LETTER IX. 



To the same. 



FYFIELD, near ANDOVER, Feb. \zth, 1772. 

 1AR SIR, You are, I know, no great friend 

 to migration ; and the well-attested accounts 

 from various parts of the kingdom seem to 

 justify you in your suspicions, that at least many 

 of the swallow kind do not leave us in the winter, 

 but lay themselves up like insects and bats, in a 

 torpid state, and slumber away the more uncom- 

 fortable months till the return of the sun and fine weather awakens 

 them. 1 



1 This letter is in answer to an essay of Harrington's, published in his " Mis- 

 cellanies," p. 174, " On the Periodical Appearing and Disappearing of Certain Birds 

 at Different Times of the Year." In that paper Barrington argues against the pro- 

 bability of periodical migration ; and White here meets many of his rather fanciful 

 difficulties and objections. ED. 



