OF SELBORNE 33 



struck me most was, that, from the time they began to 

 congregate, forsaking the chimnies and houses, they roosted 

 every night in the osier-beds of the aits of that river. 

 Now this resorting towards that element, at that season of 

 the year, seems to give some countenance to the northern 

 opinion (strange as it is) of their retiring under water. A 

 Swedish naturalist is so much persuaded of that fact, that 

 he talks, in his calendar of Flora, as familiarly of the 

 swallow's going under water in the beginning of September, 

 as he would of his poultry going to roost a little before 

 sunset. 



An observing gentleman in London writes me word that 

 he saw a house-martin, on the twenty-third of last October, 

 flying in and out of its nest in the Borough. And I myself, 

 on the twenty-ninth of last October (as I was travelling 

 through Oxford), saw four or five swallows hovering 

 round and settling on the roof of the county-hospital. 



Now is it likely that these poor little birds (which 

 perhaps had not been hatched but a few weeks) should, at 

 that late season of the year, and from so midland a county, 

 attempt a voyage to Goree or Senegal, almost as far as the 

 equator P 1 



I acquiesce entirely in your opinion that, though most 

 of the swallow kind may migrate, yet that some do stay 

 behind and hide with us during the winter. 



As to the short-winged soft-billed birds, which come 

 trooping in such numbers in the spring, I am at a loss even 

 what to suspect about them. I watched them narrowly 

 this year, and saw them abound till about Michaelmas, 

 when they appeared no longer. Subsist they cannot openly 

 among us, and yet elude the eyes of the inquisitive : and, 

 as to their hiding, no man pretends to have found any of 

 them in a torpid state in the winter. But with regard to 

 their migration, what difficulties attend that supposition ! 

 that such feeble bad fliers (who the summer long never flit 

 but from hedge to hedge) should be able to traverse vast 

 seas and continents in order to enjoy milder seasons amidst 

 the regions of Africa ! 



1 See Adanson's Voyage to Senegal. 



