LETTER XII. 



To the same. 



March ()th, 1772. 



^EAR SIR, As a gentleman and myself were 

 walking on the fourth of last November round the 

 sea-banks at Newhaven, near the mouth of the 

 Lewes river, in pursuit of natural knowledge, we 

 were surprised to see three house-swallows gliding 

 very swiftly by us. That morning was rather 

 chilly, with the wind at north-west ; but the 

 tenor of the weather for some time before had been delicate, and the 

 noons remarkably warm. From this incident, and from repeated 

 accounts which I met with, I am more and more induced to believe 

 that many of the swallow kind do not depart from this island, but 

 lay themselves up in holes and caverns ; and do, insect-like and bat- 

 like, come forth at mild times, and then retire again to their latebr*. 

 Nor make I the least doubt but that, if I lived at Newhaven, Sea- 

 ford, Brighthelmstone [Brighton], or any of those towns near the 

 chalk cliffs of the Sussex coast, by proper observations I should see 

 swallows stirring at periods of the winter when the noons were soft 

 and inviting, and the sun warm and invigorating. And I am the 

 more of this opinion from what I have remarked during some of our 



