'The Natural History of Se I borne 241 



must be the swallow that is alluded to, and not the martin, 

 since the former does frequently build within the roof against 

 the rafters; while the latter always, as far as I have been 

 able to observe, builds without the roof against eaves and 

 cornices. 



As to the simile, too much stress must not be laid on it ; 

 yet the epithet nigra speaks plainly in favour of the swallow, 

 whose back and wings are very black ; while the rump of the 

 martin is milk-white, its back and wings blue, and all its 

 under part white as snow. Nor can the clumsy motions 

 (comparatively clumsy) of the martin well represent the 

 sudden and artful evolutions and quick turns which Juturna 

 gave to her brother's chariot, so as to elude the eager pursuit 

 of the enraged yEneas. The verb sonat also seems to imply 

 a bird that is somewhat loquacious.* 



We have had a very wet autumn and winter, so as to raise 

 the springs to a pitch beyond anything since 1764, which was 

 a remarkable year for floods and high waters. The land- 

 springs which we call lavants, 1 break out much on the downs 

 of Sussex, Hampshire, and Wiltshire. The country people 

 say when the lavants rise corn will always be dear ; meaning 

 that when the earth is so glutted with water as to send forth 

 springs on the downs and uplands, that the corn-vales must 

 be drowned ; and so it has proved for these ten or eleven 

 years past. For land-springs have never obtained more since 

 the memory of man than during that period ; nor has there 

 been known a greater scarcity of all sorts of grain, considering 

 the great improvements of modern husbandry. Such a run 

 of wet seasons a century or two ago would, I am persuaded, 

 have occasioned a famine. Therefore pamphlets and news- 

 paper-letters, that talk of combinations, tend to inflame and 



* " Nigra velut inagnas do mini cum divitis cedes 

 Pervolat t et pennis alta atria lustrat hirundo, 

 Pabitla parva legens, nidisqite loquacibus escas : 

 Et nunc porticibus vacuis t nunc humida circum 

 Stagna sonat." .... 



Intermittent springs which burst forth only in very rainy seasons. ED. 



Q 



