HOUSE-MARTINS. 235 



another element and its inhabitants into our parlours engages the 

 fancy in a very agreeable manner. 



Gold and silver fishes, though originally natives of China and 

 Japan, yet are become so well reconciled to our climate as to 

 thrive and multiply very fast in our ponds and stews. Linnaeus 

 ranks this species of fish under the genus of cyprinus, or carp, 

 and calls it cyprinus auratus.* 



Some people exhibit this sort of fish in a very fanciful way ; 

 for they cause a glass bowl to be blown with a large hollow space 

 within, that does not communicate with it. In this cavity they 

 put a bird occasionally ; so that you may see a goldfinch or a 

 linnet hopping as it were in the midst of the water, and the fishes 

 swimming in a circle round it. The simple exhibition of the 

 fishes is agreeable and pleasant ; but in so complicated a way 

 becomes whimsical and unnatural, and liable to the objection due 

 to him, 



" Qui variare cupit rem prodigialitSr unam." 



I am, &c. 



LETTER LV. To THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. 



DEAR SIR, Oct. 10, 1781. 



I THINK I have observed before that much the most consider- 

 able part of the house-martins withdraw from hence about the 

 first week in October; but that some, the latter broods I am 

 now convinced, linger on till towards the middle of that month : 

 and that at times, once perhaps in two or three years, a flight, 

 for one day only, has shown itself in the first week in November. 

 Having taken notice, in October 1780, that the last flight was 

 numerous, amounting perhaps to one hundred and fifty ; and 

 that the season was soft and still ; I was resolved to pay uncom- 

 mon attention to these late birds ; to find, if possible, where they 

 roosted, and to determine the precise time of their retreat. The 

 mode of life of these latter hirundines is very favourable to such 

 a design ; for they spend the whole day in the sheltered district, 

 between me and the Hanger, sailing about in a placid, easy 

 manner, and feasting on those insects which love to haunt a spot 



* A came that is still retained. ED, 



