SELBORNE 291 



side. I began to think that if that feeling and sensa- 

 tion lasted long enough without diminishing its 

 strength, it would in the end produce something 

 like conviction. And the conviction would imply 

 communion. Furthermore, between the thought 

 that we may come to believe in a thing and belief 

 itself there is practically no difference. I began to 

 speculate as to the subjects about to be discussed 

 by us. The chief one would doubtless relate to the 

 bird life of the district. There are fresh things to be 

 related of the cuckoo ; how " wonder has been 

 added to wonder " by observers of that bird since 

 the end of the eighteenth century. And here is a 

 delicate subject to follow to wit, the hibernation 

 of swallows yet one by no possibility to be avoided. 

 It would be something of a disappointment to him 

 to hear it stated, as an established fact, that none of 

 our hirundines do winter, fast asleep like dormice, 

 in these islands. But there would be comfort in the 

 succeeding declaration that the old controversy 

 is not quite dead yet that at least two popular 

 writers on British birds have boldly expressed the 

 belief that some of our supposed migrants do actually 

 " lay up " in the dead season. The deep interest 

 manifested in the subject would be a temptation 

 to dwell on it. I should touch on the discovery 



