56 The Natural History of Selborne 



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 

 an 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 ? * 



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. 1 



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 con- 

 tinents in order to enjoy milder seasons amidst the regions of 

 Africa ! 



* See Adanson's "Voyage to Senegal." 



1 This opinion is now known to be quite erroneous. ED. 



