiles, and quadrupeds are awakened from 

 their profoundest slumbers by a little untimely warmth ; and 

 therefore that nothing so much promotes its death-like stupor 

 as a defect of heat. And farther, it is reasonable to suppose 

 that two whole species, or at least many individuals of those 

 two species of British hirundines do never leave this island at 

 all, but partake of the same benumbed state ; for we cannot 

 suppose, that after a month's absence, house-martins can return 

 from southern regions to appear for one morning in Novem- 

 ber, or that house-swallows should leave the districts of Asia 

 to enjoy in March the transient summer of a couple of days. 



I am, etc. 



