LETTER XXII. 



To the same. 



SELBORNE, Sept. 13/4 1774. 



EAR SIR, By means of a straight cottage 

 chimney, I had an opportunity this summer of 

 remarking, at my leisure, how swallows ascend 

 and descend through the shaft ; but my pleasure 

 in contemplating the address with which this feat 

 was performed to a considerable depth in the 

 chimney was somewhat interrupted by appre- 

 hensions lest my eyes might undergo the same fate with those of 

 Tobit.* 



Perhaps it may be some amusement to you to hear at what times 

 the different species of hirundines arrived this spring in three very 

 distant counties of this kingdom. With us the swallow was seen 

 first on April the 4th, the swift on April the 24th, the bank-martin 



* Tobit ii. 10. 



