LETTER XVIII. 



To the same. 



z. 29///, 1774- 



EAR SIR, The house-swallow, or chimney- 

 swallow, is undoubtedly the first comer of all 

 the British hirundines ; and appears in gen- 

 eral on or about the thirteenth of April, as 

 I have remarked from many years' observa- 

 tion. 1 Not but now and then a straggler 

 is seen much earlier ; and, in particular, 

 when I was a boy I observed a swallow for a whole day 

 together on a sunny warm Shrove Tuesday ; which day could 



1 Later observers are almost unanimous in noting that the sand-martin 

 precedes the chimney-swallow by from seven to eleven days. This is also 

 my own experience. On IJind Head, sand-martins flit round the houses, 



